All Episodes of Father Knows Best

Season 1

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  7.0/10137 votes

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  Bud Takes Up the Dance

  Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/3/1954

  Bud tries to learn how to dance from a book for his first school dance.

  Director: James Neilson

  Writer: Dorothy Cooper

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  7.7/1088 votes

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  Lesson in Citizenship

  Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/10/1954

  Jim tells his family to help others which leads to complications.

  Director: Peter Tewksbury

  Writer: Paul West

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  7.6/1078 votes

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  The Motor Scooter

  Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/17/1954

  Jim buys Bud a motor scooter but Margaret won't let him have it.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.3/1072 votes

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  Football Tickets

  Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/24/1954

  Jim gets tickets to an important football game, and picks one of the kids to go with him—only to be blackmailed by an important client (who wants to go to the game, too) out of one of his tickets. He then tries frantically to find a second one.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.4/1066 votes

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  Live My Own Life

  Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/31/1954

  Bud moves out, but discovers he can't clean, cook, or take care of himself.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.4/1068 votes

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  Grandpa Jim's Rejuvenation

  Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/7/1954

  Jim comes to believe that he is over the hill.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.4/1059 votes

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  Bud's Encounter With the Law

  Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/14/1954

  Bud becomes increasingly paranoid when Kathy (who has a fascination with the new washing machine, and puts everything in there) places a letter addressed to him by the police department in the washing machine, and ruins the letter, so he doesn’t know why he is asked to be there within seven days.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  6.8/1075 votes

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  Thanksgiving Day

  Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/21/1954

  Kathy writes the best poem in the fourth grade on what Thanksgiving means to her, and Jim builds the poem up in his mind to unreasonable expectations for a fourth grader. When he actually finds out what the poem consists of, his hopes for Kathy’s future are deflated and he disparages the poem to Margaret, unwitting that Kathy has overheard.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  6.9/1060 votes

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  Second Honeymoon

  Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/28/1954

  Jim's weekend retreat, just he and his wife, seems like a perfect idea, at first. But he doesn't want to pass this on to the kids when he learns that the kids have plans with them; and then when the kids take the news too easy, Jim and Margaret are befuddled. They leave, but soon they start thinking about their kids and after reaching the lodge they want to phone in - but no one answers the call...

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

• 

  7.3/1058 votes

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  Typical Father

  Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/5/1954

  Jim becomes worried that things between Betty and a new male friend of hers are getting too serious.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.1/1055 votes

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  Margaret Goes Dancing

  Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/12/1954

  Jim and Margaret rarely disagree on anything. But when he finds out Margaret signed them up to take dancing lessons, Jim refuses to do so, and ends up defiantly going to his old club, leaving her to take lessons alone.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

• 

  8.2/1094 votes

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  The Christmas Story

  Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/19/1954

  Jim takes the family into the woods to cut down their own tree, and they become stranded there.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.9/1058 votes

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  Sparrow in the Window

  Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/26/1954

  Kathy discovers a wounded Sparrow on the windowsill of the house—which she then considers hers—and the whole family becomes involved in trying to help it get better.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.7/1060 votes

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  Boy's Week

  Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/2/1955

  Jim receives a traffic ticket and Bud is appointed to be judge on that day.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  6.9/1056 votes

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  A Friend of Old George's

  Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/9/1955

  An unwanted visitor that won't leave spoils Kathy's birthday party.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.3/1059 votes

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  Bud the Snob

  Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/16/1955

  Bud is deemed a snob by the girls in school because he won’t speak to any of them. When Jim talks it over with him, he discovers that Bud‘s real problem is that he becomes tongue-tied around them.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

• 

  6.9/1056 votes

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  The Promised Playhouse

  Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/23/1955

  After making a big deal about people keeping their word, Jim is forced to put his words into practice to set a good example for his family.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.4/1051 votes

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  Jim the Farmer

  Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/30/1955

  Jim wants to give up his office job in order to move into the country to lead a quiet, and less stressful, life as a farmer. Margaret doesn't think that he means it seriously, but he crosses more lines to fulfill his dream than he ever has before.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

• 

  7.2/1054 votes

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  Father of the Year

  Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/6/1955

  Jim is happy to learn his kids are planning to enter him in a Father of the Year contest. But things, of course, don’t go smoothly.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

• 

  7.2/1056 votes

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  The Mink Coat

  Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/13/1955

  Even though finances have grown a little tight in the Anderson household, Jim buys Margaret a mink coat that ends up being more trouble than it’s worth.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.2/1055 votes

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  The Matchmaker

  Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/20/1955

  Margaret tries to get her cousin and her boyfriend married.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.1/1056 votes

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  Bud the Bridesmaid

  Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/27/1955

  Margaret's cousin (from the previous episode) is set to wed in the Anderson household, but things go wrong, due to the nervousness of the prospective bride and groom, and the wedding is called off. Poor Bud is reeled in to do a stand-in for the bride at the rehearsal.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

• 

  7.5/1059 votes

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  Proud Father

  Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 3/6/1955

  Jim tries to help the children regain their confidence.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  7.6/1062 votes

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  Father Delivers the Papers

  Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/13/1955

  Bud injures himself, so Jim delivers the papers on his route to avoid Bud being fired.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A

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  6.6/1052 votes

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  No Partiality

  Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/20/1955

  Kathy and Betty fight for the attention of the same man.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: John Kohn

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  7.8/1054 votes

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  Close Decision

  Season 1 Episode 26 - Aired 3/27/1955

  Margaret worries the entire day over what will become of Bud’s future if he doesn’t develop good character. This is tied in with a baseball game Bud is trying to get to play in.

  Director: William D. Russell

  Writer: N/A