CBS announced today that it plans to air an hour-long “I Love Lucy Superstar Special” on Sunday, May 17th from 8-9PM featuring two newly colorized episodes. The episodes in question are “L.A. at Last!” (originally broadcast February 7th, 1955) with William Holden and “Lucy and Superman” (originally broadcast January 14th, 1957) with George Reeves. A preview clip can be found here.
As was the case with the network’s 2013 Christmas special, this new special will include just one set of opening and closing credits.
The CBS press release includes the following note:
Included in the special is material from “L.A. at Last!” that has not been broadcast since the episode first aired on CBS 60 years ago.
Any ideas what this unseen material could be? A sponsor spot, perhaps, or a bumper featuring Lucy and Superman? Maybe a special promotional spot for Adventures of Superman?
I am surprised that this post has been up for a month and no one has speculated about the bonus material. Since there is less than 12 hours to go as I write this post, let me make an educated guess. In the 50’s, there was a war between TV and the movies, and the only way to secure a big name guest star was to plug their latest project, William Holden was definitely a big name in 1955,so I deduce that CBS had to plug a new release. Furthermore, Holden’s big movie that year was “Picnic”, so I believe a promo for it would be the bonus. I am so certain that if I could make a bet in Vegas, I would. Watch tonight to see if I’m right!!
It is the pich for his new movie; he. And a pitch for the movie country girl ;with grace kelly and bing crosby
Sorry Jeanie, but that footage was always there, In fact, not only was there was no new footage, but several scenes were cut by CBS in order to jam in more commercials, One amusing footnote: Holden once said one of the reasons he did “Bridge On the River Kwai” was that nobody in Ceylon would recognize him. As it turned out, Ceylon had just gotten TV and the most popular show was “I Love Lucy”. As a result, he still got autograph requests there.