The Lucy Show is back for a fifth season in The Lucy Show - The Official Fifth Season! Lucille Ball's second major series on CBS features Ball as Lucy Carmichael, a bank secretary, and Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) as her boss at the bank. By now, the series has evolved into something much different than where it started. Originally a series about a widow and a divorcee living together with their kids in a small town in New York, now Lucy is living in California where she is constantly star struck, with emphasis on CONSTANTLY. Whether it is John Wayne or Sheldon Leonard, or any other star, Lucy is constantly running into stars now, along with creating more chaos for Mr. Mooney. Now, you can get all 22 episodes of the next-to-last season of this series on a four disc DVD set.

Read our review by skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/thelucyshowseason5dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

I have been undecided if I want to buy the season 5 DVD, the show wasn't as good anymore at this point. Knowing that one episode is edited has probably put the kabosh on it for me, I don't know I'll have to think it over carefully if I still want to purchase this season or not. Thumbs up to them though, for putting the Lucy In London special in the right spot on disc #2.

So, does that mean they cut that part of the episode out because of the music, or do they just dub other music over it? I don't see why they have to cut the scene part out just because of music. If it is the segues or establishing shots they are cutting, it isn't that big of a deal, but if they cut necessary dialogue then it is an issue for me.

Years ago, when I watched TLS on TV, and they were still airing those horribly butchered prints, it was annoying. They cut necessary dialogue which made some things not make sense. I don't think I would go as far as to NOT buy the 5th season on DVD, because the episode with Pat Collins wasn't that great anyway as I recall.

So, does that mean they cut that part of the episode out because of the music, or do they just dub other music over it? I don't see why they have to cut the scene part out just because of music. If it is the segues or establishing shots they are cutting, it isn't that big of a deal, but if they cut necessary dialogue then it is an issue for me.

Years ago, when I watched TLS on TV, and they were still airing those horribly butchered prints, it was annoying. They cut necessary dialogue which made some things not make sense. I don't think I would go as far as to NOT buy the 5th season on DVD, because the episode with Pat Collins wasn't that great anyway as I recall.

I haven't talked to any of the guys about this issue, but my guess is there was some sort of a trade-off. CBS does everything by the books, so they're paying music writes on all the copyrighted music on these DVDs. And paying for music rights is unbelievably expensive and can destroy the entire profit margin on classic TV DVD releases, which don't sell in huge numbers like releases of current series do. (Note: Just because these episodes have fallen into the public domain does not mean the music has as well. The low-budget companies that have been selling releases of these episodes could potentially be fined by the owners of those music copyrights, were they to discover their music is included on them; CBS, as a reputable company, is not willing to put itself in that position. There are public domain releases of The Beverly Hillbillies where the copyrighted Lester Flatt/Earl Scruggs theme song has been dubbed over with a different tune. The companies selling those episodes are obviously smart enough to realize the Flatt/Scruggs estate would notice such a thing.)

I'm thinking CBS probably made a bargain: they pay the copyrights on "Lucy in London" and episodes like "Main Street U.S.A." where the music is an essential element, but not on "Lucy and Pat Collins," where it's just incidental. As lucyandethel notes, "Lucy and Pat Collins" is one of the lesser episodes, anyway.

We should be very grateful that CBS is leaving as much intact as they are. Go check out what Fox did on its releases of WKRP in Cincinnati -- where all the copyrighted music has been taken out from this show that's all about a radio station that plays music -- and you'll appreciate how generous CBS has been to us with The Lucy Show.

Its curious that this is the first time this issue came up with The Lucy Show dvd sets.

Its curious that this is the first time this issue came up with The Lucy Show dvd sets.

There's a lot more music in this set than the previous ones (from Lucy in London, Lucy and George Burns, Lucy Gets a Roommate, Lucy and Carol in Palm Springs, the Main Street U.S.A. episodes, Lucy and Tennessee Ernie Ford, among others).

