''The Danny Thomas Show'' (titled ''Make Room for Daddy'' for its first three seasons) is an American
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
that ran from 1953 to 1957 on
ABC and from 1957 to 1964 on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
. Starring
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American actor, singer, nightclub comedian, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in one of the most successful and long-running sitc ...
as a successful night club entertainer, the show focused on his relationship with his family, yet went through a number of significant changes in cast and characters during the course of its run. Episodes regularly featured music by Thomas, guest stars and occasionally other cast members as part of the plot.
In March 1953, Thomas first signed the contract for the show with ABC and chose
Desilu Studios
The Culver Studios is a movie studio in Culver City, California. Originally created by silent movie pioneer Thomas H. Ince, classics from Hollywood's Golden Age were filmed there. It is currently owned by Hackman Capital Partners, which completel ...
to film it using its
three-camera method.
[''The I Love Lucy Book'' by Bart Andrews (revised and updated Broadway Books trade paperback edition, 2001), , p. 116] Two proposed titles during pre-production were ''The Children's Hour'' and ''Here Comes Daddy''.
Synopsis
Thomas played the role of Danny Williams, a successful comedian and nightclub entertainer at the Copa Club, based on the iconic New York City nightclub the
Copacabana. In the show's first iteration as ''Make Room for Daddy'',
Jean Hagen
Jean Hagen (born Jean Shirley Verhagen; August 3, 1923 – August 29, 1977) was an American actress best known for her role as Lina Lamont in ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting ...
played Thomas' serious and loving wife Margaret. Their daughter Terry was played by Sherry Jackson and their son Rusty by Rusty Hamer. The show's premise involved Danny rarely having time to spend with his family and Margaret having to deal with the children virtually on her own. She often felt neglected by Danny, and on several occasions felt like leaving him. Margaret was a society woman and strict with the children, but loved her family.
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an American film and television actress. From the 1920s until 1960, she appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows. She was most often cast in the roles of a maid, servant ...
made several appearances during this era as the Williams' maid, Louise Evans, and often was at odds with Danny and sided with Margaret in most of the couple's arguments.
Nana Bryant often appeared as Margaret's kind mother, of whom Danny and the children were fond, but Margaret, who had been raised by her aunt and uncle because of her mother often being away on stage tours, was not as warm to her mother. (Bryant died in late 1955, and rather than the character being recast, she simply disappeared. When Louise Beavers became ill in 1955,
Amanda Randolph assumed the role of Louise.)
Cast
*
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American actor, singer, nightclub comedian, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in one of the most successful and long-running sitc ...
as Danny Williams
*
Jean Hagen
Jean Hagen (born Jean Shirley Verhagen; August 3, 1923 – August 29, 1977) was an American actress best known for her role as Lina Lamont in ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting ...
as Margaret Williams (1953–1956)
*
Marjorie Lord as Kathy "Clancey" O'Hara Williams (1957–1964)
*
Rusty Hamer
Russell Craig "Rusty" Hamer (February 15, 1947 – January 18, 1990) was an American stage, film and television actor. He is best known for portraying Rusty Williams, the wisecracking son of entertainer Danny Williams ( Danny Thomas), on the ...
as Rusty Williams
*
Angela Cartwright as Linda Williams (1957–1964)
*
Sherry Jackson
Sherry D. Jackson (born February 15, 1942) is an American retired actress and former child star.
Early life
Jackson was born in Wendell, Idaho, to Maurita (or Maurite) Kathleen Gilbert and Curtis Loys Jackson, Sr. on February 15, 1942, accordin ...
as Terry Williams (1953–1958)
* Penney Parker as Terry Williams (1959–1960)
*
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an American film and television actress. From the 1920s until 1960, she appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows. She was most often cast in the roles of a maid, servant ...
as Louise (1953–1955)
*
Amanda Randolph as Louise (1955–1964)
Supporting
The supporting cast included:
*
Sid Melton as Charlie Halper
*
Pat Carroll as Bunny Halper (1961–1964)
*
Sheldon Leonard as Phil Brokaw (1957–1961)
*
Ben Lessy as Benny (1953–1959)
*
Mary Wickes as Liz O'Neal (1955–1957)
*
Pat Harrington Jr. as Pat Hannigan (1959–1960)
*
Jesse White as Jesse Leeds (1953–1957)
Notable guest stars
Hans Conried
Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's ''Peter Pan'' (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's '' Dud ...
