Commander Benson
09-15-2002, 09:06 AM
I have spent most of this Sunday morning reading the posts here on this show. It is wonderful to see how many people so warmly recall this show as I do.
As traitorous as it is to me to put any sitcom in front of my pet favourite, Hennesey , I have to put Father Knows Best as the best sitcom ever.
To those detractors here who charge FKB with being unrealistic, I point out that the show was never intended to be a representation of a real-life family during the 1950's. It was intended to be the model family. That was the point: not life as it was, but life as it should be--as it could be.
I grew up with George Reeves as Superman and Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger, and these men were my heroes. Certainly, they were perfect in terms of deportment and morality, far better than anyone in real life could possibly be. But again, that was the point. They gave us something to strive for, to be as close to as we could get. That was the lesson they presented to us as viewers.
But even in view of these characters, my biggest hero was Robert Young, as "Jim Anderson". Jim Anderson represented the decency and heroism of the common man. No-one who knows me would ever mistake me for Jim Anderson, but he still represents the model man by whom I measure everything I do.
Over a decade ago, I finally screwed up the courage to write Robert Young a letter and tell him of this, and of my admiration and respect both for him and for his character of Jim Anderson. The upshot of my letter was that, while certainly no-one could or should expect Robert Young to be as perfect as Jim Anderson, there had to be a great deal of Jim Anderson in him for him to make the character so believable. It was a simple and heartfelt expression of my admiration.
A few weeks after mailing that letter, I received a delivery at home, which puzzled me, since I knew of nothing either my wife or myself had ordered. It turned out to be a lobby card (those old cardboard advertisements of movies which have been long since replaced by posters) of a movie about the Naval Academy in which Mr. Young had starred (Navy Blue and Gold ). In the corner was handwritten a small sentiment and signed by Mr. Young. Also enclosed was a small card by a gentleman (who turned out to be the male half of the couple who looked after Mr. Young in his later years), providing me a telephone number and asking me to call him.
I did so, and discovered that my letter had touched Mr. Young greatly, and mostly because, even at that late point in his life, he still received a great deal of fan mail--but that every letter had included some kind of request from him, for an autograph or photo or whatnot. Only mine had not asked for a thing from him. That was what impelled Mr. Young to send me the lobby card. I was asked to call back at a specific time, and when I did so, I was able to speak with Mr. Young himself. Anyone of you who has had the chance to speak with a longtime hero knows how that moment was for me. We spoke only a few times over the next couple of years, but apparently the exchanges were enjoyable for him, as well. I was even invited to Mr. Young's 91st birthday party (unfortunately, I was at sea at the time, and wouldn't have been able to attend, even if the invitation had arrived in time).
I can tell you this: Mr. Young was very proud of his rôle as Jim Anderson and the example his show set. It pleased him greatly to know that he was so well remembered with such affection by so many.
The one thing which is impossible for me to do is to pinpoint a favourite episode. There were so many excellent ones. "Short Wave" was one of the most brilliantly written episodes of any show of any type. It had humour, drama, sentiment, and had the quality of luring the viewer to the lesson without him being aware of where it was going ("Springfield--where nothing ever happens! ").
"A Great Guy" was the best Bud episode and actor Whit Bissell's best rôle in his long and varied career, as circulation manager Sinclair Bruder.
But the episode which stands out most in my mind when I think of FKB , is the episode "Father's Biography". That was the one where Margaret, believing that Jim is too self-effacing for his own good, pushes Jim to attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting, knowing that the group wants to elect him as its president. However, the meeting is scheduled for the same night as the PTA meeting at which Kathy will be reading her biography of her father. Margaret insists that, for once, Jim put his own welfare ahead of everyone else's and go to the Chamber of Commerce meeting. He does so, reluctantly.
The single scene which encapsulates the kind of man Jim Anderson was is the scene where a tearful Kathy begins to read her paper, when suddenly she beams as she sees her father hurry down the aisle toward the stage. The look on Jim's face is that getting there in time for Kathy was the most important thing in the world.
The tag shows wife Margaret and elder daughter Betty watching on from the audience, and Betty says, "Well, Kathy got what she wanted." and Margaret looks at Jim and thinks to herself, "And I've got what I want, too."
Jim Anderson, for all of his "perfection", strikes me as a much better rôle model than to-day's younger generation's preference for overpaid rock stars and sports figures.
