I was fliping Through The Channel's and I turned on Channel 338
on Wednesday, August, 17, 2006 and I saw that Family Net Aired
The Lucy Show at 3:30 pm Central Time.

A local religious channel has been rerunning The Lucy Shows at 5:00 Mon-Fri. Right before they were airing the 1/2 hr. version of the Lucy-Desi Hours, and now they're airing the first season of The Lucy Show. It's been a long time since I've seen these, and they're great! I really hope there will be an official release of these sometime soon. Thank goodness for TiVo!

....CBS/Paramount finally found a "buyer" for "WE LOVE LUCY", eh? They're okay, but a lot of material was edited out of those 26 half-hours [that is, the 13 original hours]- I don't think you'll find the extended "Poor Everybody Else" routine that Lucy did with Red Skelton's "Freddy the Freeloader" in that "two-part" version of the Skelton episode. As for "THE LUCY SHOW"...they're probably the same "videoprints" that 'Nick At Nite' showed about 10 years ago. I think it's time for CBS/Paramount to strike NEW prints of "THE LUCY SHOW"...for home video?

:tv:

I really do enjoy The Lucy Show on Wednesday's at 3:30 pm on Family Net

....CBS/Paramount finally found a "buyer" for "WE LOVE LUCY", eh? They're okay, but a lot of material was edited out of those 26 half-hours [that is, the 13 original hours]- I don't think you'll find the extended "Poor Everybody Else" routine that Lucy did with Red Skelton's "Freddy the Freeloader" in that "two-part" version of the Skelton episode. As for "THE LUCY SHOW"...they're probably the same "videoprints" that 'Nick At Nite' showed about 10 years ago. I think it's time for CBS/Paramount to strike NEW prints of "THE LUCY SHOW"...for home video?

:tv:

You're correct that these half-hour versions of the 13 hour shows have been heavily edited. Besides the editing for the additional commercial time, they also had to edit material out to make room for two additional opening and closing credits, and for a first-half recap that appears at the start of part two. This is probably the only time I'll ever praise editors for removing material from a show. But in this instance, I think it's the best thing that could have happened to these shows.

The problem with most of the hour shows is that the writers never really could come up with good fast-paced scripts to fill up a full hour ("Lucy Makes Room for Danny" and "The Celebrity Next Door" being possibly the only exceptions). The result is lots of very slow, dull sequences. A perfect example is the "Poor Us" segment of the Red Skelton episode that you mention. I always found it very difficult to sit through that. It's waaay too long, and not funny at all. It really made the episode drag, and contributed absolutely nothing to the plot. I think it must have originally been put in to fill time. So with it removed, the story moves along at a much more enjoyable pace. I think whomever did the editing on these half hour versions did an excellent job chosing the material to remove. The editing from the 1960's version, on the other hand, had not been done very well as often very key material was moved. For example, in the "Celebrity Next Door" episode, they cut out the line where Tallulah Bankhead tells Lucy and Ricky at the dinner table that strawberries give her hives. This line was crucial to set up Lucy's shenanigans at the PTA show later in the episode. Without that line, it leaves one wondering how Lucy got the idea to do that. This line has been put back in the half-hour version. Another example of bad editing in the '60s version: In the Danny Thomas episode, they cut out one of the funniest lines in the show: Lucy's explanation to Ethel about why sneaking in and removing the rent check would not be stealing. The newer half-hour version has this material back in. They only seem to have removed material that was slow, not funny, and not key to the plot. Although it could be compromising the creators' artistic integrity, I find this editing an overall improvement.

By the way, usually these half-hour version of the comedy hours are being included as part of an "I Love Lucy" syndication package. I haven't seen it aired on its own, but only as an option to expand the "I Love Lucy" strip from the usual 179 episodes. This option provides programmers with an additional 26 episodes for a total of 205.