I Love Lucy: The Complete Fourth Season DVD

In Stores Now

The I Love Lucy Seasonal DVD collections still do a great job packaging the limited material. I particularly like how they point out all the flubs in the episodes. The collection of originally material is priceless. These are presented very well also, with comparisons to syndication broadcasts showing you the differences. But there are a lot of audio only extras which are quite insightful too.

The Behind the Scenes featurette is an audio excerpt from a book by Jess Oppenheimer. This is a unique way to go behind the scenes on a show that was made during a time when Entertainment Tonight was not hanging around the set every day, and they weren’t even making EPKs. It’s a bit too “audio book”y with a reader trying to be dramatic and speaking in the author’s literary metaphors.

You get some good stories, though I think everyone’s heard the flaming nose tale. The stuff about Lucy in real life versus Lucy the character is good, but it’s so short. The clip cuts off after four and a half minutes. If it’s just audio, couldn’t they have run at least 10?

The radio shows are good. Obviously, you miss the physical stuff, but the verbal gags are cute. The banter plays back and forth skillfully and the situations are as comic as anything else. You get the full idea of the situation just from hearing the dialogue, and maybe you get to imagine things funnier than could be acted.