Anyone else here ever listened to the radio version of this show? My g/f recently suprised me with two CD volumes from OldTimeRadio. Listening to these, I've been enjoying them a lot. If anything, the characters were toned down for TV. Jim here is often yelling and sarcastic. Betty is really an airhead princess, Bud is often just dumb and Kathy is really ANNOYING AND BRATTY on the radio show. Margaret just seems the same--calm, reassuring, putting up with Jim's rants and her kids' misbehavior. I much prefer how the characters came out on the TV show, but this is still a very enjoyable way to enjoy the roots of one of our fave shows!

Were his radio family played by the same actors? Seems interesting.

I have to admit I didnt even know there was a radio version of this show.

Were his radio family played by the same actors? Seems interesting.


Robert Young was the only actor to go from the radio to TV versions. Just as well, because none of the radio actors compare to how well Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray or Lauren Chapin do the parts. I've heard that Kathy on radio was played by an adult actress trying to sound like a 9 year old. In any case, it is still worth listening,for these are the roots of the TV show. And so far to the ones I've heard, not one radio episode was redone for TV.

And so far to the ones I've heard, not one radio episode was redone for TV.

Now that's talent on the writers part, too bad it isn't that way now.

Like I said on another forum, it's like getting FKB: The Lost Episodes :)

Got to amend this.....I've discovered one episode so far that was redone for TV..."The Thanksgiving Story", with a few slight changes to adapt it to TV.
Either way, it was still a good show, no matter which way it was done.

And listened to another one today adapted for TV--the one where Kathy writes a letter to the mayor and signs it as Jim and gets him in all sorts of trouble.

Today i heard the radio version of the marriage proposal episode where Margaret is trying to slyly get her cousin hitched up to an eligible bachelor.

another episode redone for TV was the wedding of Margaret's cousin, where the intendeds have a fight and Margeret intervenes....and Bud has to stand in for the bride!

I'm now into the third season of the radio series and there are some changes. The theme music has been changed (and no, the TV theme was not used as one of the radio themes), the writing staff has been changed, while the overall sponsor--General Foods--remained, the products spotlighted go from Maxwell House coffee to Postum and Post 40% Bran Flakes. Also the actress playing Margaret changes from June Whitley to Jean VanderPyl (Better known as Wilma Flintstone) and the one portraying Kathy as well. I would love to find out why these changes occurred.

another episode adapted for TV--the kids take Jim's speech on volunteering to heart and land him in all kinds of mischief.

It seems the actress who voiced Betty changed as well--not sure and Jean VanderPyl alternated with yet another actress as Margaret. Hard to find info because there isn't that many online sources for the radio series--TV series, yes, radio, no.

And I must be talking to myself:lol:

two more episodes today that were later redone for TV--Kathy finding the injured bird on the windowsill and Bud hiding out from a bully.

it seems Jean Vanderpyl wasn't doing Margaret that often. Actress Dorothy Lovitt seems to be in more third season episodes than Jean.

Another episode redone for TV--Jim fears he is getting old after hearing about a former classmate already being a grandfather.

Yet another episode--Bud the Snob!

Jean seems to be Margaret in the last few I've listened to--including some redos of scripts done in the first two seasons with June Whitley as Margaret. (Foreshadowing the Dick York/Dick Sargent Bewitched redoing whole episodes).

The sponsor is now Sanka! And we all know Robert Young was famous in the '70s for doing Sanka tv ads :)

IS ANYONE READING MY POSTS??

Yes Jude, I am. I just haven't been posting because I know very little about this show. However it's been interesting to read about the different cast changes and different sponsor products. I never knew Jean VanderPyl had ever been involved with this show.

Marv, I'm just happy someone is reading them, doesn't matter if you don't know a squat lick about it :)

Jean seems to have taken over the role in the 4th (and last) radio season. And they tend to redo scripts more often...I just listened to another one where Betty was planning to marry, a script that was done in the 2nd season already.

I guess it never really occurred to me that Jean had a career prior to the Flintstones. But then I remembered that Mel Blanc and Daws Butler both worked on radio before becoming cartoon voice actors. So it makes sense that Jean would have also started her career on Radio.

And another redo of "The Thanksgiving Story"--so it was done twice on radio and then again on TV!

Listened to the radio version of "The Christmas Story"--some minor details changed when it was redone for the first season of the TV show.

And another redo of "The Thanksgiving Story"--so it was done twice on radio and then again on TV!
this is one of my fav
i watch it every year as part of my thanksgiving weekend

I prefer The Thanksgiving Story over the Christmas one.

Now I'm to the point in listening where NBC seems to be the sole sponsor of the show--during breaks, promos for The Bob Hope Show and The Phil Harris&Alice Faye Show are done. The show also ends with "An NBC Radio Network Production in association with Cavalier Enterprises"

And now I finished the 2 CD set--which I'm sure does not have every radio episode made, but that's ok......this was a good sampling of over the 4 seasons the radio was on.

