History Creator / DesiluStudios

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Krusty the Clown's show is filmed at Krustylu Studios.

The last series to be created and produced by Desilu was the PrivateDetective drama ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', in the 1967-68 season. Desilu itself was folded into Paramount Pictures (and renamed Paramount Television) in 1968. Most of the staff from Desilu either left or was let go around this time, most notably Herbert F. Solow, the Vice President in Charge of Production. Of the four shows Desilu was producing at the time of the sale to Gulf+Western, three continued as Paramount Television series until they were cancelled: ''Star Trek'' in 1969, ''Mission: Impossible'' in 1973, and ''Mannix'' in 1975. The fourth, ''The Lucy Show'', ceased production but was effectively retooled and continued as ''Here's Lucy'', produced by Ball's newly-formed and independent Lucille Ball Productions. Ironically, Desilu finally had a hit ''movie'' after it had effectively ceased to exist in ''Film/YoursMineAndOurs'', a blended-family comedy which starred Ball and Creator/HenryFonda, and whose success paved the way for ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' to reach the airwaves.

Given its primacy as one of the first and largest studios exclusively dedicated to production for the new medium of television, its vast and diverse library of programming (the studio even dabbled in ''game shows'', including ''Series/ByTheNumbers''), and its consistent willingness to take chances on new and unusual formats, Desilu was responsible for a whole raft of [[TropeMaker Trope Making]] or [[TropeCodifier Codifying]] shows and is direly under-appreciated by many modern television viewers. If you consider yourself any kind of student of media history, you'll want to get very familiar with their shows.

Arnaz initially attempted to stay on as President after the divorce, but once CBS convinced Ball to return to weekly series television in 1962 with ''Series/TheLucyShow'', it soon became clear that one of them would have to leave. In the end it was Arnaz, who sold his half of the studio to Ball in 1963, making her the first female head of a Hollywood studio in history. This forced her to take a more active role in the studio's management, although by all accounts she was quite happy running ''The Lucy Show'' as her own personal fiefdom, leaving the studio's operations to the capable underlings that Arnaz had hired, and who had stayed on after he left. Although she took advantage of her newfound role as "the woman in charge" at Desilu for publicity purposes, and was actually a perfectly competent executive in her own right, she disliked running the studio and wanted nothing more than to continue playing "Lucy". Still, she soldiered on with the job for a few years, and those talented underlings her ex-husband had hired showed remarkable willingness to take risks on unproven formats, including a WagonTrainToTheStars concept by ex-cop and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'' writer Creator/GeneRoddenberry he called ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]''. Not to be outdone, they also bought a concept by ''another'' former ''Have Gun -- Will Travel'' writer, Bruce Geller, called ''Series/MissionImpossible''. Both shows made it to the air in the 1966-67 season, and although both would go on to become all-time classics of popular culture, it was too little, too late for Ball. She and [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Gulf+Western]] chief executive Charles Bluhdorn announced on February 15, 1967 that his company had bought her out, effective at the end of the year. Gulf+Western had just bought out Paramount Pictures the year before, and it was the last remaining movie studio ''without'' a television production division; these had been very lucrative for other studios, particularly Creator/{{MGM}} and Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, helping them get through some ''very'' lean years at the box office, and Bluhdorn, one of the earliest practitioners of the conglomeration trend which would dominate Corporate America in the late-20th century, felt it would be cheaper and easier to just buy out an independent TV studio than start one from scratch. (This would later be proven wrong after he finally got a look at the production budget for ''Star Trek'', marking an ominous start to Paramount's ambivalent relationship with what would become one of its most famous - and lucrative - properties.)

The last series to be created and produced by Desilu was the PrivateDetective drama ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', in the 1967-68 season. Desilu itself was folded into Paramount Pictures (and renamed Paramount Television) in 1968. Most of the staff from Desilu either left or was let go around this time, most notably Herbert F. Solow, the Vice President in Charge of Production. Of the four shows Desilu was producing at the time of the sale to Gulf+Western, three continued as Paramount Television series until they were cancelled: ''Star Trek'' in 1969, ''Mission: Impossible'' in 1973, and ''Mannix'' in 1975. The fourth, ''The Lucy Show'', ceased production but was effectively retooled and continued as ''Here's Lucy'', produced by Ball's newly-formed and independent Lucille Ball Productions. Ironically, Desilu finally had a hit ''movie'' after it had effectively ceased to exist in ''Film/YoursMineAndOurs'', a blended-family comedy which starred Ball and Henry Fonda, and whose success paved the way for ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' to reach the airwaves.

