Father Knows Best
The Great Experiment
TV Flash files “The Great Experiment” as hour 146 of 203 in the TV Flash guide — Father Knows Best (1954–1960) on CBS/NBC, season 5, episode 13, aired 1958-12-08, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E13: listed hour 146 of 203 in the Father Knows Best guide, hour 13 of 38 in season 5. It aired 1958-12-08 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Margaret Wins a Car” (S05E12). Next is “The Christmas Story” (S05E14).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
At a Kiwanis meeting, Jim is inspired and motivates the whole family to learn something new and learn to enjoy the process at the same time.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Great Experiment sit in the Father Knows Best guide?
S05E13 is listed hour 146 of 203 — hour 13 of 38 in season 5, season 5 episode 13.
When did Father Knows Best S05E13 air?
The Great Experiment aired 1958-12-08 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the 1954 opener, then Lesson in Citizenship. Those two teach the civic-handbook tone. Jump to a Betty-forward hour if you want the polish to crack.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Mahogany calm as a weekly product: Young’s counsel, a daughter the scripts almost let have a career, a title that is a verdict. Watch the polish later satire needed as a target — then notice the anxious edges the speeches only partly mop up.
October 1954: a boy takes up dancing, a father prepares the correct attitude, and television files a claim on the American living room that later writers would spend careers contesting. Father Knows Best had already lived on radio. The TV version is the polished object — Robert Young as Jim Anderson, a Springfield that looks like a furniture catalog, three children as case studies in how to grow up without scuffing the brand. The title is the argument. Not a question. A verdict. Max’s era will sell you messy…
Filed against
- Robert Young as Jim Anderson
Robert Young’s Jim Anderson sold middle-class calm as destiny on Father Knows Best — polished patriarch sitcom, a Springfield that looks like a furniture catalog, a title that is a verdict. Later satire never stopped targeting the…
- Jane Wyatt as Margaret Anderson
Jane Wyatt’s Margaret Anderson is Father Knows Best as the stage the speeches need — pipe smoke, good shoes, a polished patriarch sitcom that sold middle-class calm as destiny. She keeps the house running so the title can pretend it is an…
- Elinor Donahue as Betty Anderson
Elinor Donahue played Betty Anderson on Father Knows Best — the daughter Robert Young's Springfield almost let have a career, inside a patriarch sitcom that sold middle-class calm as a weekly product. TV Flash files her as the pressure…
- Billy Gray as Bud Anderson
Billy Gray was Bud Anderson on Father Knows Best — the polished patriarch sitcom’s teenage son when middle-class calm sold as destiny. Later decades rewrote the myth he helped brand. TV Flash files him as 1950s family hierarchy in a…
- Lauren Chapin as Kathy Anderson
Lauren Chapin’s Kathy Anderson is Father Knows Best’s youngest case study — Robert Young’s Springfield as destiny, mahogany calm as a weekly product, a patriarch sitcom that later satire needed as a target. Two networks, polished…