What happens
Jim Anderson, the patient head of the Anderson household on Maple Street, agrees to let his eighteen-year-old daughter Betty run her own affairs after she demands to be treated as an adult. Margaret Anderson, his wife, is skeptical of the bargain. Within hours the house is in disarray, with Betty's bathroom and bedroom left in a mess, and Jim grows increasingly frustrated. Betty is preparing for a date with Don, the student body president. Father Knows Best is a family comedy from the NBC radio series, first broadcast on February 18, 1954, and stars Robert Young as Jim Anderson. The episode follows the family's tensions as the household's new arrangement is tested.
The Anderson home, a white frame house at 607 Maple Street, on an evening in the family's ordinary life.
Characters: Jim Anderson, Margaret Anderson, Betty Anderson, Bud Anderson, Kathy Anderson, Don, Janie
Listen for: Jim's dry, self-aware narration about his bargain with Betty, and Margaret's gentle response to his mounting frustration.
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.