Billy Gray from "Father Knows Best"

I've been watching the "Father Knows Best" marathon today on Antenna TV (aka the mesothelioma channel). I'd never seen the show before. That Billy Gray who played the son Bud sure was hot. He even looked like trade, dressed in tight t-shirts and jeans. Was he considered hot back in the day? And WHET Billy Gray, anyway?

Oh, my. Is that really him? He was such a cutie back then. Of course it was 50 years ago. But still... Wow. That was some hard livin'!

Hard livin'? I could tell you stories ...

I've now seen a dozen episodes of this show. (Very exciting Sunday, I know...) This show should have been called "Dad! We Need Money. NOW!!"

Billy Gray was the heartthrob of every young American fledging gay boy of the 1950's. Most gorgeous and perfect creature in the Universe, etc. How many first and subsequent ejaculations were dedicated .. oh well.

DO NOT look up what he really thought of the show and certainly not a current picture! He's 76.

Further on Billy Gray. I was so young that I didn't realize why I liked the slight protuberance and two little nipple bumps in his t-shirt, not to mention the extraordinary fit of his jeans, front and back, but it soon came to me.

Yeah, I think he shot his career in the foot by bad-mouthing the show. He also got busted for marijuana possession (seeds and stems, according to Gray) which tarnished his image.

Wally Cleaver was more handsome but Bud had that goofy, playful quality that made him seem down for a casual roll in the sack. And the perkiest nipples in all of TV.

[quote]DO NOT look up what he really thought of the show and [italic]certainly not a current picture![/italic] He's 76.

The cat's out of the bag on that R5 - see R1.

So, let's have the rest. What did he say about the show? Of course it was pure fantasy and wish fulfillment. But people must have recognized that even then.

Bud was a great character. He was rebellious even though he was basically a good kid, and was a nice contrast to the perfect princess his older sister was.

Thanks for starting this thread, OP. I absolutely loved Billy Gray. He's one of the few TV teen heartthrobs I found both hot and cute--most were one or the other.

"I'd rather have a pal than a gal -- anytime."

Billy Gray gave an interview where he complained about the fundamental dishonesty of FATHER KNOWS BEST. He felt that they did a disservice to their young viewers by giving them false expectations of family life.

He cited an episode where the parents have a fight then lie to the kids about the fact that they were fighting. The lesson seemed to be that the outward appearance of permanent domestic bliss is more important than admitting that grown-ups quarrel too sometimes.

I don't see how he shot his career in the foot though. The interview was long after the show went off the air and he hadn't done that much work in the interim. At any rate, his disapproval didn't prevent him from doing a couple Father Knows Best reunion specials shortly thereafter.

Any nudes or sex tapes of Billy? Did he use the casting couch to get his part?

He was adorable in the early '50s Doris Day-Gordon MacRae musical "By the Light of the Silvery Moon." (He was Doris's little brother.)

In the last of the hippie years, Billy made a low-budget movie called "Dusty and Sweets McGee," in which he played a heroin dealer (the parts of the addicts were played by real-life addicts and nonprofessional actors). It seemed to have been his attempt to bury the Bud Anderson persona for good.

What about Bill Gray, the porn star?

[quote]I've been watching the "Father Knows Best" marathon today on Antenna TV (aka the mesothelioma channel).

OP, I LOVE "the mesothelioma channel." I watch a lot of Antenna and MeTV, and after watching all of those ridiculous ambulance chaser commercials I sometimes start to feel symptoms myself! The power of suggestion (and repetition), I guess.

For those who remember them both- Bud or Bubba

Father knows, Mama's Family, Who was the hottest

He sells his own "personal massagers" on his website.

One of the pop-ups said Lauren Chapin found out the show was cancelled when she showed up at the gates of the studio and they wouldn't let her in.

Robert Young suffered from depression and alcoholism- fun guy. Weird show.

Asa delicate little flower, I always wanted Billy to protect me from the bad kids.

The last episode of FNB was the last one shown on Antenna last night. But either they didn't know it was going to be the last episode or they just didn't do series finales in those days (1960) because there was no indication of it.

Oh, and the guest star was Carleton Carpenter, of "Abba-Dabba Honeymoon" fame.

Jane Wyatt would later find success as Angela Channing on Falcon Crest

r27 And as Mr. Spock's mother.

