Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
← The Handover
1949–1954 on radio · NBC
Father Knows Best
The Anderson family, worked out on radio five years before the camera found them.
The television Father Knows Best is a fixed point in the American imagination; almost nobody remembers that it spent five years on NBC radio first, with Robert Young already in the part and the scripts already working. The radio version is noticeably sharper — the father is fallible, the jokes have edges — and hearing it is the cleanest way to understand what television did to the family comedy when it took it over.
- On radio
- Radio from 25 August 1949
- On television
- Television from 3 October 1954
- The overlap
- Robert Young carried the part from one medium to the other
60 recordings · Hollywood
NBC network broadcasts, 1948–1954, held by the Internet Archive, including the audition disc. Public domain (US network broadcast, copyright not renewed); no Creative Commons or non-commercial terms apply.
19481
195012
Father Knows Best
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Father Knows Best
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Father Knows Best
The one everybody argues about.
Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Father Knows Best
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Father Knows Best
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
195115
Father Knows Best
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Father Knows Best
The one everybody argues about.
Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Father Knows Best
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Father Knows Best
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Father Knows Best
The one everybody argues about.
Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Father Knows Best
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Father Knows Best
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Father Knows Best
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
195214
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
The one everybody argues about.
Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Father Knows Best
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Father Knows Best
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Father Knows Best
The one everybody argues about.
Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Father Knows Best
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Father Knows Best
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Father Knows Best
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Father Knows Best
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
195314
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Father Knows Best
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Father Knows Best
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Father Knows Best
The one everybody argues about.
Father Knows Best
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Father Knows Best
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Father Knows Best
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Father Knows Best
The one everybody argues about.
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
19544
Father Knows Best
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
Father Knows Best
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
Father Knows Best
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Father Knows Best
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.