The Donna Reed Show in "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows"

At the center of this family comedy were Donna Stone, her husband Alex, a pediatrician, and their rambunctious teenage kids. The adventures of the Stone family were similar to those of other TV families--measles, girlfriends, school problems, little white lies, and so on--compounded by the fact that Dr. Alex was always running off at odd hours to attend to his patients. The show was set in the small town of Hilldale, and it had a wholesome quality that endeared it to audiences. It won many awards from youth, women's, educational, and medical groups; the president of the American Medical Association even appeared in a cameo role in one telecast.

Over the years changes in the series took place. Mary, the older child, went off to college in 1962, followed by Jeff two years later. About the time that Mary left the series for good, in 1963, the character of Trisha, an eight-year-old orphan who "adopted" the Stones, was added. Played by Patty Petersen, Paul's real-life sister, she was first seen in a January 1963 telecast and stayed for the rest of the series. Dave Kelsey was Alex's colleague and the Stones' next-door neighbor, and Midge was Dave's wife. Various friends and romances of Mary and Jeff appeared from time to time, the most regular of whom were Jeff's girlfriend Karen and his college buddy Smitty.

Both of Donna Reed's original TV offspring had short but spectacular recording careers in 1962-63 with songs introduced on the series. On a January 1962 telecast Paul Petersen sang the novelty ditty "She Can't Find Her Keys," as part of a dream sequence in which Jeff dreamed he was a teenage recording star out on a date. His recording of the song became a major hit during early 1962. Later he had several other best-sellers, including the top-ten hit "My Dad," about Dr. Alex. Shelley Fabares did even better with a teenage love song called "Johnny Angel," which went to number one on the charts in early 1962 and earned her a gold record, denoting sales of more than a million copies.

Reruns of The Donna Reed Show were telecast weekdays on ABC from December 1964 to March 1968.