I always thought Jim and Margaret looked like the grandparents to Bud and Kitten and Betty was their real mother.

R27 Not sure if you're ignorant or shit-stirring, but that was Jane WYMAN.

Billy was in "Life with Father" at the Westport Country Playhouse after the series ended. A friend played the family's maid. She said Billy was straight and did pot every day.

He's also smoking hot in SOME LIKE IT HOT, as the hotel bellboy who chases after Jack Lemmon in drag...

r32 As good as Gray would've been, the screen credit goes to Al Breneman.

Robin Morgan, Dagmar on "Mama" starring Peggy Wood, became a radical lesbian feminist. She complained about the relationship of her parents on the show which was set in San Francisco in the early 1900s and refused to appear at a reunion of the cast members. Dick Van Patten played her brother, Nels.

I watched the show for the first time this weekend and I was hooked. I sat through about six episodes. Would have vegged out all day if I didn't have things to do. Considering the time it was made in it was a pretty decent show. Hell in two episodes the father took down poetry books to read to his family to help solve a problem.

I loved that they unapologetically wrote Betty as a high riding bitch. She was probably as close to a feminist as a teenage girl could be in those days. My favorite line was when one of her friends bad mouthed her mother:

"Keep my mother's name out of your mouth or I'll slap you like you've never been slapped before"

The mother, Jane Wyatt, was absolutely beautiful. Especially for a slightly older woman. I did some research on her. She had the first nude scene in a mainstream movie. Plus being a huge Star Trek fan I was ashamed to say I didn't put two and two together while watching. She was Spock's mother. Plus she was a Roosevelt cousin and was very rich.

Old gal held up pretty well.

LOL

Betty was a complete snob. They didn't want Princess, the spoiled brat to grow up. They had her in pigtails and little frilly dresses way into puberty and she cried every episode, toward the end probably because of cramps, but she was dressed a little girl.

Met Billy two years ago at the Chiller autograph show and yes, he's an old man, not everyone ages like Paul Newman, but you could see Bud there. Billy was Patricia Neal's kid in the original "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and sang and danced with Bob Hope in "The Seven Little Foys"

I wonder if Elinor Donahue caused a mini, Keri Russel, type flap when she showed up for a new season with all her hair chopped off. Kitten was the one they didn't want to grow up. Betty was Princess LOL.

After Sunday I've become a little obsessed with this show. I read some stuff about it online. It was cancelled because Robert Young wanted to move on. In fact the show was so popular that it ran in prime-time for three years after production ended airing repeats.

[quote] He sells his own "personal massagers" on his website.

And they're endorsed by Jeanne K. Russell, DC , who played little Martha on "Dennis the Menace."

Billy also got arrested in the early 60s on a pot bust, which didn't help his career. (Later, it probably wouldn't have made a bit of difference).

r35 She was also wonderful in the Ronald Coleman version of "Lost Horizon."

Elinor Donahue was pregnant during one of the seasons. I remember reading an interview where she said she was behind the couch leaning over a lot to hide her condition.

Her character could be annoying, but she played the part well. Both her and Billy Gray could do some decent acting and played well as siblings. Kitten on the other hand...

I saw a Father Knows Best episode today where Bud tracks down a professor who was supposed to interview Betty for a scholarship...in a steam bath! So Bud turns up and want to go in, but someone tells him he needs to take his clothes off. He goes in, wrapped in a sheet, and starts chatting up strange men, and then he follows the professor into the massage room and has to get a massage as well, by a well-built man. Bud's perky nipples are very much on display (as well as Billy's knack for physical comedy--he keeps falling on the floor and reacting to the very deep massage). This episode had to have been written by one of us.

[quote]And they're endorsed by Jeanne K. Russell, DC , who played little Martha on "Dennis the Menace."

She played MARGARET (which is also Mrs. Father Knows Best's name). Martha was the first Mr. Wilson's (Joseph Kearns) wife.

Paul "The Donna Reed Show" Petersen succeeded Billy Gray in the television heartthrob department.

R39- OMG, I saw that as well! Yep, ol' Bud certainly got a pounding!

I will never forget that Bud massage episode! I can't believe it's actually being referenced here.

I must see if it's on youtube or somewhere else on line.

Anyone know??

I used to watch Father Knows Best as reruns in the 1970s. Bud was cutey, that's for sure. The show itself has aged badly, and doesn't hold up as well as other sitcoms from that era.

