Father Knows Best

- Season 2

(1955)

Bud has to sell sauce boats which he thinks will be an easy sell. He soon learns there is more to selling than just asking people to buy. Jim helps him learn some selling tips.

Jim thinks the children ask him to solve their problems too much. He decides they need to start finding their own solutions.

The town is undergoing new construction, and when Jim learns the old meeting house is being torn down, he is upset. It is a memorial for the town since has history. Jim teaches civics to the children by trying to keep the old building.

Bud applies for a job in a sports department. His resume has some embellishments, but his father tells him to only tell the truth. When he applies, he does not get the job because someone else embellished their resume and was hired.

Virge, an old friend of Jim's visits Jim at work and announces he and his wife have moved to Springfield. Jim & Margaret invite the couple to dinner. While Virge is well liked and enjoyed, his wife is not so pleasant.

A new family moved into the area. They have a son Kathy's age and a daughter Bud's age. Kathy and Grover become friends. Bud and his friend Joe both like April. Turns out April is a flirt who tries to get all the boys to do her bidding.

Kathy trades her skates for a friend's magic set, and then believes she can make anything disappear or change appearance as long as she waves the magic wand. When she does magic while Bud tries smoking a cigar, she thinks she made Bud sick.

A newspaper reporter takes pictures and writes an article for the paper on the school's tennis team. The picture is Betty, the rawest member of the team, and it looks like she is the champion player. The team captain is not happy.

Bud studies a lot for a big test. For once, he knows the material and does well on the test. Since this is a change from his previous tests, the teacher assumes he must have cheated.

Jim watches a family sitcom on television and thinks the father is displayed as an idiot who needs his wife to always save the day. The next day, Jim suspects his own family is trying to show Jim how much Margaret has to save the day.

Bud thinks his parents are old, but Jim & Margaret do not feel old. Jim receives an invitation for his college reunion. Jim & Margaret attend the reunion. They realize that while they are not old, they are not teenagers and are glad of it.

When a classmate calls Bud, he is rude to her because she is the least popular girl in school and considered a nerd. Jim finds out Bud was rude and tells Bud he has to apologize. Bud tries, but the girl does not accept his apology.

Margaret has a few lucky coincidences about things she thinks about and things that happen. Everyone tells her she has premonition and she starts to believe it. She makes a prediction about Jim and he does not want to follow her advice.

Robert Young plays the role of Tate Ibsen, one of six passengers riding a stagecoach through Arizona in the year 1860. One passenger has been convicted of murder and is handcuffed to a deputy. Tate Ibsen's plan to spring him loose before they reach the Yuma Penitentiary runs into complications when the stage is attacked by Indians.

Bud starts hanging out with a new friend in school. The friend takes things from the store without paying for them. Bud gets blamed. Everyone later finds out Bud's friend suffers from kleptomania.

Betty is horrified when her father sets her up on a blind date, the son of one of Jim's business associates. Betty plans to make sure the date is a bad one, but she finds she actually likes the date.

Jim comes home after a bad day at work. Wanting to tell the family about his day, he is miffed when they ignore him. He starts complaining about everyone and everything around the house. Then he finds out Kathy broke a neighbor's window.

While Kathy is proud of her big sister Betty, Bud has to always follow her in her footsteps at school and he finds it hard to do. Everyone expects more of Bud because Betty always gave so much. Bud starts to do worse in his classes.

It seems like only bills are coming in the mail, and everyone is asking for money. When Betty asks for money to buy a dress for a country club dance, Jim tells her to earn the money herself. She gets a job but no one knows where.

The Andersons hire someone to paint the house. Jim and Margaret have a discussion about whether someone does the job for the money or for the sense of accomplishment. They make a bet to see who is right, and then ask the painter why.

Bud is upset that none of the girls asked him to the Sadie Hawkins Dance. He feels he has become unpopular. Bud decides to plan a camping trip the same day as the dance as a way to show he does not care.

Betty is depressed and finds every day events dull. She is not sure what she is looking for. Betty finds a paper written by Bud about a bus that goes nowhere. This is how she feels. She reads the paper and finds her answer.

Kathy trades her baby doll for a neighborhood friend's baby sibling.

Bud has to write a paper on a historical figure from the Independence War. Jim suggests an ancestor - Major Nathaniel Anderson, and says he must be important if he was a major. Bud researches, and finds the major was a minor in the war.

Jim is excited to tell his family that his college friend Charlie is being interviewed on television. Charlie is quite successful. The more Jim talks about Charlie's success, the more Jim feels he is not a success.

Bud has a new friend who helps tutor him in classes. When the friend stays over at the Andersons, he never seems to want to go home. The Andersons find out the boy is homeless and has no money.

Margaret's family is planning a reunion. While Margaret is excited, Jim and the children are not. They make excuses to not go because it is boring.

The Andersons face a dilemma when Betty promises a wealthy friend that they will attend an exclusive charity dinner on the same night that Bud needs the family to eat at the modest drugstore counter where he has just gotten his first job.

Bud tries to avoid a bully at school, but Jim tells Bud he cannot avoid his problems forever. Jim suggests the boys get in a boxing ring to be sportsmen. Bud wins, and joins the boxing team. Soon, Bud starts to become a bully.

Betty's school hosts a career day where the students can sign up to intern at a job to see what the business world is like. The counselor assumes she wants a secretary job, but Betty says she wants the engineer position.

Jim has an argument with a customer about his insurance which was cancelled. Jim and Mr Tyler decide they no longer need to contact each other. However, Betty is dating Mr Tyler's son. The situation is awkward.

A high school club initiation prank lands Betty on the wrong side of the law.

Baseball star Duke Snider is passing through Springfield, and all the guys are hoping he would stop and give an exhibition game. Bud says his father might be able to convince Duke to stop.

Father and Kitten head outside to explore and search nature.

One of the kids is suspected of stealing $10 that all were hoping to win in an anti snitching pledge to Father when the prize goes missing.

One of Kathy's classmates is adopted, and it gets the other classmates to wonder who else might be adopted. Kathy then finds a receipt from an adoption agency and is sure it references her.

Betty's high school graduation is approaching and there is a lot to do. Betty starts to think the best days of her life are now over and does not want to graduate.