Music copyright crap is nuts! That's why we'll never have the great variety shows from the 1960's and early 1970's on dvd :mad:

That aside, I concur with the above poster's that "Lucy & Pat Collins" is not one of the best episodes from Season Five anyway. I picked this set up at Target for $29.99 and am planning on watching some episodes this evening. Season Six is what I'm really waiting for as it has some riotous episodes. I rank it right behind the first two seasons tied with Season Three.

Music copyright crap is nuts! That's why we'll never have the great variety shows from the 1960's and early 1970's on dvd :mad:

That aside, I concur with the above poster's that "Lucy & Pat Collins" is not one of the best episodes from Season Five anyway. I picked this set up at Target for $29.99 and am planning on watching some episodes this evening. Season Six is what I'm really waiting for as it has some riotous episodes. I rank it right behind the first two seasons tied with Season Three.

I'm with you there; I'm looking forward to seeing Season Six. I like both S5 & S6, not sure if I have a favorite between the two. I'm disappointed with the current sales of S5, at least according to Amazon. I suppose the awful S4 could have turned people off to further purchases, or maybe it's because most of these episodes are already in the public domain. Whatever the reason, it's too bad. I'm concerned that this could impact a release of S6, or at least how it's released because I understand S6 has the most music copyright issues of any of the seasons; ergo, it will be the most expensive to produce. If they don't foresee big sales of S6, and then factor in all these music copyright issues, it's anybody's guess what might happen.

I read that some of the original openings are included on the set... does this include the "jack-in-the-box" opening that Lucy reportedly hated and only lasted a few episodes?

snowpeck: Yes indeed. The "Jack In The Box" opening is included as a bonus feature but you can't setup the episodes to play with it normally. I can see why Lucy hated this opening. It is just weird to me. I don't know where they came up with that one at.

As for Season 6: two of my all time favorite Lucy Show episodes from the entire run are in it so I hope it gets released. "Lucy Gets Mooney Fired" and "Lucy Gets Involved" are both superb episodes to me. I'm thinking that maybe as LittleRickyII said that possibly as many of Season 5 episodes were in the PD and widely available (although in horrible quality) that could be hurting Season 5 sales.

Also, its a bad economy and people are busy buying presents for Christmas too. I admit I only bought Season 4 to help assure that Seasons 5 and 6 would come along. Season 4 is just bad, real bad. Too many unbelievable story lines in it.

That aside, I love seeing the nice crisp transfers of Season 5 and really enjoyed the documentary of "Lucy In London". As for the special itself, I don't know. It's kind of odd seeing Lucy on location and without a live audience there. I did like seeing Frank Thornton at the counter though. Fans of Are You Being Served will know him as Captain Peacock, and I am unanimous in that ;)

Chad

Music copyright crap is nuts! That's why we'll never have the great variety shows from the 1960's and early 1970's on dvd :mad:

That aside, I concur with the above poster's that "Lucy & Pat Collins" is not one of the best episodes from Season Five anyway. I picked this set up at Target for $29.99 and am planning on watching some episodes this evening. Season Six is what I'm really waiting for as it has some riotous episodes. I rank it right behind the first two seasons tied with Season Three.

If you wrote a hit song my friend, you TOO would want to be paid anytime it plays, etc.

