Leave It to Beaver (1962)

 

As with the 1961 episodes for Leave It to Beaver, the episodes for 1962 centered on Beaver and Wally trying to adjust to the pressures of growing up and getting into trouble due to bad advice and unreasonable requests from "friends" like Eddie Haskell, Lumpy Rutherford, Gilbert Bates, and Richard Rickover. The hardest lesson for the Cleaver boys to learn is to just say "no" when they are asked or pressured to do something they know is wrong but end up doing anyway. While Wally has no trouble telling Beaver not to follow Eddie Haskell's advice, he is not always as successful doing it himself. In "Lumpy's Car Trouble" (March 31, 1962), Wally is supposed to ride in Lumpy's car to an out-of-town track meet with Beaver getting permission to go along and Eddie getting picked up as team manager, but on the day of the meet Lumpy's car won't run, and since Ward is not using his own car, having ridden to work with Lumpy's father Fred, Ward gets talked into letting Lumpy, who has already received his driver's license while Wally has not, drive the Cleaver car to the track meet. Despite Ward's stern instructions to Wally to have Lumpy only drive straight to the meet and back, Eddie and Lumpy decide to try a shortcut on the way back and wind up crashing through a large mud hole on an unpaved section of road, causing the car to die and requiring the boys to push it to the nearest service station. Though the boys have enough money between them to pay to get the car fixed and get it home without having to tell Ward what happened, he finds out about it anyway from a work colleague who just happened to drive past them while they were pushing the car to the service station. Ward tells Wally he will not get to use the car again for a long time but refuses to tell him how he found out about it so that he won't think he can figure out how to get away with things in the future. But the lesson doesn't stick with Wally because after he gets his license in the Season 6 episode "Wally's License" (October 11, 1962), he gets talked into misusing Ward's brand new car in "Wally's Car Accident" (November 29, 1962) after being given permission to drive his date Shirley Fletcher to the prom while his parents are out of town. Once again Ward gives Wally the ground rules of not picking up any other riders and only going to the dance and back, but once again he is pressured by Eddie and Wally, who have ridden to the dance together and are now stranded because Lumpy's car won't start, to use Ward's car to push Lumpy's to get it started. Even Wally's date Shirley knows that Wally shouldn't help them, but after they promise to wrap Ward's bumper with a blanket Wally gives in only to have Lumpy still make an unexpected maneuver and smash the front headlight on Ward's car. As in the earlier episode, the boys cobble enough money together to get the car fixed good as new and almost pull off slipping the ruse past Ward, but this time Lumpy phones the Cleaver home with the intention of urging Wally not to tell his father about the accident, only Ward picks up the phone and Lumpy starts talking before realizing he is not speaking to Wally. Wally can tell Ward knows about the accident just from his expression after getting off the phone and ends up confessing to the whole mess without having to be prompted. But it remains to be seen if Wally has finally learned not to get into such messes in the first place.

Speaking of Eddie Haskell, as we covered in our last post, we began to get a bit of backstory for his annoying behavior due to a botched hair experiment his mother gave him when he was in kindergarten, and for the first time we saw his vulnerability behind his overconfident bluster when he is afraid to stay at home alone while his parents are out of town. The 1962 episodes continue this theme with more stories about the pathetic reality behind Eddie's two-faced hustler facade. In "Beaver's Fear" (February 24, 1962), Beaver gets his parents to pressure Wally to take him along when he, Eddie, and Lumpy go to an amusement park which has a terrifying new rollercoaster. Beaver needs a pep talk from Gus the fireman to get over his fear of heights and actually go on the rollercoaster, but for all of Eddie's tough talk and swagger, he is the one who winds up getting sick on the rollercoaster. In "A Night in the Woods" (June 9, 1962), Eddie is annoyed that Wally has committed to taking Beaver and his friends camping out in the woods on the same night that Eddie needs him on a triple date that will only work if Wally agrees to take out Mary Denton in exchange for Eddie and Lumpy getting to take out her two visiting cousins. When Wally refuses to back out on his camping promise, Eddie recruits Lumpy to try to scare the campers to abandon their overnight stay in time to still make the dates but winds up getting frightened himself and then stranded on the side of a cliff, requiring him to be rescued by a forest ranger who quickly shuts down his face-saving flippancy after he has been pulled to safety. In "Eddie Quits School" (March 10, 1962), Eddie drops out of high school after a run-in with the track coach and boasts to Wally and Lumpy about how enslaved they are with all their high school responsibilities while he will be making $80 a week working at a car repair garage. Not long afterward Eddie shows up at Wally's house sporting expensive new clothes purchased with his first week's pay, but when Wally and Lumpy decide to drop in on him at work, they overhear his boss berating him for constant mistakes, and later Eddie can't find anyone to hang out with him since they are all busy with school activities. Sensing that Eddie is really miserable behind his facade, Wally talks the school principal into gently suggesting that he return to school, and after more trouble with his boss, Eddie jumps at the chance but continues to put an overconfident spin on his decision by claiming that the principal and track coach begged him to come back. In "Eddie, the Businessman" (November 1, 1962), Eddie gets conned into an ice-cream theft ring at the local dairy where he and Wally have taken part-time jobs. Eddie becomes an easy mark for the crooked foreman running the scam after telling Wally that you have to suck up to the higher ups to get ahead. After Eddie gets caught red-handed loading cases of ice cream into the foreman's trunk by the dairy manager and the foreman claiming he never told Eddie to do it, Wally has to bail him out by telling the manager what really happened. And "Bachelor at Large" (November 15, 1962) plays out in similar fashion to "Eddie Quits School": this time he moves out of his parents' house into a boardinghouse after an argument, then tries to convince Wally and Lumpy that he is living the high life with attractive young women in his boardinghouse cooking for him. But at the same time he is desperate for company and after inviting Wally and Lumpy over for dinner, Ward gets a call from Mr. Haskell asking that they not humor Eddie, which will only make things worse, so Wally goes to the boardinghouse with Beaver tagging along to tell Eddie he won't be coming to dinner. They learn from his landlady that he is desperately lonely, his room is a sad mess, there are no young women living in the house, and Eddie even resorted to adopting a dog just to have some company. Later we learn that Eddie eventually moved back home, and while he claims in usual Eddie style that his parents begged him to come back, Wally figures that the landlady called his parents to come get him. While Leave It to Beaver deserves credit for fleshing out Eddie's character into a multi-faceted personality, the writers seem to have gotten stuck in portraying him as a pathetic loser who covers his short-comings with a show of bluster, while everyone around him agrees not to burst his balloon. What began as a comic creation of a two-faced hustler has been turned into a tragic figure who is more to be pitied than laughed at.

In his autobiography, Eddie, actor Ken Osmond alludes to the fact that getting cast as Eddie Haskell was both a blessing and a curse--he became a cultural icon with steady work for six seasons despite never being cast as a regular with a contract, but he also found it impossible to find acting work after the series ended and was saddled with a bad reputation by people who couldn't separate the actor from his character or mistakenly thought he had "grown up" to become pornographic actor John Holmes or shock-rocker Alice Cooper. Osmond comments in his book that he appreciated the plots that showed Eddie's vulnerability, but he also seems to judge an episode's value by how many lines he had and spends far more time and provides more detail about his role in the 1980s reboot The New Leave It to Beaver where he played an adult Eddie Haskell with his own son. Granted, he had a soft spot for the newer series because he got to act with his son Eric, and the memories were no doubt fresher on the reboot than on the original series from 20 years earlier. But among Osmond's more interesting memories from the original series are that the character of Eddie Haskell appeared to have been based on a friend of co-creator Bob Mosher, Jr.'s son named Buddy Del Giorno, who like Eddie always complimented Mrs. Mosher on her wardrobe but would immediately change into a troublemaker once there were no adults around. In the pre-pilot for Beaver, titled It's a Small World, the conniving teenager was named Frankie Bennett and was played by Harry Shearer, later of Spinal Tap and The Simpsons fame. And Osmond credits director Norman Tokar with helping him define the Eddie Haskell character traits, including his trademark cackle.

