The Donna Reed Show is an American situation comedy starring Donna Reed as the middle-class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz co-stars as her pediatrician 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. When Fabares left the show in 1963, Petersen’s little sister, Patty Petersen, joined the cast as adopted daughter Trisha. 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. Then-daring themes such as women’s rights and freedom of the press were occasionally explored. Fabares sang what became a #1 teen pop hit “Johnny Angel”, and Petersen had above average success with the song “My Dad”, also introduced during the course of the series. (More from Wikipedia)
While she had never any other major hit songs, Lesley Gore continued recording, and she also appeared on the final episode of The Donna Reed Show in 1966. Her other acting credits include two episodes of the Batman television series in early 1967 as one of Catwoman’s minions.
(January 2014)
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While he was in basic training in San Antonio, Mike Post provided early guidance to the legendary Texas garage rock band the Outcasts; he wrote and produced the band’s first single, “Nothing Ever Comes Easy” b/w “Oriental Express”. He also recruited the Outcasts as the back-up band for performances by Jimmy Carlson (who was active in the New York folk music scene) and by Jimmy Hawkins (a long-time actor who later worked in Elvis Presley films and on The Donna Reed Show).
(January 2015/1)
