The Danny Kaye Show

- Season 1

(1963)

Sketches include a Egyptian/Roman procession featuring a surprise appearance by Jack Benny, three parodies of famous Broadway musicals using baseball themes, a sketch about a nervous first-time airplane passenger and a night club trio performing on a rotating bandstand. Danny also perform several musical numbers, either solo or as a duet with Lovelady Powell.

Episode focuses on a musical revue based on what William Shakespeare might have produced if he had written "Hamlet" as a song-and-dance television spectacular with Jose Ferrer playing the title role and Kaye appearing as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Other sketches include two astronauts in space and a private attempting to impersonate a German officer at the behest of British Intelligence

Kaye and his guests perform sketches about an Indian trio attempting to communicate in sign language, a romantic triangle involving a short-order cook, his dissatisfied wife and a trucker who is willing to murder to get what he wants and a dentist patient who is tormented by several noisy men. Kaye also performs songs solo and with Carol Lawrence and Joe and Eddie.

Danny and his guests parody popular sitcoms "Father Knows Best" and "The Beverly Hillbillies". Danny laments the replacement of telephone exchanges with area codes. Danny demonstrates his ability to dance a soft shoe number and performs revives some song-and-dance numbers popular during vaudeville with Mary Tyler Moore and Eddie Foy Jr.

Danny reminisces and dances with special guest Gene Kelly. Sketch topics include an important business lunch distracted by fashion show, a television program involving an interview with a famous Viennese beauty entrepreneur. Danny performs songs with Michelle Lee and the Clinger Sisters and sings several tunes solo.

Danny and his guests parody a series of Westerns by setting stereotypical oaters in Scotland and Russia. Later the cast performs a take-off on the James Bond thriller, "Dr. No". Danny recollects working with Sir Harry Lauter and performs several songs that the Scottish performer made famous. Juliet Prowse and the Levee Singers perform several numbers.

Danny welcomes his special guests, actor Art Carney and singer Joanie Summers. Harvey Korman and Jamie Farr join Carney and Danny in several sketches. Pretty brunette Summers performs several songs, both by herself and in a duet with Danny. Danny performs one number solo, as does the house singing group, The Clinger Sisters.

Danny and Louis Jourdan join the Tony Charmoli Dancers is two numbers - the first where an American football game is dramatized in an opera with Eileen Farrell. Another number where they sing and dance to "Walk Right In". Carl Ballantine portrays an inept magician. Danny and his guests appear in several comic sketches about jealousy set in the United States, Italy and Turkey.

Danny is joined by singer/dancer Gwen Verdon who performs three dances set to nursery rhymes. Danny, Gwen and Harvey Korman play medieval jesters who try to help a prince remember how to laugh. Danny and Gwen play newlyweds who stop at a drive-in-restaurant and are the victims of a number of pratfalls caused by the staff.

Danny and his guest, Nancy Walker, appear in several sketches comparing traditional Shakespearean acting with current British theater technique. Walker appears in a opera sketch as a chorus girl thrust into the limelight as an emergency replacement for the show's star. In another sketch a hypnotist discovers his maid is a marvelous vocalist - but only when she has a mop in her hand.

Danny welcomes his guests Glynis Johns, Jo Stafford and folk trio 'The Big 3' (Cass Elliott, Tim Rose and Jim Hendricks). Stafford performs several solo numbers and a duet with Danny. The Big 3 perform a song of their first album, "Rider". Danny performs a song-and-dance number with British actress Johns.

Danny stars with guest star Howard Morris in a spoof about Robin Hood and His Merrie Men. He, Julie Newmar and the Tony Charmoli Dancers dance to "Simon Says".

In this Christmas-themed show, Danny welcomes as his guests Andy Williams, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. Danny and Dick are featured in a song-and-dance number, 'Puttin on the Ritz'. The featured comedy skit has Van Dyke portraying a tough as nails prosecutor locking horns with a seedy defense attorney during a murder trail were both lawyers play to television cameras in the courtroom.

Danny welcomes guests Nat 'King' Cole, Mary Tyler Moore and The Clinger Sisters. Sketches include a parody of "The Student Prince" and another featuring Danny and Mary playing wealthy socialites.

Musical guest Esquivel and His Mexican Group bring their unique lounge music style to the Kaye program and are featured in a lengthy Lawrence of Arabia dance sequence. Featured skits include Jack Weston as a barber and Nita Talbot as a manicurist who engage in a lover's spat. Danny appears in his role as Mme. Schmeckenvasser who hosts a children's television program called Dingle Dangle School

Danny is joined by comic actor Terry-Thomas, singer Marilyn Lovell and the Maori Dancers. In the primary skits, Terry-Thomas, playing a stern ocean liner captain, must deal with the Danny, who can't quite get the hang of serving as a waiter on a sea-going vessel. In another sketch, Danny and Terry-Thomas are seen as Allied prisoners-of-war who hatch a desperate scheme to escape from their P.O.W. camp

Danny is joined by singers Dorothy Collins, Marilyn Lovell and the Clinger Sisters, as well as actor Jackie Cooper. Danny and Jackie review a famous movie actor's career in one skit and Danny plays a marriage counselor whose assistance is hindered by the thick accent with which he gives it. The star is featured in his song-and-dance number, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane".

