MORNING AFTER “MONEY”

What Went Right!  What Went Wrong!  What Was Left Out!

To combine the two episodes into one themed hour of entertainment, the opening title sequence of “Bonus Bucks” was replaced with a quick intro and the final credits were replaced by combined credits for both shows. 

On the whole the colorization gets better with each episode converted. “The Million Dollar Idea” seemed a bit more natural than “Bonus Bucks.” Working from photographs and written records, the colors selected were amazingly accurate.  The producers are trying to replicate the kind of color film that would have been found in the 1950s, not the vivid HD images we see today.  

The outfits worn by Lucy and Desi in the opening dinner table scene of “The Million Dollar Idea” matched perfectly with color publicity photos.  

The greens of their Franciscan Ivy dinnerware is spot-on as is Lucy’s Caliprint Ivy table cloth. Also, the apartment walls are a robin’s egg blue, but the Lucy-Desi Museum in Jamestown has rendered them in a light brown.  

One of the most genius moments of the colorization came when Ethel is looking at herself on the studio TV monitor (actually just a TV set) when doing the TV commercial for Aunt Martha’s Old Fashioned Salad Dressing. Naturally the image on the screen is in black and white – the original film!  

In “Bonus Bucks” colorization comes in handy when Lucy and Ricky are trying to find their laundry bag among all the others in the sorting room of the Speedy Laundry.  Ricky shouts out that theirs is BLUE. But in the original film, it looked dark gray. Here, the blue bag is instantly discernible among all the others, helping viewers (and Lucy) follow the plot while the action spins out of control. 

The first half hour of “Funny Money” earned CBS a 3.0 / 6 share, making it #2.  The second half hour dropped a tenth of a point, but moved up to #1 in that half hour. This bodes well for future themed colorized specials. 

“THE MILLION DOLLAR IDEA” (S3;E13) originally aired January 11, 1954

EDITS

• Original Syndication Title Sequence
• When Lucy is stalling for time by eating the little dessert cakes she eats only six cakes, while in the original film she ate 12!  
• The last line before the first commercial break when Lucy is on the phone to Caroline Appleby: “It’s your old friend Lucy!” is cut from the colorized version.

• At the start of the scene at the television studio, Dickie Davis originally mentioned that the sponsor Nelson Photo Finishing located at Leed and Hickox. Frank Nelson played Dickie Davis, Martin Leeds was a Desilu Executive, and Andrew Hickox was the Arnazes business manager. These inside references are not in the colorized version nor is the company’s clever slogan “Our Business is Developing.” 
• After coming back from commercial, in Lucy’s kitchen, Ethel is adding salt to the two pots.  In the original version she starts with spoonfuls 142 and finishes with 146. The colorized version opens with Ethel adding the final spoonful: #146. 
• When Lucy and Ethel are peeling onions, through their tears they dream about what they will buy with their first million. Ethel says she is going to go right out and buy herself a mink coat. Lucy says she wants a big house in the country with a swimming pool, tennis court, and horses. In the colorized version, Ethel’s mink and Lucy’s house are not mentioned and Lucy immediately says that she is going “right down and buy that bank and fire that teller.”
• In the final scene, Lucy is counting hundreds of jars of salad dressing stacked in her apartment. In the original film she goes from her bedroom, to the hallway, and into the living room. In the colorized version Lucy goes directly from the bedroom into the kitchen, where Ethel is affixing labels. This edit makes dramatic sense.  Ricky enters from the kitchen door and Lucy shows him the living room full of jars, which we the viewers have already seen. In the colorized version it is more of a surprise if the main room of the apartment / ‘warehouse’ is revealed to viewers at the same time as it is to Ricky: We share his reaction. 

“BONUS BUCKS” (S3;E28) originally aired March 8, 1954

EDITS

• Original Syndication Title Sequence
• In the original film, Lucy and Ethel check the serial numbers of FOUR dollar bills before Ricky and Fred enter.  In the colorized version they check only TWO. 
• When Ricky returns home from work that night, he enters stealthily through the front door, looking around the living room for Lucy’s purse to hide the Bonus Buck.  In the colorized version, the scene starts with him quietly entering the bedroom.  

• Finding Lucy’s purse on the dresser, he takes out a dozen items. Among the 12 assorted items in the tiny purse are: a compact, a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes, a lighter, a crumpled handkerchief, keys, a safety pin chain (my favorite), one of Little Ricky’s toys, and some emery boards. Once he has hidden the bill, he crams most of the items back in the purse.  When Lucy stirs in her bed, he ducks. In the colorized version Ricky only pulls out the emery boards before Lucy stirs.  The joke about the crazy items found in a woman’s handbag is lost. 
• Ricky then crawls out of the bedroom and goes to the living room door, where he makes a more vocal entrance. He encounters Lucy awake and groggy in the bedroom, coming from checking on the baby.  He tucks her into bed and the scene fades out.  In the colorized version the scene ends with Ricky crawling out of the bedroom.  
• As the scene opens at the Speedy Laundry, one of the uniformed delivery men arrives with laundry bags, presents his slip to the Checker, who stamps it, and the laundry man wheels his bundles into the laundry.  This establishes for the viewer what the Ricardos must do to sneak into the laundry in the next scene.  In the colorized version, the scene begins with the Ricardos rushing in and speaking to the Checker. 
• When Ricky breathlessly tries to explain to the Checker what happened (in Spanglish), the colorized version cuts a few lines from the middle of his rambling speech.