7.0/10137 votes#1 - 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
7.7/1088 votes#2 - 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
- 7.6/1078 votes
#3 - 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
- 7.3/1072 votes
#4 - 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
- 7.4/1066 votes
#5 - 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
- 7.4/1068 votes
#6 - 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
- 7.4/1059 votes
#7 - 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
- 6.8/1075 votes
#8 - 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
- 6.9/1060 votes
#9 - 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
#10 - 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
- 7.1/1055 votes
#11 - 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
#12 - 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
- 7.9/1058 votes
#13 - 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
- 7.7/1060 votes
#14 - 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
- 6.9/1056 votes
#15 - 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
- 7.3/1059 votes
#16 - 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
#17 - 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
- 7.4/1051 votes
#18 - 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
#19 - 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
#20 - 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
- 7.2/1055 votes
#21 - 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
- 7.1/1056 votes
#22 - 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
#23 - 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
- 7.6/1062 votes
#24 - 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
- 6.6/1052 votes
#25 - 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
The Best Episodes of Father Knows Best Season 1
Every episode of Father Knows Best Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Father Knows Best Season 1!
Family man Jim Anderson copes with the everyday problems among his wife Margaret and their three children as they experience day-to-day changes.
Genres:ComedyFamily
Network:CBS
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Bud Takes Up the Dance" is the best rated episode of "Father Knows Best" season 1. It scored 7/10 based on 137 votes. Directed by James Neilson and written by Dorothy Cooper, it aired on 10/3/1954. This episode is rated 0.7 points higher than the second-best, "Lesson in Citizenship".