The Danny Thomas Show

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Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show
Genre Situation Comedy
Created by Melville Shavelson
Directed by Sheldon Leonard
William Asher
Danny Thomas
Starring Danny Thomas
Jean Hagen
Marjorie Lord
Sherry Jackson
Rusty Hamer
Angela Cartwright
Composer(s) Herbert W. Spencer
Earle Hagen (MSI)
Country of origin  United States
No. of seasons 11
No. of episodes 120 (MRFD)
231 (TDTS)
351 (total)
24 (MRFG)
Production
Executive producer(s) Louis F. Edelman
Producer(s) Sheldon Leonard
Charles Stewart
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s) Marterto Enterprises (1953-1962)
T&L Productions (1962-1964)
Broadcast
Original channel ABC (1953-1957)
CBS (1957-1964)
Original run September 29, 1953 – September 14, 1964
Chronology
Followed by Make Room for Granddaddy

The Danny Thomas Show (known as Make Room for Daddy during the first three seasons) is a sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS. A revival series known as Make Room for Granddaddy aired on ABC from 1970-1971.

In March 1953, Danny Thomas first signed the contract for the show with ABC and chose Desilu Studios to film it using its three-camera method.[1] Two proposed titles during pre-production were The Children's Hour[2] and Here Comes Daddy.[1]

Contents

[edit] Series

Danny Thomas played Danny Williams, a successful comedian and nightclub entertainer. Jean Hagen was his wife Margaret, Sherry Jackson their daughter Terry, and Rusty Hamer their son Rusty. Louise Beavers played the maid Louise. In 1955, Beavers left and was replaced in the role by Amanda Randolph.

In 1956, Jean Hagen quit the show, and the producers had her character written out as having died, making the character the first to be "killed off" in a sitcom. The following season, Thomas's character dated several women, with the help of his children. At the end of the season, he met widowed Kathy O'Hara, played by Marjorie Lord, who had a young daughter, Linda, played by Angela Cartwright. No wedding was ever shown, but when the show returned in 1957 with the new title, Danny and Kathy were married, and Linda was adopted by Danny, and the show's ratings dramatically increased.[3]

Hans Conried had frequent guest appearances as Danny's eccentric Lebanese "Uncle Tonoose". (In real life, Thomas was Lebanese, Conried was not.) Other frequent guests included Bill Dana as "Jose Jimenez", Annette Funicello, Pat Harrington, Jr. (as "Pat Hannigan"), Sheldon Leonard, the show's producer [as Danny's agent, "Phil Brokaw"], and Thomas protegee Italian teenaged singer Piccola Pupa.

The supporting cast included Sid Melton as Charlie Halper, the proprietor of the Copa Club where Danny performed; and Pat Carroll as his wife Bunny Halper.

In 1958, the character of Terry was written out (Danny felt Sherry Jackson had "outgrown" her part). Her absence was explained away as the character being away at school. The character returned the following year and recast with actress Penny Parker. She, too, was written out when the character married and left the show.

The theme music was a jazzy instrumental version of the traditional Irish song, "Danny Boy".

[edit] Ratings

  • 1957-1958: #2[4]
  • 1958-1959: #5[5]
  • 1959-1960: #4[6]
  • 1960-1961: #12[7]
  • 1961-1962: #8[8]
  • 1962-1963: #8[9]
  • 1963-1964: #9[10]

[edit] Spin-off and crossovers

The series was responsible for the creation of another long-running sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show. In the seventh season, Danny Thomas is arrested by Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and detained in the small town of Mayberry in an episode entitled "Danny Meets Andy Griffith". The episode aired in February of 1960 and The Andy Griffith Show aired later that year.[11]

The series also crossed over to several other series including The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour[12] and The Joey Bishop Show.[13]

[edit] Syndication packaging

[edit] The Jean Hagen episodes

Seasons 1-3 are known as the "Jean Hagen episodes". These episodes have not been offered for syndication since 1964, but they still are shown on rare occasions (see Syndication section below).

[edit] The Marjorie Lord episodes

Seasons 5-11 are known as the Marjorie Lord Episodes. Season Four is often dubbed the "widowed episodes", but they are also sold in syndication with the Marjorie Lord episodes. These are the most commonly run episodes. The "widowed episodes" are linked with the "Jean Hagen episodes". Also, the name change (The Danny Thomas Show) came right after Jean Hagen left the show in 1956.

[edit] Sequel

The show ended in 1964, but Danny Thomas, Marjorie Lord, Angela Cartwright, Rusty Hamer, Sherry Jackson and Hans Conried returned in two hour-long "reunion" specials on NBC- "The Danny Thomas TV Family Reunion" in 1965, and "Make More Room For Daddy", which aired as an episode of The Danny Thomas Hour in November 1967. Eventually, ABC expressed enough interest to bring them back on a weekly basis in 1970, in Make Room for Granddaddy. In the series, the character of Terry left her son, 6-year-old Michael (played by Michael Hughes) in the care of his grandparents while she and her soldier husband were stationed overseas. New characters were played by Stanley Myron Handelman and former football player Roosevelt Grier. The show only lasted a single season, producing 24 episodes.

[edit] Syndication

Reruns were stripped[citation needed], Monday through Friday, on NBC from 1960-1965. Subsequently, most of the Marjorie Lord episodes were then syndicated and played on local stations.

From February 1, 1987 to 1991, the show's 4th through 9th seasons were shown on Nick at Nite. TV Land has also showed several of the Marjorie Lord episodes. Only about 195 episodes are shown in reruns today. The first three seasons have not been seen on television since the 1960s. The last two seasons are owned by Marjorie Lord and are not shown in reruns[citation needed]. Although starting with Season Four the show was known as The Danny Thomas Show, all the syndicated episodes are shown in reruns under the title Make Room For Daddy. A few low budget TV stations and privately run cable stations have also shown the Jean Hagen episodes.

[edit] DVD releases

On September 28, 2004, Questar released the complete fifth season on Region 1 DVD. The set includes two special episodes: the fourth season finale, "Danny's Proposal", and the pilot for The Andy Griffith Show.[14]

The complete sixth season on DVD is scheduled for release on January 22. 2008.[15]

Several of the early episodes with Jean Hagen can be purchased on discount DVDs.[16][17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The I Love Lucy Book by Bart Andrews (revised and updated Broadway Books trade paperback edition, 2001), ISBN 0-385-19033-6, p. 116
  2. ^ Weiner, Ed; Editors of TV Guide (1992). The TV Guide TV Book: 40 Years of the All-Time Greatest Television Facts, Fads, Hits, and History. New York: Harper Collins. p. 173. ISBN 0-06-096914-8. 
  3. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1957-1958
  4. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1957
  5. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1958-1959
  6. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1959-1960
  7. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1960-1961
  8. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1961-1962
  9. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1962-1963
  10. ^ ClassicTVHits.com TV Ratings: 1963-1964
  11. ^ The Danny Thomas Show, "Danny Meets Andy Griffith"
  12. ^ The Danny Thomas Show/Make Room For Daddy and I Love Lucy/The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
  13. ^ The Joey Bishop Show,"This Is Your Life"
  14. ^ DVD details, Make Room for Daddy season five
  15. ^ DVD details, Make Room for Daddy season six
  16. ^ Make Room for Daddy, Volume 1
  17. ^ Make Room for Daddy, Volume 2

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Danny_Thomas_Show"