Wednesday, April 21
9:00PM TV Land Moguls: The 50's: Television's Golden Age. Celebrated television icons Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas developed breakthrough television production and 3-camera filming before a live audience. They were instrumental in moving TV production to Los Angeles and brought quality, character driven sitcoms that were ratings winners.
(Reairs: Thursday, April 22 at 8:00am; Friday, April 23 at 5:00pm; Saturday, April 24 at 8:00pm; Sunday, April 25 at 9:00am, Monday, April 26 at 2:00am; Tuesday, April 27 at 11:00am; and Wednesday, April 28 at 6:00pm.)
Programming from the Moguls 50's episode 10pm-1:30am (Reairs: Sunday, April 25 10am-1:30pm)
10:00PM I Love Lucy (TV Land Mogul: Desi Arnaz) #30 "Lucy Does a TV Commercial"
10:30PM The Lucy Show (TV Land Mogul: Lucille Ball) #42 "The Loophole in the Lease"
11:00PM Star Trek (TV Land Mogul: Gene Roddenberry): #42 TBA title
12:00AM Make Room for Daddy (TV Land Mogul: Danny Thomas) #1 TBA title
12:30AM The Andy Griffith Show (TV Land Moguls: Sheldon Leonard & Danny Thomas) #96 "Briscoe Delcares for Aunt Bee"
1:00AM The Dick Van Dyke Show (TV Land Moguls: Sheldon Leonard & Danny Thomas) #51 "It May Look Like a Walnut"

The real question is whether TV Land will show the actual first episode of the series, featuring Jean Hagen as Danny's first wife, or if it's the first episode of the standard syndication package, in which Danny and Kathy return from their honeymoon. Knowing TV Land, it's probably the latter.

Originally posted by TV Guy
The real question is whether TV Land will show the actual first episode of the series, featuring Jean Hagen as Danny's first wife, or if it's the first episode of the standard syndication package, in which Danny and Kathy return from their honeymoon. Knowing TV Land, it's probably the latter.

That sort of answers my question I was getting ready to post. Did Nick at Nite air only the Kathy-Linda years of the show? Growing up watching it on N@N, I wasn't aware there was a show with out those two characters. And when I realized there were 11 seasons, I figured N@N didn't air the complete series. Plus I don't remember Danny's first wife or Terry, the original daughter.

The Nick at Nite package, as well as the original broadcast syndication package, starts the series with season 5, right as Danny and Kathy return from their honeymoon. Danny's daughter from his first marriage, Terry, is around for the fifth season and there is some friction between her and new stepmother Kathy. But Terry disappears after that fifth season to go away to school (she briefly returns, played by a different actress, a few years later).

In the show's first three seasons, Danny was married to Margaret and the two kids were Terry and Rusty. After Jean Hagen left, Danny was a widower for a season, and he started dating Kathy at the end of the fourth year. These first four years were never syndicated, although NBC did rerun some of them in its daytime lineup in the early 60s.

When the producers prepared the syndication package, there were more episodes than local stations were willing to buy. So the distributor decided to go with the format and episodes that were best known by the viewers (the show didn't become a big hit until after Danny's remarriage). Some of these early episodes have apparently fallen into the public domain, and have since been rerun by some regional cable networks.

Episode title update:

Wednesday, April 21
12:00AM Make Room for Daddy (TV Land Mogul: Danny Thomas) #85 "Danny Meets Andy Griffith"

That's a funny episode.

I caught this last night. It was pretty cool, but it was more like watching TAGS than MRFD.

Originally posted by hawaii five-o
I caught this last night. It was pretty cool, but it was more like watching TAGS than MRFD.

I'm going to catch it on Sunday morning. So was it really the pilot or the Andy Griffith episode?

It was the "Andy Griffith Show" pilot, which aired as an episode of "Make Room for Daddy" (complete with MRFD opening and closing credits). In this episode, Danny and family pass through Mayberry, and Danny gets into some trouble.