Billy Gray was NEVER a heart throb

That went to Tony Dow and the boy from Donna Reed and the son from Life with Reiley, Junior. Man Junior was a STUD.

Spin or Marty which one was the hottest?

Billy Gray was cute, but I think Ronnie Burns of the "Burns and Allen " show was gorgeous! Too bad he was such a terrible actor!

Someone up thread mentioned how popular the show was even after it stopped production. It really was iconic in its run and its characters. Most kids I knew wanted to smash Kitten's annoying face in the mud (she was supposed to be about my age) and Princess Betty was elicited eye rolls for her bitchy righteousness. Bud was the slightly dangerous kid that you really liked - in part because he had a semi-juvenile delinquent rep off camera. We loved all of it!

But tv in every home was a new and novel thing in the early-mid 50s, so programming was somewhat limited; there were blocks of time when Off-Air Test Patterns were all there was. So to a certain extent almost anything that aired had a magic that viewers couldn't resist. Many of the tv shows were well written and acted by pros with years of stage and/or radio experience, so a lot of it WAS really good viewing - no wonder some shows from that 1954-60 time frame became so enduringly iconic.

Thanks OP, this is a fun thread.

Love his tshirt in this interview; it says "WANTED FOR STATE TERRORISM" with a photo of reagan and others.

Paul Petersen was definitely cute. He turned his attention to child advocacy and started a non-profit to help protect child stars. Interestingly, he was married (first wife) to Brenda Benet...who later married Bill Bixby. She used to be on Days of Our Lives and ended up committing suicide after the death of her son (by Bill Bixby).

But that was the magic of Betty. She was a high riding bitch. Unique in her time. They knew how they were writing her and she knew how she was playing her. Teenage girls ate her character up.

The producers of Cheers had Shelley Long study the character of Betty before filming on Cheers began.

She did, r34. Elinor Donahue says in an interview included as an extra on the DVD set that producers eventually made her wear a fake ponytail.

Bitchy Betty meets Darrin Stephens.

there was a hilarious SNL parody of the Twilight Zone with the original as where Ricky Nelson (the gues host) kept wandering from the wrong 50s TV family to the wrong 50s TV family. Jane Curtin played the mom in each one and was exactly the same, except with a different-colored wig. The "Father Knows Best" part had John Belushi doing a funny imitation of Bud, with a ripped t-shirt and being surly and out of it, and Laraine Newman being even funnier as an extremely neurotic Elinor Donahue ("I know I'm not very pretty..."). Of course she ran up to her room crying, with Bill Murray (as Robert Young) taking his pipe out of his mouth to call out with mild concern, "Princess!"

[quote]She used to be on Days of Our Lives and ended up committing suicide after the death of her son (by Bill Bixby).

But scissoring with her sure was fun.

Even young Dick Crenna as Walter Denton on Our Miss Brooks was somewhat of a young heart throb to desperate little gay boys in the early 1950s.

It wasn't until a few years later when ABC started producing all those detective shows like 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Surfside 6 that real hunks start appearing on a nightly basis.

Dick Crenna was definitely a heartthrob on "The Real McCoys."

I always liked Elinor Donahue. She was a very good dancer. One of my favorite Youtube clips is she and her two (film) sisters singing The Dickie Bird Song with their "mother" Jeanette MacDonald. Spring is here, Spring is here, Spring is here....

It always tickles me in that episode of "Will & Grace" that Karen Walker's mother (Suzanne Pleshette) says that she wants to be with Richard Crenna in Hawaii and Rosario says: "I heard that, sister!"

Such a come out of nowhere reference, but Crenna was oddly sexy and attractive even when he was the awkward and shy teenage boy, Arthur, falling in love with Lucy Ricardo as she tried to teach him to dance.

"Side step, side step, side step"....right out the door.

Did Elinor ever write an autobio? She must have lots of stories to tell -- she was either regular or recurring on a lot of shows (Father, Odd Couple, Andy Griffith, etc.) and a guest star on many others (even Golden Girls.) And her husband produced a ton of iconic shows at Columbia (Bewitched, Jeannie, Flying Nun, et. al.)

