[4] In 1947, Stearns, who looked young for her age, was offered a job as a fashion model for an early home shopping television program.
[5] On November 18, the DuMont Television Network debuted a new show starring the two entitled Mary Kay and Johnny.
On the show the pair portrayed a newlywed couple, also named Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns, who were trying to make it in New York.
It was also the first television series to feature a pregnancy, (the Stearnses' real life son Christopher), whose birth and character were written in the show in December 1948.
[4] She later stated that she never was particularly fond of television and largely did those shows as a means to earn a paycheck while she tried to make it big on Broadway.