Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m still celebrating the release of my first book, Great American Sitcoms of the 1950s, which you can order here (or on Amazon here), with another treat offered to those lucky readers who have already purchased it.

It’s another Encore Presentation of something I’ve presented before — a chance to see the first aired episode of I Love Lucy, “The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub,” as it would have been seen upon its debut, October 15, 1951. Oh, I don’t just mean with the original openings, closings, and commercials intact, but also on a period-appropriate set — specifically, my beautifully restored Admiral television (that’s restored, not retrofitted — meaning, it’s using the internal mechanism, with picture and sound tubes!), made out of Bakelite and released as model 20×122 in September 1949, when less than ten percent of American households had a TV.

Admiral made approximately 400,000 TV sets in 1949, of which I estimate — conservatively — this model, with its compact 10-inch screen, constituted 50,000. To break down some more numbers, there were approximately 13 million households with TV sets when Lucy premiered in mid-October 1951, and with this initial broadcast scoring a 38.7 rating, that means about five million homes were watching. So, with approximately 50,000 of those 13 million homes owning this particular model, if 38.7% of them were watching, then about 19,400 households saw this episode of I Love Lucy on October 15, 1951 via their own 20×122 Admiral.

Now, YOU can count yourself among them. For those who’ve bought the book from this website, the password to the video below is the same as the password for the Dropbox link with all those rare episodes. For those who’ve bought elsewhere (like on Amazon) send me a picture of yourself holding the book (or a picture of the purchased e-book) at this address — jacksonupperco.wordpress@gmail.com — and I will send you the password.

Come back next week for lots more 1950s sitcom fun!