Lucille Ball Productions
 |
|
| Fate | Purchased by Gulf+Western and renamed Paramount Television |
|---|---|
| Successors |
Paramount Television CBS Television Studios Lucille Ball Productions Desilu Too Desilu Corporation |
| Founded | 1950 |
| Founders |
Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz |
| Defunct | 1967 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
|
Area served
|
United States |
| Products | Television and Film Production |
| Parent | Desilu Corporation |
Desilu Productions (/ˈdɛsiːluː/) was an American production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, best known for shows such as I Love Lucy, Star Trek, and The Untouchables. Until 1962, Desilu was the second-largest independent television production company in the U.S. behind MCA's Revue Productions until MCA bought Universal Pictures, and Desilu became and remained the number-one independent production company until being sold in 1967. 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 1967, when she sold her shares of Desilu to Gulf+Western for $17 million ($122 million in 2016 dollars). 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 CBS through two of its subsidiaries. The network itself owns all Desilu properties that were produced and concluded before 1960, which were sold to CBS by Desilu itself. Its CBS Television Studios unit owns the rights to everything Desilu produced after 1960 as successor in interest to Paramount Television.
Desilu Productions was formed in 1950 using the combined names of "Desi Arnaz" and "Lucille Ball". Desilu Productions was created to produce Lucy and Desi's vaudeville act to sell the television series to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) executives. Arnaz and Ball wanted to adapt Ball's CBS radio series My Favorite Husband to television. The television project eventually became I Love Lucy. During the first few years of I Love Lucy, Desilu rented space at General Service Studios (now the Sunset Las Palmas Studios), on Santa Monica Boulevard and North Las Palmas Avenue. Desilu Productions used Stage Two, which was named Desilu Playhouse. Later, a special entrance was created at 6633 Romaine Street on the south side of the lot to allow entrance into the Desilu Playhouse.
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