Season TwoSeason 2 ofI Love Lucyincludes two of the most famous  half-hours in television history. "Job Switching," originally broadcast  mid-September of 1952, is the crazy, battle-of-the-sexes episode in  which husbands Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) and Fred Mertz (William  Frawley) trade roles with wives Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ethel (Vivian  Vance), culminating in the men making a shambles of domestic chores  while Lucy and Ethel take disastrous work at a chocolate factory. That's  right: This is the show where the ladies have a Chaplinesque experience  with a too-fast factory conveyor belt, forcing them to hide candies in  their mouths, in their hats, and down their blouses lest a tough  forewoman fire them for incompetence. A half-century later, the scene is  still so fresh and funny it would grace any current sitcom. "Lucy Goes  to the Hospital," which received an amazing 71.7 rating on January 19,  1953, is the historic episode featuring the birth of Little Ricky and a  load of wonderful slapstick. Other television series (The Dick Van Dyke Show) and movies (Nine Months) have tried to topLucy's  time-to-go-to-the-hospital shenanigans, but there's nothing like the  sight of Ricky and Fred falling all over themselves or Ricky showing up  at the maternity ward (direct from a voodoo-themed show at the  Tropicana) in witch doctor makeup.The other 31 episodes included inI Love Lucy: The Compete Second Seasonhave choice moments, too. "Lucy Becomes a Sculptress" finds the  ever-ambitious redhead falling for empty flattery at an art-supply store  and commencing an ill-advised career working in clay. Ricky agrees to  bless this new endeavor if an art critic says she has talent, but Lucy  tries to increase her chances by posing as a bust of herself--resulting  in mayhem, of course. The usual running themes inI Love Lucy--Lucy's  misguided desire to be a part of Ricky's musical career, and her  penchant for disguising herself to investigate something--are all overThe Complete Second Season.  "Ricky Loses His Voice" is a delightful piece in which Ricky's  laryngitis inspires Lucy, the Mertzes, and an aging chorus line to put  on a Tropicana spectacle, and "Ricky Has Labor Pains" finds Lucy and  Ethel going undercover as male reporters to find out what happens at a  stag party.  Lots to enjoy here, and the special features include  bloopers, information about the guest cast, and snippets from Ball's  radio show.--Tom KeoghSeason FiveI Love Lucy: The Complete Fifth Seasonfinds Lucy Ricardo  (Lucille Ball) making an international mess out of husband Ricky's  globe-trotting tour as an entertainer. Beginning with "Lucy Visits  Grauman's" and "Lucy and John Wayne," the impulsive redhead risks  Ricky's sanity in Hollywood by stealing a cement slab, from the famous  entrance to Grauman's Chinese Theater, that contains the imprint of John  Wayne's footprints and signature. In the tradition of superstars  playing themselves onI Love Lucy, an exasperated (and very  funny) Wayne gets into the act over and over and over again, making new  imprints on multiple slabs because Lucy keeps messing up the results.  After more shenanigans in Los Angeles (Lucy attends a ritzy party with a  dummy substituting for her unavailable husband) and a disastrous train  ride home, it's time to jeopardize Ricky's success during an interview  show that ends disastrously.Lucy's fifth season travel  theme continues when Ricky and his band are booked on a European tour  that does not include his wife or the Mertzes. Of course, that doesn't  stop the determined Lucy (or Ethel), who schemes her way into Ricky's  plans, only to have a number of snafus arise as she tries to leave the  country. In theI Love Lucytradition, entire episodes are  written around such simple matters as trying to get a passport, or  helping with Fred's fear of getting seasick while traveling. All this  show's stars really need is a ridiculous, open-ended situation to  exploit, and the comedy flows from there. "Bon Voyage" is a particularly  funny episode in which Lucy gets left behind by the European-bound ship  carrying Ricky and the others, and she has to find a way to get back  aboard. The hilarious "Lucy and the Queen" finds her angling in London  for a way to meet the Royal Family after Ricky is invited to say hello  at the Palladium. From there, Lucy creates chaos in Scotland (this  episode includes a memorable dream sequence in which Ricky appears as  Scotty MacTavish MacDougal MacCardo), Paris (where she and Ethel plot to  meet guest star and good sport Charles Boyer at an outdoor café), Rome  (the outstanding "Lucy's Italian Movie" finds her dispatched to a  vineyard, where she has to crush grapes--brilliantly--with her feet).  