Here's how it all began-the classic episodes that started America's long-running love affair with everyone's favorite madcap redhead, Lucille Ball. Plus the rarely seen pilot episode that sold the I Love Lucy series. By the end of its initial season, I Love Lucy was TV's first bona fide smash-hit-the very first program seen in more than 10 million homes.

Cuban-born bandleader Ricky Ricardo and his wife, Lucy, live in a Brownstone apartment building on East 68th Street in New York City. The beautiful, but daffy Lucy has the nasty habit of getting into jams, scrapes, and predicaments of all kinds. Their best friends and landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz, frequently find themselves in the middle of Lucy's outlandish escapades. Now in the third season of Lucy's hilarious adventures; the Ricardos adjust...

When the Ricardos and Mertzs return from Hollywood, Ricky's band gets booked on an European tour and Fred goes along as the band's manager. Determined not to be left behind, Lucy and Ethel raise the money they need to travel with a charity scam. Europe isn't ready for the new American invasion. Includes all 26 episodes.

Following its wildly successful six-season run, "I love Lucy" expanded to a one-hour format as "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz show" (later released as "The Lucy-Desi comedy hour"). These hilarious specials debuted with the 75-minute-long "Lucy takes a cruise to Havana" in which Lucy McGillicuddy--vacationing with her best friend Susie MacNamara--meets Ricky Ricardo for the first time. In a subsequent show, Lucy attempts to get chummy with new neighbor...

The pilot & first season that introduced America to the redheaded housewife with show business aspirations, her long-suffering bandleader husband, and their friends the Mertzes (the prototypical sitcom wacky neighbors). Produced by Ball & Arnaz' company Desilu, the duo (along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer) decided to shoot the show in Hollywood, on 35 mm film in front of a live studio audience, with three cameras to capture the action.