A Bonanza for ‘I Love Lucy’ Fans

Lovers of “I Love Lucy” will love this news: The Voyager Co. will release a collector’s edition of “I Love Lucy” on laser disc ($49.95) on Oct. 15, marking the 40th anniversary of the show’s television debut. The album also will mark the first time Voyager is producing a disc on a television show that parallels its ventures in film, with supplementary material, interviews and documents related to the show.

According to producer Paul Norman, this will be an interactive documentary, giving the viewer the choice of several audio channels to accompany the visuals. “It’s everything you wanted to know about Lucy and then some,” he said. “It’s interviews with writers, producers, supporting cast members plus stills, clips, and even commentary from a professor.”

Also part of the package will be uncut versions, complete with cigarette commercials--of two of the most popular of the 180 shows in the series, Lucy getting drunk during a TV commercial and cavorting in a candy factory. “Those prints were in horrible shape,” Norman said. “It took a lot of work to fix them up.”

Norman, who was assisted by a “Lucy” expert, author Bart Andrews, came up with the idea in 1987 but put the project on hold while securing the rights from CBS. “They weren’t interested at first,” he explained. “The laser industry was too small a few years ago--and so was this company--for CBS to take this project seriously. But Voyager is now well-respected and so is laser.”

Here’s something “Lucy” lovers won’t love: The work will not be available on VHS. “I know a lot of fans won’t get to see it because they don’t have laser,” Norman said. “But this wouldn’t work on video. For maximum effectiveness it needs the random-access capability and multitrack capability that’s only on laser.”