had nineteen guest appearances as Danny's eccentric
Lebanese "Uncle Tonoose". (In real life, Thomas was Lebanese, Conried was not.) Other frequent guests included
Bill Dana
William Szathmary (October 5, 1924 June 15, 2017), known as Bill Dana, was an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He often appeared on television shows such as ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', frequently in the guise of a heavily accented Boli ...
as
José Jiménez,
Annette Funicello as an Italian exchange student named Gina Manelli, and Thomas' protégée
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
teenaged singer Piccola Pupa. Other notable guest stars included band leader and musician
Harry James, who appeared in the episode "The Trumpet Player", child pianist
Ginny Tiu playing Li Chow in "The Chinese Doll" and
Jimmy Durante, who appeared as himself in the episode "Danny and Durante".
Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom '' I Love Lucy'', in which he c ...
appeared in one episode together as their characters from ''
I Love Lucy'', and appearing as themselves in various episodes were
Bob Hope,
Jack Benny,
Milton Berle,
Max Baer,
Sammy Davis Jr.
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director.
At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...
,
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...
, and
Dean Martin.
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...
made his TV debut in 1957 as Danny's singing cousin Stephen from Toledo, and
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and "(You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...
played a young up-and-coming singer, as did
Bobby Rydell.
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor (, ; born Sári Gábor ; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were actresses Eva and Magda Gabor.
Gabor competed in the 1933 Miss Hungary pageant, where she ...
played a nightclub performer.
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for h ...
portrayed a singer named Kentucky Cal.
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Performing rockabilly, pop and country music, she had 47 US chart hits during the 1960s and is ranked fourth in that decade, surpassed onl ...
plays Danny's maid, whom he hires as a singer.
Episodes
Background and production
For its first four years, ''Make Room For Daddy'' on ABC (retitled ''The Danny Thomas Show'' ahead of its fourth season) garnered decent ratings, but failed to make the list of the top 30 programs. Shortly after the third season finished filming, Jean Hagen left the show over dissatisfaction with her role and frequent clashes with Danny Thomas. Thomas was upset with her for leaving, and felt the show would not last without her. However, he decided to push on. At the start of the fourth season, both Thomas and producer
Sheldon Leonard were faced with a serious dilemma—how to explain Hagen's absence. To have "Danny" and "Margaret" divorce in that era would have been unacceptable to television audiences, so it was explained that Margaret had died suddenly off-screen. It was a risky move because until this time, no character on a TV situation comedy had died.
Danny was now a widower juggling a performing career while raising two children on his own. With the absence of Jean Hagen, character actress-comedienne
Mary Wickes (who had worked with Thomas and singer-actress
Doris Day in the 1952
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
musical film ''
I'll See You in My Dreams'') was cast in the recurring role of Liz O'Neill, Danny Williams's no-nonsense press agent. Wickes remained with the show until 1958. During the show's fourth season, it was Liz, along with Louise and Danny's friends, who often looked after the children while he was touring. He decided to move them to a boarding school, but later relented and the family moved into a new apartment. Also in that year, Danny dated a few other women and nearly got engaged to a widowed singer until he found out she did not like children. By season's end, the ratings had suffered and it was decided that a wife and mother was needed to complete the family unit.
In a four-part story arc that began airing in April 1957, son Rusty fell ill with the
measles and Danny hired Kathy O'Hara (
Marjorie Lord), a young Irish nurse, to look after him. Kathy was a widow with a little girl (played by Lelani Sorenson). Danny and Kathy became fast friends and, not surprisingly, Danny quickly fell in love with her, as did the kids. In the season finale, the two became engaged. In a curious twist, ABC at this point canceled the series, which proved to be fortunate. In the spring of 1957, ''
I Love Lucy'', which had reigned as the top-rated show for almost all of its six-year run on CBS, was ending production. When CBS heard that ABC was cancelling the series, CBS picked it up as part of its 1957-58 schedule.
