Watch The I Love Lucy Colorized Christmas Special

By Nathan Young on December 19, 2013

I Love Lucy is a television staple, and on Friday night, CBS is giving TV fans a special holiday treat! CBS is presenting two I Love Lucy episodes, in color! This groundbreaking sitcom from 1951 to 1957 is still popular even today! And CBS wants to give everyone a chance to see what things looked like back in the 1950’s. It’s hard to see details of the clothing, scenery, and sets in black and white. Now, everyone will get to see plenty of details in color!

The I Love Lucy Christmas Special will feature colorized episodes of the 1950’s CBS comedy series: the seldom-seen Christmas Episode, and Lucy’s Italian Movie (aka The Grape Stomping Episode). The episodes were colorized with a vintage look in a nod to the 1950’s period in which the shows were filmed. The Christmas Special will find the Ricardos (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) and Mertzes (Vivian Vance and William Frawley) decorating Lucy and Ricky’s Christmas tree and reminiscing about how their lives have changed since the arrival of the Ricardos’ son, Little Ricky. Flashbacks are in black-and-white to emphasize the time-lapse. The Christmas Episode was first presented in December 1956. CBS thought this episode was lost until it was found in 1989.

Lucy’s Italian Movie finds the Ricardos and Mertzes visiting Rome, where Lucy is invited by a famous Italian film director to appear in his next picture, Bitter Grapes. She mistakenly thinks is about the wine industry, so she visits a local vineyard for research and winds up soaking up more local color than intended. Sure, this is a cheap Christmas special on the Friday before Christmas where many people will be traveling or shopping. But I give CBS props for doing something cool like this!

The I Love Lucy Christmas Special will air on CBS on Friday December 20th at 8 pm / 7 pm central. Learn more at: http://www.cbs.com/shows/i_love_lucy/