Don’t Call The Donna Reed Show 'Situation Comedy'

Two words should never be used in the presence of Donna Reed: situation comedy.

“I hate the term,” confesses Donna, whose ABC-TV series the Donna Reed Show is entering its fifth season. “To me, the phrase ‘situation comedy’ conjures up inane plots, blundering TV husbands, and overbearing TV wives. It’s everything we try to avoid on our show.”

Although she objects to the “situation comedy” label, Donna is hard-pressed to find a substitute, one that fits her own series.

“Why must we have labels, anyway?” asks the glamorous Miss Reed, who entered TV after winning an Oscar in “From Here to Eternity.” “If a show has individuality, it can stand on its own without being pigeon-holed into a category.

“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 this family there’s everything from belly laughs to near tragedies.

“Now, how can you call all that simply ‘situation comedy’?”

Donna feels that the format of her own show offers a greater flexibility than many people realize. Last year, for example, there was an extremely suspenseful episode, complete with eerie music in which the family tried to trap what they thought was a prowler in their darkened house.

“We got letters from people who told us they were scared out of their wits,” smiles Donna, “and they loved every minute of it.”

In an episode of the 1962-63 season, the show will go to just the opposite pole of suspense—slapstick comedy. Viewers accustomed to seeing Miss Reed as calm, sensible Donna Stone, wife of a small-town pediatrician, may get the shock of their lives when she disguises herself as a hotel chambermaid and gets chased through the lobby in a zany series of misadventures.

Donna admits she’s looking forward to doing the aforementioned segment. “I’ve been playing a lot of tennis to get in shape for it,” she laughs, then adds:

“We can do this kind of an episode now and then and still remain a ‘realistic’ series, presenting a picture of small town family life. Believe me, I’ve lived in a small town—and you’d be surprised what can happen there.”

*article from Chicago American Sunday TV Roundup, October 14, 1962