Question About Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show

[Braves2005]

The other day I received a 7 VHS collection of Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show and I noticed that there are a couple of episodes where Danny and Kathy are in Rome and Charley (Sid Melton) and Bunny are taking care of Rusty (who is now a teenager) and Linda (who is now 10). Are these a couple of the lost 1962-1964 episodes that haven't been syndicated at all? One of the episodes Linda is trying to be a grownup and tries to make dinner only to make a mess of everything. The many times I have seen Make Room For Daddy, Rusty is a little boy in most all of them but this is the first time I have seen Rusty as a teenager and his voice changed and Linda being little at the time when Danny and Kathy were married and then seeing her being above 10 years old.

Oh yes, there are a bunch of Jean Hagen episodes and a few of the widowed episodes from 1956-1957 before he married Kathy.

 

[therealjm12]

NBC ran Make Room for Daddy reruns in the late afternoon for several years. They ran every episode from beginning to end. So I am sure they ran that particular episode -although I don't remember it myself. I don't remember Make Room For Daddy ever being syndicated after the NBC run. Maybe for a short time on Nick @ Night. For some reason it didn't have a long shelf life. Seems like the only episode we every see is the Andy Griffith pilot. Too bad, Danny Thomas was very talented man. He should be remembered. No one could do dialects like him.

 

[Prais]

Make Room ...WAS syndicated. I remember it on the cbs films list in the mid-60's. It's probably not on today because it is really quite dated and in black and white.

I also recall Rusty as a teenager, also the Rome tripon the show. He was about my age, so it really rings a bell. I remember running home from school to watch it at 3pm (Chicago time).

I also remember that the commercials were "built into the show" done by Danny and sometimes other cast members. It was sponsored by some coffee (but which brand I don't know.)

I especially enjoyed Uncle Tonoose (Hans Conried) and the maid, Louise, played by Amanda Randolph, a real smart-alec.

Look this all up on IMDB. It's great!

PS Did you just notice Sherry Jackson, or are you glad to see me? WOW! I had a crush on her.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Have a question...didn't "Make Room for Daddy" ever do some-sort of a crossover episode with "I Love Lucy"? From the Nick@Nite reruns, I vaugely recall Desi Arnaz appearing there as his Ricky Ricardo character.

 

[Stanislav]

Have a question...didn't "Make Room for Daddy" ever do some-sort of a crossover episode with "I Love Lucy"? From the Nick@Nite reruns, I vaugely recall Desi Arnaz appearing there as his Ricky Ricardo character.

I don't have the Lucy Bible ("The Lucy Book") at hand, but IIRC, those "crossovers" took place during the hour-long "Lucy-Desi" years, with Thomas guesting there and the Arnaz's returning the favor on MRFD.

 

[Ultimajock]

NBC ran Make Room for Daddy reruns in the late afternoon for several years. They ran every episode from beginning to end. So I am sure they ran that particular episode -although I don't remember it myself. I don't remember Make Room For Daddy ever being syndicated after the NBC run.

...to the best of my knowledge, Make Room for Daddy never ran on NBC. It ran for three years on ABC and another seven (as The Danny Thomas Show) on CBS. And it certainly was syndicated, by Viacom, in the early '70s (I used to watch it on KFIZ-TV/34 Fond du Lac WI as a lead-in to their reruns of I Love Lucy...

 

[Prais]

I believe it DID run on nbc at 3 central time in the early 60's. I watched wnbq-tv. I'm pretty sure it either replaced or was repleced by Peter Lawford and "The Thin Man."

As I mentioned, I ran home from school to drool over Sherry Jackson on MRFD.

The coffee sponsor I mentioned on the nighttime show was Maxwell House.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

No one could do dialects like him.

Or spit takes.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Look Out For Father with Danny Nose* was indeed in syndication by
the late 1960s...or maybe it was because he owned a percentage of
the station airing it--KZAZ Nogales/Tucson (now KMSB Tucson).

No special dispensation as it was the typical crummy 16mm film prints.
Has anyone seen this show later on ('80s to today) via any source
other than 16mm?

Yes, Danny had Maxwell House as a sponsor and Ange had Sanka--
some of the many fine products from General Foods. Goooood coffee!
I appreciate it and good night. ;D


*: Title riff courtesy Firesign Theatre.

 

[Tim L]

Make Room For Daddy did run on NBC weekday afternoons first at 4PM ET, then for a time at 10AM ET..They also aired at Noon ET Saturdays for a while..As far as syndication, I know it ran on WKBF-61 in Cleveland because when I lived at my sister's house in East Canton, Ohio. I would try to make it home from school by 2:00 in the afternoon so I wouldnt miss the show. I believe it ran on WKBF from 1973-April 1975, when WKBF left the air..

 

[Markxxx]

Have a question...didn't "Make Room for Daddy" ever do some-sort of a crossover episode with "I Love Lucy"? From the Nick@Nite reruns, I vaugely recall Desi Arnaz appearing there as his Ricky Ricardo character.

