What happens
Jim Anderson arranges a date for his daughter Betty with Leonard, the son of a business associate visiting town, without asking her first. Betty already plans to spend the evening at the library with Ralph, and she is furious at her father's meddling. Jim tries to smooth things over with a series of phone calls, and each correction creates a new complication, with Betty, Ralph, Florence Pembroke and Janie Liggett all drawn in. The family's young son Bud is meanwhile struggling with a school theme titled about his most embarrassing moment. Father Knows Best is a family comedy series, and this episode first aired on October 1, 1953, starring Robert Young as Jim Anderson.
The Anderson family home in a small American town, during an evening at dinner and after.
Characters: Jim Anderson, Margaret Anderson, Betty Anderson, Bud Anderson, Kathy Anderson, Ralph, Leonard, Florence Pembroke
Listen for: Jim's repeated phone calls to cancel, change and reinstate Betty's date with Leonard, and what Betty decides at the end.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.