Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, to celebrate the release of my first book, Great American Sitcoms of the 1950s, which is finally available here (or on Amazon here), I’ve got another fifties rerun to get you in the Eisenhower-era mindset…
Today, let’s revisit… The Ten Best THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW Episodes of Season Five: https://jacksonupperco.com/2020/04/14/the-ten-best-the-danny-thomas-show-episodes-of-season-five/
One of my great joys when revisiting the 1950s in 2020 for this blog’s second sweep through the decade was sitting down to enjoy the entire post-Margaret run of The Danny Thomas Show and discovering that, although perhaps not on its era’s tippy-top shelf next to true classics like I Love Lucy, The Phil Silvers Show, The Honeymooners, and even Burns And Allen, it’s still a much better sitcom than previous history books have given it credit for being. Part of its bad rap, I think, is because it seems to resemble many of the overly benign father-led family comedies of the period — think Father Knows Best or Ozzie And Harriet — which, as a subgenre, tend to be bland and unfunny. But its status as a multi-cam filmed by Desilu also earns it an association with the hysterical I Love Lucy (which it also replaced in 1957 on CBS’s schedule) — along with The Dick Van Dyke Show, one of several 1960s comedies that Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard later produced. So, being able to recognize how Danny Thomas shares traits with Lucy and/or Dick Van Dyke, the best sitcoms from their respective decades, was a real analytical high point for me on this blog, enhancing my appreciation of this series by establishing it as a lesser-known link between those two gems. Naturally, I was pleased to present this argument again in my book, this time with even greater detail about how the show resembles its “cousins” — especially Lucy, which, like Danny, was also a semi-autobiographical multi-cam about a person in showbiz living in an urban domestic space, with premised tension nevertheless coming in some form from a thematic clash between the work and the home. You can read more about all that in Chapter Six (which covers the 1953-1954 season). In the meantime, feel free to revisit my initial coverage — especially for Season Five, which I have re-confirmed in the process of writing my book as the series’ best, largely because of its addition to the show’s low-concept situation: a “blended family” arrangement that was actually fresh and unique for sitcoms at the time, enabling new kinds of comedic scenarios for characters in direct conflict.
Come back next week for another 1950s rerun! And stay tuned tomorrow for a new Wildcard!