Check out Wesley Morgan who played Junior on Life of Riley

Robert Young may have been a dangerous drunk and Lauren Chapin was irritating as shit on a shoe, but the show did present between the parents and two oldest children a convincing family with normal frictions and resolutions. Some of the scripts and staging even led to moving moments that conveyed authenticity. Gray's Bud was a big part of that - focused, not very bright, sincere, silly.

"Colman," please, R37.

"Gray's Bud was a big part of that - focused, not very bright, sincere, silly."

Don't forget fuckable. He was very, very fuckable.

Twenty-five years ago I asked a friend of Marjorie Reynolds if he would ask her if she knew whatever became of Wesley. She said no one heard from him after the show, but she remained friends with Lugene (Babs).

"Billy Gray was cute, but I think Ronnie Burns of the "Burns and Allen " show was gorgeous! Too bad he was such a terrible actor"

Can't credit George and/or Gracie for Ronnie's good looks, as he was adopted.

Late in life, Robert Young tried to commit suicide doing the carbon monoxide fumes in the closed garage routine, but he failed.

OP is that show in blank and white or had they switched to color on that?

Both Paul "My Dad" Petersen and Shelley "Johnny Angel" Fabares had hit records while on "The Donna Reed Show".

Dwayne Hickman was kinda cute as Bob Cummings' nephew on Love That Bob! but he'd become rather pudgy and sexless by the time he starred as Dobie Gillis a few years later.

Totally disagree, r70. Dwayne Hickman was very hot on Dobie Gillis. I wasn't even born until well after it was over, but I've seen how hot he was on nick at nite re-runs.

It was completely predictable that Elinor Donahue grew up to have a respectable TV career while Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin grew up to be fuck-ups.

Check him out in "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini," which has been running ad nauseam on one of those over-the-air movie channels.

Well, Elinor Donahue was already a well-adjusted adult by the time she was cast in Father Knows Best. Of course, she survived more gracefully. Billy and Lauren were still kids.

Hardcore fans of the Andy Griffith Show still bitch about Elinor leaving and pine for Ellie Walker. Here she is singing. She's really cute.

Did Ronnie Burns ever record another song othen than "She's Kind of Cute"?

R58 Love the Dickie Bird Song!!!! Its very sweet.

I think she was billed as Mary Eleanor Donahue in that film.

The kids on that show all had screwed-up lives. Chapin had a terrible home life and later had a drug problem and was a prostitute for awhile. Donahue had a very unhappy early marriage. She later married Harry Ackerman, who was the executive producer for many Screen Gems (tv sub of Columbia Pictures) sitcoms. Father Knows Best was a Screen Gems show but Ackerman didn't produce it--Robert Young's company was the producer. Anyway, it was a long, happy marriage. Donahue worked on a lot of shows and probably has an interesting story. Young ended the show which had decent ratings and spent a couple years in prime time reruns, which was very odd. Young felt it was time and probably was right. I only ever saw it in reruns and always thought it was less watchable than "Ozzie and Harriet" (the original show about nothing) or Donna Reed (the likeability of the characters overcame the often sanctimonious material). Chapin was annoying and Bud was obviously (from the perspective of another era) well on his way to becoming a burnout.

Young and his wife were alcoholics, which would have been compounded by his depressive problems. The two of them sometimes were hospitalized at the same time. They were regulars at Las Encitas, the celeb psych hospital in Pasadena. They'd arrive drunk and arguing like children.

Jane Wyatt did the reunion shows and guest bits with other tv moms like Barbara Billingsley. She was a supporting player in b-movies for whom tv was a big break. I think she was the closest thing to a "normal person" on the show.

Jimmy Hawkins (Shelly Fabares' tv boyfriend) was another hearthrob of that era. He played on of the kids in "It's a Wonderful Life". He had a mildly successful producing career and has written some "Wonderful Life"-related books.

So true about the likeability of The Donna Reed Show characters r78 and the actors portraying them!

But that show gave me an even worse inferiority complex about my hopeless family.

Oh to have a daddy like Carl Betz!

And I wanted a big sister like Shelley Fabares...or better yet, to be Mary Stone. The show really collapsed after she left and Patti Petersen was adopted into the family.

R46, if you're still around .. Spin definitely. Marty was a little round. Spin was just hard, wiry and manly. btw, Ambitious was a nice-looking kid, probably masturbating the day away, alone in his bunk while the others were out fighting crime.

