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I Love Lucy: Superstar Special #2 DVD Review

“I Love Lucy: Superstar Special #2” will appeal to fans of the classic sitcom.

In what seems to be an ongoing event, “I Love Lucy: Superstar Special #2” contains the 2 parter “Lucy Visits Grauman’s” and “Lucy And John Wayne” which have been edited together and colorized for a full 45 minute special. The plot concerns Lucy and Ethel trying to steal John Wayne’s cement footprint block as a souvenir. Alas, this bad plan does not go well at all. Not only does it cause problems for Lucy physically (you’ll see what I mean), but it even winds up involving John Wayne himself.

While it’s nice to see two episodes that actually go together for this special (given that it’s a connected two-parter), they don’t exactly represent the show at its finest. Granted, there are plenty of amusing Lucy shenanigans (the cement bits and her spazzing over John Wayne are particularly noteworthy), but the viewer is basically watching one repetitive joke spread out over two episodes. Problems aside, however, it’s fun to see Lucille Ball and John Wayne on screen in the second part aptly titled “Lucy And John Wayne.” It’s even more interesting to see John Wayne in a comedy that he fares quite well in. You can see that he’s totally game for the part and that he appears to be having a blast doing it.

As for the colorization, the pastel nightmare continues to be the worst gimmick that somehow endures. It’s really just used an excuse to reissue or replay episodes as a big TV event. Luckily, viewers can watch the episodes individually in their original B&W form. The edited together episodes can only be seen in color unfortunately.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 4:3. How does it look? Both the B&W and color prints look crystal clear, but you should definitely go with the original B&W episodes.

Audio Track: Dolby Digital Mono. How does it sound? The laugh track, dialogue, and music sound better than your average Mono. That’s high praise!

The only extras are CBS ads.

Overall Thoughts: These two episodes may not be some of the best, but it’s a decent enough sampling of the iconic “I Love Lucy.”

January 11, 2017 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Uncategorized | Desi Arnaz, I Love Lucy, I Love Lucy: Superstar Special #2 DVD Review, John Wayne, Lucille Ball, Sitcom