I have only now discovered that there were MRFD episodes that did NOT have Marjorie Lord playing Danny's wife! My wife picked up a cheap DVD with Jean Hagen, and I was floored! I grew up watching MRFD, and had a huge crush on ML!

What I would like to know is how they killed off Jean Hagen, how it was handled with Danny as a single dad, and how the kids dealt with it?

This must have been a huge hurdle for a 50s show...

Thanks,
Don

She opted to leave the show (not sure why), and when the next season started, he was a widower.

What I wanted to know was what, specifically, did she die from and how did her TV family deal with it? Were there epidodes that dealt with the kids' sadness and sense of loss? Or was there just "getting on with the show"? I know Jean hagen left the show and why. It was a duller role than she had hoped for, and it got tiresome.

I haven't seen the 1st episode of season 4, but this is what Sheldon Leonard said in his book:

"I decided the only thing to do about the Jean Hagen situation was to kill her.

Our writers were instructed to take the position that the unfortunate lady had suffered an untimely demise, in an unspecified manner, during the summer hiatus. The dialogue to dispose of her was to go like this: "Well, kids, We've got to stick closer than ever, now that Mom is gone. I know that she's up there watching over us, and that's what she would want."

Sheldon then proceeds to tell how Danny shattered his ankle playing basketball duting the summer hiatus.

"We started the season with Danny Williams, recently widowed, in a wheelchair. He described the gruesome fate that would befall any kid who ever left his or her skates at the head of the stairs for parents to trip over and break ankles. Then he gave the Mom's-up-in-Heaven-watching-over-us speech. Then on with the funny stuff."

Yeah, back in those days, pretty much up to the late 70's, they were either kill off the character, but never have episodes with the family really dealing with the loss (like they did on 8 Simple Rules), or they just replaced them with somebody else and didn't say a word (a la Darren Stevens).

This same scenario bothered me when Bea Benedict passed away during the run of Petticoat Junction. They never did truly kill her off in the show and it was really strange why she was "away" for so long.

Thanks, TF. I can see how there would be a difference between what happened at MRFD and 8 Simple Rules. After all, John Ritter actually died. Other cast members would have been emotionally attacked to him and probably had to deal with it in real life. Jean Hagen's departure was one made for professional reasons. Perhaps the short shrift given at the time comes from the inexperience of a new media. Today, producers are more savvy about their audience's relationship with their characters. Departures are more carefully engineered.

There were actually some very good and realistic episodes during Danny's "widower" period....like one where he starts dating an attractive and nice lady (played by a pre-"Leave It To Beaver" Barbara Billingsley), and Rusty and Terry do everything they can to sabatoge the romance.

During this period Mary Wickes (playing Danny's tough, no-nonsense press agent Liz) served as sort of a surrogate wife and mother to the family......she would tell Danny and the kids when they were out of line, and she really set Rusty and Terry straight during that "dating" episode....telling them that they were being selfish, that they weren't thinking of their father's happiness, etc. It was pretty powerful (and well-acted) stuff!

She died of shock when she walked in on Danny and the maid Louise doing something involving a glass coffee table.

She died of shock when she walked in on Danny and the maid Louise doing something involving a glass coffee table.

Better not let Marlo hear you say that! When it comes to "protecting Daddy", I hear that Marlo's worse than the Sinatra sisters!

Danny thomas was a wonderful actor....ill never forget his spit takes on Letterman , not long before his death :)