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

That's funny. You do know that many people who are considered redheads actually have hair that looks more orange, right? I don't know why the color red came to be used for people with orange hair, but the color of hair on natural redheads is usually more orange than red, though it's more politely called "auburn." I've seen very few people with hair that I'd actually call red unless it was an obvious dye job or wig like the one Rihanna has on here (and even this red has more than a hint of orange in it).

 

It doesn't seem funny to me at all. Rihanna's hair is more orange and as unnatural to me as Lucy's hair was on that broadcast. I agree that most red heads dye their hair after a certain age. Lucy's hair in that colorized episode was very different than the red color I saw when I finally saw her on a color TV.

 

People called blondes have various shades of light brown/yellow hair, and the word brunette applies to various shades of dark or brown hair. So using the word redhead isn't unusual at all.

But most blondes or redheads, especially in the 1950's, did not have (either naturally or dyed) fluorescent shades of orange, red or yellow hair. When colorizing a B&W show, I think most viewers would appreciate colors that are matched as close as possible to reality.

 

The HD episodes of I Love Lucy that are available for streaming at Amazon Prime look great. It does really feel like you're almost there in that apartment with them. The props with the large printed labels like: "COLD CREAM" "CHEESE," "THE MOCKING-BIRD MYSTERY," etc. really help you remember how low rez the original versions were. Very nicely shot and put together for a live show. What a great idea it was for them to film it 35mm. HD does add something imho, and it's still very funny in spite of the unavoidable sexism of the era that's part of the essential fabric of the show. I realize that Lucy—both on the show and off—was a feminist icon for her time and even today. But the profoundly patronizing attitudes of men, even if they are mocked, are once in a while disturbing. But I still really enjoy this TV classic that changed the history of the medium.

 

Check this out! Color pics including Italian Movie and Scotland.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/25-rare-photos-of-i-love-lucy-in-color

 

This is being reaired on Sunday, December 7th on CBS. This year "Job Switching" (aka "The Candy Factory") will be the 2nd episode colorized. Here is a short preview just posted. The hair colors in my opinion look badly done, especially Lucy's. It looks like someone took a paint brush and just squashed a bunch of red on the film.

 

I still don't understand the complaints about Lucy's hair color in these colorized episodes. Just do a Google image search for Lucille Ball 1950s color photos and you'll see some photos that show Lucy with even more vibrant hair than in these episodes, and some that are more subtle. Perhaps the people doing the colorization simply picked a medium intensity or perhaps they even chose the color based on color stills taken at the time these episodes were filmed.

I understand having other complaints about the colorization, but I don't think Lucy's hair looks ridiculous.

 

It's not the color that I did not care for, it was just the way it looked. Maybe on the broadcast it will look different but to my eyes it just looks strange, like a red cloud on top of Lucy's head. Someone else may see it differently. I just reread what I posted and worded what I wanted to say wrong.

 

Speed it up a little!

There's an art to doing color well, and there's more to it than just grinding a shade of chroma on somebody's head. It looks like a Bozo the Clown fright wig to me.

 

On first glance it look quite unatural as I'm used to it in black and white, but after a couple of replays it actually looks somewhat decent.

 

I did find out on another forum that this is going to be released on a second disc in a special package of the colorized DVD from last Christmas made specifically for Target's 2014 Christmas releases. I guess this "new" release will be available December 9th.

 

I LOVE LUCY shows up tonight on CBS in another HD and colorized hour. This time it's called the "Superstar Special" with guests William Holden, Eve Arden and Superman himself, George Reeves.



Harry

 

I'll be watching for sure.

 

Two seconds in and it looks terrible.

 

True, the walls, lamp shade, and Lucy's hair is very close to the same color. But as much as a traditionalist I am and do not like to see the show colorized it is great to see Lucy back in prime time once again, and this time not just for Christmas.

The big surprise was the first scene in the hotel with footage that was missing from the "complete" versions. The scene where Bobby the Bellboy talks about being in movies and being in Julius Caesar.

 

I thought it looked great and my 14 year old thought it was much better in color. I think that is what they are looking for. They can't care that much if people our age, 50's and up, really watch it. So in that regard, maybe it was a success. I like it either way and it is amazing to me it looks as good as it does. I remember their attempt at this years ago and it was very fake looking. Compared to that it looks much better, more like a 60's show looked back then.

 

As much as I liked it, it did have an odd feel to it, like something wasn't quite right. Some of it even looked kind of black amd white to me, but I bet part of the reason was the clown hair as you rightfully called it. I think there was too much color contrast. If they can tone it down I think maybe it would have a more natural look.

 

It took me 15 seconds, but yeah, no way does this look like real 1950s color film.

 

Yup...exactly what I thought. Didn't see your post until I did mine. All and all, however, I think they did a good job. I just don't know why they thought the hair was okay that bright. That has to be very easy to tone down. I'm assuming none of us watched a live taping, so it's kind of tough to know what it really is supposed to look like, but I doubt her hair was that bright!

 

How about late 60's? It had a Gilligan's Island color hue to it. Or Batman...which I doubt they would take as a compliment, but at least it felt consistent to some period!

 

Part of the issue is the over use of color. For example the guys shirts and ties, color films done at the time show that most dress shirts were white with black or gray ties, but on Lucy they chose to color most of the shirts light blue, light green, lavender and such, with a rainbow of color ties. There is just too much color going on for the time period, IMHO. In the scene below, don't you think that shirt and hanky were probably white? If I was colorizing it, I would have loved to have a color picture taken at the time of the episode, to base my color choices on. Little Ricky looks pretty good, but I really doubt that superman shirt was that dark, probably a much lighter blue. Superman was shot in color, so it can give you some great color clues for fashion at the time.

 

I think one of the problems with colorization is that if you leave some area grey or white, it has a look like they forgot to colorize that part of the image. I've noticed that on a few colorized things I've watched. It gives the appearance of the original "black & whiteness" showing through. That seems to be why men's suits end up being blue and brown all of the time. Same with dark colored cars.

Harry

 

I think having the walls in grey really looks weird, I would have went with more like this

 

My nine year old daughter will not watch anything black and white if left to her own devices. She's seen a few minutes of I Love Lucy on the Hallmark channel, but not much. Last night we tuned in and she was intrigued....it was the scene with Bill Holden in the restaurant. I could tell she was doing that young kid thing of trying not to laugh because I kept checking to see her reaction...but by the time Lucy spilled the plate on Holden my daughter was full out cracking up.

I do think the colors are a huge upgrade to the horrible colorizations in the eighties.

Yes I'm a purist, but if colorization gets nine year old girls to love I Love Lucy, then I'm for it~