>>>Just watched The Donna Reed Show, episode The Baby Contest. The winning >>>baby's mama is Virginia Christine. We discussed her possibility of being >>>Nice Dress Nellie and ruled her out....but I can't remember why we ruled her >>>out. If she isn't NDN, she's the closest actor to her, maybe her twin >>>sister?<<<
Harriet, I thought the name Virginia Christine sounded familiar and decided I wanted to watch that show. I found it on Hulu.com and just finished. I recognized Virginia Christine as an actress who, for me, was most famous as Mrs. Olson in the Folgers coffee commercials that aired when I was growing up. In the commercials, she had an accent, as I recall, and was always persuading people to try Folgers coffee. She does bear a resemblance to Nice Dress Nellie in that they share similar facial features, notably the more prominent cheekbones. But there was another TAGS connection in this show. The TAGS season one episode "The Beauty Contest" was basically a reworking of Donna Reed's "The Baby Contest." In "The Baby Contest," the committee for the town picnic has decided to put on a baby contest, and Donna's husband, Dr. Stone, a pediatrician, is chosen to judge the contest. He is very reluctant, knowing that he will incur the ire of every mother whose baby is not the winner. Mothers keep dropping by the house or office to bring him little bribes--a pineapple upside down cake, kumquat preserves, etc. One woman, Mrs. Lang, decides not to enter her baby because he is rather homely with big ears that she keeps covered with hats. Donna persuades her to enter, however. This provides Dr. Stone with a way out of his predicament. He chooses the homely baby as the winner, and all the other mothers understand that he was trying to boost Mrs. Lang's morale, and she does feel much better about her baby after winning the cup. In the TAGS episode, Andy doesn't want the job as judge, either. Ellie is entered against her will, and Andy feels he must choose her, but mothers of the other contestants pressure him to pick their daughters. Ellie doesn't want to win the title of Miss Mayberry, so Andy is between a rock and a hard place. His way out is to choose Miss Bishop, who has given so much time and effort to make the contest a success. The main difference is that the losers of the beauty pageant didn't take their loss as well as the losers of the baby contest! I am guessing that the writers of the TAGS episode saw the Donna Reed episode, because the Donna Reed episode aired in December of 1958, whereas the TAGS episode aired in January of 1961. I checked to see who wrote the episodes on the off chance they were written by the same people, but they weren't. The Donna Reed episode was written by William Cowley and Peggy Chantler, and the TAGS episode was written by Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart. Thelma Lou (Janet) _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