...originally sponsored the series from 1949 through '53 (it was a replacement for "MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE TIME" starring George Burns and Gracie Allen, as they moved to CBS for Block Drug's "Amm-i-Dent" ammoniated toothpaste in the fall of '49, before moving to TV in 1950). By the time General Foods shifted their sponsored product from Maxwell House to Post Bran Flakes, Instant Postum, and Sanka coffee after 1952, they were losing a lot of their evening listeners to TV, and gradually phased out their advertising budgets for prime-time radio programs in favor of network TV {Maxwell House was successfully being sold on TV during CBS' "MAMA"}, finally dropping their sponsorship in 1953. That's when NBC began to "sustain" the program during its final season, with various promos for their upcoming shows ("THE BOB HOPE SHOW" {American Dairy Association} and "THE PHIL HARRIS-ALICE FAYE SHOW" {RCA Victor} were on Friday nights, back-to-back, in the '53-'54 season, for those still listening to radio) and public service announcements filling the commercial breaks. Finally, Robert Young and his partner Eugene Rodney decided to concentrate on turning "FATHER KNOWS BEST" into a TV series, ending the radio show in the summer of '54. It was just as well, as a lot of established "prime-time" radio shows were disappearing {Phil and Alice also decided to call it quits that season}, and Bob Hope finally signed off in April 1955.

:tv:

I am on season 4 right now and I noticed a number of episodes before Christmas that Betty was played by Mary Lee Rob aka Marjorie on The Great Gildersleeve. Rhoda Williams returned just a little bit before the Christmas Present for Father episode.

I preferred Rhoda, she sounded more like the older Kitten on TV.

Robert Young was the only actor to go from the radio to TV versions. Just as well, because none of the radio actors compare to how well Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray or Lauren Chapin do the parts. I've heard that Kathy on radio was played by an adult actress trying to sound like a 9 year old. In any case, it is still worth listening,for these are the roots of the TV show. And so far to the ones I've heard, not one radio episode was redone for TV.

Thanks for the information on the original actors and actresses of Father Knows Best, I found a CD a while back with a couple of the radio episodes, and wondered about that. I need to dig through my archives and locate that CD, haven't seen or listened to it in years.

At least Robert Young is there to anchor the show, though, like other posters here, the television version is as ingrained with me as Andy Griffith Show, or to make a more appropriate comparison of radio-to-television, Gunsmoke.

"Cannon" as Matt Dillon... "Floyd The Barber" as Doc Adams?!?

Talk about a Bizarro Universe Gunsmoke there...

...originally sponsored the series from 1949 through '53 (it was a replacement for "MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE TIME" starring George Burns and Gracie Allen, as they moved to CBS for Block Drug's "Amm-i-Dent" ammoniated toothpaste in the fall of '49, before moving to TV in 1950). By the time General Foods shifted their sponsored product from Maxwell House to Post Bran Flakes, Instant Postum, and Sanka coffee after 1952, they were losing a lot of their evening listeners to TV, and gradually phased out their advertising budgets for prime-time radio programs in favor of network TV {Maxwell House was successfully being sold on TV during CBS' "MAMA"}, finally dropping their sponsorship in 1953. That's when NBC began to "sustain" the program during its final season, with various promos for their upcoming shows ("THE BOB HOPE SHOW" {American Dairy Association} and "THE PHIL HARRIS-ALICE FAYE SHOW" {RCA Victor} were on Friday nights, back-to-back, in the '53-'54 season, for those still listening to radio) and public service announcements filling the commercial breaks. Finally, Robert Young and his partner Eugene Rodney decided to concentrate on turning "FATHER KNOWS BEST" into a TV series, ending the radio show in the summer of '54. It was just as well, as a lot of established "prime-time" radio shows were disappearing {Phil and Alice also decided to call it quits that season}, and Bob Hope finally signed off in April 1955.

:tv:

Sad times for radio, and such a shame, because radio was, and is, a great medium for storytelling.

Long live the Podcast!

Anyone else here ever listened to the radio version of this show? My g/f recently suprised me with two CD volumes from OldTimeRadio. Listening to these, I've been enjoying them a lot. If anything, the characters were toned down for TV. Jim here is often yelling and sarcastic. Betty is really an airhead princess, Bud is often just dumb and Kathy is really ANNOYING AND BRATTY on the radio show. Margaret just seems the same--calm, reassuring, putting up with Jim's rants and her kids' misbehavior. I much prefer how the characters came out on the TV show, but this is still a very enjoyable way to enjoy the roots of one of our fave shows!

Reading through this thread, looking forward to hearing these radio episodes eventually, thanks again for the information.

Robert Young was the only actor to go from the radio to TV versions. Just as well, because none of the radio actors compare to how well Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray or Lauren Chapin do the parts. I've heard that Kathy on radio was played by an adult actress trying to sound like a 9 year old. In any case, it is still worth listening,for these are the roots of the TV show. And so far to the ones I've heard, not one radio episode was redone for TV.

It's believed that when the show was brought over from radio to CBS television, Robert Young demanded an entirely new cast and a warmer family dynamic. So his character, Jim Anderson became a caring, loving father who was full of wisdom and sage advice. Before this, Jim on the radio show was frequently snarky and exasperated with his children.