Colorized "I Love Lucy" 2013 CBS Xmas and May, 2015 Specials*

They just announced today that CBS will be airing a colorized one-hour special from the 1950s I Love Lucy show in primetime: first, a half-hour Christmas show that they say was not in the original syndication package -- apparently, the vault elements were only discovered in 1989 -- plus the famous Lucy's Italian Movie episodes where she has the fight with the Italian woman in the vine-stomping vat.

I have no idea what the colorized quality will be like, but here's some pics:



I have mixed feelings on colorizing B&W material. If it's a 1940s or 1950s film noir mystery, then chances are it was always intended to be monochrome. Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and Citizen Kane would not have nearly the same experience in color as they do in B&W. But I'm not as rigid about it with TV shows, especially comedies, and I think provided it's done extremely well, maybe I can accept it.

Anybody gonna watch this thing? I suspect the ratings are not gonna be spectacular, mainly because these are 60-year-old shows, and I'm doubtful that modern audiences care about it. Me... I'll be watching.

More info on Deadline:Hollywood.

 

I bet it looks ok.......because I'm sure they have color photos of the sets so they know what the color *should* look like. From what I've read, the sponsors always had photographers around to take pictures that sometimes were later used in ads for their products.

 

With black and white television broadcasts the sets and props would often be odd colors so they would render good contrast as B&W.

The weird thing about looking at the colorized photo of Lucy is that I have become so accustomed to seeing her in black and white that I find her red hair distracting and almost unnatural.

 

I'll probably be watching. It's been ages since I watched an I Love Lucy episode. I watched the show all the time when I was younger.

 

Much ado about... nothing or something?? Seriously, the Christmas episode has been shown before on CBS- And was released on VHS (I have the tape) and is on the complete I LOVE LUCY dvd set. The colorizing doesn't bother me and with modern technology, should be acceptible.

 

I'll give it a shot. Why not? Should be fun.

 

I saw her in real life back in 1986 when I worked on the (very short-lived) Life with Lucy show, and her wig was distracting and unnatural then, too. In one episode, she got onto a vibrating lounge chair that started bucking like a wild horse, and while she was holding on, the wig started to come off. She managed to grab it and keep it in place and made it through the entire take without the audience being aware of it. I was told by producers that she had been wearing wigs since about 1960 or 1961, because she was so busy, it was easier to style a wig and put it on her than it was to actually have a hair stylist do her real hair (which wasn't red).

Unless it sucks...

 

This was colorized and aired on CBS in 1990, but the colorization was horrible. At the time maybe it was ok but looking back it is bad. But with today's technology it should be ok. The colorized "Lucy Goes to Scotland" lools good. And Time Life released the "Italian Movie" show in color as a bonus to a DVD release and it looked good. But I love my Lucy in black and white. But we will still be watching.

 

WBIR Knoxville still airs "I Love Lucy" everyday at 12:30 p.m.

Today was the episode where Lucy misunderstood something her husband was up to and hijinks ensued. And tomorrow is the episode where Lucy misunderstood something her husband was up to and hijinks ensued.

 

no matter what the subject is she always brings a smile to my face...I do LOVE LUCY!

 

Have you ever seen or worked on good colorization ? I haven't seen any since the early days when Turner was doing it which I hated

 

I'll bet if she had her way back then she's would have loved to be in color...

 

some of the recent colorized B^W shows/movies have been pretty good IMO...

 

some of the "Legend" Colorization have been decent. I like "It's A Wonderful Life" colorized.

 

Really? I thought Wonderful Life looked weird with those typical faded pastel like "colors'

 

Will it also have the top and bottom of the frame chopped off so the video completely fills our widescreen HDTVs?

 

I liked it...love the movie.

 

I especially like the episode where Lucy has a hare-brained scheme.

 

No. No. and no.

 

I'm guessing probably not, but when it's CBS, anything could happen.

Note that the best way to blow up a 4x3 frame for 16x9 would be to cut off only the lower 25% of the picture and not touch the headroom at the top. In a perfect world, they'd rescan all the negatives full-ap, and you might have a little more image area left & right.

 

A couple of fun reads about "I Love Lucy" possibly in color in 1954:
http://www.lucyfan.com/lucyincolor.html
http://lucyfan.com/lucyincolor2.html
I have seen several discussions that Desi had wanted to film the "Lucy Goes To Scotland" during the 5th season (1955 - 1956) season in color, too. At the time big musical specials were popular ("Peter Pan" being an example) and to take advantage of the trend Desi wanted to film the show as a special color episode. However, because of budget reasons, it was in black and white and only the studio audience was able to see it in color. However there are some color pictures and home movie clips available from the rehearsal/filming of this episode.

And from TV Guide, 1990:

 

re: Lucy Goes To Scotland in color

I remember that channel 2 in Chicago was the last of the big three networks to telecast a color program (they didn't even have the ability to broadcast in color until 1964). I wonder if ANY local CBS stations besides LA had the capability to broadcast a show in color in 1955.

 

I like the one where Fred is a tightwad and Ricky speaks in Spanish

Still one of the best shows ever made, imho, although the Christmas episode isn't one. Then I'd be hard pressed to name a good Christmas episode, or even a song except for the Waitresses.

 

The color looks much better than those attempts in the mid 80's. Maybe one of these days they will get it down. I have watched this show since I was like 3 years old and have never grown tired of it.

 

As someone who has never seen a colorized I Love Lucy, I will look forward to this.