Retro : Lucy Abroad : NEW VIDEO PACKS UP ALL 17 EPISODES OF THE EUROPEAN VACATION

Europe has never been the same since the madcap Ricardos and the Mertzes spent their vacation on the Continent stirring up laughs and mischief during the 1955-56 season of “I Love Lucy.”

And fans of the legendary CBS sitcom, which starred Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, William Frawley and Vivian Vance, can relive the funniest European vacation to ever hit the small screen on CBS Video’s new three-volume set, Bon Voyage: I Love Lucy Adventures in Europe. Priced at $70, the videos contain the complete 17-episode European story arc. The shows, which total six-and-a-half hours, are edited together without opening titles and end credits. The film-to-tape transfers were made from the original 35mm prints.

Inserted into each video is an “I Love Lucy Passport to Fun,” a book of puzzles relating to Lucy’s European trip. Resembling an American passport, it includes crossword puzzles, word searches and mazes. Fans who mail in a correctly completed puzzle by year’s end have a chance to win a trip to Europe and follow the Redhead and Co.’s itinerary--London, Paris, Scotland, Rome and Monte Carlo.

The European story line set sail on “I Love Lucy” on Dec. 12, 1955, with “Ricky’s European Booking.” In this episode, Ricky and his band are hired to perform in Europe. Lucy naturally assumes she’ll accompany him on the voyage. But Ricky tells Lucy that, because of expenses, she can only come along if she can raise the money for her passage. After Ricky hires Fred to be the band manager, Lucy and Ethel dream up a scheme to accompany them.

The episodes on the videos feature some of the best-loved “Lucy” stories, including “Lucy Meets the Queen,” in which Lucy goes to great lengths to be presented to Queen Elizabeth while in London. The fantasy “Lucy Goes to Scotland” finds Lucy dreaming of her MacGillicuddy clan’s village of Kildoonan. In her dream, she arrives at the town to meet her relatives only to discover she’s come just in time to be fed to a two-headed dragon played by Fred and Ethel.

“I Love Lucy” always attracted major Hollywood guest stars over the year, including William Holden, Cornel Wilde, John Wayne and Harpo Marx. While abroad, the famous romantic French actor Charles Boyer appears as himself on the delightful “Lucy Meets Charles Boyer.”

The best of the 17 episodes is “Lucy’s Italian Movie,” which originally aired April 16, 1956. The hilarious entry finds Lucy spotted by a famous Italian director on the train who asks her to be in his new film, “Bitter Grapes.” Because Lucy thinks the film is about grapes, she decides to immerse herself in the role and ends up quite literally immersed in grapes.

The European episodes also are airing for the next eight days on Nick at Nite. Sunday: “Lucy Meets Charles Boyer.” Monday: “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown.” Tuesday: “Lucy in the Swiss Alps.” Wednesday: “Lucy Gets Homesick.” Thursday: “Lucy’s Italian Movie.” Friday: “Bicycle Trip.” Oct. 23: “Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo.” Oct 24: “Home From Europe.”

“I Love Lucy” airs Sundays-Fridays at 9 p.m. on Nickelodeon and Sundays at 5-6 p.m., weekdays at 9-10 a.m. and Saturdays at 5-7 p.m. on KTTV.