Editing Mary Kay and Johnny

{{Short description|American situation comedy}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image                =
| caption              = 
| genre                = Sitcom
| creator              = [[Mary Kay Stearns]]<br>[[Johnny Stearns]]
| writer               = 
| director             = 
| starring             = Mary Kay Stearns<br>Johnny Stearns<br>[[Howard Thomas (actor)|Howard Thomas]]<br>[[Nydia Westman]]<br>Christopher William Stearns
| theme_music_composer = 
| opentheme            = 
| composer             = 
| country              = United States
| language             = English
| num_seasons          = 
| num_episodes         = 300 (estimate)
| list_episodes        = 
| executive_producer   = 
| producer             = 
| camera               = [[Multiple-camera setup|Multi-camera]]
| runtime              = 15 mins (12 minus ads). (1947-1948; 1949)<br>30 mins. (25 minus ads) (1948-1949; 1950)
| channel              = [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] (1947-1948)<br>[[CBS]] (1949)<br>[[NBC]] (1948-1949; 1949-1950)
| first_aired          = {{start date|1947|11|18}}
| last_aired           = {{end date|1950|03|11}} 
}}

'''''Mary Kay and Johnny''''' is an American [[sitcom]] starring real-life married couple [[Mary Kay Stearns|Mary Kay]] and [[Johnny Stearns]]. It was the first sitcom broadcast on a [[television network]] in the United States. ''Mary Kay and Johnny'' initially aired [[Live television|live]] on the [[DuMont Television Network]] before moving to [[CBS]] and then [[NBC]].

==Format==
Plots centered around a bank employee and his "zany, but not dumb" wife and the problems that they encountered.<ref name="laz">{{cite book|last1=Karol|first1=Michael|title=Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia|date=2004|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9780595752133|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KoABABSnX7oC&dq=%22Mary+Kay+and+Johnny%22&pg=PA281|accessdate=22 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> Much of the activity occurred in the couple's apartment in [[Greenwich Village]].<ref name=laz/>

The March 6, 1948, issue of the trade publication ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' gave a mostly favorable review, "This program comes close to being a model tele[vision] show. In detailing the adventures, mainly domestic, of a young married couple, Johnny and Mary Kay Stearns have come up with charming and fresh material, which always takes into consideration that there are cameras taking everything in," although the column's author objected to the show's usage of familiar sitcom tropes such as "the dreary old tolerant-husband-with-a-dumb-wife pattern."<ref name=bb>{{cite magazine|last1=Chase|first1=Sam|title=Mary Kay and Johnny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gPUDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA38|accessdate=6 March 2024|magazine=Billboard|date=March 6, 1948|page=38}}</ref>

==Cast==
In addition to the Stearnses, the cast included their son, Christopher Stearns, as himself. Mary Kay's mother was played by [[Nydia Westman]], and Johnny's friend Howie was played by Howard Thomas. Jim Stevenson was the announcer.<ref name="etvs">{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7|page=661|edition=2nd}}</ref>

==Broadcast history==
The first 15-minute episode debuted on the [[DuMont Television Network]] on Tuesday, November 18, 1947.<ref name="ill">{{cite book|last1=Landay|first1=Lori|title=I Love Lucy|date=2010|publisher=Wayne State University Press|location=Michigan, Detroit|isbn=978-0814335734|page=69|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwX7qqzVeF0C&dq=%22Mary+Kay+and+Johnny%22&pg=PT79|accessdate=22 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> The Stearnses created and wrote all the scripts. The program was broadcast live, most of the action taking place on a set representing the New York City apartment of the title characters, a young married couple.

''Mary Kay and Johnny'' was the first program to show a couple sharing a bed, and the first series to show a woman's pregnancy on television:<ref>[http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htm snopes.com/radiotv Snopes.com: "Early to Bed"]</ref> Mary Kay became pregnant in 1948 and after unsuccessfully trying to hide her pregnancy, the producers wrote it into the show. On December 31, 1948, the Stearns' weeks-old son Christopher appeared on the show and became a character.

After a year on DuMont, the show moved to [[CBS]] for half a year, much of the time being broadcast every weeknight, then ran for another year each Saturday night on [[NBC]], where it debuted on October 10, 1948.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hawes|first1=William|title=Live Television Drama, 1946–1951|date=2001|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476608495|page=245|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l8z-CgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Mary+Kay+and+Johnny%22&pg=PA245|accessdate=22 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> It broadcast the final episode on March 11, 1950.

