“He’s running away from a problem instead of facing it. If he retreats to the basement over some little thing now, it isn’t so bad. But he’s going to look awfully silly running down to the basement every time something goes wrong when he’s fifty years old.” – Jim Anderson (Robert Young) when his teenage son locks himself in the basement because he can’t dance
Father Knows Best: Season One DVD Review
By Casey Richards
Like many TV shows of the 1950s, Father Knows Best began its life as a radio show. Premiering on NBC radio in 1949, Father Knows Best? (note the question mark) starred Robert Young as head of the Anderson family. In the 1954-55 television season, Young made the jump to CBS television, losing the question mark and the rest of the cast in the process. Thanks to a poor timeslot (Sundays at ten), the series was cancelled after one season. Viewer response was swift—they wanted the family-friendly sitcom back on the air in an earlier timeslot so that the entire family could tune in. Hearing the clamor, NBC television picked up the series. The series would run for seven seasons, hop scotching from network to network along the way.
Young stars as Jim Anderson, an insurance salesman with General Insurance in Springfield, Ohio. Margaret Anderson (Jane Wyatt) is Jim’s wife and confidant. They have three children. At 17, boy crazy Betty “Princess” Anderson (Elinor Donahue, The Andy Griffith Show) is the eldest. Fourteen year old Bud (Billy Gray) is shy around girls...except his sisters. And Kathy “Kitten” Anderson (Lauren Chapin) is the nine year old baby of the family, but her precociousness makes her seem even younger.
In every episode, one or more of the Andersons gets into trouble, and they work together to bring things back to normal, learning a moral or two along the way. Jim wants his lazy kids to become more civic-minded, but his lesson backfires when Betty becomes witness to a car accident simply because one of the drivers is cute; Bud volunteers Jim to run the entertainment committee for the school’s annual fundraiser; and Kathy gives away her father’s favorite suit to the school’s clothing drive (“Lesson in Citizenship”). Believing that his parents and siblings are taking him for granted, Bud decides that it is time to strike out on his own (“Live My Own Life”).
While the series offers a very paternalistic view of family life, Margaret isn’t reduced to simply nodding her head in agreement. As she confides to Betty, “It’s not that I don’t think your father has wonderful ideas. It’s just that...well...they don’t work.” And, indeed, Jim often makes mistakes, usually in conjunction with his sense of pride. Even though there is a lack of evidence, he forces Kathy to take responsibility for breaking a window. At the same time, he fights a parking ticket that probably was his fault (“Boy’s Week”). He pressures his kids to enter him in a newspaper contest for “Father of the Year” (“Father of the Year”).
Some of the episodes and conceits are just downright funny. After asking a new student to the school dance, Bud desperately tries to learn how to dance...by reading a book. When the rest of the family catches on to his plight, an embarrassed Bud locks himself in the basement (“Bud Takes Up the Dance”). Bud has even more problems with girls. Everyone in school thinks he’s a snob, but it’s really that he’s too shy to talk. He discovers that he is only comfortable talking to girls when wearing a Halloween mask, which allows him to take on a whole new persona. He even needs the mask when talking on the phone! Jim comes up with a perfectly devious—and effective—way to “cure” Bud (“Bud the Snob”).
Many episodes veer into corniness and hokum. Two of the worst offenders are holiday themed. In “Thanksgiving Day,” Kathy writes a Thanksgiving poem that wins her school’s top prize. Even without hearing the poem, Jim starts bragging to his friends and insists that the family go out to a fancy restaurant in celebration of his talented daughter’s victory rather than eating a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner. When he finally hears the poem, his illusions are shattered. Rather than being the next Shakespeare, Jim declares that Kathy’s poem is childish and un-poetic (Hello! She’s in the 4th grade!). Kathy overhears his criticism and freezes up during a Thanksgiving morning live telecast of the winning poems. Upon hearing that Jim didn’t plan on having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, Bud and Betty made plans on their own. In the end, however, the family comes together for an untraditional Thanksgiving meal of hamburgers after realizing that Thanksgiving is a time to be with your family. “The Christmas Story” is even worse. Tired of pink and purple Christmas trees, Jim decides to inject the holiday with a little old-fashioned traditionalism. The family will drive out to the woods and...presumably...steal a real tree. When they get stranded in a snow drift, it looks like Christmas will be ruined. Until, of course, they stumble across a boarded-up cabin/general store inhabited by a jolly bearded man named Kris. This episode is eye-rollingly saccharine and will surely leave you wondering who thought it was a good idea.
Father Knows Best is a perfect example of television reflecting not what real life actually was in the ‘50s but how we wanted it to be. No doubt its portrayal of a perfect family left many thinking that their own families were inadequate. Now the ‘50s have become forever etched in our minds as a time of near perfection—everyone well-behaved, unlimitedly loved, and filled with civic pride. Yet if we look behind the façade, it becomes clear that even the actors playing the Anderson family were far from perfect. In the cornucopia of extras included here, we discover that Elinor Donahue was so naïve about love that she vowed to marry the first man who asked her. She did, quickly became pregnant, and was fired from the show for a while. Lauren Chapin cherished working on the show because her own parents were divorced. Working with Young gave her a “real” dad.
Even if some parts of the series were mawkish and stilted even back in the ‘50s, it is still worth watching. Sure, it’s a fantasy that sometimes takes itself all too seriously, but don’t we all need a little fantasy sometimes?
It should be noted that many of these episodes appear to be versions that have been edited for syndication. The episodes run anywhere from twenty-two to twenty-five minutes. In the shorter episodes, the cuts to and from commercials are abrupt and noticeable. The episodes still make perfect sense (unlike some other shows edited for syndication), but the effect can be jarring. Still, since these apparently came from the Young family vaults, this is probably the most complete we’ll ever see the show.
The twenty-six episodes that make up Father Knows Best: Season One are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear plastic keepcases, both of which holds two discs. The fronts of the cases include photos of the series' stars. The backs of the cases include titles and original airdates for each episode, as well as a list of the extras found on each disc. (All of this information—including plot synopses—can also be found in an accompanying booklet.) The interiors of the cases include an atomic age design scheme. The discs feature photos of the cast members. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve.
The DVD menus are simple and easy to navigate. There is a “play all” feature, but viewers can also choose individual episodes. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
