I Love Lucy: The Complete Fourth Season DVD Review:

Following the third season of “I Love Lucy” in which Lucy had her baby as the entire nation watched on, the fourth season broke ground once again as the Ricardos and Mertzes travel to Hollywood for Ricky’s new film career. Before this season of “I Love Lucy” few shows had dramatic changes in locations as this, much less a continuous storyline from episode to episode. On top of the fact that this season is special in television history, the DVD set with all thirty episodes has been given the same treatment that the past seasons were given, making for a fantastic purchase for any Lucy fan.

The first third of the season still takes place in New York, mostly as the Ricardos and the Mertzes prepare for the journey. Then there are a number of episodes as they take their trip across country by car. All of these are humorous and feature Lucy in her usual ability to get into trouble, but the real trouble begins once they arrive in Hollywood. This season features more guest appearances than any other season before, and they are all here. It seems that Lucy is nearly unable to meet a celebrity without getting into some sort of a mess, even from the moment she arrives.

As with past treatment of the episodes, each of these thirty have sharp quality to them. Each episode looks great, but it is a bit strange that they look as good as the ones from season one looked. It would seem that there would be improvement in image quality, but there is none. The only explanation that I could come to was that they both look so good, it is nearly impossible to tell any difference. The audio quality still has the same flatness which must be expected from this classic television show, but it is hardly noticeable at times, and may have even improved some from the past seasons.

What really makes this box set special, along with every other season on “I Love Lucy”, is the bonus features. Even the most ardent fan will be amazed and overwhelmed at the amount of material which has been gathered for these DVDs. There are more trivia and facts inserted into each DVD than any other DVD I have ever seen, television or feature film. Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the features is that they are on each disc, paired up with the actual episode that the facts come from. There are flubs from the episodes, special footage, alterations made for the DVD, original openings, bios for guest stars, and five complete episodes of Lucille Ball’s radio show, My Favorite Husband.



Ryan Izay