Yes the two shows crossed. The family appeared on the "Lucy-Desi Hour" and then Lucy and Desi returned the favour by being on "Make Room For Daddy"

 

[bpatrick]

"Make Room For Daddy" became "The Danny Thomas Show"
in its last year on ABC (1956-57), keeping the latter title
during the entire CBS run; NBC used the original title for the
daytime reruns, and I think that was the one used in syndication
(I remember around 1969 WLAC--now WTVF--Nashville airing
the show Sundays at noon, and I'm almost positive "Make Room
For Daddy" was the title).

General Foods sponsored a two-hour block on CBS on Monday
nights from 1962-64: "I've Got A Secret," Lucy, Danny, and Andy.
In fact, to usher in the 1962-63 season Garry Moore, Lucy, Danny,
and Andy did a special touting GF's sponsorship of their shows (and,
of course, promoting their own, along with the usual variety-show
songs and sketches).

Does anyone remember Danny's 1970-71 flop on ABC, "Make Room
For Granddaddy"?

Finally, I rather liked his mid-'70s NBC sitcom, "The Practice," where
he played a Groucho-like doctor (I think the producers approached
Groucho first, and he turned it down because of ill health).

 

[joshzz]

Make Room for Daddy brings back fond memories of times gone by. The Great Shows of Yesteryear ... Father Knows Best, Mister Ed, Lucy, Gilligan's Island, Marcus Welby M.D....

They were certainly some of my faovirtes and what I especially liked about them was that the characters were written-in as such that they respected one another. No cheap laughs.. They were so good natured. People loved one another and it showed.

 

[Tim L]

Make Room For Daddy was the syndication title. For the open they used the picture of a silhouetted Danny Thomas in an "entertainment" pose..I had forgotten about the Practice..Very good show..They could do worse than putting out "Make Room For Granddaddy" on DVD in my opinion. if only because of the guest stars that appeared..

 

[LKellerIII]

Make Room For Daddy was the syndication title. For the open they used the picture of a silhouetted Danny Thomas in an "entertainment" pose..I had forgotten about the Practice..Very good show..They could do worse than putting out "Make Room For Granddaddy" on DVD in my opinion. if only because of the guest stars that appeared..

It was true that shows in that era were often retitled for syndication when the show was still producing first run episodes. Examples- Andy of Mayberry, Love That Bob, Ponderosa, Love That Beaver, etc. OK...I made up that last one...please forgive me. But according to on-line sources (imdb, wikipedia, etc.), Make Room For Daddy was the title of the show during its original 3 seasons on ABC, then changed to The Danny Thomas Show when it moved to CBS in 1957.

 

[Braves2005]

Wasn't Make Room For Granddaddy an attempt to try and copy Here's Lucy by bringing in guest stars in each show (Diana Ross, Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, Bob Hope being among the guest stars)? Could it have been the older demographic (rural purge) that cancelled the show? I've never seen the show except in ABC promos on YouTube (there is a preview of a couple of episodes with Linda where Danny teaches her how to drive and he kicks out her boyfriend because he thinks that they're going to elope) but I think that it might deserve being on DVD not just for the guest stars but the curiosity factor with it along with the rest of Make Room For Daddy and the reunion specials that aired after The Danny Thomas Show was cancelled in 1964.

 

[bpatrick]

I don't know if it was a conscious attempt to copy "Here's Lucy"
but I do recall celebrity guests on "Make Room For Granddaddy,"
as well as the later seasons of the original "Danny Thomas Show."
Actually I think the real problem with the show was that '50s nostalgia
hadn't quite kicked in in 1970; had the show come along when "Happy
Days" did (1974) it might have done better.

 

[Hal Erickson]

Re syndication....
The Jean Hagen episodes were rerun on NBC's daytime schedule, but withdrawn from the syndication package, which begins with the first season that Marjorie Lord played Danny's wife (1957-58). The "interim" 1956-57 season in which Danny was a widower, and during which he met and courted Kathy (Marjorie Lord) were also shown on NBC but not syndicated (incidentally, there was NEVER an episode in which a weeping Danny confronted his children and said "Mommy has gone to heaven". The 56-57 season began several months after Jean Hagen's "death", just as the final season of THE REAL McCOYS began several months after the "death" of Kathy Nolan).
Also removed from the syndication package were the episodes from the 1962-63 season filmed on location in England and Europe, during Danny and Kathy's "vacation". However, the episodes set in New York, with Sid Melton and Pat Carroll as Charlie and Millie Halper babysitting Danny's kids while he and Kathy were abroad, were syndicated--but because Melton and Carroll were given special billing in the original opening network credits and not in the closing credits, they WEREN'T billed at all in the syndicated version which had reshot opening titles.
The reruns were seen on NBC until 1965, I believe. They were syndicated by Viacom during the 1967-68 season.
Three other TV shows were spun off MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY/THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW:
THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, THE JOEY BISHOP SHOW and THE BILL DANA SHOW. There was an effort to create a spinoff starring Danny's TV daughter Terry (Penney Parker) and her husband Pat (Pat Harrington Jr.), but this never went anywhere.

 

[joshzz]

Did Marlo make any appearances in either show?

 

[bpatrick]

I don't know about Danny's shows but she did appear
on Joey Bishop's sitcom during its first season (I think
she played his sister). She was written out the second
year when the format changed and Joey ceased to be
an assistant to a press agent and became a talk-show
host (as events would show, life would imitate art when
ABC hired him to go up against Carson).