After enjoying season 4 of "The Lucy Show", which has to be one of the funniest seasons of the series and is a vast improvement over season 3, which is the weakest season, I am now enjoying season five and have already watched the first three episodes. I can't wait until I get to the bonus features on each disk. I have to applaud CBS Home Entertainment for putting such love into this classic sitcom, which I thought would never see a DVD release. As far as the edit for the Pat Collins episode (I DON'T CARE). First, it wasn't a great episode. It's one of the four episodes out of the 22 that were produced that I didn't care for. It's only a minute shorter and if one is so desperate for the minute edit go to the wonderful public domain episodes for reference. I think the sales for season five are doing just fine. Season three had the same kind of sales on Amazon that season five is having. On DVD Empire "The Lucy Show" is currently in 14th place, which is great. Overall, we will definitely will see a sixth season release of The Lucy Show w/bonus features. I'm just so sick and tired of one or two people on this board always trying to upset others saying the series would never be completed. This has been going on ever since 2009 when the first season was released. I knew season five and Lucy In London would be released because the DVD's have been a success in sales, otherwise, we never would have gotten seasons two thru five if they weren't selling. In conclusion, stop your crying about the Pat Collins edit and look forward to season five of "Here's Lucy" (Feb. 28th, 2012) and the last seasons of season six of "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy," which will both be released sometime in 2012 along with the worst Lucy special of all-time "Lucy Moves to NBC."

I found a good deal for season 5 on ebay, so I ordered it and should have it in a few days. While I'm not happy about the one edited episode, in the grand scheme of things I guess it's a minor issue since the other episodes are complete and the Lucy In London special is included. I imagine the 6th and final season DVD will be out in 2012.

If you wrote a hit song my friend, you TOO would want to be paid anytime it plays, etc.

I don't know specifically what song was cut so I'm speaking in general. I often wonder why these artists can't ask a reasonable price for DVD music rights. It seems like they ask such a high price that the music gets cut out completely and they end up making $0.

I don't know specifically what song was cut so I'm speaking in general. I often wonder why these artists can't ask a reasonable price for DVD music rights. It seems like they ask such a high price that the music gets cut out completely and they end up making $0.


They have to be paid a certain sum...the writers don't determine it. In this case, CBS/Paramount just didn't want to pay it.

I often wonder why these artists can't ask a reasonable price for DVD music rights. It seems like they ask such a high price that the music gets cut out completely and they end up making $0.

Great point!

Exactly. I'd rather have a little money than no money. Besides that episode is in the PD anyway so people can easily watch it online or on one of the off shoot dvd sets with no problems and the artists get paid nothing.

Exactly. I'd rather have a little money than no money. Besides that episode is in the PD anyway so people can easily watch it online or on one of the off shoot dvd sets with no problems and the artists get paid nothing.

CBS is doing everything by the books. Which makes me wonder now about those PD versions. I'm assuming CBS approached the music copyright owners about music rights, in which case those PD episodes might have been brought to their attention. So might there be lawsuits against those little companies selling those shows? The copyright is only expired on the Desilu/CBS-Paramount content, not on the music, which CBS doesn't own and never did.

What's odd is that they were able to acquire the music rights for all episodes so far including the two part "Main Street USA" ones and the previous episodes with a lot of musical material in them and the season 4 episode with Wayne Newton. Funny how music copyrights work, isn't it?

What's odd is that they were able to acquire the music rights for all episodes so far including the two part "Main Street USA" ones and the previous episodes with a lot of musical material in them and the season 4 episode with Wayne Newton. Funny how music copyrights work, isn't it?

From what I've been told, it's been a struggle along with each season because CBS does not like paying for these music rights. They've been counting on high sales volume to justify the expense. It will be interesting to see what they do with S6 because that season apparently has the most challenges with music copyrights. As for Main Street, I haven't seen those episodes in a long time, but my recollection is that most (if not all) of that music was original music written specifically for those episodes, so it would have been owned by Desilu and now CBS/Paramount; thus, it wouldn't require the purchase of music rights. But with other shows, like Lucy in London and the one with Wayne Newton, it's a different story.

Ahh, ok. I didn't know that about the Main Street USA shows. That makes more sense then. I know CBS edited an episode on the latest Hawaii Five-O to remove "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart due to copyright expenses. Like somebody said though nothing will top what happened to WKRP in Cincinnati. That show is totally unwatchable on dvd where as with a sitcom or drama if some music is changed it's not the end of the world.

