What is “Father Knows Best”?
A: Father Knows Best is an American sitcom.
Who did it star?
A: Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin.
The series began as what?
A: A show on radio in 1949.
It aired as a television show for how many seasons?
A: How many episodes?
A: 203 episodes.
Who created it?
A: Ed James.
Father Knows Best follows the lives of whom?
A: The Andersons, a middle-class family living in the town of Springfield.
The state in which Springfield is located is never
specified, but it is generally accepted to be located where?
A: In the Midwestern United States.
When did the television series debut?
A: In October 1954.
What network aired it?
A: CBS.
It ran for one season and was canceled by CBS but
picked up by whom?
A: NBC, where it remained for three seasons.
After cancellation by NBC in 1958, the series did what?
A: Returned to CBS, where it aired until May 1960.
Set in the Midwest, it starred Robert Young as who?
A: General Insurance agent Jim Anderson.
His wife Margaret was portrayed by whom?
A: June Whitley and later by Jean Vander Pyl.
Who were the Anderson children?
A: They were Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson) and Kathy (Norma
Jean Nilsson).
It was sponsored through most of its run by who?
A: General Foods.
The series was heard Thursday evenings on NBC until
when?
A: March 25, 1954.
Of the radio cast, who was the only one that remained
when the series moved to CBS television?
A: Robert Young.
Who sponsored the show in its first season?
A: Lorillard's Kent cigarettes.
Scott Paper Company became the primary sponsor when the
series did what?
A: Moved to NBC in the fall of 1955, where it aired Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.
(ET) for the next three seasons.
Scott Paper remained as sponsor even after the show did
what?
A: Returned to CBS in September 1958, where it aired Mondays at 8:30 p.m.
(ET) for the last two seasons.
Jim was a salesman and manager of the General Insurance
Company in Springfield, while Margaret was a what?
A: A housewife.
Father Knows Best had become so ingrained in American
pop culture as its idyllic presentation of family life that in 1959, the
U.S. Department of the Treasury commissioned what?
A: A special 30-minute episode of the show titled "24 Hours in Tyrant Land."
Never aired on television, the episode—distributed to
schools, churches and civic groups—promoted what?
A: The purchase of savings bonds.