Its CBS Studios unit owns the rights to everything Desilu produced after 1960 as successor in interest to Paramount Television.

It was created to produce Lucy and Desi's vaudeville act as a television series and sell it to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) executives.

She was skilled at proposing new programs that were popular to broad audiences and successful in both their original broadcasts and syndication reruns.

She approved original production concepts (such as The Untouchables and Star Trek) for development into broadcast series,[7] assessing how the public would enjoy them and their potential for long-term success.

[8] Much of Desilu Productions' early success can be traced to Arnaz's unusual business style in his role as producer of I Love Lucy.

At that time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only images derived from kinescopes.

Karl Freund, the cameraman on I Love Lucy, and Arnaz himself have been credited with the development of the linked multifilm camera setup using adjacent sets in front of a live audience that became the standard production method for situation comedy.

[13] These acquisitions gave the Ball-Arnaz TV empire a total of 33 sound stages — four more than Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and eleven more than Twentieth Century-Fox had in 1957.

Most subsequent attempts to bring projects to the big screen were aborted until Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) with Ball and Henry Fonda.

Ball served as president and chief executive officer of Desilu while at the same time starring in her own weekly series.

Ball founded Desilu Sales, Inc., for syndication which distributed Jay Ward Productions' Fractured Flickers in 1964.

During Ball's time as sole owner, Desilu developed popular series such as Mission: Impossible (1966), Mannix (1967), and Star Trek (1966).

In truth, Here's Agnes was offered to Burnett by CBS executives who attempted to dissuade her from having a variety show because they felt that men were better suited for them.

Desi Arnaz Productions, along with United Artists Television, co-produced The Mothers-in-Law for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

Arnaz attempted to sell other television pilots, including a comedy with Carol Channing and an adventure series with Rory Calhoun.

Warner Bros. Television is the show's current distributor, although MPI now holds home video rights under license from Lucille Ball Productions and Desilu Too.

Moreover, they were readily adaptable to both comedy and drama formats and were able to handle special effects or feature interior or exterior sets and locations with equal ease.