Desilu Productions, Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Television production
Founded	1950; 75 years ago (1950)
Founders	Desi Arnaz Lucille Ball
Defunct	December 29, 1967; 57 years ago (1967-12-29)
Fate	Purchased byGulf+Western and amalgamated intoParamount Television
Successors	Paramount Television (first incarnation) CBS Studios Paramount Television Studios Lucille Ball Productions Desilu Too Desilu Corporation
Headquarters	Los Angeles,California , United States
Parent	Desilu Corporation

Desilu Productions, Inc. (/ˈdɛsiluː/) was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wifeDesi Arnaz andLucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such asI Love Lucy,The Lucy Show,Mannix,The Untouchables,Mission: Impossible andStar Trek. Until 1962, Desilu held the second position as the largest independent television production company in the United States, trailing onlyMCA'sRevue Studios. However, MCA acquiredUniversal Pictures, transforming Desilu into the undisputed number-one independent production company. This status remained unchallenged until Ball sold Desilu toGulf and Western Industries, which was then the parent company ofParamount Pictures, in 1968.^[1][2]

Ball and Arnaz jointly owned the majority stake in Desilu from its inception until 1962, when Ball bought out Arnaz and ran the company by herself for several years. Ball had succeeded in making Desilu profitable again by 1968, when she sold her shares of Desilu toGulf+Western for $17 million (valued at $160 million in 2024).^[3] Gulf+Western then transformed Desilu into the television production arm ofParamount Pictures, rebranding the company as the originalParamount Television.

Desilu's entire library is owned byParamount Skydance through two of its subsidiaries. TheCBS unit owns all Desilu properties that were produced and concluded before 1960, which were sold to CBS by Desilu itself. ItsCBS Studios unit owns the rights to everything Desilu produced after 1960 as successor in interest to Paramount Television.

There is a street named after Desilu inSan Antonio, Texas.^[4]

Desilu Productions was founded in 1950 using the combined names of the husband and wife production team of "Desi Arnaz" and "Lucille Ball". It was created to produce Lucy and Desi's vaudeville act as a television series and sell it to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) executives. Arnaz and Ball wanted to adapt Ball's CBS radio seriesMy Favorite Husband to television. The television project eventually becameI Love Lucy.^[5] During the show's first few years, Desilu rented space atGeneral Service Studios (now theSunset Las Palmas Studios) atSanta Monica Boulevard and North Las Palmas Avenue. They used Stage Two, which was named Desilu Playhouse. Later, a special entrance was added at 6633 Romaine Street, on the south side of the lot, to allow direct access to it.^[6]

Ball approved original production concepts (such asThe Untouchables andStar Trek) for development into broadcast series.^[7] This created continuous revenue streams from the programs throughreruns, which were necessary to recover their high development and production costs. Even decades after the absorption of Desilu Productions and the production end of all original series Desilu approved for development, some series have achieved enduring success and, in some cases, redevelopment into feature-length movie franchises in their own right. Examples areThe Untouchables,Star Trek andMission Impossible.^[8]

Much of Desilu Productions' early success can be traced to Arnaz's unusual business style in his role as producer ofI Love Lucy.^[9] For example, lacking formal business training, he knew nothing ofamortization and often included all the costs incurred by the production into the first episode of a season rather than spreading them across the projected number of episodes in the year. As a result, by the end of the season, episodes were nearly entirely paid for, at preposterously low figures.

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 fromkinescopes.Karl Freund, the cameraman onI 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 forsituation comedy. The use of film enabled every station around the country to broadcast high-quality images of the show. Arnaz was told it was impossible to allow an audience onto a sound stage, but he worked with Freund to design sets that accommodated audiences, allowed filming, and adhered to fire, health, and safety codes.

Network executives considered the use of film an unnecessary extravagance. Arnaz persuaded them to allow Desilu to cover all additional costs associated with filming, rather than broadcasting live, under the stipulation that Desilu owned and controlled all rights to the film prints and negatives. Arnaz's unprecedented arrangement is widely considered to be one of the shrewdest deals in television history. As a result of his foresight, Desilu reaped the profits from all reruns of the series.

Desilu soon outgrew its first space and in 1954 bought its own studio, the Motion Picture Center onCahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood,^[10] what is nowRed Studios Hollywood. Most of theI Love Lucy episodes were produced there.

In late 1957, the company bought theRKO Pictures production facilities for $6 million fromGeneral Tire and Rubber, including RKO's main facilities on Gower Street in Hollywood and the RKO-Pathé lot (nowCulver Studios) inCulver City.^[11][12] This purchase includedForty Acres, the backlot where exteriors forMayberry were filmed.^[13] These acquisitions gave the Ball-Arnaz TV empire a total of 33 sound stages — four more thanMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer and eleven more thanTwentieth Century-Fox had in 1957.

The studio's initial attempt to become involved in film production was the filmForever, Darling (1956), Arnaz and Ball's followup to their highly successfulMGM releaseThe Long, Long Trailer (1954), but it was a box-office failure. It was produced at Desilu, but under the banner of Zanra Productions (Arnaz spelled backward). Most subsequent attempts to bring projects to the big screen were aborted untilYours, Mine and Ours (1968) with Ball andHenry Fonda. This film was a critical and financial success.

