Last December, CBS premiered an hour-long special consisting of two colorized I Love Lucy episodes from 1956: “The I Love Lucy Christmas Special” (considered missing until 1989; read about its recovery here) and “Lucy’s Italian Movie” with its iconic grape-stomping scene.
This year the network has announced it will air a new I Love Lucy special on Sunday, December 7th from 8-9PM. It will pair “The I Love Lucy Christmas Special” with another newly colorized episode from 1952, “Job Switching,” in which Lucy and Ethel get jobs at a candy factory. The episodes will be combined with just one set of opening and closing credits. The special will also feature never-before-broadcast costume and makeup tests from I Love Lucy.
Last year’s special aired on a Friday and drew close to 9 million viewers. Will this year’s Sunday broadcast fare better?
Thank you for alerting us to this.
When I heard about this, I couldn’t believe CBS was airing this old material. I ended up catching the last 10 minutes or so. It certainly looked good.