The Danny Thomas Show - Season 6 (1 Viewer)

[Joe Lugoff]

At last, some good news for lovers of classic (i.e., 1950s and 1960s) television.

We remember the disappointing "Make Room for Daddy" (correctly, "The Danny Thomas Show," starting that season) Season 5 of a few years back, from Questar -- disappointing because they used the syndicated prints. (I didn't even bother to buy it.)

Now TVShowsOnDVD is reporting that S'more will be releasing Season 6 -- and, since S'more knows what they're doing, they're promising the original network prints, not the syndicated ones this time around.

This 1958-59 season will be of interest to fans of "I Love Lucy," because in one of the episodes Lucy and Desi appear as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

It's also of interest to baby boomers, because a great Boomer Icon -- Annette, no less -- was a regular for part of the season.

 

[DeWilson]

I'm thrilled that "The Danny Thomas Show" is finally getting the proper treatment on DVD.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

This really is one of the great sitcoms of all time. Too bad the Thomas family won't ever let out the first four seasons of the show but at least it will be nice to get this season and maybe more in it's original form and running time. Other than Ozzie and Harriet, I believe MRFD had the most episodes in sitcom history.

 

[JohnOPR]

Why won't the Thomas family allow the first four seasons to be released?

 

[docdoowop]

Rusty Hamer had the greatest comic timing of any child actor on TV. He was also given some great lines.

 

[Tom.W]

More good news for fans of classic 60s tv this holiday. I did pick up the 5th season from Questar because it didn't look like this show was on the radar from anywhere else. Sounds like S'more is doing its part in the sitcom area for boomers. Extras sound good - an interview with the lovely Marjorie Lord, and Sid Melton. It would be nice to hear from Sherry Jackson and Angela Cartwright too.

BTW, about a season's worth of pre 5th season Danny Thomas Show episodes are presumably in pd. One or more religioius stations have aired them during the last few years. Also found a few eps put out by a company called Television Classics.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

He was very good as an actor, but the people who worked with him don't have many good things to say about him as a person. He apparently was the ultimate spoiled brat. Angela Cartwright said he would trip her when she wasn't looking. Sounds charming. Of course, he had a very tragic end.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

No one has ever said but it's assumed that Jean Hagen left the show and Thomas was probably not very happy about it. The last time these episodes ran legitimately was on NBC's late afternoon schedule in the early 60s. They have not be syndicated since. Neither has the 10th or 11th season been in syndication for many, many years. The package for at least the last 30 years has only consisted of seasons 5-9.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

The 10th Season (1962-63), Danny and Kathy went to Europe, and were only in something like every fourth episode. The other episodes starred Sid Melton and Pat Carroll and the kids. If they continue with season sets, I'll be surprised to see the 10th season make it to DVD.

I seem to have a dim memory that in the 11th Season, the Williamses moved to the country, like the Ricardos had done, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Bert Greene]

It had been quite a while since we'd heard anything from S'More, and it's great news to learn they're going to tackle "Make Room for Daddy." It's a sitcom that well deserves the care and treatment that S'More will provide. I was rather disheartened by the severely chopped-up prints that the 5th-season set delivered, and after three years, thought the prospects for the series on dvd were pretty dead in the water. The potential extras sound great. Marjorie Lord came out with a little autobiography a couple of years ago (I bought a copy of it from her at a show she attended), but it didn't really cover much about the Thomas show. Hope the S'More folks are able to entice some interesting anecdotes/memories out of her.

 

[Elena S]

Very happy to hear about this and will definitely pick it up. Does anyone know what year Bill Dana joined the show? I was always amused by his Jose Jimenez.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Not sure, but let's not publicize Jose Jimenez or Louise, the maid -- we wouldn't want the PC Brigade to stop the release of this series.

 

[docdoowop]

Artwork, extras announced at TVshowson DVD:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7752

 

[Jeff#]

If that's the case, then it made as little sense back then to still keep calling it The Danny Thomas Show at that point as the glaring absense of the first 4 years (with Jean Hagen as Danny's first wife) not seeing the light of day in syndication or video. The only thing I can say in defense of that move, was that Jean was more a dramatic actress so she didn't fit into the sitcom mold. She left Danny's show, and turned up in one-shot guest starring roles on dramatic series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Towards the end of her life, Jean turned up on The Streets of San Francisco in the mid 1970s.

Of course Marjorie Lord was much hotter back in the day than the late Jean Hagen was, but I hope that wasn't Danny's reason for replacing her.

I was never into this sitcom, but I could be if it ever came to TV Land and that's really the only way.
Maybe Marlo can look into this.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I don't think Thomas fired Hagen ... I think she quit. Danny Thomas was supposed to be very difficult to work with.

 

[Ivan G]

I have a dissenting opinion on this...Jean Hagen did do some wonderful dramatic work (The Asphalt Jungle) but she's also responsible for one of the finest comedy performances in cinematic history, that of Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain. If you've watched any of the public domain episodes of Make Room for Daddy, you'll notice that even though she didn't have much to do (which was one of the main reasons she quit the show) she's funnier than Marjorie Lord by a country mile.

What I don't understand is why they've taken the fourth season of Daddy out of the equation. Hagen quit after the third season, and in the fourth Thomas' character was a widower.

 

[Jeff#]

I remember her in Singin' in the Rain, but I didn't care for that movie because I don't like musicals. Jean wasn't that funny in it anyway. The only reason I saw the film was because it was part of an Art of Film course I took in high school back in the 1980s.

 

[Elena S]

Are you sure about this? I don't remember them being absent from the show, and all the episode guides I've seen list them as being in every episode of that year. I also read that Marjorie Lord holds the rights to seasons 10 & 11, so who knows if she'll OK their release?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Yes, I'm sure, because, unfortunately, I'm old enough to remember it when it was first on.

Actually, Thomas and Lord are in every episode, because the ones that featured Melton and Carroll would begin with a very short scene of Danny and Kathy in Europe, reading a letter from home or discussing how things might be going back home, and that would lead into the episode. It would be something like, "Dear Mom and Dad, We did such and such last week, and wait'll you hear what happened ..." Music up, dissolve, then the "letter" would be acted out as that week's episode.

I'm sure Thomas and Lord must have filmed all those short scenes in one day, so they weren't really in every episode, but technically, they could be listed among the cast.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

We get to the same place by different routes: I don't care for "Singin' in the Rain," either, but it's because I love musicals, and I don't think it's the greatest one ever made, and I get exasperated when it's proclaimed as such, because I think most people think all those songs were actually written for it (which they weren't) --

And I also think people who tend not to like musicals do like that one, for a few reasons, one of which is --

Jean Hagen's comic performance, which even I like (and she did get a Supporting Actress nomination out of it.)

I think she was fine as Margaret Williams -- I always heard she quit because she didn't get along with Danny Thomas, who got his revenge by bumping off her character and then playing the Merry Widower and remarrying quickly -- and then never mentioning his first wife again, did you notice that?