Lucille Ball 8-Pack (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Created by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
Starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, et al

Features:

• Includes the discs: Bob Hope Meets I Love Lucy, The Funny World Of Lucy Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Lucy And Desi Visit Ed Sullivan, The Lucy-Desi Westinghouse Special, The Lucy Show: The Plumber & The Barbershop, Lucy's Lost Episodes, Toast Of The Town Salutes I Love Lucy
  

My Advice: Rent it, but only if you are a huge fan

Lucille Ball, along with her husband, Desi Arnaz, made television history thousands of times over in their lives together. If there ever was a show business family, it was them. They lived their life like an open book before the American public on television and established what was to become the standard for the sitcom format. After their children were born, they too were placed in the spotlight every bit as much as much as their parents. Not only did they live their lives on television, they also changed the way business was done in Hollywood. They created their production company, DesiLu, under which they produced their much loved show, I Love Lucy. They pioneered the now standard three-camera system and changed the way their television show was syndicated around the world. They did all this while creating and maintaining a stable family life in the public eye.

That having been said, this DVD set is not, as you might think, a collection of shows from their multiple television series. In fact, none of these discs contain episodes from the classic TV show. Instead, what we are presented with here are various Lucille Ball appearances on everything from The Ed Sullivan Show, to The Bob Hope Show, to some other productions that were done after Desi's death. Perhaps the main reason for that fact is, according to the back of these DVD cases, "The collection is not authorized the Lucille Ball estate or any other entity." Not that everything she ever did has to be authorized through her estate, but given how they negotiated for the rights to their shows, it makes sense that Goodtimes wouldn't be able to put out a DVD of episodes from the actual show. Rather what we get here is a rather loosely bound collection of Lucille Ball appearances throughout her life--which is still a worthy thing to bring to DVD, mind you.

My favorite would have to be Ed Sullivan coming out in front of his audience and telling them that Lucy was not going to be able to make it on the show tonight because of a little incident that happened in his office earlier in the day. This was the segue into a live scene between Lucy and Desi, where they were reenacting the scene that supposedly happened in Ed's office. I just love the idea behind the early television writing. "Lucy couldn't be here tonight, but here she is LIVE to reenact the scene in my office where I found out she couldn't be here tonight." It's just laughable...in a very historical preservation kind of way.

The really disappointing aspect of this DVD set is that it's all about the primary content. There is no bonus material whatsoever. I guess if you think about it, the whole thing is supplemental material to the actual television shows that fall under the Lucille Ball estate's jurisdiction. However, it would be nice to have something on these discs other than the average one hour, fifteen minutes of primary content. It doesn't really matter exactly what it could have been, even if it was nothing more than a collection of still images of Lucy and Desi from behind-the-scenes of these various appearances, it would have been better than nothing at all. How about some interviews with some Lucille Ball historians or something (because you know they exist)?

So, anyway, I would have to say to skip this one unless you are a huge fan of Lucille Ball...and I mean huge. There's nothing here but primary content, but true fanatics will want to catch this so they can have it as a supplement to a collection which is probably already fairly large.