Series Description

The Donna Reed Show was a 30 minute comedy series on ABC about a "dream family" where there are problems but everyone loves everyone else and all turns out all right in the end. Mom stayed home, dad was a doctor and the two teenagers rarely did anything worse than tell a little white lie. The tragedies were measles, broken household appliances, acne, unfullfilled puppy love and so on. The show was actually developed for Donna Reed which accounts for the name.

Donna Reed Show Cast

Donna Reed .... Donna Stone
Carl Betz .... Doctor Alex Stone
Paul Petersen .... Jeff Stone
Shelley Fabares .... Mary Stone
Patty Petersen .... Trisha Stone
Ann McCrea .... Midge Kelsey
Bob Crane .... Dr. Dave Kelsey
Janet Langard .... Karen Holmby

Donna Reed Show Trivia:

The theme song for the Donna Reed Show was titled, "Happy Days" and was written by William Loose and John Seely.

Doctor Stone was a Pediatrician.

The Donna Reed Show was set in the small town of Hilldale.

When the Donna Reed Show began, Donna and Alex Stone had been married for 15 years.

Several family and medical groups honored the series with awards. In fact, the President of the American Medical Association made a brief appearance on one episode.

The Donna Reed Show remained on the air so long that the original children grew up. Mary left for college in 1962 and Jeff did the same two seasons later. An 8-year-old orphan named Trisha was adopted by the Stones joined the cast in January of 1963 to maintain the "family" appeal of the series. Patty Peterson who played Trisha was Paul Peterson's (Jeff Stone) real-life sister!

Carl Betz died in 1978 from lung cancer and Donna Reed in 1986 from pancreatic cancer.

The series was produced by Tony Owen who also happened to be Donna Reed's husband.

On a January 1962 episode, Paul Peterson sang the song, "She Can't Find Her Keys" and it immediately became a hit! He had several other top-selling records after that. Shelley Fabares sang a song on the Donna Reed Show called, "Johnny Angel" and it became the #1 hit on the charts! It became a gold record, selling more than one million copies! Both Paul and Shelley recorded further hits over the next couple of years.

Shelley Fabares was a child model at age 3. By the age of 8, she had landed a regular role on the series, "Annie Oakley (1954)". In 1953 she appeared on a TV special as Frank Sinatra's dancing partner. She co-starred in three Elvis Presley movies. She is perhaps best known today for her starring role on the series, "Coach (1989)".

Several actors who would later become stars had their first major major roles on the Donna Reed Show. Among them were John Astin in episode #117, "Mouse At Play"; James Darren in episode #28, "April Fool" and George Hamilton in episode #20, "Have Fun".