Early life Stearns was born on October 13, 1916, in
Billerica, Massachusetts to father Frederick Stearns and mother Edith Louise Bond (February 14, 1884–November 16, 1961). His mother was the founder of the Peterborough Players, a summer theater troupe in
Peterborough,
New Hampshire in which he was a member. Stearns had two older sisters; Isabell and Sally.
Stage Stearns' career began as a stage performer at the age of 14 at the Mariarden Theater in Peterborough, NH.
Television In 1947, Stearns and his wife
Mary Kay whom he married the previous year, began doing a television show entitled
Mary Kay and Johnny. The two played fictional versions of themselves; a newlywed couple living in an apartment in
New York City trying to make it in life. The series was the first
sitcom broadcast on television, the first to show a couple sharing a bed and the first to feature a pregnancy; the Stearns' real life son Christopher (born 1948). The Stearns' created the show and wrote all the scripts. The series originally aired on
DuMont premiering on November 18, 1947, but moved to
NBC then moved to
CBS then back to NBC where it finished its run on March 11, 1950. After
Mary Kay, Stearns went on to produce the Steve Allen version of
The Tonight Show which ran on NBC from 1954–1957 and ''
Arthur Murray's Dance Party
in the 1950s. Starting in 1961, he began hosting and producing Agriculture USA'', a
public affairs program. It aired on NBC until 1990 when it began airing in
syndication. He made his last appearance on the program's last episode in 2001 just days before he died. ==Filmography==