‘I Love Lucy’ Christmas TV Special Features Another Colorized Classic Episode
I Love Lucy will be back to celebrate Christmas this year on CBS as the popular 1950’s TV series is still ingrained in our culture. I Love Lucy starred Desi Arnaz and his real wife, Lucille Ball, as Ricky and Lucy Ricardo, William Frawley and Vivian as Fred and Ethel Mertz (the Ricardos’ neighbors) and Keith Thibodeaux as the Ricardos’ Little Ricky.
In what has become a yearly tradition, the I Love Lucy Christmas Special for 2016 features two the show’s classic episodes of the series back-to-back and in a vintage colorized format. This year’s special features “The Christmas Episode” and “Lucy Gets in Pictures.”
Previously, “The Christmas Episode” was known as the “lost” episode of the I Love Lucy TV series. It originally aired in December of 1956 but, for some reason, was not included in the series’ syndication broadcasts and was rediscovered in 1989 by CBS. The network has frequently re-aired the episode as a Christmas special, pairing it with other much-loved I Love Lucy episodes. Two years ago, CBS began restoring the episodes and colorizing them with a vintage look.
The first half of this year’s special shows the Ricardos and Mertzes decorating Lucy and Ricky’s apartment for Christmas while reminiscing about some memories the four of them have had together when a special guest shows up. The flashbacks are actually “best of” moments of the series, including when Little Ricky was born.
The second half of the I Love Lucy special features the newly colorized “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” episode, which originally aired on February 21, 1955. Fans of the show know of Lucy’s dream of making it big in the movies and in this episode, Ricky organizes a way for Lucy to star as a showgirl in a new musical. Unfortunately, the headdress was heavier than she expected.
According to a press release from CBS, not only was this a favorite episode of fans, but it was also one of Lucy’s favorites. She recreated the scene for the Opening Night TV special with Lou Krugman in 1962 and then again in 1965 with Danny Thomas on Lucille Ball’s other TV series, The Lucy Show.
As popular as the series was, I Love Lucy only aired for six seasons from October 15, 1951, to June 24, 1957. However, unlike most TV shows, the series has never stopped airing and has been in syndication ever since. It is currently seen on TV Land, Hallmark Channel, and Me-TV networks in addition to many other TV stations around the world.
There are 180 episodes of I Love Lucy. During its original airings, the show always ranked in the top three TV shows and often in the No. 1 spot. The highest rated episode of the show aired on Monday, January 19, 1953. “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” had a 71.7 rating, which meant that 71.7 percent of all U.S. television sets were tuned in at that time to see what would happen. That record was later broken on September 9, 1956, when Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, which garnered an 82.6 rating.
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I Love Lucy was also the recipient of many Emmy Award nomination and won six times for Best Situation Comedy Series (1953, 1954, 1955), Best Comedienne: Lucille Ball (1953), Best Actress: Lucille Ball (1956), and Best Series Supporting Actress: Vivian Vance (1954). William Frawley was nominated several times but never won, and Desi Arnaz was never nominated. I Love Lucy was the first television show to be inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1990.
The I Love Lucy Christmas Special will air Friday, December 2 at 8 p.m. on CBS.
[Featured Image by CBS]