Arnaz initially attempted to stay on as President after the divorce, but once CBS convinced Ball to return to weekly series television in 1962 with ''Series/TheLucyShow'', it soon became clear that one of them would have to leave. In the end it was Arnaz, who sold his half of the studio to Ball in 1963, making her the first female head of a Hollywood studio in history. This forced her to take a more active role in the studio's management, although by all accounts she was quite happy running ''The Lucy Show'' as her own personal fiefdom, leaving the studio's operations to the capable underlings that Arnaz had hired, and who had stayed on after he left. Although she took advantage of her newfound role as "the woman in charge" at Desilu for publicity purposes, and was actually a perfectly competent executive in her own right, she disliked running the studio and wanted nothing more than to continue playing "Lucy". Still, she soldiered on with the job for a few years, and those talented underlings her ex-husband had hired showed remarkable willingness to take risks on unproven formats, including a WagonTrainToTheStars concept by ex-cop and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'' writer Creator/GeneRoddenberry he called ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]''. Not to be outdone, they also bought a concept by ''another'' former ''Have Gun -- Will Travel'' writer, Bruce Geller, called ''Series/MissionImpossible''. Both shows made it to the air in the 1966-67 season, and although both would go on to become all-time classics of popular culture, it was too little, too late for Ball. She and [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Gulf+Western]] chief executive Charles Bluhdorn announced on February 15, 1967 that his company had bought her out, effective at the end of the year. Gulf+Western had just bought out Paramount Pictures the year before, and it was the last remaining movie studio ''without'' a television production division; these had been very lucrative for other studios, particularly Creator/{{MGM}} and Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, helping them get through some ''very'' lean years at the box office, and Bluhdorn, one of the earliest practitioners of the conglomeration trend which would dominate Corporate America in the late-20th century, felt it would be cheaper and easier to just buy out an independent TV studio than start one from scratch. (This would later be proven wrong after he finally got a look at the production budget for ''Star Trek'', marking an ominous start to Paramount's ambivalent relationship with one of its most famous - and lucrative - properties.)

The last series to be created and produced by Desilu was ''Mannix'', in the 1967-68 season. Desilu itself was folded into Paramount Pictures (and renamed Paramount Television) in 1968. Most of the staff from Desilu either left or was let go around this time, most notably Herbert F. Solow, the Vice President in Charge of Production. Of the four shows Desilu was producing at the time of the sale to Gulf+Western, three continued as Paramount Television series until they were cancelled: ''Star Trek'' in 1969, ''Mission: Impossible'' in 1973, and ''Mannix'' in 1975. The fourth, ''The Lucy Show'', ceased production but was effectively retooled and continued as ''Here's Lucy'', produced by Ball's newly-formed and independent Lucille Ball Productions. Ironically, Desilu finally had a hit ''movie'' after it had effectively ceased to exist in ''Film/YoursMineAndOurs'', a blended-family comedy which starred Ball and Henry Fonda, and whose success paved the way for ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' to reach the airwaves.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Desilu logo throughout the studio's 17-year history. This version was the VanityPlate featured in all Desilu series from 1966-68, including, most famously, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:The Desilu logo throughout the studio's 17-year history. This version was the VanityPlate featured in Desilu series from 1966-68, including, most famously, ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.]]

