The Lucy Show - The Official Fifth Season DVD Review

[TJ]

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/thelucy...dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

[1960'sTVfan]

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.

[lucyandethel]

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.

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by lucyandethel

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.

[McGillicuddy]

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

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by markway895

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).

[storrs19]

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

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.

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by storrs19

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

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.

[snowpeck]

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?

[storrs19]

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

[lucyandethel]

Originally Posted by storrs19

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

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.

[rjt100]

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."

[1960'sTVfan]

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.

[Larry Surrell]

Originally Posted by lucyandethel

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.

[lucyandethel]

Originally Posted by Larry Surrell

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.