Father Knows Best

• 
  E1

  Bud Takes Up the Dance

  Bud tries to learn how to dance from a book for his first school dance.

  1954-10-03 · 30m
• E2

  Lesson in Citizenship

  Jim tells his family to help others which leads to complications.

  1954-10-10 · 30m
• E3

  The Motor Scooter

  Jim buys Bud a motor scooter but Margaret won't let him have it.

  1954-10-17 · 30m
• E4

  Football Tickets

  Jim gets tickets to an important football game, and picks one of the kids to go with him—only to be blackmailed by an important client (who wants to go to the game, too) out of one of his tickets. He then tries frantically to find a second one.

  1954-10-24 · 30m
• E5

  Live My Own Life

  Bud moves out, but discovers he can't clean, cook, or take care of himself.

  1954-10-31 · 30m
• E6

  Grandpa Jim's Rejuvenation

  Jim comes to believe that he is over the hill.

  1954-11-07 · 30m
• E7

  Bud's Encounter With the Law

  Bud becomes increasingly paranoid when Kathy (who has a fascination with the new washing machine, and puts everything in there) places a letter addressed to him by the police department in the washing machine, and ruins the letter, so he doesn’t know why he is asked to be there within seven days.

  1954-11-14 · 30m
• E8

  Thanksgiving Day

  Kathy writes the best poem in the fourth grade on what Thanksgiving means to her, and Jim builds the poem up in his mind to unreasonable expectations for a fourth grader. When he actually finds out what the poem consists of, his hopes for Kathy’s future are deflated and he disparages the poem to Margaret, unwitting that Kathy has overheard.

  1954-11-21 · 30m
• E9

  Second Honeymoon

  Jim's weekend retreat, just he and his wife, seems like a perfect idea, at first. But he doesn't want to pass this on to the kids when he learns that the kids have plans with them; and then when the kids take the news too easy, Jim and Margaret are befuddled. They leave, but soon they start thinking about their kids and after reaching the lodge they want to phone in - but no one answers the call...

  1954-11-28 · 30m
• E10

  Typical Father

  Jim becomes worried that things between Betty and a new male friend of hers are getting too serious.

  1954-12-05 · 30m
• E11

  Margaret Goes Dancing

  Jim and Margaret rarely disagree on anything. But when he finds out Margaret signed them up to take dancing lessons, Jim refuses to do so, and ends up defiantly going to his old club, leaving her to take lessons alone.

  1954-12-12 · 30m
• E12

  The Christmas Story

  Jim takes the family into the woods to cut down their own tree, and they become stranded there.

  1954-12-19 · 30m
• E13

  Sparrow in the Window

  Kathy discovers a wounded Sparrow on the windowsill of the house—which she then considers hers—and the whole family becomes involved in trying to help it get better.

  1954-12-26 · 30m
• E14

  Boy's Week

  Jim receives a traffic ticket and Bud is appointed to be judge on that day.

  1955-01-02 · 30m
• E15

  A Friend of Old George's

  An unwanted visitor that won't leave spoils Kathy's birthday party.

  1955-01-09 · 30m
• E16

  Bud the Snob

  Bud is deemed a snob by the girls in school because he won’t speak to any of them. When Jim talks it over with him, he discovers that Bud‘s real problem is that he becomes tongue-tied around them.

  1955-01-16 · 30m
• E17

  The Promised Playhouse

  After making a big deal about people keeping their word, Jim is forced to put his words into practice to set a good example for his family.

  1955-01-23 · 30m
• E18

  Jim the Farmer

  Jim wants to give up his office job in order to move into the country to lead a quiet, and less stressful, life as a farmer. Margaret doesn't think that he means it seriously, but he crosses more lines to fulfill his dream than he ever has before.

  1955-01-30 · 30m
• E19

  Father of the Year

  Jim is happy to learn his kids are planning to enter him in a Father of the Year contest. But things, of course, don’t go smoothly.

  1955-02-06 · 30m
• E20

  The Mink Coat

  Even though finances have grown a little tight in the Anderson household, Jim buys Margaret a mink coat that ends up being more trouble than it’s worth.

  1955-02-13 · 30m
• E21

  The Matchmaker

  Margaret tries to get her cousin and her boyfriend married.

  1955-02-20 · 30m
• E22

  Bud the Bridesmaid

  Margaret's cousin (from the previous episode) is set to wed in the Anderson household, but things go wrong, due to the nervousness of the prospective bride and groom, and the wedding is called off. Poor Bud is reeled in to do a stand-in for the bride at the rehearsal.

  1955-02-27 · 30m
• E23

  Proud Father

  Jim tries to help the children regain their confidence.

  1955-03-06 · 30m
• E24

  Father Delivers the Papers

  Bud injures himself, so Jim delivers the papers on his route to avoid Bud being fired.

  1955-03-13 · 30m
• E25

  No Partiality

  Kathy and Betty fight for the attention of the same man.

  1955-03-20 · 30m
• E26

  Close Decision

  Margaret worries the entire day over what will become of Bud’s future if he doesn’t develop good character. This is tied in with a baseball game Bud is trying to get to play in.

  1955-03-27 · 30m

Top cast

Robert Young

Jim Anderson

Jane Wyatt

Margaret Anderson

Elinor Donahue

Betty Anderson

Billy Gray

Bud Anderson

Lauren Chapin

Kathy Anderson