I appeared on three Danny Thomas Shows; first in 1955 as part of the Little League team from the episode of the same name which aired on Sept. 20, 1955. I played drums in a band called The Dixie Small Fry and we were part of "Good Old Days" -Season 5 Episode 25 from March 24, 1958 and then Season 6 Episode 13, "When The Saints Come Marching In" - Dec. 29, 1958.
Recently, I bought the Fifth Season DVD collection and watched "Good Old Days" for the first time since it aired originally. I remember being a big fan of the show before ever being on it and watching this episode brought back not only how much fun that week at Desilu was for the guys in the band, but how well written and acted the Danny Thomas Show was week in and week out. There was nothing phony about the set ups, or the people being presented as the Danny Williams family. There was an intelligence about the situations, funny always, with an edge at times, again which made it believable. Regardless of age, The Danny Thomas Show was both real and funny, no small accomplishment. Marjorie Lord was first rate, Sherry Jackson, besides being a major babe for guys my age, was also a very good actress who might have become great and Rusty Hamer at eight years old had comedy timing most seasoned adults couldn't match.
As great as all the parts and people were, it was Danny Thomas who made The Danny Thomas Show exceptional. He was what he was portrayed to be, an entertainer,a nightclub entertainer and as sitcom fathers go, unique in his make up. This was a real guy and not a silly characterization of a father. In fact, every character in the show seemed to be from real life.
Danny Thomas was a man of remarkable character and compassion for others. To use the phrase that came into being during the Vietnam war, he "walked it like he talked it", whether heading the drive for St. Jude Hospital or as Danny Williams giving us another brilliant Danny Thomas spit take over coffee with Sid. Through all the years the Danny Thomas Show was on the air, he stressed values, truthfulness and respect and that's what we as the audience got back each week. That, and humor with a real life edge to it.
And it was clear that people working on the show LIKED working on the show. Danny and producer Sheldon Leonard were in charge, but Thomas never acted like he was the star. In the first scene of "Good Old Days", I had a line to say as our band left the Williams apartment....I was not an actor and the line got tossed to me in dress rehearsal...the show was shot in front of an audience, in sequence using the three camera film technique that Desi Arnez had dreamed up. Anyway, Danny saw that I was nervous and so he made a big deal about going over the sequence where he fed me his line, then I said mine and as soon as I got it out of my mouth, Danny nodded my way and spoke loudly enough for the crew to hear...."Do it that way in the show tonight, Kid and we'll be fine."
