Family Togetherness and The Donna Reed Show
by Guy Belleranti
Television featured a number of situation comedies with families as the
focus during the 1950’s and 1960’s. One of the longer running ones was
The Donna Reed Show. Airing from 1958 to 1966 on ABC the half hour
program ran for 275 black and white episodes.
The star of the program was, of course, actress Donna Reed (leading lady
in such movies as The Picture of Dorian Gray and It’s A Wonderful Life).
She played Donna Stone, a housewife and mother to two children. When she
wasn’t busy dealing with parenting challenges she also helped out as a
nurse in her husband’s pediatrician practice.
Carl Betz played the husband, Dr. Alex Stone. He ran his practice from
his office located at the family’s home.
The two children were Mary and Jeff. Mary was portrayed by Shelley
Fabares, and Jeff by Paul Peterson (who had been a Mouseketeer for a
short time on The Mickey Mouse Club).
Fabares left the show in 1963, her character being written out as going
away to college. However, in real life Shelley Fabares was leaving to
pursue both new acting and singing opportunities. In 1962, while still
on the program, Fabares had a number 1 hit single called “Johnny Angel”.
Peterson, meanwhile, had also become a pop star, recording a couple hits
including the song “My Dad” in 1963.
When Mary’s character left for college a new child joined the family in
Trisha Stone. Played by Paul Peterson’s real life sister Patti, Trisha
was an orphan. She did have a guardian uncle, but she was granted her
wish to live with the Stone family.
Another person who was a program for a time (1963-1965) was Bob Crane
(later to star in Hogan’s Heroes) as Dr. Dave Kelsey.
There were also several interesting guest stars. One was Buster Keaton
who appeared twice on the program. Two others were Don Drysdale and
Willie Mays. Both of these baseball greats appeared on the show as
themselves.
The Donna Reed Show fit in well with the other suburban TV families of
the time, the type portrayed in such classic programs as
Leave it to
Beaver,
Father Knows Best and
My Three Sons. Like Beaver and the others,
The Donna Reed Show provided sweet and wholesome entertainment, where
family love always overcame life’s challenges.
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