Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas (1977)

Starring Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray, Lauren Chapin, Priscilla Morrill and Kyle Richards / Directed by Norman Abbott / From Columbia Pictures Television

Jim and Margaret Anderson (Young and Wyatt) are anticipating the coming holidays. Christmas for them has always meant a house full of children and grandchildren but this year is shaping up differently. First of all, their neighbours are selling their house and the real estate agent, Louise (Morrill) approaches the Andersons, too. Have they ever thought of selling their house? Absolutely not! What would the kids say if the family home was sold?

The first phone call comes from daughter Betty (Donahue). The widowed mother of two girls, Betty is engaged to an airline pilot who has the overseas run this Christmas. The opportunity for her and her family to spend Christmas in London is too much to pass up and Betty won’t be coming home for Christmas. Son Bud (Gray) calls next; he can’t make it, either. Business is keeping him on the go and he simply can’t take the time off. Maybe youngest child, daughter Kathy (Chapin) and her doctor husband? Nope. They’ll be going skiing over Christmas. Jim looks at Margaret and Margaret looks at Jim. The two of them are faced with something they never thought would happen – spending Christmas alone without the children. Quite suddenly, Margaret decides to sell the house. Jim at first is shocked but can’t help but agree with his wife’s logic.

However, one by one, the Christmas plans of the kids and their families fall through and everyone shows up. Soon – just like always – the house is full. When word gets out that the family home is on the market, the whole Anderson family faces the end of an era.

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Father Knows Best began life as a radio show that ran on NBC from 1949 until 1954. It starred Robert Young, a prolific film actor. The radio show was a comedy that had relied on laughs but when the program was being retooled for television, Young insisted on a “different perspective”, wanting instead a “warm relationship show”. Father Knows Best – that ran for 6 seasons between 1954 and 1960 – was that in spades. Seventeen years after the last episode aired, NBC got the band back together for two reunion movies.

In the spring of ’77, the network aired The Father Knows Best Reunion, the story of the family getting together to celebrate Jim and Margaret’s wedding anniversary. Later that year, on December 18, Home for Christmas was broadcast. Robert Young (1907-1998) shut it down as a film actor when he started his television run as Jim Anderson. After his iconic first series, Young embarked on a 7-season run as a kindly family doctor on Marcus Welby, M.D. Jane Wyatt’s CV is much the same as Robert Young’s, really. She may have one up on Young, though, in that she appeared in one major film, Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937) – and, actually, she scores points for wrapping her career with an appearance in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in 1986. Jane was married to an investment broker for 65 years and she lived to 96.

Now I will speak of the others in the cast and I feel like I need to be careful. Understand that I believe there are different “levels” of entertainment and they all have their attributes. I believe this applies to actors, as well. Not everyone is Spencer Tracy nor do they need to be to entertain. The cast of Father Knows Best puts me in mind of Ozzie Nelson and his family. The cast of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet were not actors and it showed. But that didn’t matter and it doesn’t matter. I can say the same of the cast of our film. More on the performances later.

After Young and Wyatt, the most accomplished of our cast is surely Elinor Donahue (b. 1937). She is the only of the children who could be considered to have had a career at all really, and her’s was slight. A former child actress (Tea for Two), Donahue is perhaps best known for her twelve episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. She later found steady work as a regular on a handful of TV series. Billy Gray (b. 1938) was 13 when he appeared in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Later, he was cast as Plato in Rebel Without a Cause but his commitments to Father Knows Best interfered with shooting the film. In 1962, he spent 45 days in jail for marijuana possession which ended his film career. But it didn’t seem to matter to Billy who later raced motorcycles professionally and became an entrepreneur and businessman, inventing something called the F-1 guitar pick. As of 2020, he still lives in the Topanga Canyon home he bought while working on Father Knows Best.

Lauren Chapin (b. 1945) has very little in her filmography. After wrapping her film career, she thrived in the business world and managed Jennifer Love Hewitt at the start of her career. Today, Chapin is an evangelist and an advocate for Israel. Finally I must mention Priscilla Morrill as Louise, the real estate agent. Morrill can be seen in my new favourite film, Breezy as the lady customer that Bill Holden helps out. Kyle Richards, another child actress, plays one of the grandchildren. A year later, her next credit would be the original Halloween and later still she would be a long-running cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She is the half-sister of socialite Kathy Hilton and therefore aunt to Hilton’s daughters, Paris and Nicky. Finally, our director. I recognized the name Norman Abbott right away. Along with Norman Tokar, Abbott directed the bulk of the episodes of one of my favourite shows of all-time, Leave It to Beaver.

The reason I am talking about Home for Christmas today is because in it’s simplicity, in its lack of ostentation, this TV reunion movie emanates charm and sincerity. It comes as no surprise to learn that this is part of the result of Robert Young wanting a “warm relationship show”. Is this teleplay marked by compelling storytelling or dynamic performances? It is not. Does that matter? It does not. Robert Young and Jane Wyatt are more than competent actors. But, if I may be allowed to say so, they play the Andersons very…indistinctly. It seems that they felt that the roles did not call for them put in a performance, necessarily, but to simply portray characters – the Andersons, characters they know intimately. It also seems that the actors portraying their children are much more “their children” than “actors”. They certainly know what they are doing; they hit their marks and deliver their lines just as they should be delivered. But it is a different type of “acting”. There are no shadings, there is no nuance. The characters are already well-defined and these thespians simply deliver. As opposed to a criticism, this is complimentary towards the overall feeling you get from this movie.