Desilu cemented itself (and its chosen medium of television) as a major player in Hollywood when, in 1958, it purchased the studio and backlot space of Creator/{{RKO}}, which had been one of the Big 5 major studios during TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, not even a decade earlier. This included prime Hollywood real estate at Gower and Melrose (directly adjacent to the Paramount Pictures studios), where Arnaz and Ball promptly relocated their offices, and the famous Forty Acres backlot in Culver City, immortalized in scenes from ''Film/KingKong'', ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''. These extravagant buyouts were funded by selling the rights to ''I Love Lucy'' (which had ceased production in 1957, though the ''Series/LucyDesiComedyHour'' specials continued until 1960) to CBS, and indeed that series has never gone off the air in all the years since. The lion's share of the credit for the studio's great success during this period has always been attributed to Arnaz, whose remarkable business savvy belied the "Cuban bandleader" stereotype and image he made famous as his character, Ricky Ricardo. Lucille Ball, despite holding the official title of Vice President, had virtually no active role in the studio's day-to-day affairs at this time. Although their marriage was falling apart as TheFifties came to a close (they would divorce in 1960), the studio began producing two more classic series, Prohibition-era crime drama ''Series/TheUntouchables'' and family sitcom ''Series/MyThreeSons'', which initially co-starred William Frawley from ''I Love Lucy''. They also began renting out their ample studio space to other producers, thus resulting in a great many classic TV shows from TheSixties having been filmed at Desilu despite not necessarily having been produced by them.

Desilu cemented itself (and its chosen medium of television) as a major player in Hollywood when, in 1958, it purchased the studio and backlot space of Creator/{{RKO}}, which had been one of the Big 5 major studios during TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, not even a decade earlier. This included prime Hollywood real estate at Gower and Melrose (directly adjacent to the Paramount Pictures studios), where Arnaz and Ball promptly relocated their offices, and the famous Forty Acres backlot in Culver City, immortalized in scenes from ''Film/KingKong'', ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''. These extravagant buyouts were funded by selling the rights to ''I Love Lucy'' (which had ceased production in 1957, though the ''Series/LucyDesiComedyHour'' specials continued until 1960) to CBS, and indeed that series has never gone off the air in all the years since. The lion's share of the credit for the studio's remarkable success during this period has always been attributed to Arnaz, whose remarkable business savvy belied the "Cuban bandleader" stereotype and image he made famous as his character, Ricky Ricardo. Lucille Ball, despite holding the official title of Vice President, had virtually no active role in the studio's day-to-day affairs at this time. Although their marriage was falling apart as TheFifties came to a close (they would divorce in 1960), the studio began producing two more classic series, Prohibition-era crime drama ''Series/TheUntouchables'' and family sitcom ''Series/MyThreeSons'', which initially co-starred William Frawley from ''I Love Lucy''. They also began renting out their ample studio space to other producers, thus resulting in a great many classic TV shows from TheSixties having been filmed at Desilu despite not necessarily having been produced by them.

This seminal television production company was founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall in 1951 to produce their new sitcom, ''Series/ILoveLucy''. Because they owned the rights to ''I Love Lucy'' (which Creator/{{CBS}} had allowed them to keep in exchange for bearing the costs of filming the episodes - the network had wanted the show to be broadcast live from New York, as was the usual practice for most television programs in the early [[TheFifties 1950s]], but Arnaz and Ball insisted on filming in Hollywood), the studio's fortunes rose rapidly, especially once the {{rerun}} (traditionally held to have been invented by Arnaz, who made the decision to re-air old episodes to tide audiences over during a break in production for Ball's maternity leave) made it clear that holding those rights was an extremely lucrative prospect for them. Organizationally, Desilu spent most of TheFifties buying up studio space all over Hollywood; since this was the era of the FallOfTheStudioSystem, there was plenty to be had, often at fire-sale prices. ''I Love Lucy'' moved from the one-stage Desilu Playhouse (a converted proscenium theatre space) to the more lavish Cahuenga facility (a dedicated film studio), with multiple stages, as early as 1953, and this enabled the studio to begin producing ''other'' shows for television, most notably ''Seris/OurMissBrooks'' and ''Make Room for Daddy'', later renamed, and better-remembered as, ''The Danny Thomas Show''.

