Download or read book The Donna Reed Show written by Joanne Morreale and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when television offered limited opportunities for women, Donna Reed was an Oscar-winning Hollywood actress who became both producer (though largely uncredited) and star of her own television show. Distinct from the patriarchal family sitcoms of the era, The Donna Reed Show's storylines focused on the mother instead of the father, and its production brought a cinematic aesthetic to television situation comedy. In The Donna Reed Show, author Joanne Morreale illustrates how the program pushed the boundaries of the domestic sitcom at a time when the genre was evolving and also reflected the subtle shifts and undercurrents of unrest in the larger social and political culture. Morreale begins by locating Donna Reed in relation to her predecessors Gertrude Berg and Lucille Ball, both of whom were strong female presences in front of and behind the camera. She also explores the telefilm aesthetics of The Donna Reed Show and argues that the series is a prime example of the emergent synergy between Hollywood and the television industry in the late fifties. In addition, Morreale argues that the Donna Stone character's femininity acts as a kind of masquerade, as well as provides a proto-feminist model for housewives. She also examines the show's representation of teen culture and its role in launching the singing careers of its two teenaged stars. Finally, Morreale considers the legacy of The Donna Reed Show in the representation of its values in later sitcoms and its dialogue with contemporary television texts. Morreale illustrates the interplay of gender, industry, and culture at work in the history of this classic TV series. Fans of the show, as well as students and teachers of television history, will enjoy this close look at The Donna Reed Show.
Download or read book On Hold Do Not Use written by Paul Petersen and published by TV Classics Press. This book was released on 2019-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Donna Reed Show: A Pictorial Memoir is designed like a personal scrapbook of fond memories of the family many of us wish we had. Filled with behind the scenes and rarely seen photographs, the book is narrated by Paul Petersen who played Jeff Stone. The book is nostalgic, yet takes it place among books of television history highlighting the important impact Donna Reed and this show had on the changing tide of media. The show ran from 1958 to 1966.
Download or read book The Donna Reed Show written by and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Donna Reed Show written by Paul Petersen and published by TV Classics Press. This book was released on 2018-11-18 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Donna Reed Show tribute book is just in time to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this iconic TV Classic. With special commentary by Paul Petersen who played Jeff Stone on the series and photographs from the archives of the Donna Reed Foundation, this is a must have for TV Classic Fans. Take a step back into a simpler time with nostalgic memories of the family many of us wished was our own.
Download or read book In Search of Donna Reed written by Jay Fultz and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first biography of Donna Reed also contains the first extended discussion of her television show. The personal richness that Reed brought to her television role has been filtered out in the caricature perpetuated by pop critics. In the media "Donna Reed" is Donna Stone distorted as a female-manque who wears pearls and high heels around the house. But Donna Reed's long hold on viewers depends on irreducible qualities that have nothing to do with this fixed image, as Fultz suggests. He follows her development from Iowa farm girl to apprentice in Hollywood to mature juggler of the demands of family and career to antiwar activist. Drawing on Reed's letters and on interviews, Fultz looks for what was real in a very private person without discarding what is romantic in any pursuit of a public one. He shows why the rich and principled life of Donna Reed matters in this more cynical time.
Download or read book Donna Reed written by Brenda Scott Royce and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1990-11-26 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donna Reed has been called everyone's favorite mother and her recognition as such has stood the test of time. But before she became known as the ultimate mom for her role on The Donna Reed Show, Miss Reed was already a veteran film actress with almost forty films to her credit. Among these are her performances in It's a Wonderful Life and From Here to Eternity. Her role in the latter garnered her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. This book is a comprehensive reference to the life and work of Donna Reed for use by researchers as well as fans. Performing arts researcher Brenda Scott Royce has compiled a self-contained reference work to Donna Reed's career and life. A brief biography begins the book, followed by detailed examinations of Miss Reed's work in motion pictures, television, and radio. Also listed are media reviews of her work, a listing of awards and nominations, and a chronology of major events in her life. An annotated bibliography follows these sections, and it lists all articles and other items about Donna Reed that appeared in major magazines, fan magazines, books, and newspapers. The entries in each section are cross-referenced for easy referral by the reader. This bio-bibliography will be an important addition to libraries with a performing arts collection, students of media arts, and Donna Reed fans.
Download or read book The Women Who Made Television Funny written by David C. Tucker and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of the bright and talented actresses who made America laugh in the 1950s are off the air today, but their pioneering Hollywood careers irrevocably changed the face of television comedy. These smart and sassy women successfully negotiated the hazards of the male-dominated workplace with class and humor, and the work they did in the 1950s is inventive still by today's standards. Unable to fall back on strong language, shock value, or racial and sexual epithets, the female sitcom stars of the 1950s entertained with pure talent and screen savvy. As they did so, they helped to lay the foundation for the development of television comedy. This book pays tribute to 10 prominent television actresses who played lead roles in popular comedy shows of the 1950s. Each chapter covers the works and personalities of one actress: Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy), Gracie Allen (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show), Eve Arden (Our Miss Brooks), Spring Byington (December Bride), Joan Davis (I Married Joan), Anne Jeffreys (Topper), Donna Reed (The Donna Reed Show), Ann Sothern (Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show), Gale Storm (My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna), and Betty White (Life with Elizabeth). For each star, a career sketch is provided, concentrating primarily on her television work but also noting achievements in other areas. Appendices offer cast and crew lists, a chronology, and an additional biographical sketch of 10 less familiar actresses who deserve recognition.
