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.
