Johnny Stearns

In the two-hour joint portion of their interview, Johnny Stearns (1916-2001) and Mary Kay Stearns (1925-2018) describe how they met and their work together. They discuss their television debut, including Mary Kay’s debut on the DuMont network on a show called J.J. Juniors, in which she modeled junior fashions. They detail their work on the very first television situation comedy, Mary Kay and Johnny (1947-50), on which they co-starred. They talk about the week-by-week production of the show, storylines used, format, premise, production, and crew of the program, as well as its run on three different networks (Dumont, NBC, CBS). They discuss Mary Kay’s later show, Mary Kay’s Nightcap (1951-52), on which she “signed off” for NBC by telling the viewers what would be on television the following day and doing occasional interviews. They also talk about serving as the spokespeople for U.S. Steel in the 1950s, appearing in commercials during the U.S. Steel Hour. Michael Rosen conducted the interview on August 25, 1999 in Corona del Mar, CA.

In the one-hour solo portion of his interview, Johnny Stearns talks about growing up with a theater background (his mother founded the "Petersborough Players" in Petersborough, NH - the model town for Thorton Wilder's Our Town). He describes how Wilder staged Our Town there himself, making the Petersborough summer theater production the first after the play's Broadway run. Stearns recalls his days in the theater on the New York stage and his entrance into television on the experimental Philadelphia station WPTZ-TV. He discusses his work on stage and in film (Boomerang with Elia Kazan), and speaks of other series he produced and directed, including The Steve Allen Show (the WNBC show which would later become the Tonight show), Faye and Skitch (1953-54), Make Me Laugh (1958), Music Bingo (1958-59), and Seven Keys (1961-64). He also details producing the long-running agricultural program AG, USA, which began in 1961.