I strongly suspect that if you examined the home video collections of my faculty colleagues at Carthage, you would find a plethora of PBS documentaries,  foreign language art house films, a few operas, ballets, or Shakespeare plays, and – for those evenings when they want to really let their hair down –  a BBC comedy or two.  .  . and of course some professors probably don’t have any videos at all.

Then there’s Assistant Professor Gregory Berg. . . who owns such examples of High Culture as Star Trek: The Animated Series,  five 4-disk sets of Looney Tunes Cartoons,  four seasons of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and the pilot episode of The Waltons.   But the most recent addition to my video shelf is something I have been waiting for a long long long time. . .  Season One of “The Lucy Show.”

Just so there’s no confusion,  I’m not talking about the most famous series-  the one with Lucy and Desi and Ethel and Fred. . .  but rather her next series,  which she began not long after her divorce from Desi was finalized.  This is the Lucy show I grew up watching – the one where Lucy and Viv try to install a new shower – or change the TV antenna on the roof – or try to organize a volunteer fire department.  This is not a particularly clever comedy, nor highbrow in any way-  (this is not a comedy by Moliere) but its funniest moments make me split a gut from laughing.   And only now do I realize that this show was a bit ahead of its time in depicting the struggles of two single mothers. . . one of them a widow and the other a divorcee.   I also love this particular series because it showcased the marvelous chemistry that existed between Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance – who were the best thing about “I Love Lucy.”  When you watched them, you felt like you were watching two friends having an adventure (or more likely a misadventure) than watching two actresses earn a paycheck.

There have been a smattering of episodes from this series available in various collections over the years- but it’s always been the same few episodes (and most of them chosen not because they’re exceptionally funny episodes but rather because of a famous guest star) and with crummy technical quality.  (Excuse the rough language.)  But now, at long last,  the entire first season has been released in beautifully remastered prints.   And for a long time fan of the show like me,  this is akin to opening up an unmarked package and finding the Hope Diamond inside.  I bought this the instant I saw it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble (and very nearly let out a war whoop as I grabbed it, because I had no idea that this had become available) – and bought a second copy to give to my brother Steve to enjoy during his continued recuperation.

For as thrilled as I was to get this DVD (it’s actually a 4-disk set)  almost a month ago-  I only watched it for the first time tonight.  The reason is that I decided to save it for when I put in my last LONG days to reconstruct my office at Carthage, figuring that the antics of Lucy Carmicheal and Vivian Bagley would keep me cheerful and sane.  But unfortunately (and not all that surprisingly) the DVD’s  got buried in the back seat of my car, not to be unearthed until after the school year had begun!   🙁    So tonight was when I got to watch some of it for the first time. . .

. . . and it was only with tonight’s viewing that I realized that one of the reasons I love revisiting this program is because my mom loved this show – and it’s one of the first shows I can remember us enjoying together.   The classic episode that really brings her to mind is the one where Lucy and Viv climb up on the roof of their house to adjust their TV antenna.  I can remember sitting in front of our television set in Decorah and both of us howling – and that’s one of those moments in life you never forget because it’s as though two generations draw closer together. . . when you feel like you and your mom are friends instead of parent and child.

So I guess I’m not going to be embarrassed about loving The Lucy Show. . . not so long as it helps me remember my mom in an especially vivid way.

pictured above:  a moment from the episode in which Lucy and Viv help organized Danfield’s volunteer fire dept.  Despite numerous rehearsals,  they become frantic, wild- eyed maniacs the moment the fire siren goes off, and hilarity ensues.