When the DVD of Father Knows Best Season One came out, I hesitated to purchase it. You see, I most remembered Robert Young as Marcus Welby the super doctor but he was so unlike a real doctor that it seemed pure fantasy. I vaguely recalled scenes from his being the super dad but he was so unlike my father that I couldn't identify. Yet having an interest in early TV shows presenting a morally upright image, I checked out the collection.
What floored me was a bonus, the pilot episode of Window on Main Street, the 1961 series that starred Robert Young as a widowed author returning to his home town. Each episode was a chapter in his book, as he wrote about the inner lives of people in the community.
While I fell in love with the music, the sentimentality, and the nostalgia, I was busy with other things, so I fast forwarded through most of the program until I reached the preview of the next one. Delivered by Young as narrator, the proposed plot concerned a young, sensitive boy who witnesses his teacher in a "most compromising situation." I became fixated on speculating what this might be, or more precisely, what could have been aired on a "family" show.
Recently, Season Two of Father Knows Best was released and includes as a bonus that next chapter of Window called The Teacher. The youngster, catching her kissing a man, has an authentic look of horror on his face. I too was chilled because I understood what the kid was going through. Unlike today, of course, where sex is so commonplace, such aversive feelings would be considered abnormal.
Young's character was friendly with the boy and counseled him and his teacher who appropriately apologized. What struck me was that this did not feel like a fantasy, but real encounters among real people. I was moved to fully watch the pilot.
Soon after arriving, Young had met the lad's mother, a very nice person. But Young felt that he had made a mistake in coming back to a town that had changed so much since his youth. Preparing to leave, he receives an envelope containing part of a letter he had then written to a girl with whom he had briefly conversed. I won't reveal more except to say that he locates the now grown woman: even a mystery buff like me was surprised by who she was. The complex story is succinctly dramatized: how and why he decides to remain is sweet and innocent and drove me to tears.
Yes, those were the classic days of TV. We wished to escape from the horrors of the world and find hope and inspiration. The problem with Superman or Father Knows Best is that they were too fanciful to believe. But Window On Main Street hits home. Apparently its intensity and integrity were too hard to take as the show lasted only half a season.
Dare to enter this Window On Main Street where you may dream of finding the peace and happiness you deserve.
What floored me was a bonus, the pilot episode of Window on Main Street, the 1961 series that starred Robert Young as a widowed author returning to his home town. Each episode was a chapter in his book, as he wrote about the inner lives of people in the community.
While I fell in love with the music, the sentimentality, and the nostalgia, I was busy with other things, so I fast forwarded through most of the program until I reached the preview of the next one. Delivered by Young as narrator, the proposed plot concerned a young, sensitive boy who witnesses his teacher in a "most compromising situation." I became fixated on speculating what this might be, or more precisely, what could have been aired on a "family" show.
Recently, Season Two of Father Knows Best was released and includes as a bonus that next chapter of Window called The Teacher. The youngster, catching her kissing a man, has an authentic look of horror on his face. I too was chilled because I understood what the kid was going through. Unlike today, of course, where sex is so commonplace, such aversive feelings would be considered abnormal.
Young's character was friendly with the boy and counseled him and his teacher who appropriately apologized. What struck me was that this did not feel like a fantasy, but real encounters among real people. I was moved to fully watch the pilot.
Soon after arriving, Young had met the lad's mother, a very nice person. But Young felt that he had made a mistake in coming back to a town that had changed so much since his youth. Preparing to leave, he receives an envelope containing part of a letter he had then written to a girl with whom he had briefly conversed. I won't reveal more except to say that he locates the now grown woman: even a mystery buff like me was surprised by who she was. The complex story is succinctly dramatized: how and why he decides to remain is sweet and innocent and drove me to tears.
Yes, those were the classic days of TV. We wished to escape from the horrors of the world and find hope and inspiration. The problem with Superman or Father Knows Best is that they were too fanciful to believe. But Window On Main Street hits home. Apparently its intensity and integrity were too hard to take as the show lasted only half a season.
Dare to enter this Window On Main Street where you may dream of finding the peace and happiness you deserve.