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The Worst Episodes of Father Knows Best

Every episode of Father Knows Best ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Father Knows Best!

Family man Jim Anderson copes with the everyday problems among his wife Margaret and their three children as they experience day-to-day changes.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 1 - Bud Takes Up the Dance
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #1 - Bud Takes Up the Dance

    S1:E1

    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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  2. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 2 - Lesson in Citizenship
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #2 - Lesson in Citizenship

    S1:E2

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

    Director:Peter Tewksbury
    Writer:Paul West

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  3. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 3 - The Motor Scooter
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - The Motor Scooter

    S1:E3

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

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 4 - Football Tickets
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 5 - Live My Own Life
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #5 - Live My Own Life

    S1:E5

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

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 6 - Grandpa Jim's Rejuvenation
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Grandpa Jim's Rejuvenation

    S1:E6

    Jim comes to believe that he is over the hill.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 7 - Bud's Encounter With the Law
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    #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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 8 - Thanksgiving Day
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 9 - Second Honeymoon
    0.0/10(0 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...

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 10 - Typical Father
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Typical Father

    S1:E10

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

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 11 - Margaret Goes Dancing
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 12 - The Christmas Story
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 13 - Sparrow in the Window
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 14 - Boy's Week
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Boy's Week

    S1:E14

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

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 15 - A Friend of Old George's
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - A Friend of Old George's

    S1:E15

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

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 16 - Bud the Snob
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 17 - The Promised Playhouse
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 18 - Jim the Farmer
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 19 - Father of the Year
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 20 - The Mink Coat
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 21 - The Matchmaker
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - The Matchmaker

    S1:E21

    Margaret tries to get her cousin and her boyfriend married.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 22 - Bud the Bridesmaid
    0.0/10(0 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.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 23 - Proud Father
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - Proud Father

    S1:E23

    Jim tries to help the children regain their confidence.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 24 - Father Delivers the Papers
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - Father Delivers the Papers

    S1:E24

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

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Father Knows Best Season 1 Episode 25 - No Partiality
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - No Partiality

    S1:E25

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

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:John Kohn

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Bud Takes Up the Dance" is the worst rated episode of "Father Knows Best". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by James Neilson and written by Dorothy Cooper, it aired on 10/3/1954. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Lesson in Citizenship".