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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!

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.

Seasons6

  1. Background image for Bud Takes Up the Dance
    7.1/10(147 votes)

    #1 - Bud Takes Up the Dance

    S1:E1

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

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  2. Background image for Lesson in Citizenship
    7.8/10(96 votes)

    #2 - Lesson in Citizenship

    S1:E2

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

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    Writer:Paul West
  3. Background image for The Motor Scooter
    7.7/10(86 votes)

    #3 - The Motor Scooter

    S1:E3

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

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  4. Background image for Football Tickets
    7.4/10(79 votes)

    #4 - Football Tickets

    S1:E4

    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.

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  5. Background image for Live My Own Life
    7.6/10(74 votes)

    #5 - Live My Own Life

    S1:E5

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

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  6. Background image for Grandpa Jim's Rejuvenation
    7.5/10(75 votes)

    #6 - Grandpa Jim's Rejuvenation

    S1:E6

    Jim comes to believe that he is over the hill.

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  8. Background image for Bud's Encounter With the Law
    7.6/10(66 votes)

    #7 - Bud's Encounter With the Law

    S1:E7

    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.

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  9. Background image for Thanksgiving Day
    7.0/10(83 votes)

    #8 - Thanksgiving Day

    S1:E8

    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.

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  10. Background image for Second Honeymoon
    7.2/10(67 votes)

    #9 - Second Honeymoon

    S1:E9

    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...

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  11. Background image for Typical Father
    7.5/10(65 votes)

    #10 - Typical Father

    S1:E10

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

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  12. Background image for Margaret Goes Dancing
    7.3/10(63 votes)

    #11 - Margaret Goes Dancing

    S1:E11

    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.

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  13. Background image for The Christmas Story
    8.2/10(103 votes)

    #12 - The Christmas Story

    S1:E12

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

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  14. Background image for Sparrow in the Window
    8.0/10(65 votes)

    #13 - Sparrow in the Window

    S1:E13

    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.

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  15. Background image for Boy's Week
    7.8/10(67 votes)

    #14 - Boy's Week

    S1:E14

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

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  16. Background image for A Friend of Old George's
    7.1/10(63 votes)

    #15 - A Friend of Old George's

    S1:E15

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

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  17. Background image for Bud the Snob
    7.5/10(65 votes)

    #16 - Bud the Snob

    S1:E16

    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.

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  18. Background image for The Promised Playhouse
    7.1/10(62 votes)

    #17 - The Promised Playhouse

    S1:E17

    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.

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  19. Background image for Jim the Farmer
    7.6/10(58 votes)

    #18 - Jim the Farmer

    S1:E18

    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.

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  20. Background image for Father of the Year
    7.4/10(59 votes)

    #19 - Father of the Year

    S1:E19

    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.

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  21. Background image for The Mink Coat
    7.4/10(60 votes)

    #20 - The Mink Coat

    S1:E20

    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.

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  22. Background image for The Matchmaker
    7.4/10(61 votes)

    #21 - The Matchmaker

    S1:E21

    Margaret tries to get her cousin and her boyfriend married.

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  23. Background image for Bud the Bridesmaid
    7.3/10(61 votes)

    #22 - Bud the Bridesmaid

    S1:E22

    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.

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  24. Background image for Proud Father
    7.6/10(63 votes)

    #23 - Proud Father

    S1:E23

    Jim tries to help the children regain their confidence.

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  25. Background image for Father Delivers the Papers
    7.7/10(68 votes)

    #24 - Father Delivers the Papers

    S1:E24

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

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  26. Background image for No Partiality
    6.7/10(58 votes)

    #25 - No Partiality

    S1:E25

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

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Season 1 Ratings Summary

"Bud Takes Up the Dance" is the best rated episode of "Father Knows Best" season 1. It scored 7.1/10 based on 147 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".