I Love Lucy: Season 6

Over 50 years ago during the early years of broadcast television, the very inspired talents of Lucille Ball (1911-1989) and her then husband Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) were showcased on their hilarious television show "I Love Lucy". TV execs had initially rejected the plausibility of the show because of Desi and because they intended to tape the shows. However, thanks to the tireless efforts of Lucille Ball and Desi's obvious talents, the show first aired in 1951 and quickly became one of the most successful TV shows during all six of its regular seasons. As Lucy and Ricky Ricardo on "I Love Lucy", Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were joined by William Frawley (1877-1966) and Viviane Vance (1909-1979) as their best-friends/apartment landlords of Fred and Ethel Mertz.The sixth & final season of "I Love Lucy" that aired between 1956 and 1957 had 26 memorable episodes and one special:1. "Lucy and Bob Hope": After Lucy spots Bob Hope (himself, 1903-2003) at a baseball game, she attempts to contact him by pretending to be a hotdog vendor and a pitcher.2. "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums": Thump. Thump. Thump, thump, thump. Little Ricky (Keith Thibodeaux) learning to play the drums starts to drive everyone crazy; including Fred & Ethel with his persistent rhythm.3. "Lucy Meets Orson Welles": After Lucy gets to perform with Orson Wells (himself, 1915-1985) at the Tropicana, she tries to turn his magic-act into Shakespeare to impress her old drama teacher in the audience.4. "Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright": Little Ricky appears fine before he debuts his drumming skills in front of an audience, but then panics immediately before the show.5. "Visitor from Italy": Mario (Jay Novello, 1904-1982) from Italy comes to visit on his way to San Franchesca to see his brother, but Lucy thinks it's supposed to be San Francisco so she helps Mario get a job in a pizza parlor to raise money, only to have to flip some pizza dough herself.6. "Off to Florida": To visit Ricky & Fred in Florida, Lucy & Ethel carpool with Mrs. Edna Grundy (Elsa Lanchester, 1902-1986) and her watercress sandwiches, but they come to think that she is a murderer after hearing a report on the car radio.7. "Deep-Sea Fishing": Still in Florida, the gang goes out on a boat to go fishing with the women betting the men on who can catch the biggest fish.8. "Desert Island": To stop Ricky & Fred from judging a Florida beauty contest, Lucy & Ethel make it appear that their boat runs out of gas, leaving them stranded on seemingly deserted island.9. "The Ricardos Visit Cuba": Finally visiting Cuba after many years, Lucy gets the opportunity to meet more of Ricky's relatives, but ends up trying to hide while rolling cigars.10. "Little Ricky's School Pageant": Ricky, Lucy, Fred & Ethel appear in Little Ricky's school show with Lucy as a wicked witch.Special: "'I Love Lucy' Christmas Show": A.K.A. "Jingle Bells" or "The Lost Episode", this special has the gang reminiscing as they decorate a Christmas tree.11. "Lucy and the Loving Cup": Lucy gets a trophy stuck on top of her head.12. "Lucy and Superman": Lucy pretends to be Superman for Little Ricky's birthday, but then the real Superman (George Reeves, 1914-1959) shows up.13. "Little Ricky Gets a Dog": When Little Ricky gets a puppy, no one is happy with its non-stop, late-night barking.14. "Lucy Wants to Move to the Country": After Lucy wants her, Ricky & Little Ricky to buy a home in Connecticut, she starts to have second thoughts and gets help from Ethel & Fred to sour the deal with the sellers: Mr. & Mrs. Spaulding (Frank Wilcox, 1907-1974, & Eleanor Audley, 1905-1991).15. "Lucy Hates to Leave": The Ricardos with their belongings temporarily move in with the Mertz's until they can move into their new Connecticut home.16. "Lucy Misses the Mertzes": Alone in their new home, Ricky & Lucy decide to visit Fred & Ethel in New York, but Fred & Ethel decide to visit Ricky & Lucy.17. "Lucy Gets Chummy with the Neighbors": Like Lucy ever needed an excuse to buy new furniture, her new friend & next-door neighbor Betty Ramsay (Mary Jane Croft, 1916-1999) helps to convince Lucy that she needs to.18. "Lucy Raises Chickens": To help pay their bills, Lucy & Ricky decide to get chickens and sell the eggs; so Lucy & Ethel buy 500 baby chicks that Little Ricky finds hidden away and accidentally lets loose.19. "Lucy Does the Tango": After Ricky threatens to sell their chickens that won't lay eggs and he & Fred aren't speaking to each other, Lucy plans to plant store-bought eggs in the nests; but she also has to hide them and practice the Tango with Ricky with some sticky results.20. "Ragtime Band": When Ricky refuses to perform with Lucy, Fred & Ethel for a benefit, she gets Little Ricky on the drums instead.21. "Lucy's Night in Town": Lucy, Ricky, Fred & Ethel plan to see a New York play, but problems arise, including Fred getting nervous about carrying $500 in cash.22. "Housewarming": Ethel's jealousy of Betty Ramsey's friendship with Lucy quickly becomes Lucy's jealousy of Ethel when Ethel & Betty find out that their both from Albuquerque. Things get worse when Lucy thinks that Ethel is planning a surprise housewarming party for her & Ricky.23. "Building a Bar-B-Q": Ricky & Fred build a wonderful brick barbeque, but Lucy thinks her wedding ring fell into the cement; so she & Ethel take it apart looking, then attempt to put it back together with hilarious results.24. "Country Club Dance": Lucy, Ethel & Betty get mad at their husbands that all become smitten with a young blond (Barbara Eden) at a dance.25. "Lucy Raises Tulips": Tulips and riding lawnmowers don't go together, which is what Lucy finds out when she tries to mow her yard and takes out Betty's prize tulips. Lucy also discovers that wax tulips don't do well in the sun.26. "The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue": In the very last regular "I Love Lucy" episode, after Lucy accidentally destroys the statue to be dedicated, she pretends to be the statue. The real children of Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz (Lucie Arnaz & Desi Arnaz, Jr.) made uncredited cameo appearances.To date, Paramount Home Video has done a superb job of packaging the various episodes of the first five seasons of "I Love Lucy" on DVD, so it's a good indication that they'll do as good a job with the sixth season. Overall, for superb packaging and a great price, I rate the "I Love Lucy: The Complete Sixth Season" DVD box set with an anticipatory 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it! Hopefully the 13 hour-long "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show" episodes from 1957 to 1960 will follow in another DVD box set.

