- The Donna Reed Show
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The Donna Reed Show 
First season title screenGenre Sitcom Starring Donna Reed
Carl Betz
Shelley Fabares
Paul Petersen
Patty PetersenTheme music composer John Seely Opening theme "Happy Days" Composer(s) Irving Friedman
William Loose
Stu Phillips
Hans J. SalterCountry of origin United States Language(s) English No. of seasons 8 No. of episodes 275 Production Producer(s) Tony Owen
Bill RobertEditor(s) Richard Fantl
Robert B. HooverCinematography Gert Andersen Running time 22–24 minutes Production company(s) Screen Gems
TodonBroadcast Original channel ABC Picture format Black-and-white Audio format Monaural Original run September 24, 1958 – March 19, 1966 The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September 24, 1958 to March 19, 1966. When Fabares left the show in 1964, Petersen's little sister Patty Petersen joined the cast as adopted daughter Trisha.
Bob Crane and Ann McCrea appeared in the last seasons as the Kelseys, friends of the Stones, and Darryl Richard became a near regular as Smitty, Jeff's best buddy. The show featured a variety of celebrity guests including Esther Williams as a famous dress designer, baseball superstars Don Drysdale and Willie Mays as themselves, teen heartthrob James Darren as a pop singer with the measles, canine superstar Lassie as herself, and young Jay North as Dennis the Menace.
The series was created by William Roberts and developed by Reed and her husband, producer Tony Owen. Episodes revolved around typical upper middle class family problems of the period such as firing a clumsy housekeeper, throwing a retirement bash for a colleague, and finding quality time away from the kids. Edgy themes such as women's rights and freedom of the press were occasionally explored.
The show had an uncertain start in the ratings and was almost cancelled, but fared better when it was moved from Wednesday to Thursday nights. In the show's middle seasons, Fabares sang what became a #1 teen pop hit "Johnny Angel", and Petersen had above average success with the song "My Dad", also introduced during the course of the series.
The Donna Reed Show was one of television's top 25 shows in 1963-64. Reed was repeatedly nominated for Emmy Awards between 1959 and 1962, and won a Golden Globe as Best Female TV Star in 1963. She eventually grew tired of the work-a-day grind involved in the show, and it was cancelled in 1966 after 275 episodes.
The series was sponsored by Campbell Soup Company, with Johnson & Johnson as the principal alternate sponsor (succeeded in the fall of 1963 by The Singer Company).[1] Following first-run, the show entered syndication and reruns were seen on Nick at Nite and TVLand for several years. The first three seasons have been released on DVD and other seasons are planned for release.
Contents
Plot
Donna is the wife of Dr. Alex Stone, a pediatrician practicing in fictional Hilldale, and the mother of teenagers Mary and Jeff. The plot revolves around the lightweight and humorous sorts of situations and problems a middle class family experienced in the late 1950s and the early 1960s.
Donna, for example, would sometimes find herself swamped with the demands of community theatricals and charity drives; Mary had problems juggling boyfriends and finding dresses to wear to one party or another; and Jeff was often caught in situations appropriate to his age and gender such as joining a secret boys' club, avoiding love-smitten classmates, or bidding at auction on an old football uniform.
Alex was the family's Rock of Gibralter, but often found himself in situations that tested his patience: in one episode for example, Donna volunteered him as the judge of a baby contest, and, in another episode, Mary insisted her gawky, geeky boyfriend was the spitting image of her father. Very occasionally eccentric relatives would descend on the Stones to complicate the household situation.
When Mary left for college in the middle seasons, a runaway orphan named Trisha was adopted by the family. In the last seasons, Jeff would spend much time with best buddy Smitty, and Donna and Alex would find best friends in Dave Kelsey, Alex's professional colleague, and his wife Midge. While mainly concerned with mundane household and family affairs, the show sometimes addressed edgier issues such as women's rights ("Just a Housewife") and freedom of the press ("The Editorial").
Production
From the 1958 first season (L-R): Donna Reed as Donna Stone, Paul Petersen as Jeff Stone, Carl Betz as Dr. Alex Stone, and Shelley Fabares as Mary Stone
David Tucker writes in The Women Who Made Television Funny that most family sitcoms of the 1950s such as Father Knows Best, The Life of Riley, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet focused on the father figure with the mother as "adjunct". He points out however that The Donna Reed Show "established the primacy of the mother on the domestic front" and notes that Mother Knows Better was briefly considered as the show's title.[2]
The series was created by William Roberts and developed by Reed and her husband, producer Tony Owen. Roberts intended the show to respectfully picture the many demanding roles a stay-at-home woman was expected to master - wife, mom, companion, housekeeper, cook, laundress, seamstress, PTA officer, choir singer, scout leader, etc. - all the while being "effervescent, immaculate, and pretty."[2] Reed stated, "We started breaking rules right and left. We had a female lead, for one thing, a strong, healthy woman. We had a story line told from a woman's point of view that wasn't soap opera."[2]
In its first year on the struggling ABC network, the show was up against Milton Berle's popular Texaco Star Theater and Reed ratings were low. ABC nearly cancelled the show, but it was renewed and ratings improved when the show was moved from Wednesday to Thursday nights. The series flourished for the next seven years, but made television's top 25 only in 1963-1964. The opening credits showed Reed answering a telephone ringing off the hook.
