Television Performances By Pregnant Actresses From 1948-2016

194 Pages·2017·1.2 MB·English

LLoouuiissiiaannaa SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy
LLSSUU DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss
LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School
5-23-2018
LLaabboorr aanndd DDeelliivveerryy:: TTeelleevviissiioonn PPeerrffoorrmmaanncceess BByy PPrreeggnnaanntt
AAccttrreesssseess FFrroomm 11994488--22001166
Evleen Michelle Nasir
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations
Part of the Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Television Commons, Theatre and Performance
Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons
RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn
Nasir, Evleen Michelle, "Labor and Delivery: Television Performances By Pregnant Actresses From
1948-2016" (2018). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 4598.
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/4598
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It
has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU
Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected].
LABOR AND DELIVERY: TELEVISION PERFORMANCES BY
PREGNANT ACTRESSES FROM 1948-2016

A Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

in

The School of Theatre

by
Evleen Michelle Nasir
B.A., Texas A&M University
M.A., Texas A&M University
August 2018
to my parents for their love and support,
to Kirsten for convincing me
&
to Kevin for everything

ii
Acknowledgements

This project came out of a research trip in 2011. While working in the Ronald L. Davis Oral
History Collection as a research assistant for my then mentor and now friend Dr. Kirsten Pullen,
I read an interview with Lucille Ball in which she was told by a movie producer to have an
abortion so that she could perform in his film. This information sparked a question. What is the
history of actresses’ reproductive rights? Seven years later, here we are.
I have many people and institutions to thank. First, the financial support of the Louisiana
State University Dissertation Fellowship means that I have spent the last ten months completely
devoted to the writing and rewriting of this document. There was also some television watching
in there too. Thank you.
I am also deeply grateful to my friends for their ability to listen, laugh, cry, and write
with me. Thank you. Macy Jones was my very first friend at LSU. She and Brook Hanemann,
my second friend at LSU, helped me adjust to Baton Rouge, to LSU, and to PhD. life. Katie
Morris’ ability to know what I want to say when I don’t is not my favorite thing about her but it
is pretty high up there. My favorite thing about her is our friendship. Camilla Morrison’s
laughter and positivity has improved my days. I greatly admire and aspire to Carla Lahey’s sense
of calm and self-assurance. Kara Ray’s endless support and interest in my work is the sunshine
of my day. Emily Piepenbrink was my very first work wife and without her support I would not
have made it through any portion of graduate school, thank you.
Dr. Kirsten Pullen is the reason that I started graduate school. As a mentor, she saw me as
a scholar before I did. She gave me courage to go beyond my expectations. So much of the
scholar I am today is because of her advice, scholarship, and friendship. There is no way that I
can adequately thank her for everything she has done for me throughout this past decade but I
iii
will keep trying. I am thankful for Dr. Josh Heuman who alerted me to the existence of Hunter
Tylo and to Rebecca G. Pontikes who kindly spoke with me regarding the ins and outs of
pregnancy discrimination law and pointed me in the direction of many helpful legal resources. I
am also thankful for the conversations about pregnancy performance generated in the ASTR
working groups convened by Dr. Alicia Corts, and Dr. Chelsea Phillips.
I have to thank the members of my committee, Dr. John Fletcher, Dr. Alan Sikes, Dr.
Debbie Goldgaber, Dr. Femi Euba, and Dr. Jacqueline Bach for their time and commitment to
the success of this project. Thank you for wanting me and my scholarship to be the best it can be.
I also owe endless amounts of appreciation to my mentor and advisor Dr. Shannon Walsh. She
has been my biggest cheerleader throughout this entire project. She had enthusiasm for and faith
in this project when I didn’t. She told me I was super hero when I felt like a zero. She pointed me
toward the light at the end when all I could see was darkness. She made me a better scholar.
My father, Adib Nasir, has supported my dreams before I can remember having any. His
determination to provide for his family in a country he made his own inspires me every day to do
my best and make him proud. My mother, Deborah Nasir-Lumpkin, has always been there. She
has taken an interest in every dance class, academic tournament, school play, haircut, hair color
(of which there has been many,) craft project, and research question. I know that I can because
she told me I could. My step-father Jim Lumpkin has supported my scholastic pursuits by
providing me a space to relax on fishing boats and at crab boils. I am a better fisherwoman and
person because of him. My mother and father in-law, Tony and Margie Richard, supported me
throughout this entire project by asking questions and listening to the long answers. They also
are responsible for the creation of my husband Kevin. For that, I am truly grateful.
iv
My husband Kevin Nasir is the best husband. He has held me up on this long journey
with his love and support. He has read, helped write, and talked with me about my work before it
was my work. He made my dreams his priority. He has always believed.

