The Donna Reed Show (TV Series) Weekend Trip (1958) User Reviews

First Show a slow introduction

[DKosty123 · 6/10 · 8 March 2018]

Dr. and Mrs. Stone (Carl Betz & Donna Reed) show a definite 1950's start. Actually this one a a bit slow for the first show they are busy introducing all the characters to the show. We get the phone ringing for the Doctor, and his wife does one of his house calls.

The house call is a little boy who is apparently healthy but keeps getting sick when he has to go to school. Mrs. Stone finds out that the reason is another student whose bullying the kid. She gets news that he is moving away, delivers that news to the kid and cures him.

This clears the way for the family to take a week-end vacation trip at last. The trip will last for several seasons. Betz will develop into a pretty good actor during this series. As husband of Reed produces the show, they get a financial wind fall and the kids become famous.

Donna Reed answers the Call

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 18 April 2009]

With her film career fading, Donna Reed answered the television call. That black thing ringing in each episode's catchy theme song is what a "telephone" looked like in the 1950s - and, it must have been an upscale model. Producer husband Tony Owen and the ever elegant Ms. Reed assembled a terrific TV family: Donna Reed (as Donna Stone), Carl Betz (as Alex Stone), Shelley Fabares (as Mary Stone), and Paul Peterson (as Jeff Stone). They looked like a family even before the arrival of Paul's little sister (1963).

In the first aired episode, Donna tries to arrange a skiing weekend for the family, because she and the kids aren't seeing enough of father Alex. Donna can't understand why their obstetrician friend Jackie Kelk (as Burt "Bo" Boland) can get off, but not Alex. This one's okay, but the seventh episode's "Three-Part Mother" plays like a better series introduction.

**** Weekend Trip (9/24/58) Andrew McCullough ~ Donna Reed, Carl Betz, Jackie Kelk