She hands the receiver to Alex and watches the children rush off to school with lunches and schoolbooks in hand. Alex leaves, forgetting to kiss Donna good-bye, but returns as she closes the door to give her a quick buss. She closes the door and smiles happily. A late series variant showed Donna departing after her husband, possibly for shopping, church or community matters, or some other concern. Reed brought personal friends Esther Williams, Jimmy Hawkins, and Buster Keaton to the show in guest spots.[2]
In 1962 Fabares debuted her single "Johnny Angel" in the episode "Donna's Prima Donna". It rose to #1 and sold over a million copies.[3] Petersen introduced his single "My Dad" the same year. It peaked at #6.[3]
By the start of the 1962–1963 season, Reed felt the writers were running out of fresh ideas. With Fabares planning to leave at the end of the season, Reed decided to end the show in the spring of 1963. However, since the series was still very popular, ABC offered Reed a more lucrative contract and, the show was renewed for another three years.
Episodes per season were cut back and work hours were shortened to please Reed.[2] In 1963, the Mary character went to college, and Fabares left the show to pursue other performing opportunities. She returned to the show occasionally for guest appearances. Following Fabares's departure, Petersen's real-life sister Patty Petersen joined the show as Trisha, a runaway orphan eventually adopted by the Stones.[4]
In the spring of 1966, Reed had grown tired of the weekly grind and wanted to retire despite the show's decent ratings. After 275 episodes and eight successful seasons on ABC, The Donna Reed Show was cancelled. Reed expressed no interest in taking on another series, declined television guest appearances, and shunned films because she thought their depictions of women vapid.
She expressed interest in a television reunion for the Stone family at one point, but the concept was discarded when Betz died in 1978. Tucker writes that women libbers of the 1970s targeted the Donna Stone character as an unrealistic portrait of a modern woman and a stereotype of the impossibly perfect wife and mother. He believes Reed "gave motherhood a tinge of glamor it usually lacked on TV".[2]
Characters and cast
Main
- Donna Stone (Donna Reed) is the idealized upper middle class housewife to Alex, and the mother of Mary and Jeff. She grew up on a farm, and became a nurse. She sometimes works as a nurse on the show. Donna was married to Alex when she was 18 and the couple live in fictional Hilldale. She participates in community activities such as charity campaigns and amateur theatricals. Like several television wives and mothers of the 1950s, she inexplicably wears heels, pearls, and chic frocks to do the housework.
- Alex Stone (Carl Betz) is a pediatrician. Like most television couples of the 1950s, Alex and Donna sleep in twin beds. The two show a physical affection for each other slightly more intense than other television couples of the period.
- Mary Stone (Shelley Fabares) is 14 "almost fifteen" and a freshman in high school when the show opens. She has a few boyfriends during the course of the show with Jimmy Hawkins as Scotty being a regular. Mary plays the piano like a professional and studies ballet. She leaves the show to attend college.
- Jeff Stone (Paul Petersen) is "almost twelve" when the show opens. He is a typical American boy; he plays sports, likes to eat, and teases his older sister. Jeff is a complex character: he champions the underdog at school but cheats at board games. Atypical for the fictional children in 1960s sitcoms, Jeff and Mary often get away with "talking back" to their parents.
- Trisha (Patty Petersen) is a runaway orphan about age 6 the Stones adopt after Mary leaves for college. She remained for the duration.
Secondary
- Dr. Dave Kelsey (Bob Crane) and his wife Midge (Ann McCrea) are friends of the Stones. Dave is Alex's colleague, and appeared 1963–65. Midge appeared 1963–66. Dave virtually disappeared after Crane received his own series, Hogan's Heroes.
- Uncle Bo (Jack Kelk) is Dr. Boland, Alex's bachelor colleague and friend in the first season.
- Morton "Smitty" Smith (Darryl Richard) is Jeff's best friend and first appeared on the show in 1962.
- Zachary Blake Stephen Pearson) is Jeff's friend in the early seasons.
- Herbie (Tommy Ivo) is Mary's fairly regular boyfriend.
- Scotty (Jimmy Hawkins) is Mary's boyfriend. He appeared in two first season episodes as her boyfriend George Haskell.
- Roger (Jan Stine) is Mary's boyfriend in several third season episodes.
- Babs (Melinda Plowman) is Mary's first season best girlfriend.
- Mr. and Mrs. Wilgus (Howard McNear and Kathleen Freeman) are busybody Stone neighbors in season one.
- Lydia Langley (Mary Shipp) is Donna's snobbish acquaintance in the early seasons.
Guests
- Jack Albertson and Cheerio Meredith appeared in "Alex's Twin"
- Estelle Winwood and Margaret Dumont guest starred in "Miss Lovelace Comes To Tea" (1959).
