One of the most beloved TV shows in the world continues its release on DVD with the third season of I Love Lucy.  Paramount has released all 31 episodes from the season on a five disc set.  This collection has the same high quality video and copious extras that the previous season had, making this a great addition to any DVD library.

The third season was a bit of a transitional time for the show.  The first season was fresh and new, and the second season had the pregnancy story line to hold it together.  They would go back to having long story arcs in the future seasons, sending the Richardos (and the Mertz) to Hollywood and Europe, but this season they go back to the episodic format that had served them well in the past.  It did work well.  I Love Lucy was the #1 rated show in America at the end of the season, but taken as a whole, this season doesn't have as many stand-out shows as the earlier seasons did.

That's not to say that this season isn't good, it is excellent. There are many amusing shows, just none with the outstanding as Lucy selling "vitametavegamin," or Lucy and Ethyl making chocolate.  This seasons does have some memorable shows though.  I particularly liked the two part episode where Lucy's "mother's friend's old college roommate's cousin's middle boy," Ernie, comes to visit.  Played by Tennessee Ernie Ford, Ernie is a down home county boy not familiar with the big city.  He's out of money, and would like to go home, but won't accept charity.  So he stays with the Richardo's and drives them crazy.  When Lucy hears that Ernie's mother warned him about loose talking city women, she dresses up as a vamp to try to scare him away, only to find out that he likes the attention.

Another fun episode was the season opener, Ricky's Life Story.  Life magazine does a feature on the Richardos, but Lucy's picture isn't anywhere to bee seen in the three page spread.  She blames this all on Ricky.  After all, if he would let her preform in his shows, she's be a star too.  So Lucy weasels her way into the show so that she can upstage the star.

The season only had a couple of shows that didn't work.  Lucy is Envious had the two women putting on alien costumes and kidnaping a man as a publicity stunt in order to get the money they'd promised to give to a charity.  This show was producer Jess Oppenheimer's least favorite episode from the entire run, and it's easy to see why.  There is a lot of sitting and talking at the beginning, and the actual alien abduction wasn't that funny.  It's hard to be funny when people are screaming in terror.

Another episode worth mentioning is Lucy Tells the Truth.  This show had to be rewritten at the last moment.  The plot is that Ricky bets Lucy $100 that she can't go 24 hours without telling a lie.  The second act of the show had an IRS agent question the Richardos about some deductions with Lucy answering every question truthfully.  Desi Arnaz was very protective of his adopted country, and insisted that Ricky would never cheat the US government.  He refused to do the show, and the second half had to be rewritten.  They did a good job, and the show as it aired is very funny, though the end is a little awkward.  You can read the original script in Jess Oppenheimer's wonderful book Laughs, Luck...and Lucy.  (Avalible at Amazon.)

The 30 shows from the third season come on five DVDs which are packaged in slim cases enclosed in a slipcase.

It should be noted that these are not the syndicated versions of the program that have been airing for years. In 1958, CBS ordered 4 minutes cut out of every episode to add more time for commercials. These cut shows ran 20:45. They didn't want to go to the expense of reediting the whole show, so they made the cuts at the beginning and ending of scenes. This sometime edited out information that was important to the plot. This set presents the shows in their full length. Though I did not check every episode those that I did check ran between 24-25 minutes.

Audio:

The two channel mono English soundtrack is pretty good. Given the technology at the time, it is not surprising that there isn't a large dynamic range to the sound. This isn't a big deal in most episodes, but the musical numbers sound fairly flat. The dialog is very clear though, and easy to understand. There is a low level of hiss and loud noises distort sometimes, but neither of these things are distracting. There are no English subtitles.

There is also a Spanish audio track which was recorded when the show was first sold abroad years ago. A few shows are missing this track, but all episodes do have a Spanish subtitles available. I spot checked the Spanish tracks, and they sounded a little worse than the English audio. They were a little more scratchy and had less range. It is interesting to note that there isn't a laugh track with the Spanish audio, at least in the sections I listened to.

Video:

The restored black and white full frame picture is excellent for a show this old. I Love Lucy was filmed instead of taped, and there is some grain to the picture, but the image is very sharp and clear. The contrast is also superb, and there is a good range of gray tones. The blacks are more a very dark gray than absolute black, but this is a minor quibble. These are fantastic looking shows.

Extras:

This set has a great number of extras. It is a really nice package. There are promotional spots for the series, text biographies on the guest stars, production notes, audio excepts from producer Jess Oppenheimer's book about the show, lists of mistakes that were made in the shows (with clips highlighting the errors,) and the original openings.  Each disc also comes with an episode of Lucy's radio show, My Favorite Husband, five in all. A really complete package.

Final Thoughts:

This third season of I love Lucy is a wonderful set.  Although there are fewer standout shows than the first two years, there are plenty of very funny programs.  It's surprising how well this show stands up even after constant reruns for the last 50 years.  Lucy is just as funny as ever.  Highly Recommended.