<Tr> <Th> Audio format </Th> <Td> Monaural </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Original release </Th> <Td> September 24, 1958 (1958 - 09 - 24)--March 19, 1966 (1966 - 03 - 19) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Donna Reed Show is an American situation comedy starring Donna Reed as the middle - class housewife Donna Stone . Carl Betz co-stars as her pediatrician husband Dr. Alex Stone, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children, Mary and Jeff . The show originally aired on ABC from September 24, 1958 to March 19, 1966 . When Fabares left the show in 1963, Petersen's younger sister, Patty Petersen, joined the cast as adopted daughter Trisha . Patty Petersen had first appeared in the episode, "A Way of Her Own", on January 31, 1963 . Actress Janet Landgard was a series regular from 1963 - 1965 as Karen Holmby . </P> <P> Bob Crane and Ann McCrea appeared in the last seasons as Dr. Dave Kelsey and his wife, Midge, friends of the Stones, and Darryl Richard became a near regular in thirty - two episodes as Smitty, Jeff's best buddy . The show featured a variety of celebrity guests including Esther Williams as a famous dress designer, baseball superstars Don Drysdale and Willie Mays as themselves, teen heartthrob James Darren as a pop singer with the measles, canine superstar Lassie, and young Jay North of CBS's Dennis the Menace . </P>

When did mary leave the donna reed show