Desilu

Desilu Productions, Inc. () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Mannix, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Until 1962, Desilu was the second-largest independent television production company in the United States, trailing only MCA's Revue Studios. However, MCA acquired Universal Pictures, transforming Desilu into the undisputed number-one independent production company. This status remained unchallenged until Ball sold Desilu to Gulf and Western Industries, which was then the parent company of Paramount Pictures, in 1968. Ball and Arnaz jointly owned the majority stake in Desilu from its inception until 1962, when Ball bought out Arnaz and ran the company by herself for several years. Ball had succeeded in making Desilu profitable again by 1968, when she sold her shares of Desilu to Gulf+Western for $17 million (valued at $160 million in 2024). Gulf+Western then transformed Desilu into the television production arm of Paramount Pictures, rebranding the company as the original Paramount Television. Desilu's entire library is owned by Paramount Skydance through two of its subsidiaries. The CBS unit owns all Desilu properties that were produced and concluded before 1960, which were sold to CBS by Desilu itself. Its CBS Studios unit owns the rights to everything Desilu produced after 1960 as successor in interest to Paramount Television. There is a street named after Desilu in San Antonio, Texas.