The Donald O'Connor Show (also known as Here Comes Donald) is an American musical situation comedy

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 television series starring singer/dancer Donald O'Connor

Donald O'Connor

Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...

. It appeared on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 from October 9, 1954, to September 10, 1955, alternating on the Saturday evening schedule with The Jimmy Durante Show

The Jimmy Durante Show

The Jimmy Durante Show is a 51-episode half-hour comedy/variety program presented live on NBC from October 2, 1954 to June 23, 1956.-Production background:...

; both were sponsored by Texaco

Texaco

Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....

.

Synopsis

O'Connor, the son of circus performers and formerly an alternating host on The Colgate Comedy Hour

The Colgate Comedy Hour

The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show stars many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou...

, and his co-director and co-star Sidney Miller portray young struggling songwriters trying to find buyers for their musical compositions. This scenario allows the two to break out in song and dance throughout the program. In the segment which aired on December 4, 1954, three daughters of a theater owner have a dream about O'Connor the dancer: he is viewed as a marshal in the American West, as a knight in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, or as a famous composer such as Beethoven, Chopin, or Arthur Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

.

Joyce Cunning, also known also as Joyce Smight, co-starred in the series in the role of Doreen, the songwriters' secretary. Other regulars were Regina Gleason, Joyce Holden, Jan Orvan, Olan Soule

Olan Soule

Olan Soule was an American character actor with hundreds of credits in films, radio, commercials, television and animation.-Early life:...

, and the Al Goodman

Al Goodman

Al Goodman was a conductor, songwriter, stage composer, musical director, arranger, and pianist....

 Orchestra. Most musical programs at the time were shown live or on Kinescope

Kinescope

Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...

. However, The Donald O'Connor Show was shot on film.

Guest stars included the dancer Sharon Baird

Sharon Baird

Sharon Baird is an American actress and dancer who is best known for having been a Mouseketeer.-Early life:Sharon Baird was born in Seattle, Washington to Eldon Baird, an aerospace worker, and Nikki Marcus, a future talent agent. She has one younger brother, Jimmy Baird, also a former child actor...

, singer Mitzi Gaynor

Mitzi Gaynor

-Life and career:Gaynor was born as Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago, Illinois to Pauline Fisher, a dancer, and Henry von Gerber, a violinist, cellist, and music director. The family first moved to Detroit and when she was eleven to Hollywood, California.She trained as a ballerina...

, singer and musical composer Johnny Mercer

Johnny Mercer

John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

, 8-year-old Tim Rooney

Tim Rooney

Timothy Hayes Yule was an American actor and voice actor. He was the second son of actor Mickey Rooney and suffered from a muscle disease known as dermatomyositis....

 (son of Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

), then 11-year-old Harry Shearer

Harry Shearer

Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...

, Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff

William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...

, Reginald Denny

Reginald Denny (actor)

Reginald Denny was an English stage, film, and television actor. He was once an amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.-Acting career:...

, and Douglas Fowley

Douglas Fowley

Douglas Fowley was an American movie and television actor.Fowley was born Daniel Vincent Fowley in The Bronx, New York. The 5'11" actor is probably best remembered for his role as the movie director Roscoe Dexter in Singin' in the Rain . The actor appeared in over 240 films and later in dozens of...

. The Robert Mitchell Boys Choir

Robert Mitchell (organist)

Robert Mitchell was an American organist and choir director whose career spanned 85 years, from 1924 to 2009. He was one of the last original silent film accompanists, having accompanied films from 1924 to 1928. Mitchell revived the art from 1992 until his death in 2009, usually to wild...

 appeared with O'Connor and Miller on the Christmas night 1954 episode.

In 1964, nine years after the original The Donald O'Connor Show had folded, Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball

Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...

 tried in vain to revive the idea of another The Donald O'Connor Show script to ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 after it was rejected by NBC and CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. That year her own The Lucy Show

The Lucy Show

The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...

was the only Desilu Production on the networks.

O'Connor instead returned to television in the middle 1960s to host The Bell Telephone Hour

The Bell Telephone Hour

The Bell Telephone Hour is a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television...

; one of his episodes focuses on Cole Porter

Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

. In the 1968-1969 season, O'Connor hosted a syndicated

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 talk show

Talk show

A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

, also called The Donald O'Connor Show. This second series had Joyce Jameson as the announcer and the accompaniment of the Alan Copland Orchestra. Numerous well-known guest stars, such as Sterling Holloway

Sterling Holloway

Sterling Price Holloway, Jr. was an American character actor who appeared in 150 films and television programs. He was also a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company...

, Meredith MacRae

Meredith MacRae

Meredith Lynn MacRae was an American actress and singer.-Life and career:MacRae was best known for her television roles as Billie Jo on Petticoat Junction and as Sally Ann in My Three Sons...

, Barrie Chase, Irwin Corey, Peter Breck

Peter Breck

Joseph Peter Breck is an American prolific character actor of stage, who has played roles on television and in film...

, Mike Minor, Dana Wynter

Dana Wynter

Dana Wynter was a German-born British actress, who was brought up in England and Southern Africa. She appeared in film and television for more than forty years beginning in the 1950s, most notably in the original version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.-Early life:Wynter was born as Dagmar...

, and musicians Ike

Ike Turner

Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...

 and Tina Turner

Tina Turner

Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...

. The programs aired unspecified episodes between November 18, 1968

1968 in television

The year 1968 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1968.For the American TV schedule, see: 1968-69 American network television schedule.-Events:...

, and August 4, 1969

1969 in television

The year 1969 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 1969.For the American TV schedule, see: 1969-70 American network television schedule.-Events:...

, though it may have begun some weeks earlier than indicated.