"The Donna Reed Show" (1958) TV series 1958-1966

Creator:

William Roberts
(more)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Release Date:

24 September 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family

Plot:

Another popular 1950's sitcom about a close family. The Stones consist of loving homemaker Donna, her pediatrician husband Alex...

Plot Keywords:

Sitcom | Mother Daughter Relationship | Doctor | Sibling Rivalry | Mother Son Relationship

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Donna Reed	...	Donna Stone (275 episodes, 1958-1966)
Carl Betz	...	Dr. Alex Stone (275 episodes, 1958-1966)
Paul Petersen	...	Jeff Stone (275 episodes, 1958-1966)
Shelley Fabares	...	Mary Stone (191 episodes, 1958-1965)

Series Directed by
Oscar Rudolph		(50 episodes, 1958-1960)
Andrew McCullough		(29 episodes, 1958-1966)
Jeffrey Hayden		(21 episodes, 1960-1962)
Robert Ellis Miller		(20 episodes, 1959-1961)
Gene Nelson		(18 episodes, 1962-1965)
Lawrence Dobkin		(17 episodes, 1960-1966)
Norman Tokar		(16 episodes, 1960-1962)
Barry Shear		(14 episodes, 1961-1964)
Frederick De Cordova		(4 episodes, 1964-1965)
Alan Rafkin		(3 episodes, 1965)
Hy Averback		(2 episodes, 1960)
Gene Reynolds		(2 episodes, 1964)
Jerrold Bernstein		(2 episodes, 1965)
E.W. Swackhamer		(2 episodes, 1965)
Lee Philips		(2 episodes, 1966)

Series Writing credits
William Roberts		(275 episodes, 1958-1966)
John Whedon		(35 episodes, 1958-1962)
Nate Monaster		(31 episodes, 1958-1961)
Paul West		(23 episodes, 1962-1966)
Barbara Avedon		(20 episodes, 1960-1966)
Alfred Lewis Levitt		(17 episodes, 1959-1962)
Helen Levitt		(10 episodes, 1960-1962)
Henry Sharp		(8 episodes, 1958-1961)
Phil Sharp		(6 episodes, 1960-1964)
Sam Locke		(6 episodes, 1964-1965)
Joel Rapp		(6 episodes, 1964-1965)
Bob Fisher		(5 episodes, 1958-1959)
Alan Lipscott		(5 episodes, 1958-1959)
Jerry Davis		(4 episodes, 1959)
Clifford Goldsmith		(4 episodes, 1960-1966)
Phil Davis		(4 episodes, 1962-1963)
Andrew McCullough		(3 episodes, 1960-1966)
Howard Snyder		(3 episodes, 1960-1961)
Hugh Wedlock Jr.		(3 episodes, 1960-1961)
Frank Tarloff		(3 episodes, 1960)
Ben Gershman		(3 episodes, 1962-1964)
Sumner Arthur Long		(3 episodes, 1962)
Erna Lazarus		(3 episodes, 1963-1966)
Milton Pascal		(3 episodes, 1964-1965)
Jack Harvey		(3 episodes, 1965-1966)
Irving Taylor		(3 episodes, 1965-1966)
Phil Leslie		(2 episodes, 1958-1964)
Peggy Chantler Dick		(2 episodes, 1958)
William Cowley		(2 episodes, 1958)
Seymour Friedman		(2 episodes, 1960-1963)
Douglas Morrow		(2 episodes, 1960-1961)
Andy White		(2 episodes, 1961-1962)
Tommy Tomlinson		(2 episodes, 1964)
Jack Raymond		(2 episodes, 1966)

Series Produced by
Tony Owen	....	producer / executive producer (245 episodes, 1958-1966)
Phil Sharp	....	associate producer (76 episodes, 1959-1961)
Paul West	....	associate producer / producer (75 episodes, 1961-1963)
William Roberts	....	associate producer (37 episodes, 1958-1959)

Series Original Music by
Stu Phillips		(30 episodes, 1963-1966)
Van Alexander		(4 episodes, 1963)
William Loose		(2 episodes, 1963)

Series Cinematography by
Gert Andersen		(225 episodes, 1958-1965)
Frederick Gately		(18 episodes, 1965-1966)

Series Film Editing by
Richard Fantl		(51 episodes, 1959-1961)
Robert B. Hoover		(28 episodes, 1962-1965)
Fredrick Y. Smith		(18 episodes, 1958-1962)
Michael Luciano		(12 episodes, 1958)

Series Art Direction by
Ross Bellah		(95 episodes, 1959-1966)
Robert Purcell		(87 episodes, 1960-1966)
Cary Odell		(32 episodes, 1960-1961)
Robert Peterson		(18 episodes, 1958-1959)
Paul Palmentola		(16 episodes, 1958-1959)
Phillip Bennett		(15 episodes, 1959-1960)
John T. McCormack		(4 episodes, 1959)
Carl Anderson		(3 episodes, 1959)

