TV Guide (September 3, 1955)

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achieved as high a rating as the show it replaces. The average rating for Father during its original 26-week run on CBS was 20.5. Margie's aver¬ age rating during its last 39-week season on NBC was 27.3. In dropping a popular program in favor of one with a lower rating, spon¬ sor reportedly had in mind the many viewer requests for Father. He knew that Father, a show with an all-family audience appeal, was telecast too late to get many children viewers. With its new, earlier spot. Father this year may outdraw Margie. The sponsor was influenced by view¬ ers who said they liked the show be¬ cause it represents American family life as it really is and not as some TV scriptwriter thinks it is—or should be. A New Jersey housewife wrote: “How,we have enjoyed Father Knows Best! We have always regretted that our daughters, 11 and 13, had to miss it because of its time. Is there any¬ thing we can do about keeping it on?” Declared a Chicago patrolman: “In over two decades as a police officer I have been fighting law violators and . . . lecturing on delinquency. Sunday evenings are spent with my family, and the outstanding program fit for people of all ages. Father Knows Best, now is to be eliminated. My anger and that of my family is such that mere words cannot express it.” A Cincinnati housewife: “Believe ne, if the sponsors cannot tell when they have a good show, why should I believe they know what they are talk¬ ing about when it comes to their pro¬ ducts?” A Chicago woman: “Perhaps you do not realize the pleasure this in¬ triguing show brings to people who remember their own youthful family life with nostalgia. Please keep it.” And this from one of TV’s most Innocent victim: Gale Storm pretending^ anger as she tears op letters. Her program. My Liffle Margie, was forced off by maU for Father Knows Best. merciless critics, John Crosby: “Un¬ less somebody does something about it. Father Knows Best will be dropped off the air . . . This would be a crying scandal because Father Knows Best is one of the most honest and appealing and thproughly delightful situation comedies on TV.” Perhaps Robert Young himself has the best answer to why “Bring Back Father” became the battle-cry of so many viewers. In discussing situation comedies, he asserts: “There’s more to comedy than laughs—to which many now-def\mct shows will attest. Comedy must be believable.” When work first started on Father, “We knew mostly what we didn’t want,” Yoimg said. “We didn’t want a father who was always blowing his top, or a mother who dominated her husband, or kids who were so smart that they made their folks look like morons. And we particularly didn’t want Pop to fall off a ladder or down a flight of stairs every week. How many fathers do you know— living, I mean—who could stand that, week after week?”