This collection is the final collection of a true classic sit-com. "I Love Lucy" originally aired 50 years ago and still gets lots of laughs today.The series makes little tweaks with their proven successful formula, but much of the structure remains the same. As the season opens, Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) is buying the nightclub he has worked at since the series opened. Still at home is his wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) who is just as likely to get involved in some crazy situation as always. Rounding out the regulars are neighbors and good friends Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance).For this season, the decision was made to age Lucy and Ricky's son, Little Ricky. By all rights, he should only be four for this season. However, he is suddenly six and played by "Richard" Keith Thibodeaux. This allows them to do stories involving him. He develops an interest in drums, much to everyone's dismay. At his music school recital, he develops stage fright. The whole gang gets involved in his school musical. And he even gets a dog and the Ricardos try to keep it in their New York apartment.Not all the stories revolve around him, however. Lucy only tries to get into Ricky's act a couple of times, both times with celebrities. Yep, she still makes a fool out of herself any time someone famous comes around. This time, the victims are Bob Hope and Orson Wells. George Reeves as Superman also stops by for Little Ricky's birthday party. In one of the more famous episodes from the season, Lucy gets a trophy stuck on her head and has to make her way across town even though she can't see a thing.The Ricardos and Mertzes take a trip to Florida and Cuba during the season. My favorite of the episodes surrounding this trip is "Deep Sea Fishing" in which the couples make a bet over who will catch the biggest fish. Then they secretly each buy a huge fish and try to hide it from each other.About half way through the season, the Ricardos decide to move to the suburbs. Naturally, they can't go alone, and it isn't long before the Mertzes have moved with them to help raise chickens. This leads to the most famous episode from the season, "Lucy Does the Tango." Lucy and Ethel are trying to hide eggs in the chicken coop when Ricky decides he wants to go over the tango routine he and Lucy are going to perform at the PTA. It drew the longest laugh from the studio audience in the history of the show.By the time the season is over, the cast and writers had done 179 episodes of the show. While there are still some great episodes left, there are a few that feel like retreads. "Ragtime Band" features Lucy, Ethel, and Fred trying to form a band with disastrous results, a la the third season's "Lucy's Club Dance." An attractive single woman capturing the men's attention, in "Country Club Dance" an idea similar to "Charm School," again from season three. While the show has used familiar ideas before, these seem pale imitations of the originals.Even given these familiar storylines, the season as a whole has plenty of laughs. The previously mentioned episodes are hilarious. When the gang visits Cuba, Ricky gets a chance to make fun of Lucy's Spanish (and it's worse then his English by far). Adjusting to the quiet of the country after all the years in the city provides some great laughs as well. It's just too quiet for Lucy to sleep. And the tale of the runaway lawnmower from "Lucy Raises Tulips" is hysterical as well.Included in the set is the Christmas special. It incorporates new scenes with flashbacks to the episodes about the birth of Little Ricky from season two. The new scenes were colorized in the 80's, and both the original black and white and the color versions are available in this set. Let me just say that "I Love Lucy" should only be viewed in black and white, at least as far as I'm concerned.This season set has been put together with the same care as the previous five. The picture is still extremely sharp and the sound is perfectly clear. All the usual deleted scenes, flubs, guest cast, and original openings are present, along with five more episodes of Lucy's radio show "My Favorite Husband." For the first time, you have the choice of watching the episodes with their original opening or the more famous hearts on satin used for the reruns.Additionally, this set includes three audio commentaries, a first for the series on DVD. While the first two have some entertaining information in them, guest star Barbara Eden's commentary on "Country Club Dance" really has very little information in it. Then again, since she only guest starred in that one episode, I wasn't expecting too much from her. Doris Singleton (Caroline Appleby) and Keith Thibodeaux share thoughts on "Lucy and Superman" while series writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Schiller talk about "Lucy Does the Tango." Both of these have some great behind the scenes memories of the show.While not the best the show has to offer, there are still plenty of classic moments and laughs to make this set worth getting. I'm thrilled to have a complete set of one of my favorite shows of all time. Here's hoping they go on to release the unofficial final 13 episodes known as "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour."

Of course, Lucy is Lucy--it stands the test of time. I subtracted a star for the really poor picture quality of the supposed "remastering" of the black-and-white film. In many episodes, you can hardly see the actors' faces, as they are almost completely white. The originals were much better.

This great classic brought back memories of my childhood I have every single episode and lots of added info too.

Quick delivery, product exactly what was expected

best US comedy ever

I vaguely remember watching this when very young, thought I'd go mad and buy dvd's, glad i did, a good laugh, (i watched them whilst doing the ironing!!!, lol).