Commander Benson
As traitorous as it is to me to put any sitcom in front of my pet favourite, Hennesey , I have to put Father Knows Best as the best sitcom ever.
To those detractors here who charge FKB with being unrealistic, I point out that the show was never intended to be a representation of a real-life family during the 1950's. It was intended to be the model family. That was the point: not life as it was, but life as it should be--as it could be.
I grew up with George Reeves as Superman and Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger, and these men were my heroes. Certainly, they were perfect in terms of deportment and morality, far better than anyone in real life could possibly be. But again, that was the point. They gave us something to strive for, to be as close to as we could get. That was the lesson they presented to us as viewers.
But even in view of these characters, my biggest hero was Robert Young, as "Jim Anderson". Jim Anderson represented the decency and heroism of the common man. No-one who knows me would ever mistake me for Jim Anderson, but he still represents the model man by whom I measure everything I do.
Over a decade ago, I finally screwed up the courage to write Robert Young a letter and tell him of this, and of my admiration and respect both for him and for his character of Jim Anderson. The upshot of my letter was that, while certainly no-one could or should expect Robert Young to be as perfect as Jim Anderson, there had to be a great deal of Jim Anderson in him for him to make the character so believable. It was a simple and heartfelt expression of my admiration.
A few weeks after mailing that letter, I received a delivery at home, which puzzled me, since I knew of nothing either my wife or myself had ordered. It turned out to be a lobby card (those old cardboard advertisements of movies which have been long since replaced by posters) of a movie about the Naval Academy in which Mr. Young had starred (Navy Blue and Gold ). In the corner was handwritten a small sentiment and signed by Mr. Young. Also enclosed was a small card by a gentleman (who turned out to be the male half of the couple who looked after Mr. Young in his later years), providing me a telephone number and asking me to call him.
I did so, and discovered that my letter had touched Mr. Young greatly, and mostly because, even at that late point in his life, he still received a great deal of fan mail--but that every letter had included some kind of request from him, for an autograph or photo or whatnot. Only mine had not asked for a thing from him. That was what impelled Mr. Young to send me the lobby card. I was asked to call back at a specific time, and when I did so, I was able to speak with Mr. Young himself. Anyone of you who has had the chance to speak with a longtime hero knows how that moment was for me. We spoke only a few times over the next couple of years, but apparently the exchanges were enjoyable for him, as well. I was even invited to Mr. Young's 91st birthday party (unfortunately, I was at sea at the time, and wouldn't have been able to attend, even if the invitation had arrived in time).
I can tell you this: Mr. Young was very proud of his rôle as Jim Anderson and the example his show set. It pleased him greatly to know that he was so well remembered with such affection by so many.
The one thing which is impossible for me to do is to pinpoint a favourite episode. There were so many excellent ones. "Short Wave" was one of the most brilliantly written episodes of any show of any type. It had humour, drama, sentiment, and had the quality of luring the viewer to the lesson without him being aware of where it was going ("Springfield--where nothing ever happens! ").
"A Great Guy" was the best Bud episode and actor Whit Bissell's best rôle in his long and varied career, as circulation manager Sinclair Bruder.
But the episode which stands out most in my mind when I think of FKB , is the episode "Father's Biography". That was the one where Margaret, believing that Jim is too self-effacing for his own good, pushes Jim to attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting, knowing that the group wants to elect him as its president. However, the meeting is scheduled for the same night as the PTA meeting at which Kathy will be reading her biography of her father. Margaret insists that, for once, Jim put his own welfare ahead of everyone else's and go to the Chamber of Commerce meeting. He does so, reluctantly.
The single scene which encapsulates the kind of man Jim Anderson was is the scene where a tearful Kathy begins to read her paper, when suddenly she beams as she sees her father hurry down the aisle toward the stage. The look on Jim's face is that getting there in time for Kathy was the most important thing in the world.
The tag shows wife Margaret and elder daughter Betty watching on from the audience, and Betty says, "Well, Kathy got what she wanted." and Margaret looks at Jim and thinks to herself, "And I've got what I want, too."
Jim Anderson, for all of his "perfection", strikes me as a much better rôle model than to-day's younger generation's preference for overpaid rock stars and sports figures.
Commander Benson