A Day in the Life of Dennis Day (lost TV pilot; 1949)
Headshot of Dennis Day.
Status: Lost
A Day in the Life of Dennis Day is an American radio program broadcast on NBC from 1946 to 1951. The show stars popular singer and actor Dennis Day, playing a fictionalized version of himself, and co-stars Dink Trout, Bea Benaderet, and at different points Bettie Miles, Barbara Eiler, and Sharon Douglas. Dennis' character is a singing soda jerk in the town of Weaverville, who often gets himself into trouble with his naivety. Trout and Benaderet play Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, who own the boarding house Dennis lives at. Their daughter and Dennis' girlfriend, Mildred Anderson is played throughout the series by Miles, Eiler and Douglas.
TV pilot
In November 1949, a test pilot was filmed for a television adapation of the series by Jerry Fairbanks' studio, funded by Colgate-Palmolive (who also sponsored the radio program). News of the pilot was reported in the November 12, 1949 issue of Billboard magazine, noting that sponsor Colgate was "anxious to kick off the tele version of the successful radio show if costs and production can be held to current budget limits." [1] The series did not go any farther than this, and this pilot has never been released in any capacity. Black & white stills and negatives (either of the film itself or of the included stills) of some sort of Dennis Day project related to Palmolive, presumably this pilot, are known to be among Jerry Fairbanks Productions' records at UCLA, however they are not currently available online and only a brief description is provided.[2] A different television series starring Dennis Day debuted in 1953 titled The Dennis Day Show, however it is entirely unrelated to both the radio series and the test pilot.