Father Knows Best began on radio in 1949 on NBC, and made the transition to television after five successful seasons. On October 3rd, 1954, Father Knows Best premiered on CBS. The show starred Robert Young as Jim Anderson, a successful insurance broker and head of the Anderson household. Jane Wyatt played Jim’s wife, Margaret Anderson, who was a devoted housewife and caring mother of their three children Betty (Princess), James Jr. (Bud) and Kathy (Kitten). The Anderson’s lived in Springfield, which is one of the most commonly used town names. In fact, there are currently twenty states that have a town named Springfield in them. By incorporating such common names as Anderson and Springfield, Father Knows Best was attempting to represent the average modern suburban family.
Despite the initial critical response, the show was cancelled in the spring of 1955, after only one season. One reason for this was the fact that the show aired at 10pm Sunday nights, and few children saw it. However, massive fan support brought Father Knows Best back the following season. On August 31st, 1955 the show debuted on NBC, where it was moved to a better time slot and ratings soared. The show ran from 1955 to 1958 on NBC, and from 1958 to 1960 again on CBS. The show officially ended in 1960, however, it was so popular that CBS broadcast re-runs from 1960 to 1962 and ABC showed re-runs for a season in 1963. Overall, there were 203 episodes and it finished at number six in the ratings.
The success of Father Knows Best can be linked to its formula. At the time of the show’s premier, there were many other situation comedies on the air. However, none of them approached the family as Father Knows Best did. Most other shows revolved around a central character who was usually a bumbling idiot or a loudmouth who always got themselves into trouble. These shows would then have the rest of the cast come to the aid of this person and eventually solve the problem. Examples of this include I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, and Make Room for Daddy. Although some of these shows took place in the family setting, they rarely focused on the family as a unit. Father Knows Best focused on each of the family members much more evenly. Each week would involve a different member of the Anderson household facing some sort of dilemma. These would range from Jim having to choose between attending an important meeting or going to see daughter Kathy in the school play, to who Betty was going to take to the prom. Though these problems were rarely major, the family would come together and solve the problem by show’s end. This was the typical structure to every episode.
The most important element of Father Knows Best is its portrayal of the family in the 1950’s. The Anderson’s were a happy, upper-middle class, suburban family that was made up of two caring parents and three perfect kids. Though each week the show centered around some minor conflict or issue, the Anderson’s never experienced any serious or controversial dilemmas. For example, there were never any references made about drug use, abuse, sex, war, crime, illness, or civil conflicts. For this reason, some historians criticize the show for not being realistic. However, in the 1950’s television was not intended to reflect the social issues of the society, but rather to simply entertain the public. Robert Young later commented that adding plot-lines about such subjects as drugs and sex would have been like “taking a beautiful painting and obliterating it with black paint” and that the show was never intended to be more than “a weekly half-hour of fun and entertainment.” Father Knows Best exemplified how society saw family life in the 1950’s, and this helped add to the overall tranquil feeling of the decade.
Adding to this view were the traditional roles of the characters on the show. Jim Anderson was the wise and all-knowing father who usually fixed all of the problems that the family encountered. He clearly paved the way for other television fathers such as Ward Cleaver (Leave It to Beaver), Andy Taylor (The Andy Griffith Show), and Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show). Then there was Margaret Anderson, the devoted housewife and mother, who always stood by her husband’s side and never questioned his decisions. June Cleaver (Leave It to Beaver), Marion Cunningham (Happy Days), and Clair Huxtable (The Cosby Show) were modeled after her. The three children, Betty, Bud and Kathy were squeaky-clean, happy children who never questioned their parents. Any trouble they got into was minor and was usually punished by doing extra chores around the house or not being allowed to watch television for a week. The Anderson kids inspired the Beaver, the Brady Bunch, and the Huxtable kids. All conflicts, troubles, and dilemmas were worked out by the end of the show and everyone in the family was happy again for another week.
Though now it looks somewhat dated, Father Knows Best was one of the most important and imitated shows in television history. Its approach to the lifestyle of the typical family is both pathetic and admirable. At the time that Father Knows Best aired, society often chose to overlook many of its problems, and the entertainment media reflected this by avoiding the difficult issues. As time progressed these issues could no longer be avoided and this can be seen in the changes that television content went through in the 1960’s and 1970’s. However, Father Knows Best reminds us of a time when things seemed much simpler and all your problems could be solved in a half-hour.
David Pernell HYPERLINK mailto:dap4744@uncwil.edu dap4744@uncwil.edu