Download or read book The Espionage Filmography written by Paul Mavis and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-06-08 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Sean Connery to Roy Rogers, from comedy to political satire, films that include espionage as a plot device run the gamut of actors and styles. More than just "spy movies," espionage films have evolved over the history of cinema and American culture, from stereotypical foreign spy themes, to patriotic star features, to the Cold War plotlines of the sixties, and most recently to the sexy, slick films of the nineties. This filmography comprehensively catalogs movies involving elements of espionage. Each entry includes release date, running time, alternate titles, cast and crew, a brief synopsis, and commentary. An introduction analyzes the development of these films and their reflection of the changing culture that spawned them.
Download or read book Conversations with Legendary Television Stars written by James Bawden and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2019-07-22 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During television's first fifty years -- long before cable networks, Hulu, Netflix, and the like -- families would gather around their television sets nightly to watch entertaining shows such as I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, M*A*S*H, The Beverly Hillbillies, Fantasy Island, and The Rockford Files. Many of the stars of these beloved shows have passed away, but their presence remains intact -- not only through their television show performances, which are still viewed and appreciated today, but also through stories they told in interviews over the years. Seasoned journalists and authors James Bawden and Ron Miller have captured provocative and entertaining interviews with important figures from TV's first fifty years. These thirty-nine interviews, selected from conversations conducted from 1971--1998, present a fascinating glimpse of some of television's most influential performers. Featured are exclusive interviews with major stars (including Donna Reed, James Garner, and Ricardo Montalban), icons of comedy (including Lucille Ball, George Burns, and Milton Berle), TV hosts (including Dick Clark and Ed Sullivan), and notable musical entertainers (such as Glen Campbell, Mary Martin, and Lawrence Welk). Each chapter of this volume explores the subject's television work -- with detailed behind-the-scenes disclosures -- and includes additional information about the subject's performances in film and on stage.
Download or read book Insider s Guide to Better Nursing Home Care written by Donna M. Reed and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-12 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on her ten years of experience working as a Licensed Practical Nurse in many care facilities, attorney Donna M. Reed shares her insider knowledge to help ensure that nursing home residents receive the best care possible.
Download or read book X Child Stars written by Kathy Garver and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This enlightening book is the go-to guide for fans for biographical information, rare photos, and interesting trivia about their favorite child stars, shows, series, networks, and the times that defined the shows. Spanning forty years of television history, this book details both the success stories and misfortunes of many child stars. Included in this book are the stories of Anissa Jones, Buffy on Family Affair, who tragically died from a drug overdose at the age of eighteen, as well as Ron Howard, who starred in both The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, and who later became an Academy Award–winning director. A child star herself, Kathy Garver profiles these and other legends of classic television in a book that will answer the question: Where are they now?
Download or read book Living Room Lectures written by Nina C. Leibman and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-07-22 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a breadwinner dad, a homemaker mom, and squeaky-clean kids, the 1950s television family has achieved near mythological status as a model of what real families "ought" to be. Yet feature films of the period often portrayed families in trouble, with parents and children in conflict over appropriate values and behaviors. Why were these representations of family apparently so far apart? Nina Leibman analyzes many feature films and dozens of TV situation comedy episodes from 1954 to 1963 to find surprising commonalities in their representations of the family. Redefining the comedy as a family melodrama, she compares film and television depictions of familial power, gender roles, and economic attitudes. Leibman's explorations reveal how themes of guilt, deceit, manipulation, anxiety, and disfunctionality that obviously characterize such movies as Rebel without a Cause,A Summer Place, and Splendor in the Grass also crop up in such TV shows as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,Father Knows Best,Leave It to Beaver,The Donna Reed Show, and My Three Sons. Drawing on interviews with many of the participants of these productions, archival documents, and trade journals, Leibman sets her discussion within a larger institutional history of 1950s film and television. Her discussions shed new light not only on the reasons for both media's near obsession with family life but also on changes in American society as it reconfigured itself in the postwar era.
