Classic TV Theme: The Donna Reed Show

TV had lots of family sitcoms in the late 50s and 60s, but ’The Donna Reed Show’ (1958) broke new ground: the show centered around the Mom. For eight seasons family challenges, life lessons, and warm humor entertained American audiences. Paul Peterson and Shelley Fabares (the kids) both had hit records, and star Donna Reed answered that telephone 275 times. The theme music (by Bill Loose and John Seely) wasn’t written for the show; it was a track in Capitol’s Hi-Q library called ’Happy Days’, and can be heard as background music in other sitcoms of the time (’Ozzie and Harriet’, ’Leave It to Beaver’). But the simplistic tune (which the producers dubbed ’Music to Wash Dishes By’) underwent several changes over the years. Like many shows of its era, the openings often included sponsor plugs, which were removed for syndication; these required editing or replacing the music. (There are even episodes where the phone rings while Donna is talking on it, thanks to a clumsy choice of replacement audio.) Here’s a rundown of the examples included here: 0:00 Season one opening; the original arrangement of ’Happy Days’; sponsor plug has been edited out. 0:31 End credits: alternate arrangement heard on some early episodes. 0:57 Season four opening: a much livelier treatment of the theme. 1:31 Season four end credits. 2:06 Season seven open, another new arrangement; neighbor couple now included. This is an original sponsored opening, in this case Campbell Soup. 2:55 Season eight end credits. 3:30 Screen Gems tag from season seven.