''The Donna Reed Show'' is an American
sitcom
A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...
starring
Donna Reed as the middle-class housewife Donna Stone.
Carl Betz co-stars as her
pediatrician
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...
husband Dr. Alex Stone, and
Shelley Fabares and
Paul Petersen as their teenage children, Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on
ABC from September 24, 1958, to March 19, 1966.
Background
The series was created by
William S. Roberts and developed by Reed and her then husband, producer Tony Owen. Episodes revolved around typical 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 children. Themes such as
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countr ...
and
freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...
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 "
Johnny Angel", which became a #1 teen pop hit. 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 20 shows in 1963–1964. Reed was repeatedly nominated for
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
s between 1959 and 1962, and won a
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
as Best Female TV Star in 1963. She eventually grew tired of the workaday grind involved in the program, and it was cancelled in 1966 after 275 episodes.
The series was sponsored by
Campbell Soup Company
Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to become ...
, with
Johnson & Johnson as the principal alternate sponsor (succeeded in the fall of 1963 by
The Singer Company). Following first-run, the show entered daytime reruns on ABC and then syndication on
Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. ET/ PT, Friday nights fr ...
and
TV Land
TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cl ...
for several years. It is currently shown on
Decades
A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years.
Usage
Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "d ...
. The first five seasons have been released on DVD.
This show was the first TV family sitcom to feature the mother as the center of the show. Reed's character, Donna Stone, is a loving mother and wife, but also a strong woman, an active participant in her community, a woman with feelings and a sense of humor. According to many of Reed's friends and family, Reed shared many similarities to the character that she portrayed on screen, implying that the fictional Donna Stone was a near-identical copy of Reed herself.
In a 2008 interview, Paul Petersen (Jeff Stone) stated:
'The Donna Reed Show''depicts a better time and place. It has a sort of level of intelligence and professionalism that is sadly lacking in current entertainment products. The messages it sent out were positive and uplifting. The folks you saw were likable, the family was fun, the situations were familiar to people. It provided 22-and-a-half-minutes of moral instructions and advice on how to deal with the little dilemmas of life. Jeff and Mary and their friends had all the same problems that real kids in high school did.[Glenn Garvin]
“Life was better in 'Donna Reed' world, cast member Paul Petersen says”
''Catholic Online.'' December 10, 2008 ''(Retrieved 2018-07-21.)''
Petersen continued,
That's what the show was really about, the importance of family. That's where life's lessons are transmitted, generation to generation. There's a certain way in which these are transmitted, with love and affection.
Plot
Episodes revolve around the lightweight and humorous sorts of situations and problems a middle-class family experienced in the late 1950s and the early 1960s set in fictional Hilldale, state never mentioned.
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 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 Gibraltar, but often found himself in situations that tested his patience: in one episode, 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.
Production
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'' focus 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 even briefly considered as the show's title.
Though ''The Donna Reed Show'' did sometimes use recycled ''
Father Knows Best'' scripts that had been slightly altered, such as character name changes.
The series was created by William Roberts and developed by Reed and her then husband, producer Tony Owen (the production company "Todon" is an amalgamation of their first names.) 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."
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."
In addition, Reed described her show, accordingly: "I would call ''The Donna Reed Show'' a realistic picture of small-town life – with an often humorous twist. Our plots revolve around the most important thing in America – a loving family."
In its first year on the struggling ABC network, the show was up against
Milton Berle's popular ''
Texaco Star Theater
''Texaco Star Theater'' was an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave M ...
'' 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, ranking #30 in 1961–1962 and #16 in 1963–1964. In a 1964 interview, Reed said, "We have proved on our show that the public really does want to see a healthy woman, not a girl, not a neurotic, not a sexpot...I am so fed up with immature 'sex' and stories about kooky, amoral, sick women."
The opening credits showed Reed coming down the stairs to answer the telephone. She hands the receiver to Alex, then goes to the front door to hand the children their bag lunches and schoolbooks as they leave for school. Alex then leaves, kissing his wife good-bye. On some opening themes, he forgets to kiss Donna good-bye, but returns as she closes the door to give her a quick kiss. 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 program in guest spots.
On February 1, 1962, Fabares debuted her single "Johnny Angel" in the episode "Donna's Prima Donna". It rose to #1 and sold over a million copies.
Petersen introduced his single "
My Dad" eight months later on October 25, 1962. It peaked at #6.