One can easily perceive the emotion here. In full disclosure, I have never watched one episode of Father Knows Best (though I own the first season) but even I can tell that surely for those who loved this show and had lived with it for years, this capper must’ve been very heavy. Flashbacks to the original series don’t help the story as much as they remind viewers of the series’ past and it is nice to see these people much younger in a black-and-white yesterday. One flashback, though, does aid in telling this story. Oldest daughter, Betty, is widowed but a young pilot that had been important to her in her youth is in her life again. In a clever device, a flashback is shown of Jim consoling Betty when her young pilot flies out of her life. Well, this is the same young pilot who is about to become stepfather to Betty’s girls. Nice touch.

Perhaps what really got me about this program is the theme of the change of life that occurs when your children have children, families and lives of their own. Most of us can relate in some way to what the Anderson family goes through here. The second Christmas I watched this was the first Christmas that saw both my sons living on their own so perhaps it resonated with me more than it would have otherwise. Both Jim and Margaret assume that the kids will come home for Christmas – as they always have – and so when the idea of selling comes up it seems ridiculous and the Andersons react to it as if it is some whimsical dream —

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Jim: "We could buy a motorhome, head for the hills."
Margaret: "The children would have a fit!"
Jim: "Well, it might be quite an adventure..."
Margaret: "No matter where they are, this is still home."

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When one by one the kids say they are not coming home, though, a dawning realization descends. Life has changed for Jim and Margaret, yet again. Their kids went through stages in the home and then – horror! – moved out on their own. But the tether had been strong and Christmas and perhaps other holidays had always brought them together. The recent TV movie is referenced a couple of times as the family recalls all getting together for the Anderson anniversary. But the idea that things could change to the extent that the kids have other plans for Christmas is startling and brings up something that many viewers can relate to.

Everybody does what they have to for themselves. This is something I have heard many times in my own family. Parents would like their kids to live close to them and even assume they will. But if family or business compels the children to make a move then they will – and should – make it. Even family time at the holidays. You may have always had a strong Christmas morning tradition. But then your daughter marries someone who’s family also has a strong Christmas morning tradition. What to do? Some things may have to give and change occurs and we all have to adjust. This relatable life issue is at the heart of Home for Christmas and that is why – despite my having no connection with Father Knows Best – I was really touched by it.

Referring to the kids, the real estate agent says to Jim “they do scatter, don’t they?” to which he answers wistfully “like leaves in the wind”. It’s bittersweet and not all sad for two reasons; one is that his kids are involved in other things and people for good reasons like healthy marriages and relationships. And two, the fact that the Andersons are sad indicates that something wonderful has been lost. You don’t lament the loss of something awful. The Anderson family life had been so fine and had filled them with such joy and now the interactions have changed. It is a consolation and a gift for the Andersons to look back and recall how lovely their lives have been – even though things are different now.

There are several little fun things to mention about this Christmas adventure with the Anderson family. At the very beginning, Jim comes in from running errands. He takes off his suit jacket – and puts on his “indoor”, more casual sport coat. Interesting to see that neighbours and even shop workers know the Anderson family so well that they all assume that the kids will be gathered for the holidays. This speaks to the example of a close-knit family the Andersons have always been. Note, too, Jim and Margaret’s embarrassment when they have to admit that the kids are indeed not coming home. It is like they are letting people down and are apologizing for this change of life. When Margaret is showing Louise around the house, she mentions that the house has no air conditioning but it is insulated. Well, I hope so. The real villain of this story – aside from time itself – is the blizzard. And where does this dastardly storm come from? Well, from the Great White North, of course. It is mentioned twice that Canada is the source of the inclement weather and the Christmas tree salesman even grumbles that he “wish(ed) those Canadians would keep their blizzards to themselves”. Sorry, eh? We’ve all had them; the idiot neighbour. Seems the Andersons have one, too. First off, the guy spills the beans that Jim is thinking of selling their home and (this may be the writer’s fault) when he is used as the device by which the family hears of the storm he says of his constant reports “I just love weather!”. Who says that?! And the flood in the kitchen? When they’re trying to sell that house? That is huge! This was played for light comedy but I would be freaking out if that was my house! Those kids need some punishment! And how about that beautiful motorhome? The GMC Motorhome was the only recreational vehicle built by a major auto manufacturer. They were in production from 1973 until 1978 and it is estimated that 9,000 of the 12,921 that were built are still in running condition today.

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Jim: "There's so much here...all of our lives with the children."
Margaret: "But that was a time and that time is gone. We'll sell the house and begin a new time."

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Here is the story of a family, a story that began on radio in 1949 and wrapped with this TV movie in 1977. No doubt this tale would be very emotional for those who spent their lives with the Andersons. To see them face this new era is relatable and many viewers would be able to recognize this scenario. This is the whole Father Knows Best saga wrapping and this story – like the TV show itself, I suppose – can be understood by so many. If a forum was opened up, I imagine so many could share similar tales of their lives and of the many changes that have occurred. Home for Christmas is a story that is real to many. Without spoiling the ending, I can tell you that the finale of this film is perfect and will fill you with the warmth you perhaps would expect to feel from a story like this.

The poignancy of life is clearly seen in this relatively minor TV film made on TV sets with TV actors putting in authentic, simplistic and unadorned performances. And speaking of relatability, how perfect is the depiction of Christmas morning; the noise and the wrapping paper, Jim wearing a new robe and showing off a new sweater…

I was so happy to stumble on this on YouTube, a service I am increasingly frustrated with. And I’m glad I watched it – I may have passed it by due to my unfamiliarity with Robert Young’s show. This allows me to encourage you to check it out as knowing Father Knows Best is not required to enjoy this. As of Christmas 2023, there are two prints of this available for viewing. So, watch it; you’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll sigh. This is a wonderful trip back to the sincere Christmases of the past.