He helped stretch the medium

Don Drysdale and Donna Reed

Don Drysdale (July 23, 1936 – July 3, 1993).

Donald Scott Drysdale was an American professional baseball player and television sports commentator. A right-handed pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers/Los Angeles Dodgers for his entire career in Major League Baseball, Drysdale was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984.

Alfred and Helen Levitt, writers for The Donna Reed Show, often stretched the medium. They were the first to bring an actual sports figure into a show. Don Drysdale appears in “The Man in the Mask” (Season 4, Episode 37). He later appears in “All Those Dreams” (Season 5, Episode 31), “My Son the Catcher” (Season 6, Episode 31), and “Play Ball” (Season 7, Episode 3).