CAST Robert Young - Jim Anderson
Jane Wyatt - Margaret Anderson
Elinor Donohue - Betty (Princess) Anderson
Billy Gray - Bud Anderson
Lauren Chapin - Kathy (Kitten) Anderson
Father Knows Best ran on network television from 1954 to 1963
Four of its five cast members were seasoned actors coming from successful movie careers; with the show paying attention to literate dialogue, movie-style camera work and lighting, high-quality direction and production values, and using realistic details on the set.
It all gave the show a glossy, professional feel. Yet the real success of the series was mostly due to character interaction and development. Despite the shows title, Jim Anderson wasn't really like a "Father" - he was more like a "Dad", and the TV audience connected.
He was a responsible parent who loved his wife and kids. He was a man who would do a paper route in the rain for his sick son, Bud. He was a man who'd always choose to see Kathy in a school program rather than attend an important Chamber of Commerce dinner. His family came first, but it was a delicate balancing act.
Father Knows Best was so popular that when production ended, it continued on the primetime TV network schedule for the next three years (no other TV show in history has done that), and then 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 both local and cable channels such as the (CBN) Family Channel. And until 2003 it aired on TVLand.
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