By 1962 Reed felt the writers were running out of fresh ideas and had exhausted plot devices. She also wanted to spend more time with her family and was worn out from producing nearly 30 episodes a year. To coincide with Fabares's plans to leave at the end of season 5 (1962–1963), Reed and her husband decided to end the show. Since the series was still very popular ABC offered Reed a more lucrative contract with an extension of three seasons, to which she agreed. Their new contract called for fewer episodes and other incentives to allow Reed more personal time. In addition, Shelley Fabares agreed to return to the show as an occasional guest in which her character of Mary would come home from college for a visit. In the last three years of the series, Fabares would make seven appearances.
Beginning in Season 6 there was a reduction in the number of episodes produced, and work hours were shortened to please Reed.
In the spring of 1966, Reed had grown tired of the weekly grind and wanted to retire. The program was rated #89 during its final season. After 275 episodes and eight seasons on ABC, ''The Donna Reed Show'' ended its prime-time run. 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 did express interest in a television reunion for the Stone family at one point, but the concept was discarded after Carl Betz's death in 1978. Tucker writes that
women's lib supporters 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 that Reed "gave motherhood a tinge of glamour it usually lacked on TV".
Cast changes
In season 5, (1963) Mary departed for college, reducing Fabares's appearances, something which continued yearly with her role becoming a minor character. Fabares left the full-time cast to pursue opportunities in films. She eventually returned seven times for guest appearances (Season 6 episodes 8, 11, 14; Season 7 episodes 5, 15, 30; Season 8 episode 13). Following Fabares's departure, Petersen's real-life sister Patty Petersen joined the show as Trisha, a runaway orphan eventually adopted by the Stones. The program achieved its highest Nielsen ratings in Season 6, reaching #16 after Fabares' departure. A possible reason for higher ratings was the addition of new characters,
Ann McCrea and disc jockey-turned actor
Bob Crane as the Stones' neighbors, Midge and Dave Kelsey. This not only provided both Donna and Alex with best friends, but co-conspirators, as well. So popular were their roles that by the fall of 1964, both McCrea and Crane began receiving billing in the opening credits of the program. Crane left the series in 1965 to star in the CBS sitcom ''
Hogan's Heroes''. As a result, he was written out of the show although his character continued to be referred to and McCrea's character remained with the program. Also, towards the end of the series, actor
Darryl Richard was regularly featured as Jeff Stone's best friend, Morton "Smitty" Smith. Richard first appeared in 1962 and "Smitty" became a major character after Season 6.
Janet Landgard was a series regular from 1963 to 1965 as Karen Holmby.
[Donna Reed Org](_blank)
/ref>
Characters and cast
Main
*Donna Stone ( Donna Reed) is the idealized 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. (Note: In one episode, it is revealed that Donna Stone's maiden name, like Donna Reed, is Donna Belle Mullenger and she is also from Denison, Iowa.)
*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
Patti Petersen Mirkovich (born December 2, 1954) is a retired American child actress.
Petersen's brother costarred on American Broadcasting Company, ABC's ''The Donna Reed Show''. She was written into the cast as Trisha, an adoption, adopted chil ...
) is a runaway orphan the age of eight whom the Stones adopt after Mary leaves for college. She remained for the duration of the program.
Secondary
*Dr. Dave Kelsey ( Bob Crane) and his wife Midge ( Ann McCrea) are friends of the Stones. Dave, Alex's colleague, appeared for the first time on March 14, 1963, in the episode "The Two Doctor Stones". Dave continued on the series until 1965; Midge appeared from 1963 to 1966. Crane's character was written out of the show at the end of season 7 when he was cast in the CBS series, '' Hogan's Heroes''. McCrea remained with the show until its conclusion.
* David Barker ( Charles Herbert) – a young military school student who the Stones look after in many episodes. David is very disobedient and troubled in the beginning but the Stone family soon grow to love and reform him.
*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 Bailey ( Tommy Ivo) is Mary's fairly regular boyfriend.
*Scotty ( Jimmy Hawkins) is another of Mary's boyfriends. He appeared in two first-season episodes as her boyfriend 'George Haskell'. Hawkins' character returned to the show in season 3 as 'Scotty', one of Mary's dates (for seasons 3–4) then as 'Jerry' for seasons 7 & 8 (his last appearance was in December, 1965).
*Roger ( Jan Stine) is Mary's boyfriend in several third-season episodes.
