The Danny Thomas Show (titled Make Room for Daddy for its first three seasons) is an American sitcom that ran from 1953 to 1957 on ABC and from 1957 to 1964 on CBS.

Starring Danny Thomas as a successful night club entertainer, the show focused on his relationship with his family, yet went through a number of significant changes in cast and characters during the course of its run.

Episodes regularly featured music by Thomas, guest stars and occasionally other cast members as part of the plot.

In March 1953, Thomas first signed the contract for the show with ABC and chose Desilu Studios to film it using its three-camera method.

In the show's first iteration as Make Room for Daddy, Jean Hagen played Thomas' serious and loving wife Margaret.

The show's premise involved Danny rarely having time to spend with his family and Margaret having to deal with the children virtually on her own.

The supporting cast included: Hans Conried had nineteen guest appearances as Danny's eccentric Lebanese "Uncle Tonoose".

Other notable guest stars included band leader and musician Harry James, who appeared in the episode "The Trumpet Player", child pianist Ginny Tiu playing Li Chow in "The Chinese Doll" and Jimmy Durante, who appeared as himself in the episode "Danny and Durante".

Tony Bennett made his television acting debut in 1959 as Danny's singing cousin Stephen from Toledo, and Paul Anka played a young up-and-coming singer, as did Bobby Rydell.

Shortly after the third season finished filming, Jean Hagen left the show over dissatisfaction with her role and frequent clashes with Danny Thomas.

With the absence of Jean Hagen, character actress-comedienne Mary Wickes (who had worked with Thomas and singer-actress Doris Day in the 1952 Warner Bros. musical film I'll See You in My Dreams) was cast in the recurring role of Liz O'Neill, Danny Williams's no-nonsense press agent.

In a four-part story arc that began airing in April 1957, son Rusty fell ill with the measles and Danny hired Kathy O'Hara (Marjorie Lord), a young Irish nurse, to look after him.

In the spring of 1957, I Love Lucy, which had reigned as the top-rated show for almost all of its six-year run on CBS, was ending production.

The Danny Thomas Show made its CBS debut on Monday, October 7, 1957, at 9:00 inheriting the time slot vacated by I Love Lucy.

In the early part of the sixth season, Sherry Jackson left the show and the character of Terry was said to have gone to a girls school in Paris.

Rusty and Linda were looked after by Danny's manager, Charlie Halper (Sid Melton) and his wife Bunny (Pat Carroll).

Reruns of the show (using the original title, "Make Room for Daddy") were aired weekdays on NBC from October 4, 1960, to March 26, 1965.

In 2014, the series joined the weekday line up of Cozi TV, where it has as of 2021 stopped airing but did broadcast all the 1956–1964 episodes which includes the season after Jean Hagen left the show (1956–1957).

The set includes two special episodes: the fourth-season finale, "Danny's Proposal", and the pilot for The Andy Griffith Show.

[6] It was released by a different company than the one that had handled the fifth-season package, and contained uncut episodes with vintage second-run opening titles from the early 1960s NBC network daytime reruns.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz subsequently appeared as the Ricardos on an episode of The Danny Thomas Show ("Lucy Upsets the Williams Household") which aired on January 5, 1959.

The special did so well that it was picked up as a series by CBS, but Thomas considered its assigned time slot to be too quiet and pulled the show.

In addition to Lord, Hamer and Cartwright, the only other returning regulars were Sid Melton as Charley Halper and Hans Conried as Uncle Tonoose.

According to Lord, the series faced many obstacles, including the unprofessionalism and inexperience of the child actor Michael Hughes, the absence of Sheldon Leonard as producer/director to control Thomas and improve the quality of the scripts, and the fact that ABC switched the time slot of the show from Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm to Thursday nights at 9:00 pm.