''The Danny Thomas Show'' made its CBS debut on Monday, October 7, 1957, at 9:00 inheriting the time slot vacated by ''I Love Lucy''. The fifth-season premiere episode, "Lose Me In Las Vegas", had Danny and Kathy already married and on their honeymoon. The Williams family moved into a larger brand-new apartment and, with the change of network, the producers also changed Kathy's daughter. Lelani Sorenson was dropped from the cast and replaced by
Angela Cartwright as Linda. Linda then was adopted by Danny, and the show's ratings dramatically increased. At the end of its fifth season, ''The Danny Thomas Show'' posted its highest rating, ranking at No. 2. During this season, Amanda Randolph was sick and rarely appeared as Louise, who was said to be recovering from the flu, with Kathy doing most of the housework.
In the early part of the sixth season, Sherry Jackson left the show and the character of Terry was said to have gone to a girls school in Paris. Jackson commented on her close friendship with Jean Hagen and why she left the series, saying, "The major perk was Jean Hagen. I adored her. We had a great time. She and I were best buddies; she was my only friend from the ''Make Room for Daddy'' cast. What made me specifically want to leave the show? I had a five-year contract, Jean had a three-year contract. Jean was thoroughly fed up with the series and made it clear that she didn't want to come back. When she left, I was devastated. I didn't want to continue, either. I wanted to break my contract. They wouldn't let me leave, but gave me less to do; that's why I'm in fewer shows from ages 14–16."
In Season 7, the character of Terry was brought back, but recast with Penney Parker. Terry was featured in a seven-episode story arc that had her engaged and eventually married to Pat Hannigan (
Pat Harrington, Jr.), a nightclub friend of Danny's. After the wedding, the Hannigans moved to California and Terry was rarely mentioned, never to be seen on the show again.
In the last two seasons, with Thomas and Lord tired of their roles, Danny and Kathy both regularly traveled, and for much of the tenth season they toured Europe (with a handful of episodes featuring location footage). Rusty and Linda were looked after by Danny's manager, Charlie Halper (
Sid Melton) and his wife Bunny (
Pat Carroll). During the 11th and final season, Thomas decided to retire from the show and the program ended in the spring of 1964, finishing as still one of the most popular television programs and ranking at number nine.
Music
The theme music was various versions (changing over the years) of the traditional Irish song, "
Danny Boy".
Broadcast
Syndication
Reruns of the show (Using the original title, "Make Room for Daddy") were aired weekdays on NBC from October 4, 1960, to March 26, 1965. The episodes shown were from season one through season nine). CBS aired primetime repeats April 19 through September 6, 1965, on Monday nights at 9:30 p.m (
Eastern time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...
). Subsequently, most of the CBS episodes were then syndicated in fall, 1967, and offered to local stations. The first four seasons from ABC were not put into syndication.
From February 1, 1987, to 1991, the show's fifth through ninth seasons were shown on
Nick at Nite.
TV Land
TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cl ...
and
GoodLife Television aired the majority of the episodes from the fourth season through the seventh season (and select episodes from seasons eight and nine).
Me-TV
MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...
aired the show from
Labor Day of 2012 to December 31, 2014.
In 2014, the series joined the weekday line up of
Cozi TV, where it has as of 2021 stopped airing but did broadcast all the 1956–1964 episodes which includes the season after Jean Hagen left the show (1956–1957). Cozi-TV also added the final two seasons of the show (Seasons 10 and 11) that had not been shown in any package of reruns since 1965.
Episodes of the show can be seen on TVS Nostalgia Network.Com. Season 5 (only) is available on
Hulu.
George Carlin referred to the reruns as "Daddy has had room made for".
Home media
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''.
The complete sixth season on DVD was released on January 22. 2008. It was released by a different company than the one that had handled the fifth-season package, and contained uncut episodes with vintage second-run opening titles from the early 1960s NBC network daytime reruns.
Several of the early episodes with Jean Hagen can be purchased on discount DVDs, as these episodes have entered
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
because of lapsed copyright.
Media information
Spinoff and crossovers
The series played a role in the creation of another long-running sitcom, ''
The Andy Griffith Show''. In the seventh season, Danny Thomas is arrested by
Sheriff Andy Taylor
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
(Andy Griffith) and detained in the small town of
Mayberry in an episode titled "Danny Meets Andy Griffith". The episode aired on February 15, 1960, and ''The Andy Griffith Show'' premiered later that year on October 3.
