Father Knows Best: Season One

Father Knows Best officially on DVD at last   November 11, 2008
I used to watch this every morning & again late afternoons during the mid 1980s on The CBN Cable Network which was a channel that once showcased the finest vintage sitcoms ever.

I watched Bachelor Father, Dobie Gillis & Father Knows Best everyday & had my video machine going to put 'em all on tape. As a result I've got loads of Father Knows Best episodes & have even transferred some to DVD as the show hadn't been yet made available on DVD, so my homemade DVDs were something to tide me over anyway.

I'm very pleased to see the series finally get the DVD treatment. I, like some of the others am displeased & think it unfortunate that some of these are syndicated prints. However, as this is a true rarity & has been scarce in rerun markets over the years, I'll gladly take the first & second season & every & any additional seasons that become available in the future. Episodes of Father Knows Best in any DVD offering, syndicated and/or otherwise is better than not having it in any form at all. Sure, I'd love having the completely unedited prints same as many others who have griped about this, but if the syndicated are the majority of prints available in this set, then so be it. They will due until some distributor makes the unedited ones available. For the time being, I'm satisfied.

Some of my favorite episodes were the one where Kathy played a sleuth to unravel a mystery, the one where Kathy is a real tomboy & in the closing scene she makes a grand entrance to her date in a lovely dress. The one where Kathy takes a friend's baby sister & wants to be her mother which had been in one of the earlier shows.

Betty awaiting word on her boyfriend, the jet pilot, Betty being a snob to Bud around her friends, the christmas show which featured Wallace Ford as Santy. Great, great episodes. These plots had morals & The Andersons are a staple of 1950s middle class wholesome americana.

I also LOVED Father Knows Best: Home For Christmas, one of the two reunion movies of 1977 (hadn't seen the previous one, Father Knows Best Reunion).

I thought Billy Gray (Bud) was so cute & endearing as he had gotten into his upper teens!

Elinor Donahue (Betty) was so down-to-earth & upbeat & had some of the most comical one-liners in some of the earlier episodes where she'd make a sharp-witted remark about Bud to Father! She also had a warm & bright smile that was remarkable.

Lauren Chapin (Kathy) was everyone's favorite half-pint tomboyish kid sister who at times felt neglected & was always there with a shoulder. I bought Lauren Chapin's Father Does Know Best autobiography back when it was first released & am proud to have it in my library of favorite publications/memorabilia. I empathize with all she's overcome & the inner strength & determination that got her through it in the long run. We LOVE you, Lauren!

Jim & Margaret were there with words of wisdom & instilled values in their children which is timeless & makes this show appropriate for kids of all ages. It's also clean & inoffensive & makes the grade as a classic worth having in your DVD library of really good 1950s family sitcoms. I'm an avid fan of the vintage radio series as well!

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The Good Old Days   November 1, 2008
I remember watching reruns of Father Knows Best growing up. I had been wondering when it would finally come out in DVD so I was happy to find it here. It is a great chance to sit down with my family, flip off offensive TV and watch a good, family show.

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awesome   October 15, 2008
I love watching these shows takes me back to when I was younger and they were on tv every week!!! They are wholesome have morals which most shows dont have today and good to watch.

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spp   October 14, 2008
I was hoping that they would put this TV Series on DVD and they finally did! I ordered it before it was released. This was always my favorite when I was little and I really enjoyed watching them again!!!!

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This is like watching the reruns (2 of 2 Found this Helpful)   October 3, 2008
I think we need to get past certain things; well, at least I do. I need to not get so cranky that these are the poorly edited syndication versions (and not the pristine looking, uncut episodes like we got from I Love Lucy and The Twilight Zone dvd collections).
I've gotten totally spoiled by some dvd releases of television programs, and it's really not realistic to expect all retro series to be that great. Right?

So, the quality here is like watching vhs tapes recorded off cable. Better than not having the show at all, some would say. It's just annoying when Jane Wyatt opens her mouth to say something and the scene suddenly fades to black, then we cut to the same scene moments later. It's disorienting. Someone did a lousy job of editing these programs for commercials. Certain segments are removed, and often we are brought into the action after some dialogue has already been established. Trimming has been done at the beginning of scenes, and before the end of scenes. It's a lowdown shame that the scissors have been taken to these programs so much to make room for more ads.

Plus, the very end of the closing credits has been chopped off (could be a trademark issue that Shout Factory couldn't legally show). But that's no big deal, it's just jarring to have the music stop out of the blue.

Father Knows Best is a fun show that many folks grew up with. It is a hoot to revisit the Andersons and witness the values, the fashions, the slang, the old furnishings. Certainly it has dated, but somehow that adds to the charm.
So, my rating is a mix between my feelings for the program itself and also my opinion of the dvd quality.

I feel glad that the show is coming to dvd but also gypped that the result is only fair at best.

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