I Love Lucy Colorized Collection

[Rob W. Case]

I am always fascinated and impressed at how the most popular American sitcom ever, I Love Lucy continues to be a testament to the power of innovation. In the 1950’s, when the show was in the process of being developed, and negotiations were taking place between Desi Arnaz (who was as innovative as he was talented) and CBS, Desi insisted that the show be filmed, using three motion picture cameras (which was a costly and unconventional idea unheard of in the 1950’s, especially for a TV program). While Desi possessed foresight in his business decisions, little did Hollywood know at the time that the concept Desi pushed for would immortalize their work, and set a precedent for other shows to follow from then on, which would allow for shows to be introduced to new generations and expand its fan base and thus its market in the future. And not only would it gain new audiences through re-runs, but the very idea of filming the show would open up more room for creative and innovative ways to allow the show to be introduced in new, innovative ways that were not available in their original time period.

Back around Christmas of 2013, I wrote about the latest, most innovative breakthrough regarding I Love Lucy and how it continues to make history today. At that time, the newest and most innovative way in presenting the show was in adopting modern, state of the art colorization techniques and airing them as specials. In 2013, CBS decided to re-color the “lost” Christmas episode from 1956 to accommodate the modern era of high definition. A History about that special can be read HERE.


After CBS aired the Christmas show and the episode entitled “Lucy’s Italian Movie” (the famous grape stomping episode), it started a yearly tradition around the Christmas holiday season, re-running the Christmas episode, but then adding another newly colorized episode to air afterwards, keeping the special “fresh”. And then, at least on two more occasions, CBS would air two more colorized episodes during the “slower” summer season to get a spike in their ratings.


After CBS would air newly colorized specials, a DVD release would follow several months later as a sort of “tester” to see how much of a market demand there was for fans to want to see I Love Lucy in color. Now, this year, two major innovative developments have occurred involving the “I Love Lucy” shows. 1. a “marathon” of colorized I Love Lucy episodes was released in movie theaters across the country in early August (I will discuss more about that later in part two of this piece). And 2. CBS has released all 16 of the full-length episodes that they have colorized so far in one special DVD collection titled “The I Love Lucy Colorized Collection.”

Here are a couple of “samples” from this collection.

Heart of Satin Opening:


Lucy Does a TV Commercial (aired May 5th, 1952):


Job Switching (aired September 15th, 1952):


The I Love Lucy Christmas Special (aired December 24th, 1956)



In this collection, CBS Home Video has not only compiled all of the episodes that they have colorized and aired previously, but in this release all of the episodes are full length (25+ minutes, as opposed to the aired ones which were edited down to add more commercials) and arranged in chronological order. In addition to this special compilation, they added a few bonus features that are exclusive to the DVD release.


1. Red-Head Tales: Colorizing I Love Lucy: Included in the DVD is a very informative featurette on how the project of colorizing the show came about, how they colorized the show, and what is all involved in the colorization process. This covers the colors of the sets, the colors of the clothes that the actors wore on the set, the furniture, knick-knacks, and other details regarding the objects in the background. This featurette was shown in the theatrical release before they ran the 5 exclusive episodes.
2. A Colorized Stick Figure Opening: In the original airings of “I Love Lucy,” the show would open with “stick figure” animations of Lucy and Ricky which would always incorporate the show’s sponsor for that week. The reason why they are not in the re-runs today and were replaced with the “heart of satin” opening in the 60’s was because of the incorporated advertisements within the animations. It was not until 2001, for the show’s 50th anniversary, the cable/satellite network TVLAND would air the show with the newly restored animated openings, but modified to remove the advertisements, going over them with “TVLAND PRESENTS” put in its place, and running the background music from the “heart of satin” opening. In this DVD release, there is a newly colorized, animated sequence which is the original opening to the episode “Drafted” from 1951 and incorporates its sponsor Phillip Morris cigarettes.
3. The “lost” “Jingle Bells” segment where Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel are singing the song “Jingle Bells” while dancing around the Christmas tree is also newly colorized, and featured on this special colorized collection. The sequence was originally tacked on to the episode entitled “Drafted” (aired December 24th, 1951), which was not a Christmas themed episode, but the cast added the sequence to the episode (knowing that it was going to air on Christmas eve) to wish their viewers a merry Christmas.

The I Love Lucy Colorized Collection is available on Amazon.com, and at the time of this writing is sold in various retail stores.


Stay Tuned: Following this article will be a special piece chronicling the experience of seeing I Love Lucy on the big screen with a theater filled with people. In addition, we will also go into the theatrical release of the featurette that is now on the DVD in regards to the colorization process.

