The Donna Reed Show Episode Rating Graph

Alex and Jeff build a cart for the Hilldale 500. Carl Betz, Paul Petersen. Gordie: Darryl Richard. Angie: Candy Moore.

Jeff runs for city council after the Commissioner threatens to close the city park.

Jeff's friend Bill was high school valedictorian, but as a freshman in college now is only making B's and C's. How can the Stone family help?

The tree outside Donna's house: does it belong to Donna or to the city? Can it be cut down without Donna's permission or not? Is this the plot of this episode? Yes!

Donna is selected to take part in a survey of housewives to dtermine how long they spend doing their household chores.

Mary gets carried away by the romance of a friend's wedding. Shelley Fabares, Carl Betz.

Donna makes Jeff take trumpet lessons when she discovers he has perfect pitch. Jeff would rather be on the track team.

Alex's Uncle Dan takes a break from traveling all over the world. Jeff likes the idea of going to Alaska, Saudi Arabia, Malaya, Australia, and doing whatever he wants, just like Uncle Dan. Jeff decides to join him. Will Donna and Alex allow him to go? Would you believe, yes?

Alex is hurt that Jeff likes the new neighbor.

First some large animal has trampled Mary's flowers. Now when Alex is out of town, Donna and the kids keep hearing noises late at night. Upon investigating, they peek out the front door window and see a large, furry creature sitting on the porch!

Jeff starts swapping possessions to pay off a debt. Zack: Mike Montgomery. Mrs. Pruitt: Marjorie Winters. Alvin: Mike Peters. Sprague: Percy Helton. Paul Petersen.

While Alex was the ""belle of the ball"" with his fantastic dancing at the Woman's Medical Auxiliary Dance, the dance cost more to produce than the income from ticket sales provided. Each member agrees to contribute $27 using her skills in moneymaking to make up the budget shortfall. Donna will sell 54 jars of her famous pickle recipe at fifty cents per jar and donate the money to the Auxiliary. Will Donna's plan work?

Alex's wild room-mate from college is getting married, and Alex is invited to the bachelor party. Donna doesn't like this idea at all.

Donna visits a reclusive woman who lives in an old Victorian house.She feels trapped in a haunted house after a while.

Jeff and his friends try to raise money for a telescope. Coxey: Earle Hodgins. Earnshaw: Ken Niles. Paul Petersen, Carl Betz.

Jeff wants to keep a cat that followed him home, so can Harry the Cat stay? The Stone family will decide by using the democratic process.

Jeff's friend, Phillip, has a problem. He wants to play football, but his mother is over-protective and won't let him.

Donna mistakenly accepts an invitation to 'culture vulture' Lydia Langley's cocktail party, at which Lydia mentions that she also conducts a book discussion group. She goads Donna into joining it and then reporting on Tolstoy's "War and Peace" at her first meeting. Donna then attempts to immerse the whole family in culture.

Jeff causes problems for everyone else in the house due to his selfishness and inconsideration for others. Because of this he gets a lecture, which he blows off. But then these same issues end up making him go overboard on being a model son when he fears the repercussions of hurting someone.

The family wants to get away for the weekend. The brochure shows Lakeview Lodge to be a great place to go, so Donna and Alex head up there early with Mary and Jeff to join them later, but Lakeview Lodge turns out to be a major disappointment. Now what can they do?

A lady spots Donna and Mary having lunch in a restaurant, so she stops to say hello. She recognized Donna, even though ""it's been 13 years."" Donna doesn't recognize her but is polite and too embarrassed to ask her name. Later, Donna realizes she must find out who the mystery woman was.

Jeff finds out the reason why he wasn't made a member of a club: He is friends with a boy no one else likes.

Jeff's 'friend' Doug keeps getting him into trouble at school, and Jeff silently takes the blame for him because he knows Doug's mother constantly picks on him and wonders why he can't be more like Jeff, who behaves like an innocent cherub at their house.

Donna has trouble deciding whether or not buy a new dress.

Donna is too excited to sleep because Alex is giving a speech at a convention. While trying to sleep on the plane, Alex gives Donna a tranquilizer to help her sleep, which leads to an embarrassing chain of events.

Mary does a kind deed by encouraging a shy, insecure fellow student, Kenny, to appear in the school play. When she does, he ends up being paired with her in a dance number. But she regrets her good deed because she’s worried about how they’ll appear next to each other, as he’s shorter than her.

Donna and Midge set out to prove Alex and Dave aren't getting old.

Frantic Donna and Alex try to stop Jeff and Bebe from getting married.

Donna and Alex spend weeks attempting to assemble a complicated stereo set for Jeff's birthday—unaware that Jeff and Smitty sneak in every night to repair the mess.

