As portrayed by Robert Young, the title character of Jim Anderson is a successful insurance salesman living in Springfield with his wife Margaret (June Whitley) and their three children: Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson), and Kathy (Norma Jean Nilsson). Jim is ambitious, likeable, and a good provider for his family—though he often grows exasperated by the turmoil of his everyday home life. The plots generally begin quite simply—Jim surprises Margaret with tickets to a show, for instance—then quickly become complicated as the plans, schemes, commitments, and miscommunications of their children and their friends and neighbors get in the way. As with all sit-coms, the complications are never all that serious and are, of course, all resolved by the end of the show—but, thanks to excellent writing and the outstanding acting talents of the principals, these hilarious slices of everyday life rise above the norm to make Father Knows Best one of the highlight series of the era.
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