Any Thoughts On Danny Thomas?

Yeah. There has to be a reason, Mike, though that the series was all black and white episodes hurts it (yet Van Dyke's show still has fans, as do the Addams and Munster shows and Gilligan for its first season or two, not to mention such outre non-comedy offerings as The Twilight Zone). Danny was, as Steve Allen once commented, not humble in his comedy. I wouldn't call him arrogant,--not even in your face--he's just an old-fashioned male of a certain generation. The same could be said for Archie Bunker, but that was the point of All In The Family.

I think that the classic and beloved status of certain TV shows and their holding up to the test of time (or not) is a bit of a mystery. Even something like the big syndication hit The Big Valley, also popular in its day but not at the same level, is somewhat puzzling when compared to the more popular, in the same era The Virginian not being so big a syndication hit. Hazel is a near forgotten sitcom that run around the same period as Van Dyke's show and dang near nobody talks about it, much less watches it in reruns.

Gilligan's Island was somewhat of a cult kid show in its day, and that makes its enduring popularity more understandable. Oddly, though, McHale's Navy, a bigger success,--and it spawned two movies--seems to have less of a fan base. Go figure. Black and white may be a factor here as well. To return to Danny Thomas: his gruffness and controlling nature, which was part of its charm back in the day, is now non-p.c. even as the show itself isn't.

Also, there's something about Danny's "pious air", especially when he knows he's wrong, that (if you'll pardon the expression) reeks of pre-Vatican II America: he lowers his voice, alters its tone, sounds like he's in Confession. This is totally alien to younger viewers, and a distant memory to Boomers who remember those days. There's an episode of Naked City of the same period, about an aging Italian immigrant with a young, bodacious wife, played by the gorgeous Marisa Pavan, who wants an annulment, which the parish priest won't allow. It's heartbreaking to watch, yet at the end she and her damn near ancient hubby stay together, and as the narrative makes clear, it's a Good Thing, the Right Thing. Yet watching it I could almost have wept for her and her fate. Maybe there's something similar, albeit less tragic, with Danny, as in "why doesn't someone put this guy in his place?".