Purchased by Gulf+Western and amalgamated into Paramount 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 wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Mannix, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Until 1962, Desilu was the second-largest independent television production company in the United States, behind MCA's Revue Studios, until MCA bought Universal Pictures and Desilu became and remained the number-one independent production company, until Ball sold it to Gulf and Western Industries (then the parent company of Paramount 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 to Gulf+Western for $17 million (valued at $155 million in 2023).[3] Gulf+Western then transformed Desilu into the television production arm of Paramount Pictures, rebranding the company as the original Paramount Television.
Desilu's entire library is owned by Paramount Global through two of its subsidiaries. The CBS unit owns all Desilu properties that were produced and concluded before 1960, which were sold to CBS by Desilu itself. Its CBS Studios unit owns the rights to everything Desilu produced after 1960 as successor in interest to Paramount Television.
^"Acquisitions: Into New Territory". Time. February 24, 1967. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
^"CBS faces trademark lawsuit over Desilu name". Reuters. April 10, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
Desilu Productions, Inc. (/ˈdɛsiluː/) was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball...
Lucille Ball co-founded and ran the television production company called Desilu Productions, originally to market I Love Lucy to television networks. After...
with the sale of KTLA to Gene Autry. Desilu Productions was formed in 1950 by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Desilu Studios was established in Hollywood...
remainder of her career. During Ball's solo years as the titular head of Desilu Productions, Morton and his brother-in-law, Fred Ball, served on the studio's...
In 1962, she became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, which produced many popular television series, including Mission:...
several years. Ball had succeeded in making Desilu profitable again by 1967, when she sold her shares of Desilu to Gulf+Western for $17 million ($155 million...
in 1962 as the international distribution division of Desilu Productions. With the sale of Desilu to Gulf+Western, then-owners of film studio Paramount...
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
brief treatment for a television series to Desilu Productions, calling it "a Wagon Train to the stars". Desilu studio head Lucille Ball was instrumental...
Hollywood, renaming it Desilu Studios, to shoot seasons 3–6 (1953–1957) of I Love Lucy. After 1956, it became known as Desilu-Cahuenga Studios to avoid...
at the Desilu Workshop was training eight contract players, including Huston, in the finer points of stagecraft and television work. Desilu's patronage...
Red Studios Hollywood, formerly Desilu-Cahuenga Studios and Ren-Mar Studios, is a rental studio located at 846 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, Los Angeles...
Lucille Ball's Desilu Studios. Osborne became part of Lucille Ball's Desilu Workshop. Osborne appeared in a 1959 episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse called...
acquisitions were film studio Paramount Pictures in 1966, television studio Desilu Productions in 1967, arcade and later videogame manufacturer Sega in 1969...
for her role on the show. That left Desilu with only one hit series, The Untouchables. Arnaz, as president of Desilu, offered Ball an opportunity to return...
program at Desilu, similar to the "talent pools" – known as talent "programs" – that the other studios had. He was under contract with Desilu for six months...
both Paramount and Desilu—the studio producing Star Trek—were acquired by Gulf+Western: first Paramount in 1966, and then Desilu in 1967. So after the...
The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. The show was produced at Desilu Studios, where Lucille Ball was appearing alongside Desi Arnaz in I Love...
to MGM, it was warmly received, but no offer was made. He then went to Desilu Productions, but rather than being offered a one-script deal, he was hired...
(and later Desilu Productions), located in Culver City, California. Best known as Forty Acres and "the back forty," it was also called "Desilu Culver,"...
band in the 1940s and 1950s. Later, he was on the Board of Directors of Desilu Productions (the studio that Desi and Lucy purchased in 1951 and that produced...
disappointment. He then appeared opposite Lucille Ball in an episode of Desilu Playhouse. He said he made more money from these two projects "than I'd...
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