Clockwise from top left: Elinor Donahue, Robert Young,
Jane Wyatt, Lauren Chapin, Billy Gray
October 3, 1954: Father Knows Best premieres on CBS. After 1 season, it moved to NBC. In 1958, it moved back to CBS, and ran there until 1960, after 6 seasons.
It became, in public memory, symbolic of 1950s television: Lighthearted, simplistic, white, suburban, a family comedy with only the most minor of conflicts, easily resolved in half an honor. Like The Simpsons, it was set in a town named Springfield, which was generic enough that it could be in any of several States with a town with that name, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois and Oregon.
Robert Young played Jim Anderson, an insurance salesman. Jane Wyatt played his wife, Margaret, a typical 1950s suburban housewife, who did not have an outside-the-home job. They had 3 children: Betty (Elinor Donahue), James Jr. (Billy Gray) and Kathy Anderson (Lauren Chapin) -- nicknamed Princess, Bud and Kitten, respectively. Betty graduated from Springfield High School in 1956, and Bud in 1959, making them 16 and 13 when the show began; and they went to Springfield Junior College. Chapin was 9 when the show began, so we can presume that was also her character's age.
The house that stood in for the Anderson house was built on the backlot of Columbia Pictures in Burbank, California, now part of the Warner Brothers Ranch. It was originally built for a series of movies based on the comic strip Blondie. It became Mr. Wilson's house on the TV version of the comic strip Dennis the Menace, and the house of The Partridge Family.
Robert Young later played a doctor on the ABC drama Marcus Welby, M.D., and starred in commercials for Sanka coffee. Jane Wyatt later made a guest appearance on Star Trek, playing Amanda Grayson, mother of Spock, and reprised the role in one of the movies.
Elinor Donahue was already married for the 1st time in real life in 1955. She appeared in the 1st season of The Andy Griffith Show in 1960-61, as Ellie Walker, a pharmacist and a love interest for Griffith's widowed Sheriff Andy Taylor. She also made a guest appearance on Star Trek, and made a few on The Odd Couple, as Felix Unger's occasional girlfriend -- named Miriam Welby. As that show was also on ABC, that had to be an inside joke. She later appeared on an episode of Friends as Ross and Monica's aunt.
Billy Gray had previously played the boy version of the title character in Jim Thorpe -- All-American, and appeared in the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still, eventually becoming its last surviving castmember. He later became a collector of motorcycles and a promoter of motorcycle races.
Lauren Chapin fell victim to drugs, and spent some time in prison. After getting clean, she worked for a brokerage firm and became a minister. She also worked as the agent of actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, a childhood friend of her daughter.
There were 2 reunion movies in 1977, airing on NBC. Betty and Bud had married and had children, but Betty had been widowed; while Kathy was engaged to a doctor.
Young died in 1998, and Wyatt in 2006. As of October 3, 1954, Donahue, Gray and Chapin are still alive. (UPDATE: Chapin died in 2026.)
*
October 3, 1954 was a Sunday. Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Dennis Eckersley, guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, and minister and political activist Al Sharpton were born.
Baseball season had ended the day before, when the New York Giants completed their 4-game World Series sweep over the Cleveland Indians. The NHL season began 4 days later. and the NBA season 23 days after that.
Only 3 NFL games were played that day:
* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chicago Cardinals, 35-16 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers, 10-3 at Green Bay City Stadium in Green Bay, Wisconsin. By this point, the Bears considered the Packers, not the crosstown Cardinals, to be their arch-rivals.
* And the San Francisco 49ers and their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, played to a tie, 24-24 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
