DAY 42 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE FIFTIES

Good Morning, Class of '64

Television Families from 
the Fifties and Early Sixties

Part Two

Father Knows Best 
1954 - 1963
http://fatherknowsbest.com/ 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Knows_Best 

Father Knows Best was an American radio and television series which portrayed middle class family life in the Midwest. It ran on radio from 1949 to 1954 and on television from 1954 to 1960. Only Robert Young remained of the radio cast when the series moved to CBS Television.

• James "Jim" Anderson, Sr. – Robert Young

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Young_%28actor%29 

 

• Margaret Anderson – Jane Wyatt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Wyatt 

• Betty "Princess" Anderson – Elinor Donahue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Donahue 
 

• James "Bud" Anderson, Jr. – Billy Gray

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Gray_%28actor%29 

• Kathy "Kitten" Anderson – Lauren Chapin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Chapin 

The Anderson's

Lauren Chapin, Jane Wyatt, Robert Young, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray

A total of 203 episodes of Father Knows Best were produced. They ran until September 17, 1960, and appeared on all three television networks of the time. The television show won six Emmy Awards and averaged #6 in Neilsen Ratings in its final year of production.

Robert Young - 1956, 

Best Continuing Performance by an Actor 

in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series

Robert Young - 1957, 

Best Continuing Performance by an Actor 

in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series

Jane Wyatt - 1957, 

Best Continuing Performance by an Actress 

in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series

Jane Wyatt - 1958-59, 

Best Continuing Performance by an Actress 

in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series 

Jane Wyatt - 1959-60, 

Best Continuing Performance by an Actress 

in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series

Peter Tewksbury - 1959 

Best Director for a Single Program of a Comedy Series: "Medal for Margaret

 

Because of it's popularity, in 1959, the U.S. Treasury Department commissioned a special 30-minute episode of Father Knows Best called "24 Hours in Tyrant Land" to promote the buying of savings bonds. It never aired on television but was distributed to schools, churches and civic groups. The episode is included on the Season One DVD.

Father Knows Best was so popular that when production ended, it continued on the primetime TV network schedule for the next three years, from September 1960 through April 1963 (no other TV show in history has done that).

It ran another five years (until 1967) on ABC's daytime line-up. Throughout the decades of the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's it was on local and cable channels. Currently (2014) it is being broadcast on the Antenna TV Network.

On November 22, 1963, the third season episode "Man About Town" was being rerun on several ABC affiliates when at 1:42 PM EST, ABC News broke into the program with the first bulletin of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.

The TV cast reunited for two TV movies on NBC, in 1977.

Father Knows Best
Reunion
May 15, 1977

Father Knows Best

Home For Christmas 
December 18, 1977

Father Knows Best Reunion - 1977

Betty had become the widowed mother of two girls, 

and Bud and his wife were the parents of a son.

Kathy had become engaged to a doctor.

 

Father Knows Best - Bud Learns To Dance
Season One - Episode One



TV Guide Covers

DVD

Father Knows Best on Radio
https://archive.org/details/Father_Knows_Best 

 

Audition Show - 1948

  

 

Father Knows Best Quotes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046600/quotes

Bud Anderson: You've been around so long and seen so much and done so much, and still manage to look so good.
Jim Anderson: Thanks a lot!
Bud Anderson: I think you look real young. Honest. Younger than Joe Phillips' dad, younger than Claude Mesner's uncle, why even younger than...
Jim Anderson: Bud, before you have me back in kindergarten, see who's at the door, will you?

Bud Anderson: How many were in your class, Dad?
Jim Anderson: Oh, 2-300 I guess.
Bud Anderson: How many are left?

Margaret Anderson: Well, I suppose Father knows best.

Robert Young and Jane Wyatt - Father Knows Best Television Series