In December 2016, now a CBS holiday tradition, the “Christmas Show” was aired with a colorized version of “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (S4 E18). In May 2016 CBS aired “The I Love Lucy Superstar Special” featuring the linked episodes “Lucy Visits Grauman’s” (S5 E1) and “Lucy and John Wayne”(S5 E2).

The colorized “Christmas Show” was shown again in December 2015 this time teamed with a newly colorized version of “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (S1 E30) aka Vitameatavegamin. Since it wasn’t Christmas-time, “Lucy and Superman” (S6 E13) was aired as its companion piece. In May 2015 (an Easter special this time) CBS aired “The I Love Lucy Superstar Special” featuring “Hollywood at Last!” (S4 E16).Ī lost scene, not seen since its original airing, was reinserted in which we hear that Bobby the bellhop had a bit part in the film Julius Caesar. On DecemCBS aired the “Christmas Show' once more (with an encore showing on December 24, 2014) paired with a colorized “Job Switching” (S2 E1) aka the Chocolate Factory. This broadcast drew an astonishing 8.65 million viewers! On December 20, 2013, CBS rebroadcast the Christmas episode with “Lucy’s Italian Movie” (S5 E23) aka Grape Stomping in which both episodes were fully colorized. The ‘wraparound’ segments (the non-flashback parts) were broadcast in the original black and white, but were also colorized starting in 1990. “The ‘I Love Lucy’ Christmas Show” was the first episode CBS aired colorized on December 18, 1989. Most agree that the original black and white films are best, but these candy-coated treats do have holiday appeal and are a curiosity to those who can’t imagine the 1950s in color! Over the last thirty years, there have been colorized versions of the most popular episodes of “I Love Lucy” usually aired at the holidays.

Lucille ball in color