Search - Father Knows Best: Season One on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 11/5/2022...

Leave it to Beaver family style plotline without as many crack ups and more serious.

Wholesome and heartwarming.

L. Angelacos | Winthrop Harbor, IL | 09/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I used to watch Father Knows Best, and took it for granted at the time. Now as I see it again, I realize how much we have lost over time. It was great to see how the "good old days" were really good!

People still have faith, still believe in the Lord,still pray, still go to church, but in TV today, you would never know that. It is like the media is trying to say it is normal not to have faith. I plan to get all the seasons of Father Knows Best."

The Gold Standard...

A Positive Guy | San Antonio, Texas United States | 03/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Father Knows Best" debuted in 1954 and has been captivating audiences for more than fifty years. The reason is simple: Even though we all didn't have the perfect lives of the Anderson's, we still wanted to. It was what we (down deep) really wanted. Nobody can have a 'TV life" and yet, we are drawn back to those halcyon times when life was simpler and richer.

I had the pleasure of growing up around the reruns of "Father Knows Best" and other shows like it and I gotta tell you, there is little today that can match it. Why? Have we become so sophisticated that we can't appreciate the simple things? Do we have to have "deep" plots, or explosions, or morbid drama, or gut-wrenching social commentary? There is a place for those things. But there is also a place for this show.

You might know actor Robert Young from the many other roles he had not only in television but in film as well. He went on after this series to play the distinguished and compassionate "Marcus Welby, M.D" from 1969 to 1974. He was, in my opinion, one of the finest actors ever to step in front of the camera. (And one of the classiest too.)

"Father Knows Best" takes place in Springfield, Ohio. Robert Young's character Jim Anderson plays an easy-going, kindly insurance salesman with an abundance of patience and wisdom given to his children who always end up needing Dad's advice, or learning an important lesson from him.
Jane Wyatt plays his wife, Margaret with class, style and beauty.

To me, "Father Knows Best" is the gold standard for this type and genre of entertainment. It was a TV show I could relate to. Not that I had the "ideal" childhood. But it was good and shows like these added to it.

This is a DVd set you will want to go back to many times. The episodes are uncut for commercials so you get the full 30 minutes. The quality is excellent and like the potato chips, once you watch one, you will have to have more. But if 1950's television is not your thing you will probably want to pass this up.

Sometimes when I think about it, I sort of wish that with all our modern-day, real-life dramas, there was a Springfield, Ohio of the type on this show to get away to for a while. But then, I pop one of these DVD's in the player and I'm taken away to a place I love to be.

"

Poor 1980's transfers cut by 4 minutes for syndication.

Paul J. Mular | San Carlos, CA USA | 12/31/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Sadly I must add to the complaints about SHOUT using the old, poorly transfered, 1980's filmchain transfers that Columbia Pictures Television made for syndicating the shows. Columbia hacked off 4 minutes as well as the original Screen Gems logo at the end.

Then the old reel-to-reel 1" video tapes were copied & sent over to SFM who was going to synduicate the shows for FREE to TV stations in exchange for commercial time (called barter in the industry). Now SFM replaced the Columbia Television logo with their tacky computer graphic SFM logo, replacing the original music as well.

Now that Sony owns Columbia Pictures, they retrieved the old edited 1" reel-to-reel video tapes from SFM & converted them over to more modern Beta SP cartridge tape, complete with all of the 20 year old video tape glitches. Now they tagger their new Sony Television logo to the end, often after the SFM logo.

With the copyright owners not interested in releasing this show to home video, SHOUT Factory contracted the rights to do so. Unfortunetaly SHOUT does not own the show & releases only what they are given & Sony gave them the 3rd generation dubs of the 20+ year old video tape film transfers. SHOUT also removed all evidence of the previous TV syndicators logos (abruptly cutting the end credits) in hopes that we would not notice they are the cut syndication versions.

Based on the very good bonus material in this DVD, some effort was put into this release. But nobody wanted to invest the money to re-master the original fim negatives for this release, or the posterity of preserving the show.

It would have been nice if Sony had accessed Columbia's oroginal transfers before the edits were made, but it is possible they were erased."