Robert Young
Jim Anderson
Series SeasonSeason 1 episodes1954
Father Knows Best
Season 1
No season overview available.
Episodes
Each episode has its own detail page.
Episode 130 min1954-10-03
Bud Takes Up the Dance
Bud tries to learn how to dance from a book for his first school dance.
Episode 230 min1954-10-10
Lesson in Citizenship
Jim tells his family to help others which leads to complications.
Episode 330 min1954-10-17
The Motor Scooter
Jim buys Bud a motor scooter but Margaret won't let him have it.
Episode 430 min1954-10-24
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.
Episode 530 min1954-10-31
Live My Own Life
Bud moves out, but discovers he can't clean, cook, or take care of himself.
Episode 630 min1954-11-07
Grandpa Jim's Rejuvenation
Jim comes to believe that he is over the hill.
Episode 730 min1954-11-14
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.
Episode 830 min1954-11-21
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.
Episode 930 min1954-11-28
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...
Episode 1030 min1954-12-05
Typical Father
Jim becomes worried that things between Betty and a new male friend of hers are getting too serious.
Episode 1130 min1954-12-12
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.
Episode 1230 min1954-12-19
The Christmas Story
Jim takes the family into the woods to cut down their own tree, and they become stranded there.
Episode 1330 min1954-12-26
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.
Episode 1430 min1955-01-02
Boy's Week
Jim receives a traffic ticket and Bud is appointed to be judge on that day.
Episode 1530 min1955-01-09
A Friend of Old George's
An unwanted visitor that won't leave spoils Kathy's birthday party.
Episode 1630 min1955-01-16
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.
Episode 1730 min1955-01-23
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.
Episode 1830 min1955-01-30
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.
Episode 1930 min1955-02-06
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.
Episode 2030 min1955-02-13
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.
Episode 2130 min1955-02-20
The Matchmaker
Margaret tries to get her cousin and her boyfriend married.
Episode 2230 min1955-02-27
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.
Episode 2330 min1955-03-06
Proud Father
Jim tries to help the children regain their confidence.
Episode 2430 min1955-03-13
Father Delivers the Papers
Bud injures himself, so Jim delivers the papers on his route to avoid Bud being fired.
Episode 2530 min1955-03-20
No Partiality
Kathy and Betty fight for the attention of the same man.
Episode 2630 min1955-03-27
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.