I Love Lucy Season 2 DVD box set review

[bartels76]

So I finally got this in the mail yesterday and it's great. The shows look great, the shows are uncut, and there's lots of bonus stuff. They have bios on all the guest cast members plus selected filmographies of each one. They included the original openings & bumps plus "flashback" footage where they filmed a new scene to introduce a show from Season 1 as they had to air repeats due to Lucy's maternity leave. They even have a special message from Phillip Morris- the shows sponsor- congratulating the Ricardos on their new baby. :eek:
They have Flubs where someone messed up a line or a cue but it remained in the episode anyways. Production notes are on there as well. I think they packed it w/ as much stuff as they possibly could for a show over 50 years old. Luckily I Love Lucy has been treated well.
The only missing thing are the Phillip Morris commercials and they included the original openings as bonus footage. Probably because Philip Morris is all over the sponsorship of the show so they had to clean it up a little. You get the the idea anyways on how the show originally was.
I Love Lucy was sponsored by Procter & Gamble in later years so I'm hoping they can do some commercials and keep the openings in those shows.

I'm obsessed with all the smoking in these shows. Desi smokes like 3 x an episode. Thank god Lucy doesn't smoke while she was preganent or else these shows would've been Lucased. :laugh:
I noticed that Fred & Ethel do not smoke. I'm wondering if it's because Phillip Morris wanted young & hip smokers and the Mertezes were portrayed as neither.
I always wanted to live back in those days but I don't think I could take all the cigarette smoke.

[John Oteri]

As far as Fred and Ethel not smoking...I don't know the actual reason, but I'm going to guess, based on historical data, that they were supposed to be retired Vaudevillians so that means they were performing anytime (as kids) from 1900 to the late Twenties, and so they had grown up in a world were cigarettes were not so prevelant. It became the "in" thing in the Jazz Age (1925+) but mostly with college kids, and women started smoking to be "daring" like the old Virginia Slim commericals stated. It didn't really become so overdone until after WWll when cigarettes were part of a soldiers rations and so many troops came home chain smokers. By the early 50s with a booming economy it seemed every adult between 21 and 51 was a heavy smoker. In the movies so many people smoked, especially in the 40s when they learned to light scenes to bring out the smoke. It was a handy bit for performers to give them something to do while they delivered lines instead of just standing there. But the average person wasn't totally addicted until they could afford to buy a pack or two a day, and that was the 50s. And by the late 60s enough data was available for the govt to know how destructive it was, by the 70s taking it off TV, and by the 80s started banning it everywhere. But that was after Fred and Wilma Flintstone did spots for Winston's during the Flintstones first season. Bizarre, but smoking was part of the American culture. It started to be a real big thing in Europe in the 60s when they became affluent enough to buy two packs a day. Look at the early casual snaps of the Beatles and other British Invasion guys, they were always smoking. George Harrison was a real heavy smoker. It's only now becoming pasee there, as well as Asia. That's why cig manufactures are buying up other products and companies. They know their days are numbered. Oh well. That's all I wanted to say. Gotta go grab a smoke.

[guy incognito]

Oh well. That's all I wanted to say. Gotta go grab a smoke.

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette! :laugh: