WITH AN EYE ON . . . : From Mary Stone to Christine on ‘Coach,’ Fabares knows the ropes

Times flies when you’re having fun.

Just ask Shelley Fabares. She can’t believe she’s finished her fifth season on the popular ABC comedy series “Coach.” In fact, Wednesday marks the 100th episode of the Emmy-winning show. And the season finale finds Fabares’ independent Christine Armstrong finally tying the knot with Hayden Fox (Craig T. Nelson).

“Coach” is Fabares’ sixth TV series. Born in Santa Monica, she began acting at age 3 and came to fame playing wholesome teen-ager Mary Stone on “The Donna Reed Show” from 1958-63.

Though “Coach” ranked No. 6th this year, it didn’t burn up the ratings when it premiered in February, 1989. In fact, “Coach” placed a lackluster No. 62 in its first season. “I think there were six people who watched us,” Fabares says, laughing. “There was a small audience who found us at the very beginning, and those people watched us passionately.” The series took off when ABC moved it that June from Wednesdays at 9 p.m. to Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. after “Roseanne.”

The success of “Coach,” though, hasn’t taken Fabares by surprise. “I did always feel from the very beginning if they could find the right spot for us, this was a show that would last,” says Fabares, who’s married to “MASH’s” Mike Farrell.

On Saturday, Fabares goes dramatic in the fact-based ABC movie “Deadly Relations.” Fabares plays Shirley Fagot, the wife of a brutish former Marine (Robert Urich) who stays with her husband even after she learns he murdered two of their sons-in-law for their insurance money.

Fabares chose to play Shirley as a very repressed woman. “She is a Southern woman who was raised at the time when the man was the head of the household,” Fabares explains. “Your job was to be a good wife and mind your husband. Psychologically, that’s certainly not who I am today, certainly not the women I play today. I didn’t have a dysfunctional childhood or young adulthood, but I was somebody who was very much raised to do what other people told me to do as a person. I found it very painful to go back. It was tremendously upsetting. It has been hard-fought for me as a person, a struggle to find my own voice.”

When she’s not acting, Fabares spends the majority of her time working for the Alzheimer’s Assn., and was recently appointed to its board of directors. Last September, Fabares’ mother died of the disease. “I try to raise the level of awareness about Alzheimer’s,” she says.

Unlike a lot of child stars whose lives have faced subsequent difficulties, Fabares, personally and professionally, has endured. She credits her strong family, the “wonderful” people with whom she’s worked and therapy.

“I think the years on ‘The Donna Reed Show,’ the years from 14 to 19, were so incredibly important,” Fabares says. “Donna Reed was simply an extraordinary woman, a woman of great strength, kindness, integrity and compassion. I am not trying to make her sound like a saint, but she had the most profound influence on me. I carry her with me today.”

“Coach” airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC; “Deadly Relations” airs Saturday at 9 p.m on ABC; repeats of “The Donna Reed Show” airs Sundays at 12:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. and weekday mornings at 1:30 a.m. on Nickelodeon.