Arnaz initially attempted to stay on as President after the divorce, but once CBS convinced Ball to return to weekly series television in 1962 with ''Series/TheLucyShow'', it soon became clear that one of them would have to leave. In the end it was Arnaz, who sold his half of the studio to Ball in 1963, making her the first female head of a Hollywood studio in history. This forced her to take a more active role in the studio's management, although by all accounts she was quite happy running ''The Lucy Show'' as her own personal fiefdom, leaving the studio's operations to the capable underlings that Arnaz had hired, and who had stayed on after he left. Although she took advantage of her newfound role as "the woman in charge" at Desilu for publicity purposes, and was actually a perfectly competent executive in her own right, she disliked running the studio and wanted nothing more than to continue playing "Lucy". Still, she soldiered on with the job for a few years, and those talented underlings her ex-husband had hired showed remarkable willingness to take risks on unproven formats, including a WagonTrainToTheStars concept by ex-cop and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'' writer Creator/GeneRoddenberry he called ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]''. Not to be outdone, they also bought a concept by ''another'' former ''Have Gun -- Will Travel'' writer, Bruce Geller, called ''Series/MissionImpossible''. Both shows made it to the air in the 1966-67 season, and although both would go on to become all-time classics of popular culture, it was too little, too late for Ball. She and [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Gulf+Western]] chief executive Charles Bluhdorn announced on February 15, 1967 that his company had bought her out, effective at the end of the year. Gulf+Western had just bought out Paramount Pictures the year before, and it was the last remaining movie studio ''without'' a television production division; these had been very lucrative for other studios, particularly Creator/{{MGM}} and Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, helping them get through some ''very'' lean years at the box office, and Bluhdorn, one of the earliest practitioners of the conglomeration trend which would dominate Corporate America in the late-20th century, felt it would be cheaper and easier to just buy out an independent TV studio than start one from scratch. (This would later be proven wrong after he finally got a look at the production budget for ''Star Trek'', marking an ominous start to Paramount's ambivalent relationship with one of its most famous - and lucrative - properties... although to be fair he thought ''Mission: Impossible'' was ''also'' too expensive.)

Arnaz initially attempted to stay on as President after the divorce, but once CBS convinced Ball to return to weekly series television in 1962 with ''Series/TheLucyShow'', it soon became clear that one of them would have to leave. In the end it was Arnaz, who sold his half of the studio to Ball in 1963, making her the first female head of a Hollywood studio in history. This forced her to take a more active role in the studio's management, although by all accounts she was quite happy running ''The Lucy Show'' as her own personal fiefdom, leaving the studio's operations to the capable underlings that Arnaz had hired, and who had stayed on after he left. Although she took advantage of her newfound role as "the woman in charge" at Desilu for publicity purposes, and was actually a perfectly competent executive in her own right, she disliked running the studio and wanted nothing more than to continue playing "Lucy" without the distractions of running her studio. Still, she soldiered on with the job for a few years, and those talented underlings her ex-husband had hired showed remarkable willingness to take risks on unproven formats, including a WagonTrainToTheStars concept by ex-cop and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'' writer Creator/GeneRoddenberry he called ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]''. Not to be outdone, they also bought a concept by ''another'' former ''Have Gun -- Will Travel'' writer, Bruce Geller, called ''Series/MissionImpossible''. Both shows made it to the air in the 1966-67 season, and although both would go on to become all-time classics of popular culture, it was too little, too late for Ball. She and [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Gulf+Western]] chief executive Charles Bluhdorn announced on February 15, 1967 that his company had bought her out, effective at the end of the year. Gulf+Western had just bought out Paramount Pictures the year before, and it was the last remaining movie studio ''without'' a television production division; these had been very lucrative for other studios, particularly Creator/{{MGM}} and Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, helping them get through some ''very'' lean years at the box office, and Bluhdorn, one of the earliest practitioners of the conglomeration trend which would dominate Corporate America in the late-20th century, felt it would be cheaper and easier to just buy out an independent TV studio than start one from scratch. (This would later be proven wrong after he finally got a look at the production budget for ''Star Trek'', marking an ominous start to Paramount's ambivalent relationship with one of its most famous - and lucrative - properties... although to be fair he thought ''Mission: Impossible'' was ''also'' too expensive.)