Despite the fact that by the 1962 episodes all the other characters on the show are wise to Eddie's duplicity and penchant for bad advice, Beaver in particular keeps falling for it, then admitting he should have known better. In "Beaver's Typewriter" (April 21, 1962), Beaver lets Eddie talk him into typing his English assignment due the next day for a few bucks since Beaver is having a hard time learning to use the expensive equipment he talked his parents into buying for him. Eddie is actually an excellent typist, but after Beaver turns in the neatly typed assignment, his teacher expects him to continue typing everything, which becomes impossible when he receives an even longer assignment the next day. Rather than letting Eddie again type his work for a fee, Beaver decides to write it out in long-hand, but Eddie offers to help him by disabling some keys on his typewriter so that he will have a valid excuse for not using it. However, word eventually gets back to Beaver's parents from his teacher about the disabled typewriter, which leads to Ward forcing Beaver to stick with his typing until he gets the hang of it. In "Stocks and Bonds" (June 23, 1962), Ward gives the boys some money to invest in the stock market to learn about how it works, but Beaver ends up listening to Eddie's advice about taking a flyer on a penny stock called Jet Electro rather than the more established if less exciting Mayfield Power and Electric utility recommended by Ward. Needless to say, Jet Electro crashes and burns while Mayfield Power just keeps plugging along upward. And in "Beaver, the Hero" (December 13, 1962), Beaver gets a swelled head after making a fluke game-winning touchdown for his school football team and then listens to Eddie about how to maximize his earning power as a football star, including skipping football practice, which ends up getting him suspended for the next game. Even though they know who they are dealing with, the Cleaver boys never seem to wise up enough to resist the fast-talking Eddie's latest easy way out.

But as gullible as Beaver is in falling for Eddie Haskell's bad advice, he is even more often goaded into poor decisions by his own friends Gilbert Bates and Richard Rickover. In fact, the 1962 episodes are book-ended by a pair of Gilbert-inspired pickles, beginning with "Ward's Golf Clubs" (January 6, 1962) and finishing with "The Party Spoiler" (December 27, 1962). In the former episode, Gilbert pressures Beaver into taking one of his father's golf clubs without asking so that they can hit some balls Gilbert scrounged from the driving range. Even though Beaver knows he will get in trouble by following Gilbert's advice, Gilbert is able to persuade him to do it by claiming that the only things worth doing are the ones that can get you into trouble. But Beaver doesn't realize that Ward returned home from golfing earlier that afternoon and told June that he broke his driver and would have to replace it, so when Beaver takes his first swing, the head flies off and into the bushes. After getting caught by Wally trying to sneak the broken club back into the closet, Beaver plans to confess his sin until his father gets angry with Wally for taking one of his shirts to wear on a date without asking him. So Beaver decides he had better replace the golf club rather than admitting that he broke it and arranges a payment plan with the sporting goods store clerk to pay for the new club. Of course, Ward immediately notices that his broken club is suddenly fixed and extracts a confession from Beaver, telling him he should have come to him first. Beaver later acts like he has learned his lesson when he tells Wally he is going to stop getting into trouble, but we all know there wouldn't be much of a series if he followed his own advice. In "The Party Spoiler" Beaver again follows Gilbert's advice to sabotage Wally's teenager party with prank items from the magic store as revenge for Wally not inviting Beaver to the party. Naturally, Wally is finally pressured by his parents to include Beaver in his party, but the forced invitation comes too late, after Beaver has already planted rubber cheese in the sandwiches, a fake ice cube with a fly in it in the punch bowl, soap-centered candies in the candy dish, and an electric outlet adapter that makes the record player go on and off randomly. When Beaver see Wally's friends blaming him for all the childish pranks, he feels compelled to step forward and take the blame. Beaver falls for another Gilbert scheme in "Long Distance Call" (June 16, 1962) when he agrees to call Dodger Stadium to talk to star pitcher Don Drysdale after Gilbert and Alan Boothby agree to all chip in to pay for the call, not realizing that they don't have nearly enough to afford it. After they hang up the call, Gilbert tells Beaver he can call the operator back to figure out how much the call cost and is horrified to hear that it comes to $9.35 when they collectively only have a couple of dollars. But Beaver compounds the problem by again following Gilbert's lead in not telling his father about it right away, with Gilbert arguing that he won't get the bill for a few weeks and they may come up with a plan to pay for it before then. Gilbert then makes matters worse by bragging about the phone call to a snotty school classmate whose father writes a column for the Mayfield newspaper, thereby ensuring that Ward will read about the phone call in his morning paper.

Gilbert teams up with Richard Rickover in "Three Boys and a Burro" (March 3, 1962) to get Beaver to chip in on buying a pet burro after promising that Beaver would not have to keep the burro in his yard because they would be splitting the caretaking between the two of them, which is the only reason Ward and June agree to let Beaver participate in the partnership. But of course things do not work out as promised because the burro wreaks havoc on the yards and gardens at the Bates' and Rickover's homes and Beaver gets stuck with the burro. Fortunately, Ward is able to find a new home for the burro from a work colleague who has a relative with a farm, but as with all his dealings with his friends, Beaver is the one who gets stuck holding the bag. The same scenario plays out with Richard, Whitey, and Alan in "Sweatshirt Monsters" (June 2, 1962) when the boys make a pact to all buy sweatshirts with grotesque monsters painted on the front and then wear them to class together. When Beaver tries going to school the next day wearing the sweatshirt, June forbids it and tells him to go change, but for Beaver loyalty to his friends outweighs his parent's orders, and he sneaks the sweatshirt out and puts it on before walking into class, only to discover that none of the other boys are wearing their sweatshirts and he is the only one to face discipline from their teacher. Apparently, that episode wasn't painful enough for Beaver because he commits the same error with a different group of friends in "Beaver's Football Award" (October 4, 1962) when the star football player from his school team announces that he is not going to wear a suit to the annual awards dinner, vowing that he is going to dress casually just as he does for school and pressuring the other boys on the team to do the same. But after a struggle with his parents, who keep telling him he is going to be sorry until Ward finally tells June that since Beaver is growing up he needs to learn to live with his own choices, Beaver gets to the awards dinner in his casual outfit only to find out that everyone else is wearing a suit. Ward bails him out by secretly bringing along his suit in the car trunk so that Beaver can hurriedly rush outside and change clothes before the dinner gets started, but one wonders how many times he will have to suffer this sort of humiliation before he realizes that his "friends" are all talk.

