Clockwise from bottom left: Lauren Chapin, Elinor Donahue, Robert Young, Billy Gray, and Jane Wyatt. NBC/Photofest ©NBC
Overview
The success of Father Knows Best is a tribute to the power of the viewer. The show appeared doomed just a few weeks after its debut when sponsor Kent Cigarettes grew dissatisfied with its poor ratings and declined to extend its twenty-six-week contract. Fearing the sitcom would be pulled from the air, hard-core fans sent letters of protest claiming that it was a wonderful family program and that the problem was the 10:00 p.m. time slot, which prevented kids from watching on school nights. Proof of its worthiness to remain on the air came in the form of a Sylvania Award for outstanding family entertainment.
The complaints fell on deaf ears at CBS and the cigarette company. Despite urgings from television critics to keep Father Knows Best on the air, it was cancelled in March 1955. Soon the Scott Paper Company, impressed with the positive response to the program, came to the rescue and moved it to NBC at a more reasonable time of 8:30 p.m. It gained an audience year after year, peaking at number six in the Nielsen ratings in its final season. By that time, CBS, which had seen the errors of its ways, had bought the show back from NBC. Only a severe case of burnout for star Robert Young prevented Father Knows Best from embarking on a longer run. Young could not be blamed. He had played one of the iconic fathers in American entertainment for more than a decade, starting with the namesake radio show (although the title of that program had a question mark in it), which ran for six years before it moved to television.
Father Knows Best embodied the innocuous, wholesome family sitcoms in the 1950s and early 1960s, but what it lacked in edginess it made up for in the pleasantness and compassion of the characters. Father and insurance agent Jim Anderson (Young) and mother Margaret (Jane Wyatt) were both sensible parents. The former, who traded in his sports jacket for his trademark sweater upon returning from work, gave sage advice to his three kids. His love for them could be felt in every episode, despite an occasional show of temper generally calmed by his wife. Jim made each child feel special, as he referred to daughters Betty (Elinor Donahue) and Kathy (Lauren Chapin) as “Princess” and “Kitten,” respectively, and son James (Billy Gray) as “Bud.” Viewers followed Betty and James through high school and into a local college that allowed them to remain at home throughout the run of the show.
The desire of Young to leave the role that had made him famous forced CBS to stop creating new episodes of Father Knows Best at the peak of its popularity, but the network knew a goldmine when they saw it. They continued airing reruns into September 1962, after which ABC picked it up for another season. The show boasts the distinction of having been shown on all three major networks. Only the shortsightedness of CBS and its sponsor in 1955 allowed NBC to get into the act.
From Anderson to Flintstone
One of two voices that portrayed the wife of Jim Anderson in the radio version of Father Knows Best was Jean Vander Pyl. She later gained greater fame as the voice of Wilma Flintstone in The Flintstones, the first prime-time animated series.
House Call from Robert Young
Robert Young played arguably the most beloved doctor in the history of American television when he assumed the role of Marcus Welby in the namesake drama that ran on ABC from 1969 to 1976, but his life was filled with turmoil before and after playing that part. Young began his career as a busy movie actor in the 1930s and 1940s. His charming, but nonthreatening, persona landed him roles alongside the most notable actresses of their times, including Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, and Claudette Colbert. But he also struggled with alcoholism and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1966, from which it took him four years to recover. Young, who served as a spokesman for Sanka coffee for five years, overcame his drinking problem thanks greatly to Alcoholics Anonymous. Severe depression, heart problems, and Alzheimer’s led him to attempt suicide in 1991. He died in 1998, at the age of ninety-one.
Did You Know?
Elinor Donahue played the role of Andy Taylor’s first girlfriend in the first year of The Andy Griffith Show. She portrayed what was referred to as “lady druggist” Ellie Walker for one season. She later played Felix Unger’s girlfriend Miriam Welby on The Odd Couple.
They Said It
Bud: How many people were in your class, dad?
Jim: Oh, 2 to 300, I guess.
Bud: How many are left?
Major Awards
Emmy Award Wins (6)
1957 (1): Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series (Robert Young)
1958 (2): Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic or Comedy Series (Robert Young); Best Continuing Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic or Comedy Series (Jane Wyatt)
1959 (2): Best Actress in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series (Jane Wyatt); Best Direction of a Single Program of a Comedy Series (Peter Tewksbury for “Medal for Margaret”)
1960 (1): Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Series Lead or Support (Jane Wyatt)
Emmy Award Nominations, in addition to wins (13)
1956 (1): Best Actor, Continuing Performance (Robert Young)
1957 (1): Best Series, Half Hour or Less; Best Editing of a Film for Television (Richard Fantl for “Betty’s Birthday”)
1958 (4): Best Comedy Series; Best Comedy Writing (Roswell Rogers and Paul West); Best Direction, Half Hour or Less (Peter Tewksbury); Best Teleplay Writing, Half Hour or Less (Roswell Rogers for “Margaret Hires a Gardener”)
1959 (5): Best Comedy Series; Best Actor in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series (Robert Young); Best Supporting Actor (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series (Billy Gray); Best Supporting Actress (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series (Elinor Donahue); Best Writing of a Single Program of a Comedy Series (Roswell Rogers for “Medal for Margaret”)
1960 (2): Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Humor; Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy (Dorothy Rogers and Roswell Rogers)
Further Reading
Leibman, Nina. Living Room Lectures: The Fifties Family in Film and Television. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.