The Loretta Young Show - S4 E15 - "My Favorite Monster"

Episode # 5623 MY FAVORITE MONSTER Original airdate: 1-13-57 Madge (played by Loretta Young) is a successful children's author. Victor (played by John Newland) is a popular television horror show host (in a part that foreshadows his own career move two years later as the host and director of the 1959 real-life paranormal television series One Step Beyond) who must cope with the problems of Madge’s young daughter (played by Sandy Descher) who has difficulty in properly distinguishing between the real world and what she sees on television. John Newland was a director, actor, television producer, and screenwriter who was a semi-regular on this series who began his career in vaudeville while still in his teens. After moving to New York City to study acting he signed with Warner Bros. Studios where he was relegated to playing bit parts. But by the early 1950s, Newland began to focus solely on television roles, appearing in several episodes of Studio One, The Philco Television Playhouse, Tales of Tomorrow, Kraft Television Theatre, and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars... but he was best known for his roles in One Step Beyond, and its short-lived counterpart The Next Step Beyond (in 1978). Newland died on January 10, 2000, of a stroke in Los Angeles. Sandy Descher's first appearance on the 'big screen' was a brief, but key role in the classic science-fiction film, Them! (1954) at age 9. A year later Descher was "the only long-term contract child in Hollywood," having been signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. In 1956, she played June Allyson's daughter Debbie in The Opposite Sex and appeared in another movie with Van Johnson that year, The Bottom of the Bottle. Her last movie, at the age of 12, was the cult favorite Space Children (1958), wearing, to her embarrassment, a bathing suit. In addition to this episode of The Loretta Young Show, Sandy was called back in 1962 to play the recurring role of Judy Massey, a daughter of the Loretta Young character, Christine Massey, in the CBS family drama, The New Loretta Young Show. Directed by John Newland Teleplay by Pauline Stone. Story by William Raynor Cast: Madge Loretta Young Victor John Newland Jenny Sandy Descher