Which brings us to perhaps the most surprising pattern of the series: none of Beaver's and Wally's friends seem to have their interests at heart--all they do is pressure Beaver and Wally to do something stupid and then run away when they get into trouble. Besides Eddie Haskell, Gilbert Bates, and football star Terry Richmond, Richard forces Beaver to go to absurd lengths to cover for his own mistakes in "Beaver's Jacket" (February 3, 1962) and "Beaver's Laundry" (March 24, 1962). Lumpy does the same to Wally in "Wally Stays at Lumpy's" (March 17, 1962) and "The Merchant Marine" (April 28, 1962). Even newly introduced friends Mike and Kevin steer Beaver wrong in "Tell It to Ella" (November 8, 1962) by advising him to write an anonymous letter to a Dear Abby-like columnist at the local newspaper complaining about Ward grounding him for staying out late on a school night. Needless to say, Ella takes Ward's side, and when his letter appears in the paper Ward has no difficulty figuring out who wrote it. But even Ward seems not to have any good friends--the only person we see him spending any time with is Fred Rutherford, who is a big blow-hard that Ward can barely stand but nevertheless has to work with. What lesson, then, does Leave It to Beaver teach about friendship? Each week the series seems to suggest that the only relationships that can be trusted are familial ones, assuming that you don't live in a dysfunctional family.

Still, despite the series' odd take on friendship outside the family and the Cleaver boys' inability to learn not to bow to peer pressure (though there is one exception when Wally refuses to join a mean-spirited exclusive boys club in "One of the Boys" [May 26, 1962]), Leave It to Beaver occasionally hits the nail on the head in depicting some of the hard truths about growing up. For Beaver, it is being burdened with unrealistic expectations because of Wally's accomplishments in "The Younger Brother" (April 14, 1962). Beaver is encouraged to try out for a city basketball team simply because Wally helped lead a team to the league championship. Beaver doesn't have a natural interest in basketball, but when he sees how proud his parents are of Wally's achievements, he decides to try out and even Wally's old coach seems to think the team is in good hands with Beaver aboard. But Beaver quickly learns that not all athletic talent is genetic as he performs poorly at the first practice and is soon the laughingstock of the other players. Rather than face the humiliation of telling his parents and brother that he isn't good at basketball, he pretends to continue attending practice but really just hides out to cover the time. The jig is up when Ward decides to stop by the park on his way home from work one evening to see how Beaver is making out, and he learns from the coach that Beaver quit after the first practice and didn't want to sign up for a lesser league to develop his skills. Ward is surprised that Beaver didn't feel he could come to Ward and tell him he didn't make the team, so Wally has to explain to Ward that Beaver didn't really want to succeed at basketball for himself but to avoid disappointing his father. This episode turns out to be a teaching moment for the parents rather than the children. Growing up the younger sibling of highly accomplished older brothers and sisters myself, this episode had the ring of truth for me personally and helps demonstrate why this series at its best was superior to most of the other family sit-coms of its day.

Wally learns his hard lesson in "Tennis, Anyone?" (May 19, 1962) when he unwittingly becomes a pawn in a young woman's attempt to make her boyfriend jealous. He shows up at the public tennis court just after pretty but noticeably older Carol Martin has a falling out with her tennis instructor and boyfriend Don Kirk. When Eddie Haskell is late showing up to play Wally, Carol invites him to volley with her while Don is still hovering nearby, hoping to make him jealous. Wally mistakes her friendliness for interest in him, and makes a date to play again with her the next day. When Beaver and Eddie see Wally playing with an attractive older woman, they assume that they are an item, but leaving the tennis court on the second day Wally is confronted by Don, who warns him to stay away from Carol, whom he claims is his girl. Wally takes his problem to Ward, who asks him how old Carol is. When Wally says that she is 22, Ward advises him to stay away from her because she is too old for him. Wally decides to go back to the tennis courts the next day anyway but then sees Carol and Don arm in arm after reconciling. He is initially downcast but then admits surprise that his father knows so much about romance. Again, this episode has the ring of truth from my personal experience--when you're young and naive, it's easy to get mixed up in someone else's romantic problems without realizing their true intentions. Fortunately for Wally, he got good advice and his interlude ended quickly and without any real damage to his psyche. Not everyone is so lucky, but perhaps if more of us had seen this episode while growing up, we would have been better prepared to avoid love's pitfalls.

The Actors

For the biographies of Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Ken Osmond, Frank Bank, Stanley Fafara, and Sue Randall, see the 1960 post on Leave It to Beaver. For the biographies of Stephen Talbot, Karen Sue Trent, Richard Correll, Cheryl Holdridge, and Burt Mustin, see the 1961 post on Leave It to Beaver. For the biography of Richard Deacon, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 5, Episode 14, "Ward's Golf Clubs": Henry Hunter (Doctor Summerfield on Hazel) plays sporting goods store clerk Sam Higgins.

Season 5, Episode 15, "Farewell to Penny": Jean Vander Pyl (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Flintstones) plays Penny's mother Mrs. Woods.

Season 5, Episode 16, "Beaver the Bunny": Alice Backes (Vickie on Bachelor Father) plays Beaver's school pageant coordinator Miss Lawrence.

Season 5, Episode 17, "Beaver's Electric Trains": Toby Michaels (starred in Love in a Goldfish Bowl, first wife of director and Bewitched associate producer Richard Michaels) plays girl sent to pick up Beaver's electric train set Georgia Batson.

Season 5, Episode 22, "Three Boys and a Burro": Jane Dulo (Liz Murray on Hey, Jeannie!, WAC Pvt. Mildred Lukens on The Phil Silvers Show, Molly Turner on McHale's Navy, Agent 99's mother on Get Smart, Nurse Murphy on Medical Center, and Grandma Mildred Kanisky on Gimme a Break!) plays Richard's mother Mrs. Rickover.

Season 5, Episode 23, "Eddie Quits School": Frank Wilcox (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Untouchables) plays Wally's school principal Mr. Farmer. Bert Remsen (Detective Lawrence on Peyton Place, Mr. Pell on Gibbsville, Mario on It's a Living, and Jack Crager on Dynasty) plays repair garage owner Mr. Thompson.

Season 5, Episode 26, "Lumpy's Car Trouble": Pat McCaffrie (Chuck Forrest on Bachelor Father and Dr. Edgar Harris on Outlaws) plays Ward's work colleague Bill Boothby.

Season 5, Episode 27, "Beaver the Babysitter": Jennie Lynn (Jenny Baker on Love and Marriage) plays Beaver's babysitting assignment Pattie Murdock. Marjorie Reynolds (starred in Holiday Inn, Ministry of Fear, and The Time of Their Lives and played Peg Riley on The Life of Riley) plays her mother Mrs. Murdock.

Season 5, Episode 28, "The Younger Brother": Russ Conway (shown on the left, played Fenton Hardy on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Gen. Devon on Men Into Space, and Lt. Pete Kile on Richard Diamond, Private Detective) plays Wally's former basketball coach Mr. Doyle.

Season 5, Episode 29, "Beaver's Typewriter": Ed Prentiss (the narrator on Trackdown and played Carl Jensen on The Virginian) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Bailey.

Season 5, Episode 31, "Brother vs. Brother": Hardie Albright (shown on the right, appeared in This Sporting Age, The Song of Songs, White Heat, The Scarlet Letter, The Pride of the Yankees, and Angel on My Shoulder) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Collins. Mimi Gibson (appeared in The Three Faces of Eve, Houseboat, and The Children's Hour and played Barby McGovern on Westinghouse Playhouse) plays new student Mary Tyler.

Season 5, Episode 32, "The Yard Birds": Bartlett Robinson (Willard Norton on Wendy and Me and Frank Caldwell on Mona McCluskey) plays empty lot owner Mr. Hill.

Season 5, Episode 33, "Tennis, Anyone?": Cynthia Chenault (shown on the left, appeared in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Dino, and This Earth is Mine and played Carol Potter on The Tom Ewell Show) plays tennis student Carol Martin.

Season 5, Episode 34, "One of the Boys": Martin Dean (Junior on Dick Tracy) plays exclusive club president Rick Davis.

