I Love Lucy - Problems with season 4? We have answers!

Last night we received an email from Gregg Oppenheimer, the producer of the I Love Lucy DVDs. He explained some of the issues with season 4, and what Paramount is doing to fix them. He did it in such a great way that we'll just paste his information below:

VIDEO ISSUES: A small number of people who bought the first pressing of the Season 4 Box Set reported video issues with "The Fashion Show" on Disc 4. Even though the vast majority of buyers haven't experienced any problems, Paramount decided to recompress that episode before the next pressing. If your Disc 4 does not play properly, you can get a free replacement disc from Paramount. (see "THE BOTTOM LINE" below).

DELETED FOOTAGE IN "FIRST STOP," "TENNESSEE BOUND," "L.A. AT LAST," AND "LUCY GETS IN PICTURES": All of the episodes on the Season 4 DVDs are the Network Broadcast versions -- not the much shorter syndication versions. In fact, the episodes were transferred directly from CBS's original camera negatives. But it seems that a few Season 4 episodes were edited by Desilu to shorten them for Network Rebroadcasts, mostly during I Love Lucy's sixth season. Sadly, these edits were made to the original camera negatives and the trims (and all unedited 35mm prints) were discarded decades ago. As soon as I learned of these deletions, I searched for and located the missing footage in my father's 16mm film prints. Unfortuately, the image quality of these old low-res 16mm prints is simply too poor (in terms of grain, contrast, focus, etc.) to integrate them into the middle of scenes in the beautifully-restored 35mm fine grain transfers that appear on the DVDs. Even with all dirt and scratches removed, there would still be just too much of a mismatch to be tolerable. Which left us with the next-best alternative: adding "Lost Scenes" as Bonus Material on Disc 5 (the last of the Season 4 DVDs). If you've already bought the Season 4 box set, you can get this new Disc 5 from Paramount as a free replacement for your current one.

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you or someone you know is thinking of buying I Love Lucy: The Complete Fourth Season, there's no need to wait. Go ahead and buy it, and after you've purchased it, if you find that you need a replacement disc, you can call the Paramount Consumer Line at 323-956-3010.