Rod Serling, Art Carney and folk duo Joe and Eddie join Danny's show this week. Danny is planning a surprise birthday party, but gets nothing but interference from an electrician played by Art. The featured skit is a parody of "The Twilight Zone" with Rod Serling providing the narration to the strange tale of a man who parachutes into a country ruled by a 400-year-old man.

Danny is joined by guest Diahann Carroll in a medley of silly songs. Diahann later sings "Johnny One Note." Skits include include Danny as a nervous new dad and Norman a menacing villain El Dunno. Danny performs "Put On a Happy Face."

Danny is joined by comedian Imogene Coca, dancer Laurie Ichino and the folk duo Joe and Eddie. Skits include a friendly game between Imogene and Danny that turns into anything but. Later the cast performs a parody of films about the Northwest Canadian Police called "Die Fledermountie". The Tony Charmoli Dancers perform a can-can and Danny dances with Imogene and Laurie in a couple of numbers.

Danny is joined by actor Peter Falk, Dixieland jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain and pretty chanteuse Michelle Lee. Peter and Danny play men sharing a hospital room who find themselves completely incompatible. In another skit, Danny plays a British spy who runs afoul of an Arab sheik played by Falk. Danny joins Pete Fountain on a grand old Dixieland tune and Michelle Lee sings a set of Broadway hits.

Danny is joined by British actor John Mills; his daughter, Hayley Mills and folk duo Joe and Eddie. Featured skits are Danny and Hayley playing father and daughter where Danny suddenly discovers his pretty girl has matured more rapidly than he realized. Danny and John are featured in a skit parodying "Mutiny on the Bounty". In another sketch, Danny, Hayley and John have troubles at a French customs station.

Guest stars Buddy Ebsen and Howard Morris are featured in a skit about a hillbilly family who meet a folk song researcher trying to get them to record their version of a tune for posterity. In another skit, Danny tries to discretely remove an obnoxious guest from his party with little success. Danny sings a duet with pretty Marilyn Lovell and does a song-and-dance routine with Buddy.

Danny's guests include Art Carney, Harvey Korman and the Maori Dancers. Sketches include Art playing a prospective suitor making his pitch for the hand of Danny's daughter in marriage and a prison skit where Art plans a desperate escape, with Prison Warden Korman and Danny, a man who's spent the last 11 years in solitary confinement as impediments to his plans.

Danny is joined by special guest Diahann Carroll. Sketches include Danny cast as an interpreter assigned to a banquet. He struggles when a Frenchman and an American nearly come to blows over pictures of their grandchildren. In another sketch, Danny plays a barber who must deal with a little boy who is getting his first haircut.

Danny is joined by comedians Nancy Walker, Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller and folk singing duo Joe and Eddie. Skits include Danny and Nancy playing a down-and-out London couple, The Kinderspiel Light Opera Company performing their production of "Sheiks in Toyland" where a dastardly Arab holds a seductive French woman prisoner and another skit with Anne and Jerry playing their trademark bickering spouses.

Danny is joined by singer Tony Bennett and comic actor Howard Morris. Danny and Howard are featured in a espionage spoof with Danny playing the suave British agent James Blond and Howard playing Blond's nemesis Dr. Yes. In another sketch, Howard plays a helpful Italian mail man who agrees to read a letter from his son to an illiterate tailor.

Danny is joined by guests Dorothy Collins, Howard Morris and Laurie Ichino. In one sketch, Danny plays a wallflower who is persuaded by his friend to attend a Lonely Hearts dance with surprising results. In another, Danny plays a skilled matador who meets a bull who might be his match. In musical interludes, Danny sings "Gigi" and dances with Laurie to "Change Partners".

Danny is joined by Jim Nabors, Bea Benaderet and Andy Griffith for some southern-fried comedy and music. In the biggest sketch, "The Long, Hot Supper", Danny plays a tyrannical family patriarch, Bea plays his genteel wife and Jim plays the weak-willed son. Jim sings "I Ain't Down Yet". The entire cast joins in the closing number.

Guests include actors Mary Tyler Moore and Harvey Korman and the singing group, The Youngfolk. In one sketch Danny discovers the beautiful Queen of the Jungle played by Mary. In another sketch Danny is an Irish folk singer who has won the heart of a raven-haired colleen and must now persuade her pub-owner father that he'll make a good husband when all others who have tried before him have failed.

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For the season finale, Danny has comedienne Pat Carroll and pianists Ferrante and Teicher as guests. In three short skits, Pat and Danny demonstrate the different reactions anticipated if a wife wrecks the family car in France, Germany and Italy. In other sketch, Pat plays a hypochondriac whom Danny must treat in his role as a male nurse.