Season 5, Episode 35, "Sweatshirt Monsters": Hardie Albright (see "Brother vs. Brother" above) returns as Beaver's English teacher Mr. Collins. Jane Dulo (see "Three Boys and a Burro" above) returns as Richard's mother Mrs. Rickover.

Season 5, Episode 36, "A Night in the Woods": John Hart (appeared in The Buccaneer, Jack Armstrong, and The Ten Commandments and played Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler on Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,  was Clayton Moore's replacement on The Lone Ranger from 1950-53 when Moore was in the midst of a contract dispute, and played Narbo on Rawhide) plays a forest ranger.

Season 5, Episode 37, "Long Distance Call": Don Drysdale (shown on the right, Hall-of-Fame Dodgers pitcher and announcer) plays himself. Dennis Olivieri (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Betty Hutton Show) plays Beaver's bragging classmate Kenny. Ray Montgomery (Prof. Howard Ogden on Ramar of the Jungle) plays his newspaper reporter father. Johnny Eimen (Monk on McKeever and the Colonel) plays Kenny's school friend.

Season 5, Episode 39, "Un-togetherness": Brenda Scott (shown on the left, married and divorced actor Andrew Prine three times, now married to producer Dean Hargrove, played Midge Pride on The Road West and Dr. Gina Dante Lansing on General Hospital) plays Wally's new girlfriend Lori-Ann.

Season 6, Episode 1, "Wally's Dinner Date": Than Wyenn (Licenciado Piña on Zorro) plays a restaurant waiter.

Season 6, Episode 3, "Wally's License": Russ Bender (appeared in It Conquered the World, Dragstrip Girl, Invasion of the Saucer Men, and The Amazing Colossal Man) plays driving instructor Mr. Barnsdall. Beverly Lunsford (shown on the right, played Amy Ames Britton Kincaid on The Secret Storm) plays driving student Shirley Fletcher. Larry J. Blake (played the unnamed jailer on Yancy Derringer and Tom Parnell on Saints and Sinners) plays the DMV driving test administrator.

Season 6, Episode 5, "Double Date": Vicky Albright (daughter of actor Hardie Albright) plays Wally's date Carolyn Stewart. Diane Mountford (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Assignment: Underwater) plays her younger sister Susan.

Season 6, Episode 6, "Eddie, the Businessman": Don Haggerty (Jeffrey Jones on The Files of Jeffrey Jones, Eddie Drake on The Cases of Eddie Drake, Sheriff Dan Elder on State Trooper, and Marsh Murdock on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays dairy manager Ted Worden. Howard Caine (Schaab on The Californians and Maj. Wolfgang Hochstetter on Hogan's Heroes) plays one of his foremen. John Baer (Terry Lee on Terry and the Pirates) plays the foreman's assistant.

Season 6, Episode 7, "Tell It to Ella": Tim Matheson (shown on the right, played Roddy Miller on Window on Main Street, Jim Horn on The Virginian, Griff King on Bonanza, Quentin Beaudine on The Quest, Rick Tucker on Tucker's Witch, Harry Stadlin on Just in Time, Charlie Hoover on Charlie Hoover, Sheriff Matthew Donner on Wolf Lake, Bill Dunne on Breaking News, John Hoynes on The West Wing, Larry Sizemore on Burn Notice, Dr. Brick Breeland on Hart of Dixie, and Doc Mullins on Virgin River, and voiced Jonny Quest on Jonny Quest, Sinbad, Jr. on Sinbad, Jr. and His Magic Belt, Samson on Young Samson & Goliath, Jace on Space Ghost, Capt. John O'Rourke on The Legend of Calamity Jane, and Brad Chiles on Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated) plays Beaver's friend Mike. Robert Eyer (brother of actor Richard Eyer) plays his friend Kevin.

Season 6, Episode 8, "Bachelor at Large": Lurene Tuttle (shown on the left, appeared in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Ma Barker's Killer Brood, Psycho, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and The Fortune Cookie and played Doris Dunston on Father of the Bride and Hannah Yarby on Julia) plays Eddie's landlady Mrs. Evans.

Season 6, Episode 9, "Beaver Joins a Record Club.": George Cisar (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays the mailman.

Season 6, Episode 10, "Wally's Car Accident": Beverly Lunsford (see "Wally's License" above) plays Wally's date Shirley Fletcher.

Season 6, Episode 11, "Beaver, the Sheep Dog": Ed Prentiss (shown on the right, see "Beaver's Typewriter" above) returns as Beaver's teacher Mr. Bailey.

Season 6, Episode 12, "Beaver, the Hero": Carol Faylen (daughter of actor Frank Faylen, played Janice Collins on The Bing Crosby Show) plays Beaver's classmate Donna.

Season 6, Episode 13, "Beaver's Autobiography": Harlan Warde (shown on the left, played John Hamilton on The Rifleman and Sheriff John Brannan on The Virginian) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Thompson. Annette Gorman (Addie Slaughter on The Magical World of Disney Texas John Slaughter series) plays Beaver's new classmate Betsy Carter. Frances Mercer (starred in Crime Ring, Smashing the Rackets, The Mad Miss Manton, and There's Always Tomorrow and played Nurse Ann Talbot on Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal) plays Betsy's mother Mrs. Carter.

Season 6, Episode 14, "The Party Spoiler": Vicky Albright (shown on the right, see "Double Date" above) plays Wally's party guest Carolyn.

The Donna Reed Show (1962)

 

Though Donna Reed originated her eponymous TV series with the intention of providing an antidote to male-centered sit-coms and oversexed or wacky female-based series (an obvious dig at I Love Lucy), by Season 4 the demands of being the sane multi-tasking mother for 39 episodes per season were beginning to drain her. A July 21, 1962 cover story in TV Guide mentions that stories began to circulate in the trade papers during the winter of 1961-62 that Reed was tired and did not wish to continue her series into a fifth season. But the TV Guide story casts these reports as merely a bargaining ploy by Reed and her husband Tony Owen, who was also the show's producer, to get a more favorable contract for Season 5, which they were able to achieve. The terms of the new contract included, besides a bump in salary and a larger share of proceeds to Reed & Owen's production company, a reduction in the number of episodes from 39 to 34 and rearrangement of the shooting schedule so that Reed would not be required for the first and last scene in each episode. The article also casts Owen as a stereotypical wheeler-dealer who was already laying the foundation for the next contract negotiation by quoting him as betting that Reed would not agree to a sixth season even if it included reducing her episodes to 26, focusing the show more on the children, and limiting her shooting schedule to 10 weeks, similar to the deal Fred MacMurray had on My Three Sons. Hindsight shows us that after Season 5 Reed again considered ending the series, reportedly expressing an opinion that the writers had run out of fresh ideas and wanting to spend more time with her family, but somehow she and Owen agreed to another 3-year contract before finally calling it quits in 1966, again citing that she was tired of the production requirements.

