Father Knows Best was pictured as the perfect family during its run of 203 episodes from 1954 to 1963 on CBS and NBC. The show also ran during the days of old time radio with only an entirely different cast except for Young who also portrayed the father in the radio version.
Robert Young portrayed the father Jim Anderson while Jane Wyatt was his wife Margaret Anderson in the series. The children were played by Elinor Donahue who was Betty, Billy Gray played the role of Bud and Lauren Chapin portrayed Kathy.
They may have been close to perfect as a television family but there were some problems in real life for Young, Gray and Chapin.
Robert Young
Robert Young suffered from alchoholism and depression off screen and attempted suicide in 1991 before dying of respiratory failure in 1998 at the age of 91.
Jane Wyatt
Jane Wyatt had a long and relatively healthy life and was married to investment banker Edgar Bethune Ward for 65 years before his death in 2000. She died of natural causes in 2006 at the age of 96.
Elinor Donahue
Elinor Donahue was married to producer Harry Ackerman for 30 years. Ackerman produced Leave it to Beaver, Gidget, Donna Reed Show and Bewitched. She is currently married to contractor Louis Genevrino and has been married to him for 17 years. She is presently 72 years old.
She appeared in many television roles since leaving Father Knows Best including 12 appearances on the Andy Griffith Show as pharmacist Ellie Walker and played Nurse Hunnicut on Days of Our Lives for three years.
Billy Gray
Billy Gray would encounter some problems with the law after leaving the show and was arrested for possession of marijuana and served time in jail for the offense. Even though he had no criminal record before or after his arrest he couldn’t land acting jobs for a few years once the word was out about his criminal past.
Gray had this to say about Father Knows Best:
"I think we were all well motivated, but what we did was run a hoax. Father Knows Best purported to be a reasonable facsimile of life. And the bad thing is that the model is so deceitful. ... If I could say anything to make up for all the years I lent myself to that kind of (bad language omitted), it would be: You know best."
He makes his living today as an inventor and is co-owner of BigRock Engineering. He will be 72 on January 13th.
Lauren Chapin
Lauren Chapin who is now 64 experienced many problems after leaving the show and this article details how her life unraveled after her time on Father Knows Best:
The following website has many pages of information at the site and each next menu at the bottom of each page takes the reader to more pages of information about Father Knows Best.
http://www.fatherknowsbest.us/FKB/index.html
I think Billy Gray needs to give TV audiences credit. There are so many shows on TV that would never ever happen in real life! The Partridge Family! The Flying Nun! The Brady Bunch! The Lucy Show! The Patty Duke Show! The Andy Griffith Show! The Beverly Hillbillies! The Donna Reed Show! And yes, Father Knows Best!!!!! All of these shows are far-fetched but they are all entertaining and they make us feel good….well they’re entertaining to me a they put a smile on my face:-) I can’t understand why Bill Gray feels the way he does about a harmless, situation comedy. I would embrace it and be proud of the work I did. That said and not ever being in a hit TV show, I guess there are many stresses and disappointments that the public doesn’t see. I guess Billy knows best but I’ll always be a fan of this charming series. Good luck to the surviving cast members.
I agree with Frank that Billy Gray who is now 74 years old, should appreciate being part of Father Knows Best. He couldn’t have disliked the show too much, since he appeared in the 1977 TV movie, Father Knows Best: Home For Christmas. He also appeared in Father Knows Best Reunion TV movie earlier that year.
Those reunion shows were the first time he had appeared on TV or movies since 1971 when he appeared in Werewolves On Wheels, so seems like he should appreciate being on the reunion shows after six years with no work.
He has made only three appearances in the last 35 years, with his last movie The Vampyre Wars being released in 1996, so hasn’t been seen on TV or on movie screen for the last 16 years.
Billy Gray should be thankful that he is part of the legacy that Father Knows Best left behind. It is sad that Father Knows Best has more or less disappeared from the television screens of America, since I can’t recall it being shown in many, many years.
Billy said Father Knows Best was not real, what about his warewolf and vampyre movies?
I think the Anderson family was a typical family back then. I have yet to meet a real vampire or werewolf, so Billy can’t hardly call them real.
I agree with the statement made above about giving the audience credit for intelligence. I did not watch those shows because they were reality, you see, my family was a strange reality. My mother was an undiagnosed mentally ill woman and my father moved us around alot to avoid the problems my mother caused. I watched those shows to escape reality for a brief time every night. I think what Billy Gray lived in his real life in Hollywood was also a strange reality and I would not blame him a bit if he enjoyed himself while working in that altered reality called acting. Atleast he should be proud of a series that brought pleasure to so many.
Jo, Thanks for your comment. I think those shows were showing what a real family acted like, since they solved whatever problem together. Like the time Bud had a date accidentally on his mom’s birthday. His mom told him to go ahead and go on the date instead of making him stay home because it was her birthday. Bud felt terrible, but his mom understood the situation and then his date winds up spending the night with his family after all.
These shows from the 50′s did make everyone feel good and I have the opportunity to watch it on a program called Antenna TV where you can watch all of them daily including Bachelor Father.
Wish they had that channel on DISH. I haven’t seen either show anywhere else in years, so you are fortunate to be able to still see them.
its to bad that certain people have to put down the life style of the 50s as if it was all b.s. we would all be a lot better off today if we still lived like those days! look what we have today- a tremendous gang problems drug problems and lack of morals! Just remember our maker is waiting for us when we go to the next life!
Don, My best memories of are of the 50′s. I was 9 years old before we even bought a TV about 1954. Love shows like Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. I even have some of the old time radio shows of Father Knows Best, when only Robert Young of the TV version was in the radio version.
Those wonderful people who were the adults during those “golden years” of the 50′s were the parents of those who got into drugs in the 60s and 70s, my friend Don. They were the ones who taught them their morals! There was a lot of cr*p going on behind closed doors in the 50′s as I remember: child abuse and alcoholism were rampant. So please, stop with this “Greatest Generation” stuff and how great the 50s were. I lived in the 50s too.
Reblogged this on Nostalgia and Now and commented:
Am reblogging this article from Dec. 2009 for Father Knows Best fans.
May I simply just say what a comfort to find somebody who actually knows
what they’re discussing over the internet. You definitely know how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More and more people need to look at this and understand this side of the story. It’s surprising
you are not more popular given that you surely have the gift.
Don’t have a lot of followers, but over half a million visits have been made to the website.