Mary Kay Stearns | |
---|---|
Born | Mary Katherine Jones October 27, 1925 Glendale, California, U.S. |
Died | November 17, 2018 93) | (aged
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1928–1952, 2002 |
Spouse(s) |
Mary Katherine Stearns (née Jones; October 27, 1925 – November 17, 2018) was an American actress [1] best known for portraying the fictional version of herself on the sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny from 1947 until 1950. [2] [3]
Stearns's career began at the age of 2 and a half as an actress and singer at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California. She also appeared in several films before going to Broadway. [4]
In 1947, Stearns, who looked young for her age, was offered a job as a fashion model for an early home shopping television program. On the advice of her newlywed husband Johnny, who thought the idea to be weak, she refused; Johnny suggested to the broadcaster that she instead host a domestic sitcom with him. [5] On November 18, the DuMont Television Network debuted a new show starring the two entitled Mary Kay and Johnny . The series had the Stearnses playing fictional versions of themselves. On the show the pair portrayed a newlywed couple, also named Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns, who were trying to make it in New York. Most of the episodes took place in an apartment complex in Greenwich Village, New York. [6] Mary Kay's counterpart was an everyday, run-of-the-mill, zany housewife and Johnny's counterpart was a bank employee. [7] The series moved from DuMont to NBC in 1948 then to CBS then back to NBC where it finished its run in March 1950.
Mary Kay and Johnny also achieved some firsts during its run. The series was the first sitcom to air on television, contrary to popular belief that I Love Lucy which premiered four years later was the first. It was also the first television series to feature a pregnancy, (the Stearnses' real life son Christopher), whose birth and character were written in the show in December 1948. It was also the first to feature a couple sharing a bed. [8]
After the show ended, the Stearnses moved to California where Johnny pursued a career in production. Stearns did another weekly television series by herself entitled Mary Kay's Nightcap which aired on NBC during the 1951-52 television season. She also had guest star appearances on Armstrong Circle Theatre and Kraft Television Theatre . She and her husband also had a seven-year stint as the spokespeople for U.S. Steel. [4] She later stated that she never was particularly fond of television and largely did those shows as a means to earn a paycheck while she tried to make it big on Broadway. [5]
Stearns was married to actor and producer Johnny Stearns. They married in 1946 and she was widowed on December 16, 2001 when Johnny died at the age of 85. They had three children together; Christopher, Jonathan and Melinda. Stearns also has one grandson. [9] She died in Newport Beach, California on November 17, 2018 at the age of 93, with her death not reported until two months later. [5]
Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She was widely known for her prominent television sitcom roles in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977). She received seven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.
The year 1973 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in that year.
Mary Kay and Johnny is an American situation comedy starring real-life married couple Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns. It was the first sitcom broadcast on a network television in the United States. Mary Kay and Johnny initially aired live on the DuMont Television Network before moving to CBS and then NBC.
Valerie Kathryn Harper was an American actress. She began her career as a dancer on Broadway, making her debut in the musical Take Me Along in 1959. She is best remembered for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) and its spin-off Rhoda (1974–1978). For her work on Mary Tyler Moore, she thrice received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and later received the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Rhoda. From 1986 to 1987, she appeared as Valerie Hogan on the sitcom Valerie. Her film appearances include roles in Freebie and the Bean (1974) and Chapter Two (1979), both of which garnered her Golden Globe Award nominations. She returned to stage work in her later career, appearing in several Broadway productions. In 2010, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Tallulah Bankhead in the play Looped.
Betty Marion White Ludden is an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television, White is noted for her vast work in the entertainment industry, having been one of the first women to exert control in front of and behind the camera, as well as the first woman to produce a sitcom, which contributed to her being named honorary Mayor of Hollywood in 1955. She is also widely known for her roles as Sue Ann Nivens on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973–1977), Rose Nylund on the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–1992), and Elka Ostrovsky on the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland (2010–2015).
Nancy Walker was an American actress and comedian of stage, screen, and television. She was also a film and television director. During her five-decade-long career, she may be best remembered for her long-running roles as Mildred on McMillan & Wife and Ida Morgenstern, who first appeared on several episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and later became a prominent recurring character on the spinoff series Rhoda.
Megan Mullally is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is best known for playing Karen Walker on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, for which she received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning twice in 2000 and 2006. She also received nominations for numerous other accolades for her portrayal, including seven consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, winning three times, in 2001, 2002, and 2003, as well as receiving four Golden Globe Award nominations.
Nanette Fabray was an American actress, singer, and dancer. She began her career performing in vaudeville as a child and became a musical-theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed for her role in High Button Shoes (1947) and winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in Love Life. In the mid-1950s, she served as Sid Caesar's comedic partner on Caesar's Hour, for which she won three Emmy Awards, as well as appearing with Fred Astaire in the film musical The Band Wagon. From 1979 to 1984, she played Katherine Romano, the mother of lead character Ann Romano, on the TV series One Day at a Time. She also appeared as the mother of Christine Armstrong in the television series "Coach."
Jaye P. Morgan is a retired American popular music singer, actress, and game show panelist.
Gloria Talbott was an American film and television actress.
Kraft Television Theatre is an American anthology drama television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Cheese, which was advertised nowhere else. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the live hour-long series offered television plays with new stories and new characters each week, in addition to adaptations of such classics as A Christmas Carol and Alice in Wonderland. The program was broadcast live from Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, currently the home of Saturday Night Live.
Jeanette Nolan was an American actress. Nominated for four Emmy Awards, she had roles in the television series The Virginian (1962–1971) and Dirty Sally (1974), and in films such as Macbeth (1948).
90 Bristol Court is the umbrella title of an NBC series consisting of three situation comedies set in a Southern California apartment complex located at the title address. The 90-minute block aired Monday nights from October 5, 1964, through January 5, 1965, and consisted of Karen (7:30-8:00pm), Harris Against the World (8:00-8:30pm), and Tom, Dick, and Mary (8:30-9:00pm).
The 1946–47 United States network television schedule was nominally from September of 1946 to the March of 1947, but scheduling ideas were still being worked out and did not follow modern standards.
The 1947–48 United States network television schedule was nominally from September of 1947 to March of 1948, but scheduling ideas were still being worked out and did not follow modern standards. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1946–47 season.
TV Shopper, also known as Your Television Shopper or Kathi Norris' Television Shopper, was an early American daytime television series which aired on the DuMont Television Network at 10:30 am ET from November 1, 1948 to December 1, 1950.
John Stearns was an American actor, producer and director during the 1940s until the 2000s. He also performed in several Broadway plays.
Ira Skutch was an American television director, producer, and, in his later years, an author. In the early days of television he produced and directed episodes of Kraft Television Theatre and The Philco Television Playhouse. Skutch also worked as an executive for Goodson-Todman Productions and produced or directed the game shows Play Your Hunch, I've Got a Secret, Match Game, Concentration and many others.
Situation comedies, or sitcoms, have long been a popular genre of comedy in the US, initially on radio in the 1920s, and then on television beginning in the 1940s. A sitcom is defined as a television series featuring a recurring cast of characters in a various successive comedic situations.