But these concessions were already being implemented as early as the Season 4 episodes that aired in 1962: the show was morphing into The Paul Petersen Show as a sizable number of plots revolved around Jeff Stone and his misadventures, a misstep for the series because the Jeff character is the most obnoxious and least likable of the family Stone. Several others center on Alex and Mary, respectively, and the only ones where Donna is in the center of the action are "Donna's Prima Donna" (February 1, 1962), which she shares with Mary, "Free Flight" (March 1, 1962) in which she "wins" a free flight on a disorganized airline after complaining when Alex is delayed in returning from a medical conference, "The Fortune Teller" (April 19, 1962) in which she begins to believe she has ESP after playing a fortune teller at a charity bazaar, "The Caravan" (May 10, 1962) in which she provides uncharacteristic voice-over narration on a family vacation out west in a motor home, and the season-ending "Dear Wife" (June 14, 1962), which she shares with Alex and Mary. That makes 5 episodes out of 23, hardly making her the center of the series. Perhaps to double down on their threat to CBS to end the series, Reed and Owen's production company inserted a "back-door" pilot for a new series--"The Wide Open Spaces" (March 8, 1962) late in Season 4 as a potential replacement for The Donna Reed Show. The episode portrays former Hilldale tax accountant David Adams (played by William Windom), his wife Millie (Patricia Breslin) and their two sons Steve and Les (real-life brothers Steven and Leslie Barringer) as having moved to the country to run a farm, with the Stones paying them a visit to see how things are going. The plot is a warmed-over adaptation of the city folk trying to adjust to country life theme already covered in the 1947 feature film The Egg and I with Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert and one that would be handled much more comically in Paul Henning's Green Acres a few years later. The Donna Reed version of the trope  has the potential tragedy of an old workhorse almost dying but then being magically resurrected by the capitalist credo that unless you're working, you're dead.

Another late Season 4 episode attempted to launch a new series for singer Roberta Sherwood in "Donna Meets Roberta" (May 3, 1962). Despite the episode's title suggesting Donna in the starring role, the action centers around Alex planning to buy singer Roberta Summers' dilapidated house after getting a tip that a shopping center is going to be built across the street, which will greatly increase the property's value. Donna's role is to passive-aggressively get Alex to let Roberta in on the secret rather than taking advantage of her ignorance for his financial gain. The episode also includes Sherwood's three sons from her marriage to Don Lanning, and once the story depicted in the episode is concluded, viewers are given an introduction to the new series by Sherwood along with some already-filmed scenes to give viewers a taste for the kind of action they can expect once the series airs in its own slot. Only the series was never picked up, but Sherwood's son Jerry Lanning, who had already been featured in the February 28, 1962 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, got a return engagement on The Donna Reed Show in the Season 5 episode "Big Star" (November 15, 1962) playing Mary's shy boyfriend, whom she is determined to push into a singing career.

Speaking of being pushed into a singing career, this was another of Tony Owen's schemes to turn The Donna Reed Show into a cash register for his and Reed's production company Todon in 1962. According to an interview Shelley Fabares gave to former major league baseball player Jerry Reuss that is documented on his web site, Owen noticed that ratings for The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet shot up for episodes in which teen heart-throb Ricky Nelson sang a song. So Owen decided to do the same with his two teen actors Paul Petersen and Fabares. Petersen jumped at the idea, having sung before as a Mousketeer and admiring all the attention, particularly from young women, that Nelson was garnering. But Fabares knew she couldn't sing and resisted the plan until Owen threatened to boot her off the show, which finally got her to buckle under. Petersen's first single, "She Can't Find Her Keys," was aired in the episode "For Angie, With Love" (January 18, 1962) in a dream sequence in which he imagines himself a pop star to compete against a richer boy for the affection of his girlfriend Angie. Petersen's recording, a gimmicky novelty song that is painfully corny, reached #19 on the pop charts but was soon eclipsed by Fabares's first single "Johnny Angel" which she is shown performing in the episode "Donna's Prima Donna." To make up for Fabares' vocal deficiencies Owen selected a song co-written by Lee Pockriss, who had co-written Brian Hyland's "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini with another collaborator, and backed her with a lush studio arrangement performed by famed session team The Wrecking Crew, double-tracked her vocal, and surrounded it with Phil Spector's backing vocalists The Blossoms. The song shot to #1 on the charts, but Fabares notes that when a representative from The Ed Sullivan Show called her house to schedule an appearance on Sullivan's show, Fabares' mother told them she couldn't sing it live because it had been spliced together from 15 takes with The Blossoms even handling certain lines that Fabares couldn't pull off. To juice record sales without having the songs resung on multiple episodes, Owen found ways to subliminally keep the songs in viewers' minds by having a malt shop jukebox play snippets of both recordings in the episode "The Swingin' Set" (May 17, 1962). Another snippet of "Johnny Angel" is snuck into the Season 5 opening episode "Mister Nice Guy" (September 20, 1962) when Jeff returns Mary's transistor radio after having repaired it and then turns it on to show her that it is now working.

Despite Fabares' greater chart success, she doesn't sing again in an episode until Season 6's "Big Star," which was actually the B-side of her fourth single and didn't even crack the top 100 on the charts. Her follow-up to "Johnny Angel," "Johnny Loves Me," by contrast, reached #21 on the charts without a television appearance. Petersen, on the other hand, sings his second single, "Keep Your Love Locked" written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, in the Season 5 episode "The Swingin' Set," but it only reached #58 on the pop charts. His third single, "Lollipops and Roses," was a hit for Jack Jones but not for Petersen, who took it to only #54. His next single, though, would be his lone top 10 hit, "My Dad," a maudlin sentimental number featured in the Season 6 episode of the same name, reaching #6 on the charts. Though both actors would continue to record several more singles, with Fabares continuing sporadically until 1966 and Petersen until 1968, neither would again match the success they found in 1962. Owen perhaps failed to maximize the exposure television provided by weaving their performances into the plots of various episodes rather than following the Nelson model of having the performance tacked on to the end of the episode after the plot had ended. Also, with two singers rather than one, he risked overusing the gimmick had he embedded all their singles into the program. Still, he seemed to achieve his desired outcome--generating additional revenue for Todon Productions, which was the game all along according to the previously cited TV Guide article.

While her husband was trying to gin up new revenue streams by copying other series like Ozzie and Harriet with record sales and pilots for new series, Reed tried to differentiate her show from all the others. In an interview for the October 14, 1962 issue of the Chicago American Sunday TV Roundup, she rejected the term sit-com in describing her series: "I hate the term. 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." However, in describing the upcoming Season 6 episode "Rebel With a Cause" (November 8, 1962), the article notes that Donna's character "disguises herself as a hotel chambermaid and gets chased through the lobby in a zany series of misadventures," exactly the sort of "inane plot" Reed had just railed about in the interview. And there's more where that came from. How about belching, erratically steering tin lizzy autos, a la The Keystone Cops? We get those both in "Dr. Stone and His Horseless Carriage" (January 11, 1962) and "The Baby Buggy" (November 29, 1962). We also get a runaway tractor with Alex aboard in "The Wide Open Space" and Alex careening around a parking lot in an undersized go-kart in "Hilldale 500 (March 29, 1962). We may not get an overbearing TV wife (in fact, Reed cannot convincingly even pull off being angry at Jeff in "On to Fairview" [May 24, 1962]), but we are treated to an overbearing daughter when Mary forces boyfriend Clay Shannon into a singing career in "Big Star" and having not learned her lesson three weeks later attempts to transform her uncouth boyfriend into the picture of refinement in "The Makeover Man" (December 6, 1962). And while Alex may not blunder as spectacularly as Ozzie Nelson, he does run into constant problems trying to restore an old car in the aforementioned "Dr. Stone and His Horseless Carriage," gets his pajamas stuck in the zipper of his sleeping bag in "The Caravan," and is unable to make his clients pay their overdue bills after chiding Jeff for loaning money to friends but being unable to collect in "The Soft Touch" (December 20, 1962). It's no wonder Reed hates the term "sit-com" because it fits her show to a T just like it does many other undistinguished TV comedies of the era.

