The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show stars Donna Reed as wealthy housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz plays her pediatrician husband, Dr. Alex Stone; Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen play their teens, Mary and Jeff. It aired on ABC from September24, 1958 through March19, 1966. When Fabares departed the show in1963, Patty Petersen joined as Trisha. First seen in "A Way of Her Own" on January31, 1963. Bob Crane and Ann McCrea played the Stones' friends the Kelseys, while Darryl Richard was Jeff's best friend Smitty. The play featured Esther Williams as a famous fashion designer, baseball luminaries Don Drysdale and Willie Mays as themselves, adolescent heartthrob James Darren as a pop singer with the measles, canine sensation Lassie as herself, and CBS's Dennis the Menace's Jay North. William S. Roberts originated the show, which Reed and producer Tony Owen developed. The episodes dealt around normal family problems of the era, such as terminating a clumsy domestic, planning a retirement party, and finding time away from the kids. Some episodes explored women's rights and press freedom.