Donna Reed Show (Big G/Sony Promotion), The
Directors: Andrew McCullough
Producers: Tony Owen
Writers: Clifford Goldsmith William Roberts
Features: Standard, Black And White, A Short, Color Special Preview Feature Of "The King Of Queens," And Mono Sound.
Characters:
Donna Stone...Donna Reed
Alex Stone...Carl Betz
Trisha Stone...Patty Peterson
Jeff Stone...Paul Peterson
Genre: Family
Review:
Most people reach into a DVD box to get out a DVD. I reach into a cereal box. That's right, the latest 'Prize' offering from General Mills found in some of their cereal boxes are four different limited edition DVD's of three past and one current television show. Unlike most prize offerings in cereal boxes the kind folks at General Mills have opted not to have you overbuy their cereal boxes in order to get the specific DVD you want. Anyone can look through a cut-out window in the front of a select number of cereal boxes and choose the DVD of your choice. The cereals containing these DVDs are Total, Total Brown Sugar & Oats, Total Raisin Bran, Oatmeal Crisp Almond, and Oatmeal Crisp Raisin. Be aware that these DVDs contain at the most only two episodes of a certain television show with two titles, "Mad About You" and "The King Of Queens" only containing one episode with behind the scene footage and cast interviews. The DVD of "Mad About You" contains the "Coming Home" episode and the other DVD of "King Of Queens" contains "Clothes Encounters." The "Barney Miller" DVD which stars Hal Linden as Barney Miller has two seventies episodes, "The Tunnel" and "Obituary." The DVD of "The Donna Reed Show" which starred Donna Reed as Donna Stone from 1958-1966 is presented in its' original black and white hue, containing two episodes, one from the 1964 season, "Four On The Floor" and "No More Parties" from the 1965 season. It is the "Donna Reed" DVD I will concern myself with as as I chose to forego the others as they are already available on a DVD collection or like "The King Of Queens" DVD, scheduled to come out in the Spring of 2004 as part of the show's second season DVD collection. As far as I know there are no plans to release a DVD collection of "The Donna Reed Show," so the two episodes released through the General Mills and Sony teamup may be all there is or ever will be.
In episode one of "The Donna Reed Show" titled "Four On The Floor," Donna's son, Jeff(Paul Peterson) who is a sophomore in college wants to buy a used car with three hundred and fifty dollars he has saved up. Alex Stone(Carl Betz), Jeff's dad, asks if he needs any help in choosing a car, but Jeff acts like he can handle it. His dad then goes over with him that there are other things to consider like insurance and the cost of gas. Later Jeff tells his girlfriend, Karen(Janet Landgard), that he is going down to Henshaw's Corner to buy a car and she mentions that Mr. Henshaw(Laurence Haddon) is her uncle who she can have give Jeff a deal. Jeff wants to do it on his own, but Karen calls ahead anyway to tell her uncle to give Jeff good treatment. Mr. Henshaw tries to steer Jeff to a good buy only to have Jeff insist on purchasing a newly arrived car that has not been checked out yet. Taking his new car over to Karen's, Jeff proudly displays his vehicle only to have it suddenly conk out. Now he has to face the consequences of hubris.
In episode two titled "No More Parties," Donna and her husband, Alex, come back from a party and drink glasses of milk as they discuss how they are attending too many parties. They agree to swear off parties for a while. Then a friend of Donna's calls to talk about going to the Slocumb party. Donna lets her friend think the family is going to Europe because it seems she cannot tell a lie and she wants to avoid going to the party. However, when Donna realizes that she was never invited to this party she becomes distressed. Her young daughter, Trisha(Patty Peterson) hears the 'going to europe' part of the conversation and gets excited about leaving. Now Donna wants to go very badly to the party she never received an invitation.
Both episodes were produced by Tony Owens who was Donna Reed's husband at the time. The writing and directing credits must have been cut off of the first show since I never saw them. The second show credits Clifford Goldsmith and William Roberts for the story with Andrew McCullough getting the directing credit. Paul Peterson has a different hair style in each of the episodes, but then they were filmed a year apart. His sister, Trisha, only appears in the second show. Kirk Alyn, the silver screen's first Superman and Blackhawk, is in the second show as the host of the party Donna is trying to get invited.
The quality of the DVD is okay, not great, but it is good to have at least two episodes of "The Donna Reed Show" out on DVD. There is noticeable background hiss on the second episode, but very little on the first. There are a lot of cuts in the episode and my theory is that these shows are not in their original version. Probably all the cuts signify edits made by different television stations to accomodate commercials. That could account how the first show 'lost' its' writing and directing credits. Overall the quality is acceptable. While the shows, themselves, will not cause you to fall out of your chair with laughter, they are written more to show human foibles and teach a lesson in television life. Drink lots of milk could be one lesson learned from episode two.
"The Donna Reed Show" ran from 1958 to 1966 and had two hundred and seventy-five episodes. Shelly Fabares of later "Coach" fame was Mary Stone until 1963 when her teen idol status probably caused her to leave the show. Patty Peterson played Trisha Stone from 1963 until the end of the series in 1966. I don't know why there was a name change when Fabares left, but it is interesting to note in the opening credits that Patty Peterson's face is not seen. She is shot from behind. I guess if she too left, the Studio could get a girl with dark hair and avoid reshooting the opening credits again.
Before getting her own television series, Donna Reed had some success in the movies. She played James Stewart's film wife, Mary Bailey, in "It's A Wonderful Life" in 1946. In 1953 she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress playing a prostitute named Alma in "From Here To Eternity." Much later in her career she played on the hit television series "Dallas" as Ellie Ewing Farlow during the 1984-85 season. Donna Reed passed away in 1986.
In addition to the two Donna Reed episodes, the DVD contains a short color promo for "The King Of Queens."
If you want to find "The Donna Reed Show" DVD look in your grocery store, not Blockbuster or Best Buy.
----Randy