<p id=”par-1_21″>Donna Reed might have played a conventional housewife on <em>The Donna Reed Show</em>, but she was anything but a shrinking violet. </p>
<p id=”par-2_58″>The Oscar-winning actor became a <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tv/”>TV</a> icon thanks to her role in <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/wandavision-which-classic-sitcoms-will-inspire-the-marvel-shows-80s-and-90s-episodes.html/”>the popular sitcom</a>, which aired from 1958 to 1966. Making an average woman the center of the show was a radical move, Reed once declared in an interview. Her character was the opposite of the scandalous and sexy female characters she felt Hollywood tended to portray. </p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-donna-reed-said-viewers-wanted-to-see-a-healthy-woman-not-a-sexpot”>Donna Reed said viewers wanted to see ‘a healthy woman’ not ‘a sexpot’ </h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-Donna-Reed-Show.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Color photo of the cast of ‘The Donna Reed Show'” class=”wp-image-3788607″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Cast of ‘The Donna Reed Show’ | ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
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<span class=”related-article-flag”>Related</span>
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<a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/its-a-wonderful-life-why-james-stewart-blamed-donna-reed-for-it-not-being-a-hit.html/”>
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’: Why James Stewart ‘Blamed’ Donna Reed for It Not Being a Hit </a>
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<p id=”par-3_59″>Reed’s wholesome Donna Stone character was the middle-class wife of a small-town doctor and mom to two teenagers. In each episode of <em>The Donna Reed Show, </em>she faced dilemmas that would have been familiar to many viewers, from parenting difficulties to minor conflicts with her husband. Reed said that the deliberately unprovocative storylines fed viewers’ appetite for relatable entertainment.</p>
<p id=”par-4_38″>“We have proved on our show that the public really does want to see a healthy woman, not a girl, not a neurotic, not a sexpot,” Reed declared in a candid 1964 interview with <a href=”https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/08/donna-reed-fire-ice/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The Saturday Evening Post</a>. </p>
<p id=”par-5_45″>“We proved you don’t have to have an astonishing bosom or be involved in some Liz-Dickie-Eddie scandal,” she added, referring to Elizabeth Taylor’s 1964 split from husband Eddie Fisher following her <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/elizabeth-taylor-affair-congresswoman.html/”>high-profile affair with Richard Burton</a>. “The public doesn’t give a damn about such things.”</p>
<p id=”par-6_23″>On her sitcom, Reed did not have to sex up her appearance, she stressed. That was in stark contrast to her movie roles. </p>
<p id=”par-7_71″>“Forty movies I was in, and all I remember is, ‘What kind of a bra will you be wearing, honey?’ That was always the area of big decision — from the neck to the navel,” she said. “Even with all the girl-next-door parts I played, there would usually be someone on the set whose job it was to look me up and down and say, ‘Is that dress tight enough, baby?’”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-the-donna-reed-show-star-was-fed-up-with-stories-about-kooky-women-nbsp-nbsp-nbsp-nbsp”>‘The Donna Reed Show’ star was ‘fed up’ with stories about ‘kooky’ women </h2>
<p id=”par-8_54″>Reed had little positive to say about the entertainment industry. She called Hollywood “a walled-in city bounded on all sides by arrogance.” Acting was “a lousy profession for a woman,” she added. Most movie directors “hate women, which is why they make the female characters in their pictures as unpleasant as possible,” she said.</p>
<p id=”par-9_33″>“I get so fed up with immature ‘sex’ and stories about kooky, amoral, sick women,” she said. “I’m sick of this kind of misfit role, and I think the public is too.” </p>
<p id=”par-10_52″>The <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/its-a-wonderful-life-why-james-stewart-and-donna-reed-were-insecure-on-set.html/”><em>It’s a Wonderful Life </em>star</a> also reflected on how people responded to her role as Alma, a sweet-natured prostitute in the 1954 movie From Here to Eternity. The performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. But studio executives weren’t happy their squeaky-clean star was playing a sex worker. </p>
<p id=”par-11_37″>“But the whole point about Alma was that she was a prostitute who didn’t look like one,” Reed complained. “Try telling that to the studios. All the Oscar brought me was more bland Goody Two Shoes parts.”</p>
<p id=”par-12_16″><em>For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to </em><a href=”https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWmTM34h0-P7FcCwuA6h6sw/videos” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”><em>Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel</em></a><em>. </em></p>