What happens
The Anderson family is driving home to Springfield from a combined business and pleasure trip to Toledo when their car starts knocking and they must stop at a rural gas station. Jim Anderson, the father, is anxious to keep an appointment with Mr. Forbisher, while daughter Betty frets about a date with Ralph. The car needs a mechanic, but the station owner, Vesper Jensen, can offer little help, and the family finds itself stranded after a shortcut leaves them out of gas. Robert Young stars as Jim Anderson in this episode of the Father Knows Best series, first broadcast on May 22, 1952.
A rural highway between Toledo and Springfield, including a remote gas station and a small farmhouse.
Characters: Jim Anderson, Margaret Anderson, Betty Anderson, Bud Anderson, Kathy Anderson, Vesper Jensen, Mrs. Jensen, Ralph
Listen for: The knocking engine and Jim's argument with the family over the shortcut that leaves them stranded.
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.