'I Love Lucy': CBS Colorizes Classic Vitameatavegamin Ep: Watch a Preview
Skip the eggnog… the best thing you can drink this holiday season is a big mug o’ Vitameatavegamin, in full color. CBS is marking Christmas Eve Eve (Dec. 23 at 8 p.m. to be exact) with the I Love Lucy Christmas Special, an hour-long program that combines two Lucy classics — “The Christmas Episode” and “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” — into one supersized, colorized bit of event viewing.
The seamlessly-blended Lucy special includes two not “un-poop-ular” eps: the 1956 Christmas show that features flashbacks to when Lucy tells Ricky she’s having a baby, and, in a clip teased above, 1952’s “TV Commercial,” a.k.a. the one where Lucy gets blotto while pitching Vitameatavegamin, the “health” tonic that’s loaded with alcohol. CBS has colorized classic I Love Lucy episodes before — and faced criticism for doing so, as many fans felt conflicted about seeing Lucy in vibrant color. (We’ll admit we feel a little uncomfortable about Lucy’s newly-hued trademark ‘do.)
Related: ‘I Love Lucy’ Superfan Wilmer Valderrama Picks His 5 Favorite Episodes
The network follows Lucy with another classic TV comedy, The Andy Griffith Show Christmas Special. The hour-long Christmas Day program (8 p.m.), which also gets the colorized treatment, includes a melding of 1960’s “The Christmas Story,” in which Andy’s friends and family bring the celebration to the sheriff’s station when he and Barney have to work on Christmas, and 1961’s “The Pickle Story,” previewed in the clip above, in which Andy and Barney pull a well-intentioned switcheroo to spare Aunt Bea’s feelings about her DIY fail on a jar of pickles.
It’s all right, Aunt Bea … you remain one of the best darn pie makers in TV land.
The I Love Lucy Christmas Special airs Dec. 23 at 8 p.m. on CBS
The Andy Griffith Show Christmas Special airs Dec. 25 at 8 p.m. on CBS