However, the one area where The Donna Reed Show distinguished itself was in its depiction of the mother-daughter relationship between Donna and Mary Stone. Granted, there are many episodes where this relationship is one-dimensional, but occasionally, when the program stops trying to be humorous, it handles the theme with depth and sensitivity. The episode "Donna's Prima Donna" may be a glorified setup for Shelley Fabares to sing "Johnny Angel," but it also depicts a mother trying to carefully steer her short-sighted daughter between what is best for her long-term happiness and not abandoning her passion in the pursuit of practicality. The episode is driven by Mary's sudden decision not to attend college in order to pursue a singing career, while Donna desperately wants her to experience the same joys she had at the local college. Recognizing that merely reasoning with her will only meet resistance, Donna tries to gently expose Mary to some of the pitfalls of a music career--long bus rides with rambunctious musicians--that she may not have considered. She even goes to unlikely lengths to get Mary on campus for mother-daughter weekend by having an old college friend in charge of the weekend's entertainment create a spot in the musical lineup so that Mary will get to perform. But after hearing Mary perform, Donna realizes that her daughter's wish for a singing career is not mere fancy--she has real talent (or the appearance of such, given what we've noted about Fabares' musical abilities above)--while she also recalls that her own desire to sing as a young woman was quashed by her parents. Mary finally decides to enroll in college after all while nurturing her musical talents in the campus glee club so that both mother and daughter come away from the experience having learned something about each other and themselves. While the episode employs the same sentimental exploitation common in many sit-com "teaching" plots, it also reasonably portrays the dilemma real parents face in balancing their desire for their children to experience the same thrills they had while also allowing children to pursue their own path.

Even more poignant is the episode "Dear Wife" (June 14, 1962) in which Mary becomes attracted to a groomsman at a wedding where she is one of the bridesmaids. After Mary catches the bride's bouquet and Alex jokes that given the cost of weddings he will give Mary $1000 cash if she will elope whenever she decides to wed, Donna becomes concerned when Mary also goes on and on about how perfect the groomsman Roger Perry is, fearing that she may take Alex up on his offer, especially when she learns that Roger is leaving the next morning for a work assignment in Las Vegas, the land of impulsive weddings. When Donna tries to tell Mary that she will eventually have her day and that weddings always tend to make people feel unusually romantic, Mary turns on her in a rare and very convincing outburst of anger at still being treated like a child. After Mary storms out of the house to attend a going away party for Roger, Donna turns to Alex in a moment of real terror and says she doesn't even know her daughter when she talks that way. Alex tries to reassure her that while Mary can have her moments of emotion she eventually comes around to a rational decision and that they should trust her not to run off and elope with Roger. Of course, the rest of the episode tries to milk the comic disconnect between them saying they can trust Mary but feeling the need to monitor her every move to make sure that they are right. Unfortunately, the episode and the series easily slips back into conventional sit-com mode, but the two scenes in which Mary gives her mother a tongue lashing and Donna seeks solace from her husband over what just happened are the best and most realistic in the entire year's worth of episodes. Perhaps Reed's instincts were right in hating the term "sit-com"--she should have been doing drama.

The Actors

For the biographies of Donna Reed, Carl Betz, Shelley Fabares, and Paul Petersen, see the 1960 post on The Donna Reed Show. For the biographies of Jimmy Hawkins and C. Lindsay Workman, see the 1961 post on The Donna Reed Show.

Candy Moore

Born Candace Lee Klaasen in Maplewood, New Jersey in 1947, Candy Moore had her first screen roll at age 12 in an episode of One Step Beyond, a program she would appear on again the following year. In 1961 she made her feature film debut playing the lead in Tomboy and the Champ as well as appearing in episodes of Leave It to Beaver, Wagon Train, My Three Sons, Rawhide, and several others in addition to her first appearance as Jeff Stone's girlfriend Angie Quinn on The Donna Reed Show. After appearing 5 more times as Angie in 1962, Moore had her biggest career break when she was cast as Lucille Ball's daughter Chris Carmichael on The Lucy Show, which debuted in the fall of 1962. Moore stayed with the program until 1965 when it was reformatted and her character was written out. She returned to The Donna Reed Show that year, appearing once as Bernice in "Boy Meets Girl Machine" and three more times as Bebe Barnes extending into 1966. That year she also appeared in the Clint Walker feature adventure film The Night of the Grizzly.  In 1967 she served as a fashion hostess for a week on the Chuck Barris-produced TV beauty pageant game show Dream Girl of '67, a program on which her Donna Reed co-star Paul Petersen was then co-hosting. In 1971 she married actor Paul Gleason, and the couple had one daughter, Shannon, before divorcing in 1978. As recently as 2019 she was teaching English at Esteban E. Torres High School in Los Angeles.

Although numerous online sites, including Wikipedia and imdb.com, credit Moore with being the cover model for the Alberto Vargas painting for The Cars LP Candy-O and list her as having appeared in the feature films Raging Bull and Lunch Wagon, there is some doubt that the latter Candy Moore is the same as the Donna Reed actress.

 

 

 

Darryl Richard

Other than his birthday--March 18, 1946, his birth name--Darryl Richard Rosenberg, and his filmography, very little has been published about Darryl Richard, who played Jeff Stone's best friend Morton "Smitty" Smith in 34 episodes of The Donna Reed Show between 1961-66. He made his TV debut at age 7 in an episode of the drama anthology Suspense in 1953 and appeared 3 times in different roles on The Phil Silvers Show in 1956-57. Concurrent with these early television roles, Richard appears to have been a child actor on Broadway, beginning with a 1954 appearance in King of Hearts and including the role of Buster Pollitt in the Pulitzer-Prize-winning production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. Other Broadway appearances included A Roomful of Roses in 1955, Harbor Lights in 1956, and Portofino in 1958. As a teenager he had a flurry of guest spots on television programs in 1960 and 1962,including The Twilight Zone, The Betty Hutton Show, The Ann Sothern Show, and The Rifleman. After landing his recurring role on The Donna Reed Show, he only made a handful of additional TV appearances on Mr. Novak, Grindl, Kraft Suspense Theatre, and Summer Playhouse in 1963-64. Though he appears to have retired from film acting after the cancellation of The Donna Reed Show, someone tracked him down to autograph trading cards depicting his role in The Twilight Zone episode "The Changing of the Guard" for a series of cards celebrating the Rod Serling TV series issued by Ritterhouse in 2016. Richard also appears with Mel Brooks at Santa Anita Racetrack in 2015 on the web site managed by his friend Kevin Childs at https://www.buttermilkbrook.com/childs.html. Childs says that Richard retired from acting around 1970 and had a successful business career before retiring from that as well.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 4, Episode 17, "Dr. Stone and His Horseless Carriage": Gale Gordon (shown on the left, starred in Here We Go Again, Here Come the Nelsons, Our Miss Brooks, and Speedway and played Osgood Conklin on Our Miss Brooks, Harvey Box on The Box Brothers, Bascomb Bleacher on Sally, Landlord Heckendorn on The Danny Thomas Show, Uncle Paul Porter on Pete and Gladys, John Wilson on Dennis the Menace, Theodore J. Mooney on The Lucy Show, Harrison Otis Carter on Here's Lucy, and Curtis McGibbon on Life With Lucy) plays hospital administrator Mr. Webley. Oliver McGowan (Harvey Welk on Empire) plays medical lecturer Dr. Thorgeson.

