For the last few months, I have had the opportunity to view the Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC, 1969-1975) and FatherKnows Best (CBS, NBC, ABC, 1954-1963), both of which the first few seasons are now available on DVD – and both starring the ever-so affable Robert Young (who passed away at age 90 in 1998).
I grew up watching Welby, and had not seen the episodes in a long time. As fate would have it, one
of the first segments that I viewed (since their original run) featured Lindsay Wagner, in a pre-Bionic Woman appearance. As the author of The Bionic Book, I was pleasantly surprised and delighted with this particular segment. From there, I was hooked - again - by Welby's realistic medical plot lines and Young's charming and fatherly performance in the lead.
You could almost call the Welbyseries Doctor Knows Best, which leads me to discuss Young's other classic television show: Father Knows Best, to which I was only recently introduced decades after its original run. I had heard about Father, but never saw an episode. That is, until 1989, when I happened to catch a rerun of the holiday reunion special, Father Knows Best: Home For Christmas (originally broadcast on NBC in 1977).
The budget for this TV-movie was not high, but the caliber of talent, on-screen and off, was off-the-charts. Original cast members Young, as Jim Anderson, Jane Wyatt, who reprised the role of Young's on-screen wife Margaret (and who had also played Spock's mom on Star Trek, the original 1966-69 series), and Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin as the Anderson children were all in top form. This was the second reunion special for which the Best crew had regrouped (the initial special, simply titled, Father Knows Best Reunion, had aired only six months prior).
Upon first viewing Home for Christmas, and ultimately the Father Knows Best franchise in general, it was clear that I was watching something very special. The movie was videotaped and not filmed like the original show, but again, the cast was wonderful. The story was sweet, and the writing and directing was on-the-mark.
Consequently, I made sure to get my hands on the DVD release of original Father series, and have not stopped watching it. What's sad is there are those potential Best viewers who do not give such a series the time of day because they believe it is too schmaltzy and unrealistic.
So not true. In watching Father Knows Best, the audience sees how the characters interact as any real family does (certainly as realistically as any real TV family was allowed for the time). Jim and Margaret Anderson (Young and Wyatt) don't spend the entire time hugging one another; they actually get angry and not just with each other, but with also their children. In one episode, in fact, Margaret calls her children a bunch of "brats!" Maybe that happens all the time in today's post-Roseanne TV world of family comedy. But in the 1950s such an interaction was rare (and it definitely would not transpire on the likes of say, Leave It To Beaver).
Yes, the Best family prays together and stays together, and one or more of the characters eventually embrace one another by the close of each episode (which offers a nice wrap-up to the particular conflict of the moment). But it's what happens between the Bestopening and closing credits that is just remarkable. Into the mix of this alleged saccharine sitcom, there is fine writing, engrossing family dynamics, and dare I say, dysfunction.
Some years later on Welby, it was as if Robert Young had retired from insurance (his on-screen
Beyond the basic relationship between Welby and Kiley (and their wonderful secretary Consuelo, played by talented Elena Verdugo), the Welbyepisodes, in general (and as with the Father segments), were top-notch and topical for the time.
One Welby episode that comes to mind featured a young woman who had experienced a substantial weight loss. In doing so, and by today's standards, she would have been considered hot. The segment featured a pre-Mary Tyler Moore Cloris Leachman and the iconic William Schallert (who for years played another comforting TV dad on The Patty Duke Show) as the young girl's parents.
I found it ironic that the name of the young girl in this particular Welbyepisode (which was directed by the late, great Leo Penn, father of Sean) was named Kathy. Not only was this also name of Lauren Chapin's young Father Knows Best character (Chapin apparently won the role because she resembled Young's real-life daughter, also named Kathy), Kathy was also the moniker given to one of Patty Duke's twin-personas on The Patty Duke Show.
So, here they all were - together - lead by Robert Young - and this Welby episode was startling.
Leo Penn's direction was astounding, and the turmoil and tribulations of the young girl, who was once considered unattractive and now "easy," was played convincingly well. Leachman gave her usual A-list performance, this time, as a self-absorbed mom - and William Schallert was, well, William Schallert - perfect as usual.
I actually stayed completely off the Internet - including Facebook! - for the entire 60-minutes of this episode of Welby. That's not only a testament to the merit of this particular story, but proof that classic shows like Marcus Welby, M.D. and Father Knows Best (along with The Patty Duke Show and The Donna Reed Show, for that matter) indeed have the "staying power" for today's audience.
Welby, Father, et al., conjoined with elegant actors like Robert Young - offered comfort that not only seemed to say, "Everything is going to be okay," but these shows and their stars seemed to represent everything that was - and still could be - right about television.
Having said that, let's not give up hope and/or not be so ready to give ourselves over too easily or completely to the likes (and many times obscene dislikes) of Jersey Shore.
Herbie J Pilato is a producer/director/writer, and author of a number of media tie-in books (including Bewitched Forever and The Kung Fu Book Of Caine, LifeStory – The Book ofLife Goes On:TV's First And best Family Show of Challenge, The Bionic Book, and NBC & ME: My Life As A Page In A Book. He's worked for A&E, TLC, Syfy, and Bravo's hit five-part TV series, The 100 Greatest TV Characters. Herbie J is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Classic TV Preservation Society, a nonprofit organization that helps to close the gap between popular culture and education. For more information, please see www.ClassicTVPS.blogspot.com. To contact Herbie J, or to order any of his books, email: ClassicTVPS@gmail.com.
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