Series Set Decoration by
Louis Diage		(94 episodes, 1958-1965)
Morris Hoffman		(38 episodes, 1961-1962)
William Kiernan		(36 episodes, 1958-1961)
Alfred E. Spencer		(23 episodes, 1958-1966)
Sidney Clifford		(16 episodes, 1959-1965)
James Crowe		(11 episodes, 1959-1963)
Milton Stumph		(7 episodes, 1958-1959)
William F. Calvert		(5 episodes, 1959-1960)
Frank Kramer		(4 episodes, 1961)
Darrell Silvera		(3 episodes, 1960)
Frank Tuttle		(2 episodes, 1959)
Ben Berk		(2 episodes, 1960)
Frank Welch		(2 episodes, 1960)

Series Makeup Department
Clay Campbell	....	makeup artist / makeup supervisor (204 episodes, 1959-1965)
Gertrude Wheeler	....	hair stylist (169 episodes, 1960-1966)
Helen Young	....	hair stylist (76 episodes, 1958-1960)
Frank McCoy	....	makeup artist (21 episodes, 1965-1966)

Series Production Management
Seymour Friedman	....	production supervisor (195 episodes, 1958-1966)
Lawrence Werner	....	post-production supervisor (132 episodes, 1961-1966)

Series Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jerrold Bernstein	....	assistant director (190 episodes, 1958-1965)
John D. Bloss	....	assistant director (22 episodes, 1959-1961)
Bill Lukather	....	assistant director (19 episodes, 1965-1966)
Carter De Haven Jr.	....	assistant director (5 episodes, 1958)
Max Stein	....	assistant director (4 episodes, 1958-1959)
Herb Wallerstein	....	assistant director (4 episodes, 1958-1959)

Series Sound Department
Roy Siegel	....	sound effects editor (74 episodes, 1961-1963)
Sid Lubow	....	sound effects editor / sound effects (31 episodes, 1963-1965)
Fred J. Brown	....	sound effects editor (27 episodes, 1965-1966)

Series Editorial Department
Richard Fantl	....	film editor / supervising editor (101 episodes, 1958-1961)
Robert B. Hoover	....	film editor (90 episodes, 1962-1966)
Fredrick Y. Smith	....	film editor (39 episodes, 1961-1962)

Series Music Department
Irving Friedman	....	music supervisor (74 episodes, 1961-1963)
Ed Forsyth	....	music supervisor (58 episodes, 1963-1966)
Emil Cadkin	....	music editor (39 episodes, 1961-1962)
John Seely	....	composer: theme music (37 episodes, 1958-1959)
Igo Kantor	....	music editor (35 episodes, 1962-1963)

Series Other crew
Seymour Friedman	....	production assistant (48 episodes, 1958-1960)
Milton Pascal	....	script consultant (38 episodes, 1964-1965)
Ray Singer	....	executive script consultant (19 episodes, 1965-1966)

Production Companies

• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1958-1966)
• Screen Gems Television
• Todon

Distributors

• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1958-1966) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (2001)
• Columbia TriStar Television
• Radio Tokyo Television (1959) (Japan) (TV)
• Sony Pictures Television (2002-)

Other Companies

• Campbell Soup Company  original sponsor (Franco American spaghetti, Campbell soups)
• Johnson & Johnson  original sponsor

Runtime:

30 min (275 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

Columbia Pictures Ranch - 411 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

Trivia:

The first season opening credits of "The Munsters" (1964) were an outrageous parody of the opening credits of "The Donna Reed Show", which always began with Donna Reed lovingly passing out lunches to her departing family members as they left the house one by one. Yvonne De Carlo, as Lily Munster, did the same thing.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Exclusive (1992) (TV)

Role Model For Pleasantville?

Like a lot of stars of the big screen as their careers wound down, so many turned to television where probably they secured their reputations for posterity. Donna Reed is a case in point.

I don't think Donna Reed ever thought that Donna Stone was anything challenging, not to a woman who had won an Oscar for playing a very different type in From Here to Eternity. She was certainly better prepared to play wife, mother, and homemaker Donna Stone after having played Mary Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life.

Donna was always beautiful and wise and ever helpful with the problems of her kids and her husband. Carl Betz was not an idiot, he was a pediatrician who had his office attached to the house. Talk about the man being ever ready in a crisis.

Though this was the Donna Reed Show because Donna's husband at the time, Tony Owen produced it. Yet it lasted as long as did because of the popularity of the two children, Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen. Fabares had that best selling teen record Johnny Angel which she introduced on the show. She successfully made the transition to adult star, most known for her role in Coach as Craig T. Nelson's wife.

But Petersen was a bubblegum teen idol back in the day. The Donna Reed Show dare I say got most of its viewers because of him. It's forgotten now, but Petersen also had a best selling record, My Dad. Didn't do half as well as Johnny Angel.

Now Paul Petersen runs a support group for former child stars like himself. So many of them end so tragically, it's good work that he's doing.

The Stone family was the quintessence of Middle America. They lived in a suburb near Chicago, they led wholesome lives. Mom and Dad were always there for the kids. Of course the problems they had usually were nothing more than breaking curfew.

It's this series I believe was the model for the TV town of Pleasantville where Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon are sucked into.

I have pleasant memories of The Donna Reed Show. Easy to take, but not too seriously.