Paul Petersen Remembers TV Mom, Donna Reed
The Best of Times|May 2020
While most of us will be remembering mothers on May 10 this year, entertainers who worked as child actors in television sitcoms may also have special memories of their ‘TV mom.’ For Paul Petersen, that was Oscar winner Donna Reed, matriarch from “The Donna Reed Show.”
Nick Thomas
Paul Petersen Remembers TV Mom, Donna Reed

In 2018 for the anniversary of the show’s first broadcast, Petersen (and coauthor Deborah Herman) released “The Donna Reed Show: A Pictorial Memoir” (see www.micropublishingmedia.com).

“It’s kind of an archival look back at an iconic television show,” said Petersen who, like Reed, appeared in all 275 episodes during the series run from 1958 to 1966. “I wanted the book to not only examine the people who made the show, but to put television in the historical context of the period. During the 8 years, we went through a lot including illnesses, accidents, and national incidents from that era.”

One of the most memorable was the 1963 Kennedy assassination.

This story is from the May 2020 edition of The Best of Times.

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This story is from the May 2020 edition of The Best of Times.

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