I saw the I Love Lucy Christmas episode for the first time last night on TVLand. It felt strange watching one that I had never seen before. I really don't understand why this one was shelved. It did do a couple of things that were never done on any other I Love Lucy episode, like old flashbacks and "magic" with trick photography. Why not? Christmas only comes once a year. I certainly wouldn't call it the best I Love Lucy episode, but it was entertaining and had the right holiday spirit. I really think they should put it into syndication with the rest of them. So what if it's shown out of season? The holiday shows of every other sitcom are shown that way.

I think I heard or read somewhere that it was Desi's decision to withdraw the Christmas episode from the final syndication package that was sold...as to why he did that, I'm not sure...someone pointed out that Desi may have been afraid that someone might broadcast the Chrstmas episode in July or something, but I doubt that reruns have ever been handled that way...growing up in the 60s and 70s , my memory tells me that Christmas episode reruns always ran at Christmas, and not at any other time... in fact, we used to look forward to the Christmas reruns, because we knew that was the only time all year we could see those episodes...

I've also heard reports that Desi just wasn't all that happy with that episode, and didn't want it shown again...he got his wish... for a while anyway...originally aired in December of 1956, I believe it was another 30 or 35 years before the episode was unearthed and broadcast again...I'm sure someone out there knows when it was rebroadcast, but it was probably sometime in the late 80s or early 90s...

Probably he didn't wanted to be shown in any other month (JULY) for instance; because Fidel Castro celebrates Christmas in Cuba in that month and not in December and it reminded him of his 'days under the revolution'?

Speaking from experience, Christmas episodes of TV shows are broadcast all year. I'm sick of constantly getting the Christmas episodes of everything in the middle of summer! Desi was right to withhold that episode from the syndies, because they would have been repeated all over the place, out of season. It's nice to know that it's still available to be watched, though. If it was a BBC show they'd have deleted it after broadcast!

When it was first brought back and broadcast as a special in '91, it was colorized and a real joy to watch, wish TV Land would show that one!

I have to disagree with the colorization part. To me, colorization simply ruins the feel of the original program. The colors are not really that bright anyway and they tend to look like a newspaper photo marked over with a crayon. If something was originally made in color, by all means, show it that way, but why tamper with classic shows and movies? Fortunately, I got to see my first viewing of the I Love Lucy Christmas special in glorious black and white. JMO

But, as we've said on every board about this subject, it's just that the special, after being seen one way for 50 years, it was nice and different to see it in color, sorta like that intro to the CBS I Love Lucy Tapes or that colored bit on the Babalu Music video, it's just nice to see something about I Love Lucy that's not the exact same way we've seen it for all of our lives, just a pleasant little change.