Robert Young had the kind
of voice, face, and posture that were beyond paternal; he was like an über-father,
dispensing wisdom and one-liners from inside an impeccably tailored and
laundered two-piece suit. First on radio and then on television, Young played
the head of Father Knows Best's Anderson family, and while he was capable of
sarcasm and peevishness, it was only because he knew he had all the right
answers, if only his lousy, self-centered kids would listen. ("It's times like
this I wish I had met you before I met your mother," he'd grumble at his son.)
Mainly, Young bided his time, waiting for the little life-lessons he planted in
his children's heads to take root.
The 26 episodes on the Father
Knows Best: Season One DVD set have the direct, explanatory quality of industrial
films, and often their plots are indistinguishable from edutainment classics
like "A Date With Your Family" and "Posture Pals." One early episode even has
Young trying to convince his son and two daughters to volunteer more, because,
"Active participation is the key to good citizenship!" The difference is that
the Anderson family is a little better-defined, almost like characters in a
comic strip. Besides Young, there's Jane Wyatt as his chipper, dapper wife;
Elinor Donahue as his romance-obsessed, eerily efficient eldest daughter; Billy
Gray as his earnest, mistake-prone jock son; and Lauren Chapin as his weepy,
scheming little girl. The children constantly jockey for position, and bark
insults like "Ah, turn blue!" at each other, but what makes Father Knows
Best such
an enduring piece of Americana is how by the closing credits of each episode,
everyone would come around, thanks to Young's good heart and unwavering
leadership. Though undeniably corny, Father Knows Best can also be so touching
at times that it's almost a genre unto itself: The sitcom tearjerker.
Key features: Interviews with Donahue and Chapin, home
movies from Young's archive, a special "buy bonds" episode, and the pilot for a
later unsuccessful Young series.