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| Above, a scene from "Lucy and Superman" and the acting credits for the special. Thanks to Brad Shey. |
Last night, CBS-TV presented their "I Love Lucy Superstar Special" in prime time.
The special was a broadcast of two colorized episodes of I Love Lucy: "Hollywood At Last!" (1955) and "Lucy and Superman" (1957). The first is Lucy's meeting with actor William Holden and the second is her meeting Superman (George Reeves).
It is interesting that the end credits of the special has George Reeves credited above Holden. Perhaps it is fitting since I rarely ever hear anyone mention William Holden and there are hordes of fans of George Reeves.
The episodes were nice and sharp (considering that they are about 60 years old). Unfortunately, the colorization was not perfect. It still reminds me of the early efforts at colorization of the 1980s. It is marginally better, but not by much.
Also unfortunately, some trimming was done to make room for more commercials. A segment of "Lucy and Superman" in which Ethel Mertz is tying to hide her silverware set from Fred (who wanted to sell the set) was completely missing as were some bits of dialog. I am not too familiar with the "Hollywood At Last!" episode to give a complete rundown on any missing/deleted scenes and dialog. But I don't doubt some trimming was done to the episode.
Anyway, it was fun to see these episodes, especially seeing George Reeves in costume, in color (flawed as the colorization may be) and in network prime time!
Kudos to CBS!