Season 4, Episode 18, "For Angie, With Love": Trudy Marshall (shown on the right, onetime model for cigarette print ads for Lucky Strike and Chesterfield, appeared in Girl Trouble, The Fighting Sullivans, Sentimental Journey, and Dragonwyck) plays lady's wear shop clerk Mrs. Foster. Mary Lawrence (appeared in County Fair, The Stratton Story, and A Cry in the Night and played Alice Jones on Casey Jones and Ruth Helm on The Bob Cummings Show) plays Jeff's rival's mother Mrs. Devlin.

Season 4, Episode 19, "Aloha, Kimi": Myoshi Umeki (shown on the left, starred in Sayonara, The Flower Drum Song, and A Girl Named Tamiko and played Mrs. Livingston on The Courtship of Eddie's Father) plays nurse Kimi Makihara. Crahan Denton (appeared in The Parent Trap, Birdman of Alcatraz, and To Kill a Mockingbird) plays Hawaiian pediatrician Dr. Kendall. James Douglas (appeared in G.I. Blues, A Thunder of Drums, and Sweet Bird of Youth and played Steve Cord on Peyton Place, Grant Coleman on As the World Turns, Desmond Aldrich on The Edge of Night, and Dr. Marcus Polk on One Life to Live) plays Kendall's clinic partner Dr. Paul Phillips. Susan Gordon (appeared in Attack of the Puppet People, Tormented, The Five Pennies, and Picture Mommy Dead) plays Alex's vacationing patient Penny Palmer. Betsy Jones-Moreland (Judge Elinor Harrelson in 7 Perry Mason TV movies) plays Penny's mother Janet. Harvey Lembeck (appeared in You're in the Navy Now, Stalag 17, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Eric Von Zipper in 5 beach movies--Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Pajama Party, Beach Blanket Bingo, and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and played Chips Collins on Make Room for Daddy, Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show, and Seaman Gabby di Julio on Ensign O'Toole) plays cab driver Rudy Meyer.

Season 4, Episode 20, "Donna's Prima Donna": James Stacy (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays Fairburn college student Danny Calvin. Don Spruance (Dr. Robert Ward on Ben Casey) plays young father Mr. Haslip.

Season 4, Episode 21, "Explorer's Ten": Earle Hodgins (starred in The Texas Rambler, Paradise Canyon, Heroes of the Alamo, and Pride of the West and played Lonesome on Guestward Ho!) plays retirement home resident Mr. Coxey. Allan Hunt (Stuart Riley on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) plays Jeff's explorer group leader Howard. Ken Niles (radio announcer for The Life of Riley) plays astronomer Prof. Earnshaw.

Season 4, Episode 22, "The New Office": Victor French (appeared in The Quick and the Dead, Charro!, and Rio Lobo and played Agent 44 on Get Smart, Fred Gilman on The Hero, Chief Roy Mobey on Carter Country, Isaiah Edwards on Little House on the Prairie, and Mark Gordon on Highway to Heaven) plays mover Mike.

Season 4, Episode 23, "The Golden Trap": Charla Doherty (shown on the left, played Julie Olson on Days of Our Lives) plays Mary's friend Janice. Regina Groves (Joanie MacRoberts on Our Man Higgins) plays another of Mary's friends Ann. Alan Carney (played Mike Strager in a series of RKO comedies in the 1940s, appeared in The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and Herbie Rides Again, and played Herbie on The Jean Carroll Show) plays plumber Mr. Pruitt. Swoosie Kurtz (Ellie Bradley on As the World Turns, Laurie Morgan on Love, Sidney, Alex Reed Barker on Sisters, Effie Conklin on Love & Money, Madeleine Sullivan on Huff, Lily Charles on Pushing Daisies, Marilyn on Rita Rocks, Joyce Flynn on Mike & Molly, Tiffany on The Dangerous Book for Boys, Beverly on Man With a Plan, Sheila on Call Me Kat, and voiced Betty Smith on American Dad!) plays party-goer Mimi.

Season 4, Episode 24, "Free Flight": William Lanteau (shown on the right, appeared in Li'l Abner, The Honeymoon Machine, Sex and the Single Girl, and Hotel and played Seth Duncan on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Chester Wanamaker on Newhart) plays airline publicity executive Connors. Vinton Hayworth (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Lawman) plays airline president Floyd. Dorothy Lovett (played Judy Price in 5 Dr. Christian feature films) plays Donna's friend Edie. Robert Shayne (appeared in Christmas in Connecticut, The Giant Claw, and North by Northwest and played Inspector Bill Henderson on The Adventures of Superman and the sound man on Bracken's World) plays her husband Joe. John Newton (Bill Paley on Search for Tomorrow and Judge Eric Caffey on Law & Order) plays reporter Kurt Breen.

Season 4, Episode 25, "The Wide Open Spaces": William Windom (shown on the near left, appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Americanization of Emily, and Escape From the Planet of the Apes and played Congressman Glen Morley on The Farmer's Daughter, John Monroe on My World and Welcome to It, Larry Krandall on Brothers and Sisters, Frank Buckman on Parenthood, and Dr. Seth Hazlitt on Murder, She Wrote) plays former Hilldale tax accountant David Adams. Patricia Breslin (shown on the far left, played Amanda Peoples Miller on The People's Choice, Laura Brooks on Peyton Place, and Meg Bentley on General Hospital) plays his wife Millie. Steven Barringer (Butch Malone on Cannonball and the radio operator on The Forest Rangers)plays their son Steve.

Season 4, Episode 27, "Once Upon a Timepiece": Crahan Denton (see "Aloha, Kimi" above) plays travel author Curtis Babcock.

Season 4, Episode 29, "Winner Takes All": Allan Hunt (see "Aloha, Kimi" above) plays Jeff's friend Moose Edwards. Ken Lynch (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on Checkmate) plays his father.

Season 4, Episode 30, "Skin Deep": Peter Brooks (Hank Ferguson on My Three Sons) plays Mary's blind date Gregory Taylor. Regina Groves (see "The Golden Trap" above) returns as Mary's friend Ann. Alan Hunt (see "Explorer's Ten" above) plays Mary's suitor Stan.

Season 4, Episode 31, "The Fortune Teller": Dorothy Lovett (see "Free Flight" above) returns as Donna's friend Edie. Evans Evans (widow of John Frankenheimer, appeared in All Fall Down, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Iceman Cometh) plays baker Ethel. Doodles Weaver (shown on the left, narrated Spike Jones' horse-racing songs and hosted A Day With Doodles) plays a fresh fortune-telling client.

Season 4, Episode 32, "Man of Action": Bobby Horan (Paul Garret on The Hero) plays Smitty's younger brother Hoby. Gene Blakely (Dave on Bewitched) plays Alex's golf partner Dr. Frank Bennett.

Season 4, Episode 33, "Donna Meets Roberta": Roberta Sherwood (shown on the right, popular singer who recorded for Decca Records and appeared in The Courtship of Eddie's Father) plays widow Roberta Summers. Gale Gordon (see "Doctor Stone and His Horseless Carriage" above) plays her brother Dudley Brockton. Don Lanning (son of Roberta Sherwood) plays her son Don. Jerry Lanning (son of Roberta Sherwood, played Nick D'Antoni on Search for Tomorrow, Justin Marshall on Texas, and Cain Harris on Guiding Light) plays her son Jerry. Robert Lanning (son of Roberta Sherwood, drummer for the sunshine pop group Inner Dialogue and for Elvis Presley in 1970) plays her son Bobby. Harry Holcombe (appeared in The Fortune Cookie, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Foxy Brown, Escape to Witch Mountain, and Empire of the Ants and played Frank Gardner on Search for Tomorrow, Doc Benson on My Mother the Car, Mr. Kendricks on Barefoot in the Park, and Dr. J.P. Martin on Bonanza) plays Alex's investment advisor Paul Smith.

