After the film was shelved, it was pretty much forgotten about and had been considered lost. But in 1996, editor Dann Cahn began searching for it. In 2001, he found it in a mislabeled film can in a vault. Clips of it can be briefly seen in I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special (2001)
The only public theatrical screening of the film was a showing in Bakersfield, California. The screening was a tremendous success and Desilu Productions prepared to release the film nationwide. But MGM Studios wanted to promote The Long, Long Trailer (1954) (which Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had already signed to do) as Lucy and Desi's return to feature films. MGM demanded that I Love Lucy (1953) be shelved.
This film consisted of three episodes edited together: "The Benefit" (ep. #1.13), "Breaking the Lease" (ep. #1.18) and "The Ballet" (ep. #1.19). New scenes were filmed to help connect the three episodes into one cohesive whole. Also, new wraparound segments were filmed. The opening segment shows the studio audience filing in for the filming. Desi Arnaz welcomes the audience and introduces the cast as he typically did before every filming. These segments were shot before the filming of the episode "The Handcuffs". In the closing segment, Arnaz thanks the audience and the cast take their final bows.
The film was finally released to the public in October 2007 as part of a DVD containing all the episodes of both I Love Lucy (1951) and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957).