Father Knows Best

I'm a 50s girl at heart. I love that post-war idealism, that we-can-do-anything mindset. Of course, the clothes weren't half-bad either. Or the music. But what I love most right now is the television programming. Specifically Father Knows Best. The fifties ushered in the dawn of the family sitcom, and Father Knows Best was one of the very first to jump on. Like many early sitcoms, it had debuted on radio in the late 1940s, and transitioned to television with only a few minor changes in the mid-1950s.

It follows the everyday life of the ideal American family, the Andersons. Jim, the titular father, played by Robert Young is a kind and well-meaning insurance agent who wants nothing more than to make his wife and children happy and content. Margaret, played by Jane Wyatt, is the typical American housewife, complete with pearls and heels. Perfectly happy in her role, she never shows a single symptom of the "problem without a name." Jim and Margaret have three children: Betty, Bud, and Kathy. Betty (Elinor Donahue) is pert and popular, forever going to dances and hayrides. Despite the occasional existential crisis, she too fits the mold. Bud (Billy Gray) is the all-American boy. Not terribly bright, but certainly innovative and sporting, Bud's trademark is his deadpan delivery. Kathy (Lauren Chapin) is the baby of the family, pampered by everyone, who provides a measure of innocent wisdom to almost every situation the family experiences.

I decided to write about Father Knows Best after I watched an episode from the second season last night called "Betty, Girl Engineer". Even the title sounds sexist and old-fashioned to our ears. And to be sure, the outcome of the situation is anything but modern and empowering. Betty, after receiving vocational counseling, decides to become an engineer, and signs up for work experience on a surveying crew. Naturally, her family doesn't think she's serious, and when she shows up for her job in dungarees, boots and flannel, the engineering student she's assigned to work under delivers disparaging sexist remark after disparaging sexist remark. It seems, though, that she will persevere, and is even seen engrossed in engineering textbooks, until a certain young engineering student shows up on the Anderson doorstep bearing chocolate-covered cherries. Then the strong-willed, math-inclined Betty disappears upstairs to put on a new dress and returns with batting eyelashes and a plan to snare a date for Saturday night. Her wanna-be beau naturally falls prey to her charms, and the world of the Anderson household is set to rights once more.

There are many modern-day critics who dismiss Father Knows Best as archaic and even dangerous to modern viewers because of the values it teaches. Even Billy Gray said many years later that he regretted having been party to the promotion of such dated, anti-feminist ideals. And at the time, the Andersons were a family to emulate, it's true. But today, it is valuable for that very reason. I certainly have no desire to be a Betty and bat my eyelashes to get what I want (and I'm not at college to get my degree in Poetry, as Father suggested). But being so enlightened, I can appreciate it as a glimpse into history, since it definitely reflects the prevailing values of the time. And of course, I love the clothes. Dear lord, I love the clothes.