After the Stones agrees to take care of a friend's cottage on Echo Lake, Jeff decides it's the perfect locale for his frat party.

Jeff buys an old bus at an auction and plans to use it as a school bus. However, it breaks down the first day-and no one can fix it. Trisha loves playing like she's driving the bus while wearing a bus-driver's hat. Mary is so worried because she had planned a party that night. Donna decides to decorate the bus-so it became part of the party.

Jeff discovers a lost bird.He thinks it might be a rare cockatoo and sends the story to the newspapers and audobon societies-only to find out that the bird is really a cockateel,not quite a cockatoo.

To earn money, Jeff sells an advertising scheme to a shop. Paul Petersen, Carl Betz, Varney: Paul Tripp.

While Donna and Alex are away, Mary's little get-together with a friend somehow turns into open house party.

Mary decides to forsake college and embark on a singing career.

Alex applies his child psychology to his own offspring. Carl Betz, Paul Petersen, Shelley Fabares. Dave: Lindsay Workman. Alma: Dorothy Lovett.

Nothing seems to be going right in the house. Old Man: Arthur Hunnicut. Ma: Doris Kemper. Carl Betz, Shelley Fabares.

In a try for more togetherness, Donna signs Alex and herself up for painting lessons.

Donna heads to a Blaine Women's College reunion, and while she's away, Jeff adopts Duke, the dog.

Mary is so indecisive, always asking her mother about what clothes to wear which boys to date. Tonight though, she starts making her own decisions when she, Roger, and Larry go out on the town. They go to the Hungry Onion coffeehouse and listen to poetry. They get into money troubles with dinner at the Flamingo Club, and that's when Mary makes the right decision.

The Stones' cleaning lady has troubles. Her baby is sick and her husband lost his job due to illness. Alex takes care of the baby's health, and Donna hires the husband to do odd jobs in their house. Now the Stones have troubles. The twenty dollars that Alex left on the counter for Mrs. Cruikshank's charity is missing. Could the handyman be a thief? Mrs. Cruikshank thinks so and makes Donna wonder if it's true.

Donna tries to redecorate the house, but neighbor boy Dennis Mitchell (Jay North) tries to help her...and ends up making things more of a mess. Donna finally calls Dennis' nearer neighbor Mr.Wilson (Joseph Kearns) to ask if Dennis would help him with anything. (I'm sure Mr.Wilson sympathized.) This was a crossover show-with two people from ""Dennis the Menace"" guesting. It turns out both shows are set in the town of Hilldale...but Dennis probably lived in a different neighborhood than Donna.

Alex lays down the law when Jeff and Mary slack off on their responsibilities at home and their schoolwork. Now Alex is furious when it appears that Mary didn't come home from a bowling date with Roger on time.

Alex and Donna chaperone Mary's date with a college man.

In the premiere episode, Donna hopes to get away to a ski weekend with her brood, but pediatrician husband Alex's on-call schedule makes this tricky, especially since one of his young patients, Eddie Barclay (played by one of the Corcoran siblings of Disney film and TV fame; sister Noreen was on "Bachelor Father" with John Forsythe), has a mysterious illness and Alex doesn't want to leave him in the care of another doctor.

Iris advises Donna that it's up to the wife to keep the marriage going with surprises and changes every now and then. When Iris goes from blond to black hair, Donna decides to go Platinum Blond! But once she comes home with her new hair color, she decides not to show it to Alex. She avoids him and quickly changes it back to the color it was whew! What a close call!

Mary dates a famous singer, not realizing who he is. Shelley Fabares.

Mary vows not to go to the school dance unless Ellen has a date for the dance. Ellen is rather plain so Mary goes to work to transform Ellen into a glamorous young lady.

Donna's old school mate, who has been a single career woman all these years, is now engaged to a doctor. She visits Donna to see what life is really like for a doctor's wife.

Donna and Alex advise a newly married couple after their first big argument.

Mary gets an engagement ring and a phone call from Matt, a freshman at UCLA, but doesn't tell anyone in the family about the ring or why Matt is calling. So what's going on? As Donna says, "Alex, our daughter has a secret."

Donna gets cornered into accepting an invitation from a couple that neither she nor Alex really care for. Alex refuses to go, sparking an argument that they try to keep quiet from the children.

The Stones try helping a boy overcome his laziness. Victor: Johnny Crawford. Mrs. Warren: Dori Simmons. Carl Betz, Paul Petersen, Shelley Fabares.

Pitcher Don Drysdale appears in this episode along with his real-life wife and daughter. On a trip to Chicago, Jeff is excited about seeing his pal, Don Drysdale, again. He is supposed to get an interview with Don for the school paper. Jeff's excitement turns to disappointment when it appears that Don Drysdale can't deliver the interview.