*Angie ( Candy Moore) is Jeff's girlfriend in several fourth season episodes. Moore returned to the program during season 8 as Jeff's 'new' girlfriend Bernice/Bebe, in episodes 3, 12, 16, & 19. Moore had just finished 3 seasons playing Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Gold ...
's teenaged daughter Chris on ''The Lucy Show
''The Lucy Show'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1962 to 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to '' I Love Lucy''. A significant change in cast and premise for the fourth season (1965–1966) divides the program into two distin ...
''. Moore was written out after season 3 (1965). Moore had acted on the program from 1962 to 1965. 'The Lucy Show' was her last acting assignment as a major character on a regular network program.
*Babs (Melinda Plowman) is Mary's first season best girlfriend.
*Mr. and Mrs. Wilgus (Howard McNear
Howard Terbell McNear (January 27, 1905 – January 3, 1969) was an American stage, screen, and radio character actor. McNear is best remembered as the original voice of Doc Adams in the radio version of ''Gunsmoke'' and as Floyd Lawson, the ba ...
and Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost in ...
) are busybody Stone neighbors in season one.
*Lydia Langley (Mary Shipp
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
) is Donna's snobbish acquaintance in the early seasons.
Guest stars
''The Donna Reed Show'' featured several celebrity guest stars appearing as themselves during its eight-year run. Baseball player Don Drysdale
Donald Scott Drysdale (July 23, 1936 – July 3, 1993) was an American professional baseball player and television sports commentator. A right-handed pitcher for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers for his entire career in Major League Baseball, ...
appeared in four episodes while Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...
appeared in three episodes and Leo Durocher once. Musician Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...
and singers Tony Martin and Lesley Gore appeared as themselves. Gore was featured in the series' finale, "By-Line—Jeff Stone", on March 19, 1966. Lassie and film director George Sidney appear as themselves in the 1961 episode "The Stones Go To Hollywood". The episode plugged Sidney's then current feature film, '' Pepe'', in which Reed made a cameo appearance. Teen heartthrob James Darren
James William Ercolani (born June 8, 1936) known by his stage name James Darren, is an American television and film actor, television director, and singer. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had notable starring and supporting roles in fi ...
guest starred as a pop singer with the measles.
Silent film comedian Buster Keaton guest starred in two episodes, "A Very Merry Christmas" (December 24, 1958) as Charlie, a hospital janitor who brings gifts to the children's ward, and as an auto mechanic in "Now You See It, Now You Don't" (1965). Child actor Charles Herbert also had a recurring guest role in four episodes as David Barker, a runaway child whom the Stones assist. In the 1960 crossover episode "Donna Decorates", Jay North appeared with his ''Dennis the Menace'' co-star, Joseph Kearns as Mr. George Wilson. Esther Williams guest starred as Molly, a fashion designer and friend of Donna's who is herself about to marry a doctor in "The Career Woman" (1960). In real life, Williams and Reed had been close friends since the early 1940s, when they were rising MGM contract stars.
Several actors guest starred numerous times in different roles including Richard Deacon, Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon (born Charles Thomas Aldrich Jr., February 20, 1906 – June 30, 1995) was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfist ...
, Harvey Korman
Harvey Herschel Korman (February 15, 1927May 29, 2008) was an American actor and comedian who performed in television and film productions. His big break was being a featured performer on CBS' '' The Danny Kaye Show'', but he is best remembered ...
, Miyoshi Umeki
was a Japanese-American singer and actress.Bernstein, Adam ''The Washington Post''. 5 September 2007. Umeki was a Tony Award- and Golden Globe-nominated actress and the first East Asian-American woman to win an Academy Award for acting.
Life
B ...
, Doodles Weaver, and Dick Wilson.
As Fabares co-starred in the Mickey Mouse Club serial Annette before the Donna Reed Show, four other Annette co-stars (Deacon, Cheryl Holdridge, Doreen Tracey & Mary Wickes) would also make respective guest appearances on this show.
Other notable guest stars include:
* Lee Aaker
* Jack Albertson
* John Astin
* Binnie Barnes
* Raymond Bailey
* Bobby Buntrock
* Bobby Burgess
Robert Wilkie Burgess (born May 19, 1941) is an American dancer and singer. He was one of the original Mouseketeers. Later, he was a regular on '' The Lawrence Welk Show''.
Early life
Growing up in Southern California, Burgess started perform ...