In 1960, Desi Arnaz sold the pre-1960s shows to CBS. Desilu Productions retained ownership of those shows that premiered after 1960, and were still in production.

Ball and Arnaz divorced in 1960.^[9] In November 1962, Arnaz resigned as president when his holdings in the company were bought out by Ball, who succeeded him as president. Ball served as president and chief executive officer of Desilu while at the same time starring in her own weekly series.^[14] This made her the first woman to head a major studio and one of the most powerful women in Hollywood at the time. Ball founded Desilu Sales, Inc., for syndication which distributedJay Ward Productions'Fractured Flickers in 1964. Today, Desilu Sales is part ofCBS Media Ventures (formerly CBS Television Distribution).

During Ball's time as sole owner, Desilu developed popular series such asMission: Impossible (1966),Mannix (1967), andStar Trek (1966).^[15] It has been falsely rumored that a Desilu loss during this time wasCarol Burnett, who declined to star in asitcom for the studio in favor ofThe Carol Burnett Show, a weekly variety show that lasted 11 seasons. 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.^[16] Burnett and Ball, however, remained close friends, often guest-starring in each other's series.

In 1967, Ball agreed to sell her television company toGulf+Western,^[15] which had only recently acquired Paramount Pictures. The company was renamed Paramount Television, and the former RKO main lot on Gower Street was absorbed into the adjacent Paramount lot. The old RKO globe logo is still in place. The company is now calledCBS Studios (formerly CBS Television Studios).Perfect Film purchased Desilu Studios' other lot in Culver City in 1968.^[17]

Arnaz left television production for a few years but returned in 1966 when he formed his own company, Desi Arnaz Productions, based at Desilu. Desi Arnaz Productions, along withUnited Artists Television, co-producedThe Mothers-in-Law for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Arnaz attempted to sell other television pilots, including a comedy withCarol Channing and an adventure series withRory Calhoun. Neither series sold. Arnaz also tried to create a law drama calledWithout Consent, withSpencer Tracy as adefense attorney, but after several attempts at developing a suitable script failed and because of insurance concerns regarding Tracy's heavy drinking, the project was abandoned.

After selling Desilu, Ball established her own new production company, Lucille Ball Productions (LBP), in 1968. The company went to work on her new seriesHere's Lucy that year. The program ran until 1974 and enjoyed several years of ratings success. Ball returned to network television in 1986 with the short-livedLife with Lucy. It lasted eight episodes before it was cancelled—a first for Ball—because of poor ratings. LBP continues to exist, and its primary purpose is residual sales of license rights forHere's Lucy.

Desilu-Paramount TV's holdings are owned byParamount Skydance (formerly ViacomCBS andParamount Global), the owner of the pre-1960s shows. Desilu Productions Inc. was reincorporated in Delaware in 1967, by Paramount Pictures and still exists as a legal entity. Desilu Too LLC was later created byLucie Arnaz mostly as a licensee forI Love Lucy-related merchandise. Desilu Too also partners withMPI Home Video and Lucille Ball Productions (formed by Ball and second husbandGary Morton) on the video releases ofHere's Lucy and other material Ball and Arnaz made independently of each other. Desilu Too officials have worked with MPI Home Video for the home video reissue ofThe Mothers-In-Law.Paramount Home Entertainment (throughCBS DVD) continues to hold DVD distribution rights to the CBS library. In November 2019, CBS Studios registered the DESILU trademark again to protect its previous Common Law trademark usage. Syndication rights forHere's Lucy were sold by Ball toTelepictures, which later merged withLorimar Television and ultimately was folded intoWarner Bros. Television. 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.

Desilu began the creation of productions using conventional film studio materials, production, and processing techniques. The use of these materials and techniques meant that the 35 mm negatives (the source material for copyright purposes) were immediately available for production and distribution of prints when theLucy series went into syndication at local stations around the country. As such, no "lost" episodes of programs occurred, and no programs were recorded bykinescope from the television broadcast.

Through the use of film-studio production techniques, the content and quality of Desilu productions displayed a high standard relative to peers in television of the 1950s and '60s. 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.^[18]

Some of these programs were created and owned by Desilu; others were other production companies' programs that Desilu filmed or to which Desilu rented production space.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toDesilu Productions.

• Desilu atMemory Alpha

34°05′23″N118°20′05″W / 34.089777°N 118.334722°W /34.089777; -118.334722

• Desilu
• Television production companies of the United States
• Lucille Ball
• Defunct film and television production companies of the United States
• Entertainment companies based in California
• Companies based in Los Angeles
• American companies established in 1950
• American companies disestablished in 1968
• Entertainment companies established in 1950
• Entertainment companies disestablished in 1968
• Mass media companies established in 1950
• Mass media companies disestablished in 1968
• 1950 establishments in California
• 1968 disestablishments in California
• 1968 mergers and acquisitions
• Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
• 1950s in American television
• 1960s in American television
• Gulf and Western Industries
• Predecessors of CBS Studios

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