Sit down, close your eyes and let your mind form the images as you relive the golden age of radio programs. Each week we'll feature a different and exciting program in MP3 format. Just click on the radio image below to be transported back in time.

This Week

Father Knows Best

Watching The Dog

September 11, 1952

The radio version of Father Knows Best stars Robert Young as Jim Anderson, and was the forerunner to the classic TV show of the same name. June Whitley plays his wife Margaret, with Jean Vander Pyl later taking the role. The kids act very similar to the way they do on the better-known TV show. Daughter Betty is played on the radio version by Rhoda Williams, Ted Donaldson plays Bud, and Norma Jean Nilsson is great as the littlest Anderson, Kathy. Of course, to Father, Kathy is "Kitten" and Betty is "Princess." Bud is just Bud.

The plots are family friendly, often misunderstandings that get blown out of proportion, generation gap issues or trivial but lesson-inspiring arguments between the kids. Jim Anderson works for an insurance company, but this is little more than background, since the stories invariably begin after Jim enters, saying, "Margaret, I'm home." The sponsor for the three-year run was General Foods. Of course, the Anderson's extol the virtues of the many fine General Foods products drawing a lucid connection between family bliss and consumerism.

Robert Young appeared in his first movie in 1924, and was in many fine films such as Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), Northwest Passage (1940), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) and Crossfire (1947). He had ultimately well over a hundred movies to his credit. In the early 1950s Young had effectively retired from films, Yet on the success of the old time radio show, he welcomed the return to on-screen acting, even if the screen was only 9 inches high! The rest of the TV cast are the ones fans of Robert Young know and love. Along with Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best was one of the first and best-loved All-American sweet-hearted family situation comedies. The old time radio show created a loyal audience that were happy to see their show on the "little screen" after hearing it on the radio.

  Huntington Beach News