carl lawrence betz played the father on the donna reed show.
carl lawrence betz played the father on the donna reed show.
who played the father on the donna reed show?
carl lawrence betz
carl betz









































carl lawrence betz (march 9, 1921 – january 18, 1978) was an american stage, film, and television actor. he appeared in a variety of television series, including the cbs soap opera "love of life"; however, he is best remembered for playing donna reed's television husband, dr. alex stone, from 1958 to 1966 in the abc sitcom "the donna reed show". then between 1967 and 1969, betz played defense attorney clinton judd in abc's courtroom drama "judd, for the defense", winning an emmy award in 1969 for his work on that series.









































section::::early years.
carl betz
david tucker writes in "the women who made television funny" that most family sitcoms of the 1950s such as "father knows best", "the life of riley", and "the adventures of ozzie and harriet" focus on the father figure with the mother as "adjunct". he points out however that "the donna reed show" "established the primacy of the mother on the domestic front" and notes that "mother knows better" was even briefly considered as the show's title. though "the donna reed show" did sometimes use recycled "father knows best" scripts that had been slightly altered, such as character name changes.
the donna reed show