Each week, we will be taking an in depth look at some of the best sitcoms and comedy shows from both the UK and the USA.

Today we will be looking at a comedy that ran for eleven seasons and behind the scenes the two lead characters hated each other – Make Room For Daddy.

Opening Sequence / Theme Tune

About the Show

Summary of Plot

Danny Williams, a successful nightclub singer, encounters a variety of difficult or amusing situations in trying to balance his career with his family: his outspoken wife Kathy, teenage daughter Terry from his first marriage, children Russ and Linda, and old-fashioned Uncle Tonoose-IMDb

Number of Seasons / Episodes

11 seasons

Characters:

Danny Thomas – Danny Williams

Rusty Hamer – Rusty Williams

Majorie Lord – Kathy Williams

Angela Cartwright – Lina Williams

Trivia

• Danny Thomas was forced against his will to have Jean Hagen as his television wife. He could not stand her attitude, or what he considered her slovenly appearance. During one rehearsal, he is said to have have shouted, “For God’s sake, Jean, put on a little lipstick.” She left after the third season, and at the beginning of the fourth season, to assure that she could not come back, he had her character die.
• The title “Make Room for Daddy” actually grew out of an in-joke within Danny Thomas’ family. Whenever Danny was away on a nightclub tour, his children more or less had the run of the house. When he returned from a tour, it was time to spread out and “make room for daddy”, hence the show’s title.
• Rusty Hamer also played the character of Rusty Williams in The Joey Bishop Show: Rusty Arrives (1965), The Joey Bishop Show: Joey Entertains Rusty’s Fraternity (1965), and The Joey Bishop Show: Rusty’s Education (1965).
• The theme song was a jazzed-up version of the old Irish tune The Londonderry Air (best known when sung with the lyric known as “Danny Boy”).
• The show’s original sponsor was The American Tobacco Company, especially its cigarette brands Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, and Tareyton.
• The character “Danny Williams” was ranked #5 in TV Guide’s list of the “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time” (June 20, 2004 issue).
• Danny Thomas was forty-one years old when the show started.

Classic Clips

Funny Scene

Bobby Rydell