I Love Lucy: The Complete Series

While the TV series I Love Lucy completed its original run a few years before I was born, I watched the first series on DVD some years ago and I knew I had to buy this Complete Series Blu Ray set. The show is iconic for so many reasons and has earned its place in television history. It's good, clean family entertainment and has never looked better in High Definition. The whole of I Love Lucy is included, plus the Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour and loads of bonus features. CBS/Paramount have done a great job with this release and should be applauded for making it available at an affordable price.Like a lot of other reviewers, I would have preferred individual cases for each season, rather than stacked discs in one big box. But that is my only criticism, which should not put you off buying it. I'm grateful that this series has been released on disc, at a time when so many archive shows are being streamed online. There is so much to watch here that I may not have time for any more reviews for a while!

DVD set owned four and a half years by date of this review.Certainly no true fan of Lucille Ball and 'I Love Lucy' needs to be convinced to get this set since you are likely a die hard fan who still watches the episodes on TV on various nostalgia type channels. With that said, I will confess I had this disk set on my wishlist for a period of eight months, as I initially balked at the over $200 price tag in 2011. Although I love Lucy, Ricky and the Mertzs enough to pay that much for owning all the episodes at home, I thought it was excessive at the time. So, for over an eight months period, I monitored the price as it fluctuated. Finally, in late November 2011, it was at $70.99 for literally like a minute and I jumped at the chance to purchase it right then and there.Even though I was sure I had seen all the episodes on TV Land and Nick-at-Night over the years, I was pleasantly surprised that in the entire collection of the show, there were about 10-12 episodes I had never seen. It was wonderful to watch these newly discovered (for me) episodes and of course, laugh out loud and smile at the TV as I re-watched all the familiar classic ones.The DVD set itself comes in a beautiful and thoughtfully packaged heart shape box, that is within a rectangular clear hard plastic shell. All CDs were present and in mint condition.Of course, each episode has all the charm, laughs and love that we all know the series to have so I won't go into those details. However, I do want to point out how fantastic the picture quality is and how wonderful the special features and extras are. Each disk is filled with good features that further shed light into the making off, backstory and insider production tidbits and mistakes that you may not know of.I love Lucy and I know you do too, so I don't recommend you wait for the price of this set to go down if price is the only reason you may not want to purchase it now or why you are reading reviews on it. If you do though, rest assured when you finally get it, it is a fantastic addition to any classic TV collection. It is an absolute gem and I continue to play the disks consistently throughout each year I've owned it.

I'm not going to waste time reviewing the show. We all know the show is timeless, acclaimed, beloved, and all that jazz. This is simply to comment on the newly repackaged set.The previous release of the complete series of I Love Lucy contained the complete show on 33 DVDs, including a new pressing of the first season, reducing it to 6 discs from the 7 of the slimpack reissue and the 9 discs of the original release, while retaining all bonus features. (When CBS/Paramount repackaged the seasons with new comic-strip-styled artwork in standard-sized amaray cases with much smaller price tags, the 6-disc configuration was used for season 1, giving it its first standalone release.) It also contained a bonus DVD with the long lost movie, the colorized "Lucy In Scotland" episode, and many other rarities, plus an episode guide. However, the packaging took up shelf space and was quite frustrating to get the discs out. It was also quite expensive.This new 2015 repackage ditches the guide, as well as the bonus DVD, which was issued separately a few years after the first set was released. It also presents a better package, albeit one that still needs improvement. This set takes up as much space as about five standard DVD cases and consists of a box with two cases inside - one contains seasons 1-5 on 25 discs while the other contains seasons 6-9 on 8 discs. This makes one case much larger than the other, and frankly, I think it'd have been better to divide seasons 1-5 into two cases as well. The holder inside the first case is not fixed inside but is pretty snug when the case is closed. The second case is a standard 8-disc double-thick amaray case. The episode lists are printed on the reverse side of the artwork, which can be seen through the clear cases.The artwork for this release is classy and well done. I have to admit, I never cared for the artwork in the 2012 season set reissues, finding them way too kitschy for the show. This set looks much nicer and classier.Finally, the price. At the MSRP of $80, it's great. But after tax, I paid $40. That's less than it would have cost me to buy the remaining five sets I needed at Amazon's current price of about $10 per season, as I had previously purchased the 2012 releases of the first two seasons. You can't argue with $40 for 131 episodes of I Love Lucy plus all 13 of the Comedy Hour specials. Especially with the wealth of bonus material (even without the bonus DVD), uncut restored episodes, great video and audio quality. One thing that would have truly sent this over the top would have been a bonus DVD with all of the colorized episodes to date, but for the content and price, I'm not complaining. This set was a great purchase. As a Hulu subscriber, I was happy to find the show on there, but disappointed to find some great episodes missing, not to mention the lack of the Comedy Hour specials. Now I have every episode whenever I want, with or without an internet connection.