==Viewership==
At a time when there were no TV ratings (the [[A.C. Nielsen Co.|A.C. Nielsen Company]] would not begin measuring TV ratings until 1950), [[Anacin]] decided to take a chance and sponsor the show.  This decision worried the advertising executives at Anacin, who thought that they might be wasting money by sponsoring a show with a sparse audience.  A simple, non-scientific scheme to gauge the size of the audience was hatched.  During one commercial spot, Anacin offered a free pocket mirror to the first 200 viewers who wrote in requesting one.  As a precaution, they purchased a total of 400 mirrors in case the audience was twice as large as they expected.  Although the free mirror was offered only during that one spot, Anacin received nearly 9000 requests for mirrors.<ref>Mitz, Rick. ''The Great TV Sitcom Book (Expanded Edition)''. New York, NY: Perigee Books - Putnam Publishing Co., 1983, p9.  Print.</ref>

==Episode status==
DuMont's corporate successor, [[Metromedia]], [[List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts|disposed of what was left of the DuMont archive]] in the East River.<ref group=note>Ed McMahon, David C. Fisher, in their book ''When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen'', wrote, "Unfortunately, these kinescopes survived only until the 1970s when ABC dumped all the old DuMont programs into the New York Bay and CBS trashed its own old kinescopes."</ref><ref name="wtwy">{{cite book|last1=McMahon|first1=Ed|last2=Fisher|first2=David C.|title=When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen|date=2007|publisher=Thomas Nelson Inc|isbn=9781418578411|url=https://archive.org/details/whentelevisionwa0000mcma|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/whentelevisionwa0000mcma/page/117 117]|quote=Mary Kay and Johnny.|accessdate=22 September 2017|language=en}}</ref>

The fate of the NBC episodes is unknown, although they also were known to have been getting rid of their older recordings in the early 1970s and disposing the ones they could not get the stars of the shows to take.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/the-day-my-grandfather-groucho.html|first=Andy|last=Marx|title=The day my grandfather Groucho and I saved You Bet Your Life|work=BoingBoing.net|date=March 2, 2013|accessdate=January 11, 2019}}</ref> The [[Paley Center for Media]] has one 1949 episode in its collection.<ref>[http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=mary+kay&f=all&c=tv&advanced=1&p=1&item=T:13423 Entry for June 13th, 1949 episode at The Paley Center for Media website]</ref> [[TV Land]] used a clip of Mary Kay and Johnny in an episode of ''[[Inside TV Land]]'' called "Taboo TV".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/tv-tame-special-examines-old-taboos-article-1.504748#ixzz2Te0S0Lec|title=When TV Was Tame: Special examines old taboos|last=Bianculli|first=David|website=[[New York Daily News]]|date=November 14, 2002|accessdate=May 18, 2013}}</ref> However, this clip showed a scene of Mary Kay and Johnny together in a bed; the single episode held by The Paley Center for Media does not feature such a scene, so that would indicate at least one more episode survives.<ref>https://youtube.com/watch?si=Z7PRXJThPaA5i8kH&v=4VCqXm5XeLE&feature=youtu.be</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Comedy|Television}}
*[[List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network]]
*[[List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts]]

==Notes== 
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia: [[Temple University Press]], 2004) {{ISBN|1-59213-245-6}}
*Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York: [[Penguin Books]], 1980) {{ISBN|0-14-024916-8}}
*Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'', Third edition (New York: [[Ballantine Books]], 1964) {{ISBN|0-345-31864-1}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb title|id=0128883|title=Mary Kay and Johnny}}
*[https://dumonthistory.com/a2.html DuMont historical website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary Kay And Johnny}}
[[Category:1947 American television series debuts]]
[[Category:1950 American television series endings]]
[[Category:1940s American multi-camera sitcoms]]
[[Category:1950s American multi-camera sitcoms]]
[[Category:American live television series]]
[[Category:Black-and-white American television shows]]
[[Category:DuMont Television Network original programming]]
[[Category:American English-language television shows]]
[[Category:Television shows set in New York City]]
[[Category:Television shows filmed in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Television series about marriage]]
[[Category:NBC sitcoms]]
[[Category:CBS sitcoms]]