Season 4, Episode 35, "The Swingin' Set": Mimsy Farmer (starred in Hot Rods to Hell, Riot on Sunset Strip, Devil's Angels, The Wild Racers, and More) plays Jeff's dream girl Laurie Wesson. Patricia Lyon (shown on the left, wife of Robert Fuller) plays Jeff's junior prom date Jan Streeter.

Season 4, Episode 36, "On to Fairview": Paul Tripp (host of children's shows Mr. I. Magination and On the Carousel and co-creator of Tubby the Tuba) plays bicycle shop owner Mr. Varney. Julie Bennett (voiced Cindy Bear on The Yogi Bear Show, Yogi's Gang, and The New Yogi Bear Show, Lois Lane on The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, Kitty Jo and Chessie on Cattanooga Cats, Lady Constance and Queen Anne on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, Monica on Dinky Dog, and Aunty May Parker on Spider-Man: The Animated Series) plays a lady shopper. Carter DeHaven (father of actress Gloria DeHaven) plays jeweler Mr. Merriam.

Season 4, Episode 37, "The Man in the Mask": Don Drysdale (shown on the right, Hall-of-Fame Dodgers pitcher and announcer) plays himself. Reba Waters (Francesca on Peck's Bad Girl) plays softball captain Marcia Wright.

Season 4, Episode 38, "The Father Image": Gerald Gordon (Dr. Nick Bellini on The Doctors, Felix Morger on Highcliffe Manor, and Skip Franklin on Valerie) plays Alex's colleague Dr. Dick Morley. Mimsy Farmer (shown on the left, see "The Swingin' Set" above) returns as Jeff's girlfriend Laurie.

Season 5, Episode 1, "Mister Nice Guy": Alan Carney (see "The Golden Trap" above) returns as plumber Mr. Pruitt.

Season 5, Episode 2, "Mrs. Stone and Dr. Hyde": Marge Redmond (shown on the right, appeared in Sanctuary, The Trouble With Angels, The Fortune Cookie, and Family Plot and played Sister Jacqueline on The Flying Nun and Mrs. McCardle on Matlock) plays Alex's receptionist Alma. Sally Mansfield (Vena Ray on Rocky Jones, Space Ranger) plays Donna's friend Alice. Dick Wilson (Dino Barone on McHale's Navy and George Whipple in Charmin toilet paper commercials) plays butcher Mr. Drucker. Bobby Horan (see "Man of Action" above) plays Alex's patient Jimmy.

Season 5, Episode 3, "To Be a Boy": Brooke Bundy (shown on the left, appeared in Firecreek, The Young Runaways, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and played Rebecca North on Days of Our Lives and Diana Maynard Taylor on General Hospital) plays Mary's college friend Joanne Wells.  Cindy Carol (Alma Hanson on Leave It to Beaver, Binkie Massey on The New Loretta Young Show, and Susan on Never Too Young) plays Smitty's girlfriend Caroline Myers.

Season 5, Episode 4, "Who Needs Glasses?": Harvey Korman (shown on the right, played various characters on The Carol Burnett Show, the voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones, Harvey A. Kavanuagh on The Harvey Korman Show, Leo Green on Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills, and Reginald J. Tarkington on The Nutt House) plays optometrist Dr. Allison.

Season 5, Episode 5, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary": Cheryl Holdridge (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Leave It to Beaver) plays Mary's college roommate Pat Walker.

Season 5, Episode 6, "My Dad": Ray Montgomery (Prof. Howard Ogden on Ramar of the Jungle) plays Smitty's father Mr. Smith.

Season 5, Episode 7, "Fine Feathers": Beth Peters (Agnes Whitaker on General Hospital) plays pet store owner Marge Bentley.

Season 5, Episode 8, "Rebel With a Cause": Harvey Korman (see "Who Needs Glasses?" above) plays social researcher Carter Melville. Harold Gould (shown on the left, played Bowman Chamberlain on The Long Hot Summer, Harry Danton on The Feather and Father Gang, Martin Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, Jonah Foot on Foot in the Door, Ben Sprague on Spencer, and Miles Webber on The Golden Girls) plays newspaper editor Cal Winslow. Bill Zuckert (Arthur Bradwell on Mr. Novak and Chief Segal on Captain Nice) plays Donna's old friend Jason Farnum. Dick Wilson (see "Mrs. Stone and Dr. Hyde" above) plays hotel clerk Mr. Carothers. Helena Carroll (appeared in The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Jerk, The Dead, and The Mambo Kings and played Molly O'Connor on The Edge of Night and Nancy McTavish on General Hospital) plays hotel maid Jeanette.

Season 5, Episode 9, "Big Star": Jerry Lanning (see "Donna Meets Roberta" above) plays Mary's boyfriend Clay Shannon. Arthur Malet (appeared in Mary Poppins, In the Heat of the Night, and Heaven Can Wait and played Carl on Casablanca, Bobby on Easy Street, Nigel Peabody on Days of Our Lives, and Ryan on Dallas) plays college music Prof. Raskin. Betsy Jones-Moreland (see "Aloha, Kimi" above) plays talent scout Geri Harris.

Season 5, Episode 10, "Man to Man": Tony Owen, Jr. (son of Donna Reed and Tony Owen) plays Jeff's friend Rick Sims. Harry Korshak (later produced Calliope, Hit!, Gable and Lombard, and Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York) plays his friend Jerry Abbott. Nancy Spry (Miss Teen USA for 1964, appeared in Bye Bye Birdie and The Girls on the Beach) plays their friend Angie. Patricia Lyon (see "The Swingin' Set" above) plays their friend Maxine.

Season 5, Episode 11, "The Baby Buggy": Fay Bainter (shown on the right, Oscar-winning actress, starred in Jezebel, Our Town, State Fair (1945), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and The Children's Hour) plays obstetrician Dr. Harriet Robey. Hayden Rorke (starred in Father's Little Dividend, When Worlds Collide, and Pillow Talk and played Steve on Mr. Adams and Eve, Col. Farnsworth on No Time for Sergeants, Dr. Alfred Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie, and Bishop on Dr. Kildare) plays banker Joe McVey. Richard Deacon (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Dick Van Dyke Show) plays high school principal Mr. Moorehead. Gerald Trump (Crump on Ensign O'Toole) plays delivery boy Willie Costa.

Season 5, Episode 12, "The Makeover Man": James Stacy (see "Donna's Prima Donna" above) plays Mary's boyfriend Steve Callahan. Shary Marshall (Linda on Wendy and Me) plays his sister Gloria. Bob Rodgers (shown on the left, professional baseball catcher with the Los Angeles Angels) plays his basketball coach. Bea Shaw (Pamela Willis on Crossroads) plays Gloria's customer. Allan Hunt (see "Explorer's Ten" above) plays Steve's basketball teammate.

Season 5, Episode 13, "The Winning Ticket": Anjanette Comer (shown on the right, starred in The Loved One, The Appaloosa, Guns for San Sebastian, and Rabbit, Run) plays Jeff's friend Barbie.

Season 5, Episode 15, "Jeff Stands Alone": James Stacy (see "Donna's Prima Donna" above) plays telephone lineman Sandy. William Launteau (see "Free Flight" above) plays employment agent Mr. Jepsen. A.G. Vitanza (Ramon on The Flying Nun) plays a hotel clerk.