The series also
crossed over
''Crossed Over'' is a 2002 Canadian television film directed by Bobby Roth, and starring Diane Keaton as Beverly Lowry and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Karla Faye Tucker. It is based on Lowry's memoir ''Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir''.
Cast
*Dian ...
to several other series, including ''
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'' and ''
The Joey Bishop Show''.
Morey Amsterdam
Moritz "Morey" Amsterdam (December 14, 1908 – October 28, 1996) was an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. He played Buddy Sorrell on CBS's ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' from 1961 to 1966.
Early life
Amsterdam was born in Chicago ...
guest-starred as Buddy Sorrell of ''
The Dick Van Dyke Show'' in the episode "The Woman Behind the Jokes", season 11, episode 4.
Some episodes featured
Bill Dana
William Szathmary (October 5, 1924 June 15, 2017), known as Bill Dana, was an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He often appeared on television shows such as ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', frequently in the guise of a heavily accented Boli ...
as
José Jiménez, which led to the spin-off series ''
The Bill Dana Show
''The Bill Dana Show'' was an American comedy series starring Bill Dana and Jonathan Harris that aired on NBC from September 22, 1963 to January 17, 1965. The plot follows the daily lifestyle of Latin American José Jiménez, as a bellhop in a ...
''. Danny Thomas played himself in one episode.
Sequel
The show ended in 1964, but Danny Thomas, Marjorie Lord, Angela Cartwright, Rusty Hamer, Sherry Jackson, Amanda Randolph and Hans Conried returned in 1965 for a two-hour-long "reunion" special on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, ''The Danny Thomas TV Family Reunion'', considered the first TV reunion show, and ''Make More Room for Daddy'', which aired as an episode of ''
The Danny Thomas Hour'' in November 1967. Shortly after filming the second special in 1967, Randolph died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 70. A CBS reunion special, ''Make Room for Granddaddy'', was aired in 1969. The special did so well that it was picked up as a series by CBS, but Thomas considered its assigned time slot to be too quiet and pulled the show.
ABC brought it back on a weekly basis in 1970, in ''Make Room for Granddaddy''. For the series premiere, Sherry Jackson reprised her role of oldest daughter Terry. No mention was made of her husband Pat Hannigan. Instead, for this new version of the series, Terry's husband was named Bill, who was a soldier. In this episode, Terry left her son, six-year-old Michael (played by Michael Hughes), in the care of grandparents Danny and Kathy so she could join Bill, who was stationed overseas. In addition to Lord, Hamer and Cartwright, the only other returning regulars were Sid Melton as Charley Halper and Hans Conried as Uncle Tonoose. During that season, new characters were played by
Stanley Myron Handelman
Stanley Myron Handelman (November 21, 1929 – August 5, 2007) was an American stand-up comedian who, during a ten-year period between 1965 and 1975, appeared on numerous television variety shows.
Early years
The Brooklyn-born Handelman was a ...
and former
football player
Roosevelt Grier
Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier (born July 14, 1932) is an American actor, singer, Protestant minister, and former professional football player. He was a notable college football player for Pennsylvania State University who earned a retrospective plac ...
. Pat Carroll did not reprise her role of Bunny Halper and her character was never mentioned on this series. The show lasted only one year, producing 24 episodes; its cancellation came at a time when the networks were
purging content favoring older, rural and other less affluent viewers after the
loss of a half-hour of daily program time in 1971. According to Lord, the series faced many obstacles, including the unprofessionalism and inexperience of the child actor Michael Hughes, the absence of Sheldon Leonard as producer/director to control Thomas and improve the quality of the scripts, and the fact that ABC switched the time slot of the show from Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm to Thursday nights at 9:00 pm. As a result, the ratings went from mediocre to poor.
[Geoffrey Mark Fidelman,''The Lucy Book'', Renaissance Books, page 269.)]
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Danny Thomas Show, The
1953 American television series debuts
1964 American television series endings
1970 American television series debuts
1971 American television series endings
1950s American sitcoms
1960s American sitcoms
1970s American sitcoms
American Broadcasting Company original programming
Television series about families
Black-and-white American television shows
CBS original programming
English-language television shows
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series winners
Television shows set in New York City