Here's something funny, I had Pat Collins mixed up with Pat Carroll. I went to watch Lucy And Pat Collins and kept wondering when Pat (Carroll) was going to show up. Then I realized my mistake. I'm not even familiar with Pat Collins, so I guess I don't care about the minor edit!

Here's something funny, I had Pat Collins mixed up with Pat Carroll. I went to watch Lucy And Pat Collins and kept wondering when Pat (Carroll) was going to show up. Then I realized my mistake. I'm not even familiar with Pat Collins, so I guess I don't care about the minor edit!

I watched this episode last night. It had been awhile since I last saw it, so I can't tell you what was cut. I can say that whatever it was that was cut, it doesn't affect anything as far as I can tell because I didn't notice anything missing. That's what tells me that whatever was taken out couldn't have had very much significance; it wasn't missed. As for Pat Collins, yeah, she's a totally different person than Pat Carroll! :) After watching the episode, I was curious about some of the other performers, in particular the actress Patricia Cutts, who played the saleslady. I looked her up on imdb.com. Very sad story. I don't even want to repeat it here. It makes me think perhaps I shouldn't be looking up people's bios because it can cast a sad pall over a funny show.

I thought I was the only one who did that! I also kept looking for Pat Carroll and finally realized she wasn't on that show, LOL. I remember her from the final season of Too Close For Comfort (when the show changed formats and she was the owner of a small newspaper) as well as numerous appearances on many game shows.

While it's cool that they followed the original airing plan of the studio and used the jack in the box opening for the first 10 episodes of the 5th season DVD, I have to agree that the jack in the box opening isn't very good. I can see why Lucy didn't care for it. Thumbs up though to the producers of the DVD for presenting the openings as originally intended, I'm always in favor of that. The only blemish on the DVD set is the edited Pat Collins episode, but it's a minor issue.

What's odd is that they were able to acquire the music rights for all episodes so far including the two part "Main Street USA" ones and the previous episodes with a lot of musical material in them and the season 4 episode with Wayne Newton. Funny how music copyrights work, isn't it?
I really liked the Main street episodes the musical number is very cheerful.

From what I have read, the only Season 5 episode of The Lucy Show which has not fallen into public domain is not "Main Street, USA", but its second part, "Lucy Puts Main Street on the Map". Does the second part have all the music, or special music, or did Paramount renew that show's copyright and forget the other 21 from that season? It would be interesting to know the answer there.

While I'm not sure why "Lucy Puts Main Street on the Map" somehow didn't fall into the public domain, there's a pretty simple theory on the ones that did. It has since been closed, but there used to be a loophole in copyright law that if a published work did not include a copyright notice, regardless of whether it was registered with the copyright office, then it is not copyrighted.

If you notice, the Desilu shows switched to a vanity card with a musical fanfare that season. Previously the Desilu logo had been a part of the closing credits, and the copyright notice would appear with it. There was no copyright notice on the musical vanity card originally. I think that was where Desilu messed up. They were quick to fix the problem on Mission Impossible and Star Trek reruns (a separate copyright card added to M:I, and a 1978 copyright added to the Desilu logo on ST) but nothing was ever done for the season and a half of The Lucy Show that had no copyright. A few episodes of Mannix are public domain for this same reason.

When Paramount added their logo to the The Lucy Show (and the other Desilu shows) halfway through the 1967-1968 season, the copyright notice reappeared. That's why the public domain episodes stop halfway through season 6.

The 1966 copyrights on the season 5 Lucy Show set were added for the DVDs.

From what I have read, the only Season 5 episode of The Lucy Show which has not fallen into public domain is not "Main Street, USA", but its second part, "Lucy Puts Main Street on the Map". Does the second part have all the music, or special music, or did Paramount renew that show's copyright and forget the other 21 from that season? It would be interesting to know the answer there.

I always thought it was odd that it was all of season 5 (except LucyPMSOTM), about half of season 6 and only two episodes from season 1 that ended up in P.D.

Well, it wasn't difficult to clear music for the Main Street episode. They sang the same song 15 times......