The opening sequences on the originally-aired I Love Lucy shows were cartoons which promoted different products each week. The animated Lucy and Desi would help sleepy people wake up with Sanka Coffee or dance around with cakes made from Fluffo shortening. The concept of these opening cartoons was something that Lucy and Desi would take with them to The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour during the later part of their joint TV career.

Today, the opening clip for the show is the satin heart around a cursive “I Love Lucy” script with that familiar music that elicits an almost Pavlovian response for lovers of comedy. Since so many of the animated openers were advertising Phillip Morris cigarettes, they had to be completely omitted from syndicated broadcasts once cigarette ads were removed from broadcast television in 1971. And that means that many I Love Lucy fans today have never seen these cute little cartoons since all of them were removed for reruns.

Watch clip below to see one of these I Love Lucy opening cartoons for Phillip Morris as seen on a period-correct TV.
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