Father Knows Best

1 9 5 4 - 1 9 6 3 (USA)
203 x 30 minute episodes

Father Knows Best was one of a slew of American middle class family sitcoms in which moms were moms, kids were kids, and fathers knew best. Today, most critics view it as high camp fun, although this genre has at times been labelled the "Aryan melodramas" of the 1950s and 1960s.

The brainchild of producer Eugene Rodney and series star Robert Young (who played insurance salesman Jim Anderson), Father Knows Best debuted as a radio sitcom in 1949. In the radio version the title ended with a question mark, suggesting that father's role as family leader was dubious. The series was transplanted to television in 1954 where it ran until 1963, appearing at various times on each of the three US networks.

Although wife Margaret was stuck in the drudgery of domestic servitude, she was nobody's fool, often besting her husband and son, Bud. Daughter Betty Anderson (known affectionately to her father as Princess) could also take the male Andersons to task, as could the precocious Kathy (aka Kitten), the baby of the family.

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Jim Anderson Robert Young Margaret Anderson Jane Wyatt Betty Anderson Elinor Donahue James 'Bud' Anderson Jr Billy Gray Kathy Anderson Laurin Chapin Miss Thomas Sarah Selby Ed Davis Robert Foulk Myrtle Davis Vivi Jannis Dotty Snow Yvonne Lime Kippy Watkins Paul Wallace Claude Messner Jimmy Bates Doyle Hobbs Roger Smith Ralph Little Robert Chapman April Adams Sue George Joyce Kendall Jymme (Roberta) Shore