Lots of special features, including a behind-the-scenes peek and  bloopers.--Tom KeoghSeason SixThe sixth and final season ofI Love Lucyfinds new laughs in  some old formulas while also expanding the hugely popular show’s  horizons with a change of scene. Things get off to a familiar start when  Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) gets in the middle of husband Ricky’s  business--in this case, disguising herself as a hot dog salesman at  Yankee Stadium in order to get near Bob Hope. Hope, she believes, has  ignored Ricky’s offer to be the first act at his new nightclub. But, in  fact, Hope had already agreed; Ricky was just sitting on the information  to keep Lucy from getting typically ditzy in front of one of his  celebrity pals. Not surprisingly, mayhem follows when poor Hope finds  his hand slathered with condiments and his noggin bonked by a foul ball.  Other celebrity sightings include Orson Welles, who copes with Lucy’s  aspirations as a Shakespearean actress, and George Reeves, television’s  Superman, who shows up unexpectedly, in costume, at Little Ricky’s  birthday party. Meanwhile, Lucy--who didn’t want to disappoint the  tyke--stands in a makeshift Man of Steel outfit on a window ledge, in  the rain.A number of episodes concern Little Ricky (Keith  Thibodeaux) now that he’s old enough to be a functioning character on  the show. In "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums," the lad takes  after his musician father and starts playing percussion, leading to some  frayed nerves. A couple of episodes later, young Ricardo gets a bad  case of stage fright at school, and Lucy suggests Ricky let him play the  drums at the nightclub. (But then, of course, she has to figure out how  to talk her son into performing.) A big change comes toI Love Lucyin the season’s second half, when the Ricardos decide it’s time to  become homeowners and pull up stakes at their old Manhattan apartment.  Moving to a nice, new house in Connecticut, they’re soon joined by Fred  (William Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance), and the season’s storylines  take on a distinctly suburban flavor, with country clubs, barbecues, and  gardens figuring into the comedy. With those developments,I Love Lucycame to a close after making television history as a much-beloved  sitcom. Lots of special features, including multiple audio commentaries,  flubs, lost scenes, and five episodes ofMy Favorite Husband, Ball’s radio show.--Tom KeoghLucille Ball-Desi Arnaz ShowFrom Lucy-tormented Hollywood A-listers and bongo-propelled production  numbers to archival goodies such as long-lost footage, there is much to  love in this collection of all 13 episodes fromThe Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show(also known asThe Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). FollowingI Love Lucy'ssixth and final season, these monthly (give or take) specials reunited  America with Ricky and Lucy (and Keith Thibodeaux's adorable Little  Ricky, still living the country life in Connecticut. The expanded,  hour-long format allowed for celebrity guest stars and excursions to  far-flung locales, such as Japan and Mexico. Not matter where they go,  Lucy can always be counted on to act, in Desi's words, "a little crazy  in the head," which is how she winds up masquerading as Ernie Kovacs'  chauffeur in "Lucy Meets the Moustache" (an episode making its  home-video debut), dangling Milton Berle from a construction crane in  "Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos," or sparking a uranium uproar  in Las Vegas in "Lucy Hunts Uranium."A highlight of this set is the  first-ever home video release of the uncut version of "Lucy Takes a  Cruise to Havana," a flashback episode in which Lucy meets Ricky on a  "maiden voyage" to Cuba. She also meets future best friend Ethel (Vivian  Vance) and her new husband Fred (a toupeed William Frawley), and goes  overboard for her first celebrity sighting, Rudy Vallee. Because these  episodes do not play as often in syndication, they seem fresher than  their endlessly re-run counterparts. They are full of delights for  movie, TV, andLucybuffs, among them, Fred MacMurray getting  "Uranium" fever, Maurice Chevalier singing "Yankee Doodle Boy" in the  "Mexico" episode, prolific character actor Sid Melton as a bellboy in  the "Alaska" episode, and a va-voom Vance decked out as maid and a dance  hall girl, respectively, in the "The Celebrity Next Door" and "Milton  Berle" episodes. Among this set's prodigious bonus features include 1951  color footage that an audience member surreptitiously filmed,  rediscovered scenes that were cut from the original broadcasts, and a  filmed presentation to Westinghouse, which sponsored the series. If you  don't add this to your library, you have some 'splainin' to do.--Donald Liebenson