With her eternally youthful face, Barbara Stuart was a TV veteran well before she looked old enough to be one. For years, she was a television mainstay, with her career dating back to The Burns and Allen Show. Along the way, she made a stop in Mayberry, then on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., where she played Miss Bunny for three seasons. While Gomer Pyle was her highest-profile role, it was followed by a notorious flop. 

In 1976, Barbara Stuart starred as Peggy Ferguson on The McLean Stevenson Show. While producers hoped that Stevenson's popularity with M*A*S*H fans would draw viewers to the new program, the actor's solo vehicle failed to draw much of an audience. It was canceled after airing for just three months, and only 12 episodes aired in total.

While Stevenson's failure to connect with audiences was partly to blame, in a 1977 interview, Stuart revealed the many reasons The McLean Stevenson Show was dead on arrival.

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"To begin with," said Stuart, "we did seven shows. Then we had a change in producers, because of a couple of tragedies. The original producers were hit with a series of awful things. 

"For a while, we went along without a producer at all. Then, for another short while, Bobby Persky doubled as producer, director, and writer. After we had done the first seven, NBC decided we had to have a regular producer, and brought in two new ones, Arnold Margolin and Don Van Atta."

While shows have succeeded with multiple producers, having a singular, consistent voice guiding any series is important. With one creative authority at the helm, a show has a better chance of finding an audience who knows what to expect.

However, the revolving door of producers wasn't the show's only problem, as studio interference further disrupted any momentum it may have experienced.

"Then," Stuart continued, "somebody decided the show needed an entirely new focus— they wanted my part to be a stronger person than she was originally. That was fine with me, because at first she had been just a nice woman, and there's nothing duller than that.

"At the same time, they changed the actor playing the boy. That was sad, because Andrew Parks, who is Larry Parks' son, was a wonderful person and a fine actor. But they wanted a younger boy, and Steve Nevil, who is now playing the part, is great, too."

The constant changes created a feeling of frustration behind the scenes. Soon, nobody involved felt like the show had a chance at succeeding. That feeling translated onscreen, and before long, the show was abandoned as the network cut its losses.

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