While Jeff and Joanne are dating as seniors in high school and Mary and Scotty are dating in college, turns out Scotty would rather date Joanne, and Joanne would rather go out with Scotty got it? Then they all go to a college dance and Jeff and Mary wind up being the wallflowers. What can Jeff and Mary do?

A meek boy tries to prove he's the toughest kid in school. Barlow: John Clifford. Mrs. Crawford: Holly Harris. Zack: Paul Engle. Paul Petersen, Carl Betz.

Jeff asks Donna and Alex to take an aptitude test and finds out she can write and so she starts to write about the family, soon Alex Jeff and Trisha read what Donna wrote, they find out she wrote her family but the comments Donna wrote don't go over well with the family. Later Donna tells them that she wrote about her college teacher Trish's friend (who has a crush on Jeff and BA's Boys in the Attic.) Donna knew her family was reading what she wrote!

Jeff and his combo want to cut a record, and in order to afford to do so, they sell shares in the venture.

Willie Mays reserves two seats at a Giants game for his friends the Stones; but Donna, Alex, and Jeff each show up with a guest.

When Donna's old boyfriend Mark, now a millionaire, comes to visit, Alex has trouble hiding his jealousy.

Donna and Alex get involved in their friends' marital problems.

Mary learns the joys and pains of having a little sister,as she has to baby-sit Trisha on a night when she'd planned to go on a date.

Jeff has a moral dilemma. He won a sports car with a raffle ticket he picked up off the ground after the original owner dropped it. Does Jeff keep the car or does he track down the original ticket holder?

Alex and Donna prepare to go away for the weekend, but Donna suspects Trisha will be sick. Donna sees Trisha eating bananas and she always saw Jeff eating bananas before he became ill. Alex's collegue Dave (Bob Crane) tries to convince them otherwise ... and it turns out that Jeff is the one who came down with a fever. Trisha had been eating bananas because of her promised treehouse and she had wanted to climb trees like a monkey.

Dr.Dave Kelsey,who has been more and more frustrated by his in-laws(or outlaws as he calls them)moves into the house next door with his wife Midge.Midge is a neophyte when it comes to household chores,so for the first week or so Donna helps her all she can-and Dave is truly grateful that the Stones have helped both of them settle down.

Jeff and Scotty take some girls to Lake Sherwood. When they separate, the 2 girls manage to get lost trying to drive home. So how will they do in the upcoming car rally where it's the girls against the boys?

Mary succeeds in helping a shy boy she knows become a singing star.

Donna is worried when Jeff comes home with a report card full of Cs.

While driving through Hilldale, Tony Martin is arrested for speeding by a policeman using radar. He knows he wasn't speeding, but figures he'll just pay the fine and be on his way. In court, Tony sees Donna fighting a parking meter violation and insisting on a jury trial rather than pay a $2 fine. Tony decides to ask for a jury trial, too. It's a matter of man versus machine: is the parking meter keeping correct time or did Donna? Was the radar unit accurate or not? Will popular singer Tony Martin sing a song in this episode? Yes!

When Donna decides to run for town council, Jeff and Mary agree to take care of the house. And how! But when Alex dreams about Donna's political future, as Mayor, perhaps Governor, he decides he'd rather have her back home again.

Donna and her friend consider opening a poodle parlor where owners can bring their poodles to get clipped and buy them fancy accessories. The husbands think the whole idea is ludicrous which make the ladies all the more determined to succeed.

Jeff becomes jealous and insecure about his parent’s love—feeling that they care about Mary more than him.

Donna decides that Alex’s obstetrician friend, Beau, is a lonely bachelor in need of a mate, so she tries to pair him and her good friend Celia (who has recently broken up with her boyfriend) up.

Mary drives her family crazy, and worries her mother, in her quest to win the class vice-presidency.

Mary is enamored with the new boy at school, Elroy! Why? Because he reminds her so much of what her dad must have been like as a teenager. Alex can't see the resemblance at all.

When Donna's letter-to-the-editor about parents needing to make sure that their children follow through by finishing what they start gets published, it prompts Donna to follow through herself. Now Mary can't play tennis till she finds her lost jacket and returns a library book, and Jeff can't rest till he finds the tire pump he borrowed from a friend.

A story about every married couple's dilemma: what decisions can a husband make on his own and which require a conference for his wife's permission? Like Alex and Joe, who tell the guys they will go fishing and they don't need to ask their wives. But see, Joe has a system: he bribes his wife Myra with an expensive gift first. Now Alex, on the other hand, faces an episode-long issue with Donna about this matter. Does he resort to a bribe, too?

