Plot Synopsis

Since December 2013, CBS has annually broadcast the I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, a one-hour special featuring colorized classic episodes of this iconic series, including the seldom-seen "Christmas Episode" and one newly colorized episode each year. "Lucy's Italian Movie" (aka "Grape Stomping") was the first companion episode, presented for the first time with vintage-look color on Friday, December 20, 2013 from 8-9pm ET/PT. The following Christmas, CBS presented the newly colorized "Job Switching" (aka "Chocolate Factory") with an encore of the colorized "Christmas Episode" on Sunday, December 7, 2014 at 8pm. One year later -- on Wednesday, December 23, 2015 from 8-9pm -- CBS aired the colorized "Christmas Episode" for the third consecutive year with a new companion show: the newly colorized "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" (aka "Vitameatavegamin"). For the fourth year, CBS premiered a colorized version of "Lucy Gets in Pictures" on Friday, December 2, 2016 from 8-9pm. For Christmas 2017, CBS premiered "The Christmas Episode" and the newly colorized "The Fashion Show." On Friday, December 14, 2018 from 8-9pm ET/PT, CBS premiered its annual I LOVE LUCY Christmas special, featuring two back-to-back colorized episodes of the classic series: "The Christmas Episode" and the newly colorized "Pioneer Women."

Because of the success of these Christmas specials, CBS debuted a new one-hour special featuring two colorized back-to-back classic episodes -- "L.A. at Last!" and "Lucy and Superman" -- on Sunday, May 17, 2015 from 8-9pm on CBS. The two episodes -- like those presented in previous years during Christmas -- were newly colorized with a vintage look, a nod to the 1950s period in which they were filmed. Included in the special was material from "L.A. at Last!" that had not been broadcast since the episode first aired on CBS 60 years earlier. Then in 2016, CBS premiered a new one-hour special featuring two colorized back-to-back classic episodes: "Lucy Visits Grauman's" and "Lucy and John Wayne" on Friday, May 20, 2016 from 8-9pm. One year later -- on Friday, May 19, 2017 from 9-10pm ET/PT -- CBS premiered two newly colorized episodes of "The Dancing Star" with Van Johnson and "Harpo Marx" with comedian Harpo Marx.
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The I LOVE LUCY Christmas Special 2019 premiered Friday, December 20, 2019 from 8-9pm ET/PT on CBS. This new one-hour special features two back-to-back colorized episodes of the classic series: "The Christmas Episode" and the newly colorized "Paris at Last." The main titles and end credits are seamlessly combined into one set at the beginning and end of the hour, with no interruption between the episodes.

"The Christmas Episode" finds the Ricardos and Mertzes decorating Lucy and Ricky's Christmas tree and reminiscing about how their lives have changed since the arrival of the Ricardos' son, Little Ricky. Flashbacks recall the night Lucy told Ricky she was pregnant, the time Lucy showed up unexpectedly as part of a barbershop quartet and the day Ricky and the Mertzes rehearsed taking Lucy to the maternity ward. "The Christmas Episode" was first broadcast on CBS on Christmas Eve, 1956. The episode was not included in the series' long history of rebroadcasts, first on CBS Daytime and later in syndication. Long thought to be lost, the program was rediscovered by CBS in 1989.

In "Paris at Last," the Ricardos and Mertzes arrive in the French capital, where Lucy encounters a sidewalk artist who sells multiple copies of the same "original" oil painting, and a con man who offers a better exchange rate for her American dollars than the one offered in the banks. Later, her attempt to have a quiet lunch in an outdoor cafe finds her not only unwittingly ordering a plate of snails, but paying the check with counterfeit French francs. Next stop: the Bastille? "Paris at Last" was originally broadcast on Feb. 27, 1956, and became an immediate viewer favorite.

I LOVE LUCY Christmas specials have aired on the network the past six years, each combining the holiday-themed episode with a different comedy classic. Beginning in 2015, "The Christmas Episode" has been shown colorized in its entirety, with fully colorized flashback scenes that had previously been presented in black and white