Download or read book Part Swan Part Goose written by Swoosie Kurtz and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a wise, warmhearted memoir that celebrates her extraordinary life and stellar career, Swoosie Kurtz welcomes readers into her world, sharing personal misadventures and showbiz lore and candidly reflecting on the intimate journey of caring for an aging parent. Told with intelligence and Swoosie’s hallmark comedic timing, Part Swan, Part Goose makes a powerful statement about womanhood, work and family. Swoosie’s is the kind of memoir that doesn’t come without a fascinating back story: Enter the parents, Frank and Margo Kurtz. Frank, an Olympic diving medalist, later became one of the most decorated aviators in American history. He flew a record number of missions in a cobbled-together B-17D Flying Fortress called “The Swoose,” now housed at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Margo chronicled their early years together in her memoir, My Rival, the Sky, published by Putnam in 1945. The book ends with the young couple happily anticipating the birth of a baby to be named after the indomitable Swoose. Today, Margo, who is approaching her hundredth birthday, lives with Swoosie. As Margo’s reality drifts freely between her morning coffee and a 1943 war bond tour, Swoosie struggles to stay ahead of her mother’s increasing needs while navigating the pitfalls and pratfalls of the entertainment industry. This precarious moment in time is bittersweet and occasionally overwhelming, but every day is oxygenated with laughter and love. The careful weaving of Swoosie’s story with passages from My Rival, the Sky creates a vivid portrait of the invincible mother-daughter bond between the two women. Part Swan, Part Goose is that rare Hollywood memoir that takes us behind the curtain but doesn’t live there; its heart is solidly at home. It doesn’t pretend to tell all, but what it does tell is deeply resonant for millions caring for aging parents, timely and topical for book clubs and entertaining as hell for readers in general.
Download or read book Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted written by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The behind-the-scenes story of the making of the classic television series offers insight into how the influential show reflected changing American perspectives and was a first situation comedy to employ numerous women as writers and producers.
Download or read book The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery written by Herbie J Pilato and published by Taylor Trade Publishing. This book was released on 2013-10-07 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery was one of the most prolific and popular actresses of the twentieth century. In her more than five hundred appearances on television, film and the stage, Elizabeth Montgomery’s talent, charisma, and personalityhave charmed millions for decades. This delightful new book delineates, dissects, and celebrates the diversity and minutia of Montgomery’s remarkable career, while chronicling just how much her real life spilled into her historic roles on stage and screen. The book is based on Pilato’s exclusive interviews with the actress and supplemented withcommentary provided by myriad entertainment professionals, journalists, and media and classic TV historians, including the Oscar-nominated actress Juanita Moore (Montgomery’s co-star from the historic “White Lie” episode of TV’s 77 Sunset Strip), and producer/writer/actor Jimmy Lydon (Elizabeth’s co-star from the Wagon Train episode “The Victorio Bottecelli Story.”) Including plot summaries, airdates, release dates, and behind-the-scenes notes and anecdotes of select performances, The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery is the ultimate handy, entertaining, and informative reference to the on- and off-screen adventures of one of the world’s most beloved stars.
Download or read book Novel Women 2 written by Between Friends Book Club and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-14 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energized by changes in careers and romances, the ladies of Novel Women book club transition from a tumultuous summer into autumn. But they soon discover that this new stage of life doesn't come with instructions. Sandwiched between their parents and children, they rely on each other to navigate this confusing period. As they face these new challenges, the six women buoy one other up with an abundance of wisdom, resilience, strength, and ---yes, ---love. After all, book club is so much more than just reading. Bri - book club founder, finds returning to work after a twenty-year hiatus proves to be even more difficult than she feared. Madeline - senses something isn't quite right with her husband's business associate and friend. Ava- visits her mother in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and is attracted to a neighbor's son. Hanna -her controlling mother moves in with her when her sister is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Charlotte-grapples with her boyfriend's ex-wife's looming presence and hostile children. Staci -longs for her elusive Vermont farmer despite brutal attacks by his jealous longtime friend.
Download or read book Ida Lupino written by Ida Lupino and published by . This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ida Lupino did not want to be an actress; composing and writing were her major interests. Ida branched out into film directing and producing in 1949, becoming one of two women to enter the male-dominated field. While her feature films were primarily aimed at female audiences, on television Ida Lupino quickly became known for her skill at directing westerns, mysteries and detective dramas - shows aimed at male viewers and many featuring all-male casts. "No one ever asked me to direct a love story," she said. About the Author Mary Ann Anderson has had a varied and extensive career in the world of show business. She was exposed to the entertainment industry early on as the daughter of Emily McLaughlin, who played nurse Jesse Brewer for more than 25 years in ABC's General Hospital. As an author, Mary Ann has published Portrait of a Soap Star: The Emily McLaughlin Story. Mary Ann served as conservator for Ida Lupino, the actress and director, from 1984 to 1995. Many Brentwood residents who lived on Old Oak Lane recall the time Miss Lupino set her mailbox on fire. She also delighted in watering her lawn and the neighbors - not the neighbors' lawns, but the neighbors! Through her association with Miss Lupino, Mary Ann met many other legends of "Old Hollywood," such as Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Hale and Marie Windsor. Mary Ann has been instrumental in bringing the stories of Ida Lupino to A&E's Biography and Jeffrey Hunter to E!'s Mysteries and Scandals, by researching, writing and appearing in them. She also worked on the Ida Lupino Paper Doll Book, released by Paper Studio Press.