v
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..iii

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………....vii

Introduction: A Fertile Idea………………………………………………………………………1

The Birth of Television Pregnancy: “Lucy Is Enceinte” …………………………………….…27

Conception Deception: The “Hidden” Pregnancies of Jane Leeves and Kerry Washington…...95

Labor Pains: Hunter Tylo v. Spelling Entertainment…………………………………………..126
Conclusion: A Pregnant Pause …………………………………………..…………………….153
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………162
Vita……………………………………………………………………………………………...185

vi
Abstract
Labor and Delivery: Television Actresses’ Pregnant Performances from 1948-2016,
examines the labor of six pregnant actresses working on United States television. Mary Kay
Stearns, Lucille Ball, Jane Leeves, Kerry Washington, and Katey Sagal all worked through
pregnancies while filming their respective television shows. These women exemplify the
multitude of actresses who maintained their careers and their pregnancies in the television
industry. This is the first study of its kind to examine the labor of an actresses’ pregnant body on
film while she performs a role other than herself. Previous examinations of pregnancy in
performance are few but have largely focused on representations of the pregnant body in film
and television. My study differs from these projects in that it is solely concerned with how the
actresses pregnant body affects and is affected by the constraints of the naturalist genre on
television.
This project is the beginning of an archive of televised pregnant labor. It examines how
the television industry, television actresses, and television audiences have learned to
accommodate the pregnant laboring body. I argue that pregnant laboring actresses and the
television industry that employs them show United States television audiences pregnant bodies at
work, and for better or worse, the television industry is a model of how to accommodate
pregnancy in the workplace. Ultimately, I conclude that given the restraints of naturalism there is
no perfect way for the television industry to accommodate actresses’ pregnancies, but their
pregnant performances provide a national platform for pregnant bodies to be seen working by
millions of people.
In examining the pregnant televised labor of these actresses within the fields of theatre
and performance studies, this study troubles naturalism as the default television performance
vii
genre. It establishes the history of television pregnancy camouflage techniques and questions the
effectiveness of those techniques by examining audience response. This project lays a foundation
for deeper analysis of the pregnant body in naturalist televised performance. The ways in which
an actress’ pregnant body is modified, commodified, camouflaged, or disregarded within the
television industry informs how pregnant bodies are discussed and treated outside of the
television screen.
viii
Introduction: A Fertile Idea

On December 19, 1948, Mary Kay Stearns was notably absent from the live television show that
she shot with her husband, the writer Johnny Stearns. She was in labor. Mary Kay and Johnny
was a fifteen-minute television sit-com that aired Friday nights on the CBS network.1 Even
though Mary Kay was unable to participate on screen in the airing of the show, Johnny knew the
show must go on. He wrote a fifteen-minute teleplay where he paced the waiting room of a labor
and delivery ward waiting for the birth of his child. The episode ended spectacularly with Johnny
placing a phone call to his mother-in-law and letting her know that Mary Kay had given birth to
a boy named Christopher (Stearns and Stearns).
Stearns is the first actress in television history to have her pregnancy, labor, and delivery
aired live. While her significance to television production history cannot be overstated, Stearns is
often outshined by her 1950s counterpart Lucille Ball and I Love Lucy. Ball’s star power and
advancements in television production provide insight into why Stearns is forgotten in the
shadows of television history. Only one full episode and a few short clips of Mary Kay and
Johnny are extant. Before 1948 the show aired live, and the majority of the taped episodes were
lost in the 1970s when DuMont’s corporate successor MetroMedia dumped the DuMont archive
into New York City’s East River. The whereabouts of NBC and CBS’s Mary Kay and Johnny
(MKJ) episodes are unknown.
When MKJ was first produced in 1948, television technology was in its infancy. Coast-
to-coast broadcast was not yet in place and the video cassette had not yet been invented. The
majority of television was broadcast live from New York to east coast and mid-west audiences.

1 Mary Kay and Johnny first aired on the DuMont network on November 18, 1947. It changed
networks to CBS and then NBC where the final episode aired on March 11, 1950.
1