The school bully, Jocko, makes fun of Jeff being in the choir. Jeff starts ""pumping iron"" because it looks like there will be a fight. Can Mr. Trestle's sage advice possibly do Jeff and the guys any good and stop the conflict?

Mary and Mark decide to have a Saturday nursery school (i.e., day care) to earn enough money to paint Mark's car. Alex, on the other hand, would like to sleep late on Saturday morning, unaware of the bedlam that's about to take place!

Newspaper-delivery boy Jeff decides to go into business. Paul Petersen, Carl Betz, Shelley Fabares. Bill: Skippy Shane. Craig: Stephen Barringer.

This was actually an unsold pilot episode of ""The Roberta Sherwood Show."" Roberta Sherwood and Gale Gordon star as a typical couple raising three children in a typical small town. The only untypical thing about them is that they break into song.

Jeff decides wearing glasses would make him look older, and sets out to prove he needs them.

A little girl named Trisha follows the Stones home from the park and says that she is one of the family.After a long effort to find her real parents,her uncle arrives.He realizes that the orphaned Trisha loves being in a family and that the Stones are fond of her.He arranges it so Trisha can stay with the Stones.Thus a new family member is added.

Desperate for a summer job as a counselor, Jeff tries to recruit two boys for summer camp.

David Barker finagles a return to the Stone’s home for his birthday celebration.

When Mary and George get in a fight over him and her best friend Babs, Donna advises her on how to handle the situation.

Alex insists Jeff pay back money he owes to develop good character for when he is an adult. Meanwhile, Donna decides to try to get the past due money owed to Alex by his patients.

Yes, Jeff is elected class Treasurer. He has the class dues to protect all $32 of it. Now what could possibly happen? Could he, oh, I don't know lose it? It's Thursday. The class picnic is Saturday. Mrs. Haskell needs the money to pay for the bus that will take the class to the picnic. Can Jeff find it in time?

Alex growing a mustache turns out to be quite a controversial event in the Stone household.

Jeff has discovered he is growing whiskers, and decides that since he is no longer a little boy that he needs to start acting like a man. He insists on taking a job to pay his way at home.

If Jeff wants to be able to afford to go to a special event this weekend, he had better collect on the loans he gave his friends. This prompts Donna to suggest that Alex collect from his deadbeat patients.

Donna and Alex help celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wilbur & Celia Wilgus, only for Donna to get caught up in a misunderstanding later.

David Barker is brought to Alex to be treated for rabies, and is invited to stay the night. Later, Jeff is left in charge of David, as everyone else will be gone.

Donna and Alex dine at a young couple’s home. The couple are still in the honeymoon phase of their marriage, and the experience gives Donna pangs of nostalgia.

When Buzz Barry, teenage idol (played by James Darren), comes to Hilldale to sing at a concert, he falls ill with the measles and the concert is canceled, leaving Mary and her friends devastated. Then he ends up staying at the Stone’s home to recuperate, causing unexpected complications.

Income tax time, so Alex decides to save money and prepare his own taxes this year rather than have Harvey do it. When Alex figures out he owes money, he gets mad about a hat he thinks Donna bought for $49.50. When Harvey arrives at the Stone residence, having done Alex's taxes anyway and announces that Alex will be getting a refund, Alex's attitude becomes very pleasant indeed! Turns out Harvey's wife Nora had Donna buy the hat, but it was for Nora!

Trouble ensues when Jeff tampers with the school bell. Paul Petersen, Carl Betz, Shelley Fabares. Walter: Lee Aaker. Smitty: Darryl Richard. Miss Tucker: Anne Sargent.

Alex and Jeff go camping in order to spend more time together, but the trip turns out to be a plot cooked up by Jeff to meet his friends.

On Jeff's 16th birthday he has a big fight with his girlfriend. Then he falls for an older woman.

A tale of Joyce and Sabrina in a classic contest, which one will get Jeff to ask her to the big dance? Will it be poor, helpless Joyce or the dominant Sabrina? They both ply Jeff in their own manipulative ways. Poor Jeff can't make up his mind. When he asks his family for advice, all he gets for an answer is ""Why don't you toss a coin?""

Aunt Lettie is coming to visit, so Donna and Alex try to find the wedding present she gave them so she would be certain to see it. It would help if they could just remember what it was! And by the way, Alex, can Donna buy a $250 Porcelain Dresden figurine?

Donna plans a testimonial dinner to honor Dr. Jason, a long-time denizen of the town and a beloved doctor, who finally intends to retire.

After a particularly long week, Donna and Alex long for a weekend alone without kids. But when they get it, it’s not quite how they imagined it would be.

Alex must contend with overly anxious new parents who constantly call him in a state of panic, thinking that there is something wrong with their baby.