Last week marked the 55th anniversary of the day when the first episode of "I Love Lucy" was filmed -- and thank God, the show lives on and on. It has always made me so happy.

When I was in Rio last year during Carnival, two of my best friends and I would relax between parties, parades and afternoons on the beach by watching the DVD boxed set (season three) of our beloved "I Love Lucy." We know the lines by heart, laughed as hard as we ever did. We are absolute scholars on the show, just as legions of other gay men are for some reason.

Still, I'm not sure if "Lucy" lines like "I like buttered grass!" "Speeeeeeed it up a little!" "I smell cheese!" "Is it hot in here to you Joe?" "DRAT the luck!" "IIIIIIIIIIII gotta have it!" and "I'm from JAMESTOWN!" are cleverly incorporated into other people's conversations -- gay or straight -- but we never fail to crack ourselves up.

I think Lucille Desiree Ball is a comic genius, and her on-screen chemistry with the great Vivian Vance is second to none. My favorite episodes are not necessarily the iconic ones everyone thinks about like the chocolate factory, grape stomping or Vitametavegemin.

I absolutely love the episode when Lucy and Ethel lose their train tickets to Florida and have to catch a ride with a bizarre women played by Elsa Lanchester. Watch it again and look for these lines: "Hatchet!" "I like buttered grass!" "I'd like another HELPing!" "Y'all must be from the North" and a classic line reading of Lucy's when she looks at Ethel as they are changing a flat tire and says: "No kiddin."

The Hollywood episodes are gems, especially the fashion show (Ethel: "Ooooh Mr. Loper, Hello!") and the one where Lucy tries to pick a grapefruit from Richard Widmark's backyard. In that episode, my favorite part is early on in the tour bus when Lucy spars with the bus driver, and a rather large lady sits on her. When I was a kid and so starstruck, I always felt that I would have behaved much like Lucy when she was in Hollywood. I might not have stolen John Wayne's footprints from Grauman's, but I probably would have at least lit my nose on fire in front of William Holden.

I could go on and on and on, obviously. There are the episodes in Europe, of course, then the move to the country where Ethel becomes jealous of Lucy's new friend Betty Ramsey and is so deliciously snarky ("I have sufficient") during a lunch with Lucy and Betty.

I'd love to hear from some of the readers of this blog and have them share their favorite Lucy moment or episode. She's been such a wonderful part of our lives, even if most of us never met her.

My friend Frank Groff, a PR guru, was such a fan that as a kid, he called up Lucille Ball's later show ("Here's Lucy") with suggestions for plots and a few times just popped up at her house on Roxbury Drive (scary, I know, but funny) only to be turned away by her housekeeper. Finally, late in her life, Frank met Lucy at some Hollywood event and yelled out "Hi Lucy!" She looked over her shoulder and said in her by-then-gravely voice, "Hey kid." Frank loves telling that story, and so do I!

Anyway, in today's Daily News, I have a story about the ongoing business phenomenon "I Love Lucy" is on DVD and have a scoop for y'all: The 13 one-hour episodes of the show will be released in early 2007 with some terrific extras! Also, try your hand at the online Lucy quiz that I put together (with the help of a friend far, far away) and see what level of expertise you have. I'm sure Frank will ace it.