The Danny Thomas Show

That's 71.7% of all households watching that episode.

Lucy and Desi formed Desilu Productions, which produced several hit series, including The Danny Thomas Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables, and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Those are just a few, by the way.

For I Love Lucy, the first two seasons, 1951 to 1953, were filmed at General Service Studios, now known as Hollywood Center Studios.

The specific film in that, I should say, was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which I believe was written by film critic Roger Ebert.

Conn would direct occasionally, including a Leave It to Beaver episode, but he would be a supervising editor on shows like The Danny Thomas Show, December Bride, Eve Arden Show, and he was chief editor on many, many other shows, Beverly Hillbillies, Police Woman, The Fall Guy, and a lot more shows that you know very well.

Like many of our recent interviewees, 2012 seems to be a very bad year for them, as most of them died in 2012 for some reason, so far at least.

And Dan Conn is no exception, passing away of natural causes on November 21st, 2012.

Very special stuff.

Today's exclusive interview is with Lucy friend and the star of The Danny Thomas Show, Marjorie Lord, who talks working on the Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, as well as having Lucy as a guest on her show.

Plus, how Vivian Vance, somebody that she knew very, very well, much better than Lucy, actually, how Vivian Vance tried to work through her stresses and disappointments.

She also discusses issues on The Danny Thomas Show being the replacement for original star Gene Hagen.

So if you're ready, let's get to it.

Now, I mentioned that Marjorie knew Vivian Vance really well, and this was all before working with Lucy.

And they were so wonderful together.

I think somebody else has to look at that and say, "This chemistry was made in heaven between the four of those, the four of them." It was wonderful.

I remember when I was 28, I was sitting with some friends, and Rosie O'Donnell had just come out, and they were talking about how much more realistic, you know, Rosie is than, you know, the Father Knows Best kind of things from my generation.

And I said, um, because Rosie's realistic, and nobody had families like Ozzie and Harriet and Father Knows Best and Danny Thomas Show.

[clears throat] Excuse me.

And I said, "That's not true." I said, "My family was like that." I had, I had this perfect, great family.

It's lined out with a pencil and they've written in The Dick Van Dyke Show.

So ultimately, I don't think they were happy with the various titles, and I think it was Sheldon Leonard who said, "You know, it's worked out pretty well for me to have The Danny Thomas Show." So I said, "I think we should call this The Dick Van Dyke Show." And I think Sheldon won, much to the chagrin of many who said, "What's a Dick Van Dyke?" But, uh, it didn't take long for people to realize who w- [laughs] who that was.

Right, 'cause he went it, he became famous from this, and then Mary Poppins-

Correct

Right

... and I, and I watch all these shows in syndication, but, you know, Make Room for Daddy, all these, like, Leave It to Beaver, these, like, idyllic-

That's what I grew up with-

You know, you see these-

He was on Columbo two times, The Andy Griffith Show, Knight Rider, F-Troop, MASH, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Perry Mason, thank you Smeguly, McHale's Navy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Murder, She Wrote.

He was on The Danny Thomas Show and in The Flintstones he played a character named Epi Brianstone, which I'm thinking is a parody of Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager.

Uh, it's about the right time and it's too close to be a coincidence.

[laughs] He was in I Spy, I Dream of Jeannie, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Monkees, Daniel Boone.