Arnaz initially attempted to stay on as President after the divorce, but once CBS convinced Ball to return to weekly series television in 1962 with ''Series/TheLucyShow'', it soon became clear that one of them would have to leave. In the end it was Arnaz, who sold his half of the studio to Ball in 1963, making her the first female head of a Hollywood studio in history. This forced her to take a more active role in the studio's management, although by all accounts she was quite happy running ''The Lucy Show'' as her own personal fiefdom, leaving the studio's operations to the capable underlings that Arnaz had hired, and who had stayed on after he left. Although she took advantage of her newfound role as "the woman in charge" at Desilu for publicity purposes, and was actually a perfectly competent executive in her own right, she disliked running the studio and wanted nothing more than to play "Lucy". Still, she soldiered on with the job for a few years, and those talented underlings her ex-husband had hired showed remarkable willingness to take risks on unproven formats, including a WagonTrainToTheStars concept by ex-cop and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'' writer Creator/GeneRoddenberry he called ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]''. Not to be outdone, they also bought a concept by ''another'' former ''Have Gun -- Will Travel'' writer, Bruce Geller, called ''Series/MissionImpossible''. Both shows made it to the air in the 1966-67 season, and although both would go on to become all-time classics of popular culture, it was too little, too late for Ball. She and [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Gulf+Western]] chief executive Charles Bluhdorn announced on February 15, 1967 that his company had bought her out, effective at the end of the year. Gulf+Western had just bought out Paramount Pictures the year before, and it was the last remaining movie studio ''without'' a television production division; these had been very lucrative for other studios, particularly Creator/{{MGM}} and Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, helping them get through some ''very'' lean years at the box office, and Bluhdorn, one of the earliest practitioners of the conglomeration trend which would dominate Corporate America in the late-20th century, felt it would be cheaper and easier to just buy out an independent TV studio than start one from scratch. (This would later be proven wrong after he finally got a look at the production budget for ''Star Trek'', marking an ominous start to Paramount's ambivalent relationship with one of its most famous - and lucrative - properties... although to be fair he thought ''Mission: Impossible'' was ''also'' too expensive.)

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/TheLucyShow'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'', ''Series/ByTheNumbers'' and the TV version of ''Series/OurMissBrooks''. Desilu was also the sole backer of Ball's unsuccessful Broadway debut in the musical ''Wildcat'' (1960).

Which is to say: Desilu was responsible for a whole raft of [[TropeMaker Trope Making]] or [[TropeCodifier Codifying]] shows and is direly under-appreciated by many modern television viewers. If you consider yourself any kind of student of media history, you'll want to get very familiar with their shows.

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/TheLucyShow'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'', ''Series/ByTheNumbers'' and the TV version of ''Series/OurMissBrooks''. Desilu was also the sole backer of Ball's unsuccessful Broadway debut in the musical ''Wildcat'' (1960).

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Desilu_2275.jpg]]

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/TheLucyShow'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'', ''Series/ByTheNumbers'' and the TV version of ''Radio/OurMissBrooks''. Desilu was also the sole backer of Ball's unsuccessful Broadway debut in the musical ''Wildcat'' (1960).

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/TheLucyShow'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'', ''Series/ByTheNumbers'' and the TV version of ''Radio/OurMissBrooks''.

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/TheLucyShow'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'' and ''Series/ByTheNumbers''.

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'' and ''Series/ByTheNumbers''.

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'' and ''Series/ByTheNumbers''.

Originally founded by Desi Arnaz and Creator/LucilleBall to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'' and ''ByTheNumbers''.

Originally founded by '''Desi''' Arnaz and '''[[LucilleBall Lu]]'''[[LucilleBall cille Ball]] to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'', ''Series/TheUntouchables'' and ''ByTheNumbers''.

Originally founded by '''Desi''' Arnaz and '''[[LucilleBall Lu]]'''[[LucilleBall cille Ball]] to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'' and ''Series/TheUntouchables''.

Originally founded by '''Desi''' Arnaz and '''[[LucilleBall Lu]]'''[[LucilleBall cille Ball]] to produce ''Series/ILoveLucy'', the studio fell on hard times after Lucy and Desi divorced, and was the only studio willing to take the risk to produce Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' (probably figuring it had little to lose). Bought out and absorbed by Creator/{{Paramount}} during ''Trek'''s original production run. Their other productions included ''Series/MissionImpossible'', ''Series/{{Mannix}}'' and ''Series/TheUntouchables''.