[Rob W. Case]

I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration

One night in the month of July I went to the movies and saw a trailer for a one night event coming up on August 6th.

This was the trailer:


What is so special about August 6th is that it is Lucille Ball’s birthday, and CBS decided to broadcast to select movie theaters across the country (through the Fathom Events network) a marathon of 5 colorized I Love Lucy episodes for the big screen. And so, I called up a friend of mine, who is a Lucy fan like me, and we went to see I Love Lucy on the big screen.

When we got to the movie theater, they handed out commemorate posters as a souvenir for the event. Then we entered the theater room itself. When we entered the theater, the screen was flashing many I Love Lucy trivia questions. It was a great way to pass the time, and to get you into the spirit and excitement of the event. When my friend and I entered the room (and we got there pretty early too), we saw a modest crowd. Not before long however, the theater started to fill up fast. By the time we were on the threshold of showtime, seats became harder to come by. The place ended up being packed. There were people from all ages there. From older people to little kids. To people around my age to millennials. People from every generation was there, and they were there to enjoy Lucy on the big screen. Then the lights dimmed, and the program started. Before they played the string of Lucy episodes, they played a 25-minute documentary called “Red Head Tales: Colorizing I Love Lucy.”

Red Head Tales:

In this special featurette, they talk to the people who discovered the lost I Love Lucy Christmas special in the vault and aired it as a special presentation in 1989. Then they discussed the re-airing of that same special a year later, but this time colorizing the “now” parts of the episode, and leaving the flashbacks from past episodes in black and white both for cost and nostalgia. The colorization process at that time was very limited, as high definition did not yet exist, and there were never as many pixels at that time as there are now. And so, they take you into the colorization process of the past, the colorization process of today, and how, through careful research and many color resources, how they assign the proper colors to the objects, actors, sets, and furniture to bring to you the marvel that you are about to experience on the big screen.

Seeing I Love Lucy on the Big Screen:

What was really eventful about seeing I Love Lucy on the big screen was that it made me have somewhat of a feel for what it might have been like for someone who came to the set at that time to be in the audience, and to watch the show being filmed. And even though I have seen these episodes numerous times, both in black and white, and in color, the shows seemed to be funnier than ever before. In one instance, in the one scene from the episode “L.A. at Last” with special guest William Holden (from the 1950 classic film Sunset Boulevard) Lucy is trying to get William Holden not to recognize her, because of a mishap that occurred when she and her friends went out to eat at a famous Hollywood restaurant and saw him in the booth next to them. The part where he lit up her cigarette and the putty nose she was wearing (to somewhat disguise herself) caught on fire, and Holden’s reaction to that, was so laugh out loud hilarious (especially with it being on the big screen), that it was like experiencing the deepest impact of the scene for the very first time. Even the scene where Lucy and Ethel are working in the candy factory was like seeing it for the first time. All in all, the episodes from the 5 episode marathon were “Lucy Does a TV Commercial,” “Job Switching,” “Pioneer Women”, “The Million Dollar Idea,” and “L.A. at Last.”

The Impact of the Event:

The event was so successful that it was talked about in “Variety,” Hollywood’s leading industry publication. They reported that the Tuesday night showing of “I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration” (according to Fathom Events) “drew more than 60,000 attendees with an estimated $777,645 at 660 North American sites.” “The Hollywood Reporter” elaborated on the results further reporting that those numbers that night were “enough to beat out Aladdin and come in No. 6 at the domestic box office.” That is pretty profound for a classic TV show that has been in reruns for decades.

Being a Part of History:

One thing that was special about that night was that it was historic in the sense that it is just another way I Love Lucy continues to trigger innovation, all because Desi Arnaz had creative and innovative ideas about filming the show at a time when such an idea was considered ridiculous. Because he was so insistent and persistent, putting his money and his confidence behind his ideas, those ideas opened doors for other ideas (like these) to be experimented on and tried in the future. And in every means and endeavors that are tried with this classic sitcom, I Love Lucy continues to make money mobilizing its large fan base, allowing new means to generate new fans, and allowing itself to be presented in a new and exciting way. And so, this event was not only about watching a bunch of episodes on a big screen, it was about being part of a movement where TV hits the big screen.

Also, since this event, it has set a precedent for other shows as well. Around the Halloween season of 2019, Fathom Events showcased a string of episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” and around the Thanksgiving season, they showcased a marathon of the 90’s show “Friends” in theaters as well.