- Swimmer Esther Williams appeared in the second season episode, "The Career Woman" (1960). In real life, Williams and Reed were close friends and had been so since the early 1940s when they were rising MGM contract stars.
- Lassie and film director George Sidney appear in "The Stones Go To Hollywood" (1961). The episode plugged Sidney's current feature film, Pepe. Reed made a cameo appearance in the film.
- Jay North appeared in one 1960 episode, "Donna Decorates", as his television character, Dennis the Menace. Joseph Kearns appeared in the same episode as his character in North's series, Mr. Wilson.
- Cloris Leachman and John Astin are featured in the fourth season episode, "Mouse At Play" (1961).
- Don Drysdale appeared as himself in two 1964 episodes, "Play Ball" and "My Son the Catcher".
- Willie Mays appeared in three episodes as himself: "Play Ball" and "My Son the Catcher" (both 1964) and "Calling Willie Mays" (1966).
- Buster Keaton guest starred in two episodes, "A Very Merry Christmas" (1958) as a hospital janitor who brings gifts to the children's ward and "Now You See It, Now You Don't" (1965).
- Miyoshi Umeki appeared in "The Geisha Girl" (1961) and "Aloha, Kimi" (1962).
- Binnie Barnes guest starred in two episodes, "Just a Little Wedding" (1963) and the final episode "By-Line: Jeff Stone" (1966).
- Judson Pratt appeared as Metcalfe in "Is There a Small Hotel?"
- George Hamilton appeared in a first season episode as Mary's blind date.
- Lesley Gore played herself in the final episode "By-Line: Jeffrey Stone" (1966).
- James Darren played pop singer Buzz Berry in a first season episode.
- Johnny Washbrook, star of the television drama My Friend Flicka, appeared once as a boy named Bill.
- Gary Lockwood played a soldier with a crush on Mary.
- Lee Aaker, star of television's The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, played a shy, stuttering boy who became Mary's partner in a school dance show.
- Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess portrayed Mary's football player boyfriend. Burgess later became a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show.
Syndication and DVD releases
The series was originally syndicated by Screen Gems, and, later, Columbia Pictures Television and Sony Pictures Television. In 2008, Sony lost the full rights to the estates of Donna Reed and Tony Owen, and as a result the series is now rarely seen on television, although reruns aired on Nick at Nite from 1985 through 1994 and on TV Land in 2002.
For a limited time in 2004, General Mills offered a DVD of two episodes inside boxes of Total cereal and Oatmeal Crisp.[5] Virgil Films and Entertainment (under license from the estates of Donna Reed and Tony Owen) released the first three seasons of the show on DVD in Region 1. Virgil also released a 4-episode "best of" DVD on April 13, 2010.[6] On December 17, 2010, it was announced that MPI Home Video had acquired the rights to release seasons 4 and 5 of The Donna Reed Show. Season 4 will be released on December 13, 2011 and Season 5 sometime to be announced in 2012.[7]
Season Ep # Release Date Season 1 37 October 28, 2008 Season 2 38 July 28, 2009 Season 3 38 December 1, 2009 Season 4 39 December 13, 2011 Awards and nominations
Year Award Result Category Recipient 1959 Emmy Awards Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series Donna Reed 1960 Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead or Support) Donna Reed 1961 Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) Donna Reed 1962 Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) Donna Reed 1963 Golden Globe Award Won Best TV Star – Female Donna Reed 1994 Young Artist Awards Won Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award Shelley Fabares 1997 Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award Paul Petersen 2004 TV Land Award Nominated Favorite Teen Dream – Female Shelley Fabares References
- ^ Leibman, Nina Clare (1995). Living Room Lectures: The Fifties Family in Film and Television. University of Texas Press. pp. 58. ISBN 0-292-74684-9.
- ^ a b c d e f Tucker, David C.. The women who made television funny: ten stars of 1950s sitcoms. McFarland. pp. 109ff.
- ^ a b Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits: The Inside Story Behind Every Number One Single on Billboard's Hot 100 from 1955 to the Present. Billboard Books. pp. 107. ISBN 0-823-07677-6.
- ^ Fultz, Jay (1998). In Search of Donna Reed. University of Iowa Press. pp. 151. ISBN 0-877-45625-9.
- ^ Lambert, David (2004-01-09). "Site News – Sony, General Mills serve TV-on-DVD for Breakfast: King Of Queens, Barney Miller, Mad About You, & Donna Reed". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Site-News/951.
- ^ Lambert, David (2010-02-10). "The Donna Reed Show – Box Front Art Changes on Virgil's 'Family Favorites' DVD". tvshowsondvd.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Donna-Reed-4-Family-Favorites/13327. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ^ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Donna-Reed-Seasons-4-and-5/14823M
External links
Categories:- 1958 television series debuts
- 1966 television series endings
- 1950s American television series
- 1960s American television series
- American Broadcasting Company network shows
- American television sitcoms
- Black-and-white television programs
- English-language television series
- Television series by Sony Pictures Television
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