* Harry Cheshire
* Dabney Coleman
* Hans Conried
* Richard Conte
* Ellen Corby
Ellen Hansen Corby (June 3, 1911 – April 14, 1999) was an American actress and screenwriter. She played the role of Esther "Grandma" Walton on the CBS television series ''The Waltons'', for which she won three Emmy Awards. She was also ...
* Johnny Crawford
* Esther Dale
Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress of the stage and screen.
Early years
Dale was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. She attended Leland and Gray Seminary in Townshend, Vermont. In Berlin, Germany, she st ...
* Kim Darby
* Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont (born Daisy Juliette Baker; October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films; Groucho Marx called her "practicall ...
* Stuart Erwin
* Tiger Fafara
* Jamie Farr
* Florida Friebus
* Harold Gould
* George Hamilton
* Arte Johnson
Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (January 20, 1929 – July 3, 2019) was an American comic actor who was best known for his work as a regular on television's ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In''.
Biography
Early life
Johnson was born January 20, 1929, in ...
* DeForest Kelley
* Ted Knight
* Sheila James Kuehl
* Charles Lane
* Cloris Leachman
* Alice Pearce
* Gigi Perreau
* Marion Ross
Marion Ross (born Marian Ellen Ross; October 25, 1928) is a American former actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom '' Happy Days'', on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and for which she recei ...
* William Schallert
* Hal Smith
* James Stacy
* Tisha Sterling
* Olive Sturgess
* Stephen Talbot
Stephen Henderson Talbot (born February 28, 1949) is an American TV documentary producer, reporter, writer, and longtime contributor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the series ''Frontline''. His more than 40 documentaries include ...
* Marlo Thomas
* Mary Treen
* Jesse White
* Rhys Williams
* William Windom
* Estelle Winwood
Estelle Winwood (born Estelle Ruth Goodwin, 24 January 1883 – 20 June 1984) was an English actress who moved to the United States in mid-career and became celebrated for her wit and longevity.
Early life and early career
Born Estelle Ruth Go ...
* Will Wright
Episodes
Syndication
The series was originally syndicated by Screen Gems, and, later, Columbia Pictures Television
Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CPT) was launched on May 6, 1974, by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gem ...
and Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Enterta ...
. In 2008, Sony lost the full rights to the estates of Donna Reed and Tony Owen.
Reruns aired on Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. ET/ PT, Friday nights fr ...
from 1985 through 1994 and on TV Land
TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cl ...
from 2002 through 2004.
MeTV began airing reruns of the show (seasons 1 through 5) starting in September 2011.
In 2017 Decades
A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years.
Usage
Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "d ...
began airing the show as part of their daytime "Through The Decades" lineup.
As at 2018, the first five seasons of the show are available on Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service p ...
in the US and Canada and on Tubi.
Home media
For a limited time in 2004, General Mills
General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company ori ...
offered a DVD of two episodes inside boxes of Total cereal and Oatmeal Crisp. 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 four-episode "best of" DVD on April 13, 2010.
On December 17, 2010, it was announced that MPI Home Video
MPI Media Group is an American producer, distributor and licensor of theatrical film and home entertainment. MPI's subsidiaries include MPI Pictures, MPI Home Video, Gorgon Video, and the horror film distributor Dark Sky Films. The company is lo ...
had acquired the rights to release seasons 4 and 5 of ''The Donna Reed Show''. Season 4 was subsequently released on December 20, 2011, and Season 5 was released on December 4, 2012.
On September 30, 2014, MPI Home Video re-released the first season on DVD. Season 2 was re-released on March 24, 2015. Season 3 was re-released on June 30, 2015.MPI Home Video to Re-Release 'Season 3' this Summer
, the show's sixth, seventh, and eighth (the final) seasons are yet to be released on DVD.
Awards and nominations
In popular culture
In ''
Gilmore Girls
''Gilmore Girls'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham ( Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel ( Rory Gilmore). The show debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and became a flag ...
'' season 1 episode 14 "That Damn Donna Reed", Rory and her boyfriend Dean have a disagreement about women's roles after watching an episode of the show. The episode involved Reed's character making a lot of food. Later, Rory dresses up in a dress like Donna Reed and serves Dean a steak dinner.
In the film ''
Major Payne'', the theme song to the show plays as Payne fantasizes about an idyllic family life with Emily and Tiger.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donna Reed Show
1958 American television series debuts
1966 American television series endings
1950s American sitcoms
1960s American sitcoms
American Broadcasting Company original programming
Black-and-white American television shows
English-language television shows
Television series about families
Television series by Screen Gems