And when we got a hankering for a real man, Harry Carey, Jr. as counselor Bill Burnett, wow hot before we knew what hot really was.

Yeah, I really liked this show.

Why did Dwayne Hickman dye his hair blond for at least one season of Dobie Gillis?

How can there be a discussion of hot males on vintage sitcoms without mentioning Don Grady?

Ronnie Burns was definitely the most classically handsome of them all. George and Gracie lucked out when they adopted him.

Dwayne Hickman's hair was dyed blonde for the first season of Dobie Gillis because:

1. The sit-com was based on a somewhat famous novel (or series of novels?) by Max Shulman that was illustrated with cartoonish drawings of Dobie as a blonde.

2. The producers wanted to give Dwayne a new look after his many years as nephew Chuck on The Bob Cummings Show.

3. Co-star Warren Beatty insisted he would be the only brunette on the series. He then left after a few episodes to become a movie star, allowing Dwayne to revert back to his darker locks.

Pamelyn Ferdin, a child actress on every other TV show from the mids 60s to the mid 70s, said on a DVD extra interview (of Family Affair), that when she turned 18 she told her mother she wanted to quit acting and use the money she made to go to college and become a registered nursed.

She said her mother got very angry about her giving up her career, but she got her money and became a nurse and today is also a (semi-psycho) animals rights advocate.

Paul Peterson was my first heartthrob, followed by Don Grady.

Back in the 80s one of my sisters taught 4th grade in an inner city school. Said the kids favorite shows were "Leave It To Beaver", "Andy Griffith", "Donna Reed" and above all "Father Knows Best" When asked why they all liked them so much the kids said it was nice to see calm families without real worries and that got along. They said they knew it wasn't real but it was nice to have it escape into for a little while.

Leave it to Beaver was the best. Mostly because of the separate universe the kids had. LITB was not as wholesome as it would seem on the surface. They were really, relatively speaking era wise, some funny kids with all their lying and schemes.

June has prepared a lovely dinner of barbecued pork ribs

Ward Cleaver: Well, you boys are very quiet tonight. What are you thinking about?

Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: I was just thinkin' what I'd do if I was a pig eatin' peoples ribs.

June Cleaver: Beaver, please.

One of my favorite Father Knows Best episodes involves Betty and her friends in high school in trouble because they were playing a prank (with one of them wearing a sheet to be a ghost) and scared a neighbor lady. It somehow involves Mrs. Anderson, and one of the girls' attitudes is basically, "Who cares?" Betty than turns on her in this psycho bitch way and says through narrowed eyes, "So help me, Susie, if you ever speak about my mother that way again I'll slap your face so hard..." Who knew that Betty could cut a bitch?

Me to R90. I posted it up thread:

"Keep my mother's name out of your mouth or I'll slap you like you've never been slapped before"

Then the guy next to the other girl gives Betty a smirk. Betty balls up both of her fists at her sides and as bitchy as she's ever been:

"Something funny?"

No wonder the girls of the time ate her character up.

"3. Co-star Warren Beatty insisted he would be the only brunette on the series. He then left after a few episodes to become a movie star, allowing Dwayne to revert back to his darker locks."

Do you really believe a then practically unknown Warren Beatty had that much power?

There were some fun episodes of Leave It To Beaver where Ward - more so than June for obvious reasons - could relate to Wally and Beaver, their situations and problems they got into.

Bob Denver was a brunette.

June was the original pearl clutcher.

Larry Mondello and his mother. on LITB, always fucking kill me.

r96 Aunt Harriet? She was occasionally on "The Real McCoys."

She was Dora Bailey in "Singin' in the Rain." The great Madge Blake.

Another thing that makes LITB great is none of them were fucked up. During the show they all were friends and got along and maintained those friendships their whole lives. In fact,the guy who played Lumpy, turned into some financial wizard and used their LITB money to make them all rich. Jerry Mathers had a chance to continue his career with some movie roles. Instead he chose Berkeley and a philosophy degree. Pretty cool.

r92, I've got some swampland I'd like to sell you.

Can we get back to talking about Billy Gray when he was young and beautiful?

I think one of the special things I remember about Billy Gray was that he often just wore a tight white T shirt and jeans as Bud, which was pretty unusual for TV teens of that time.

He always seemed greasy. A poor man's Tony Dow.

I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of Father Knows Best, but I have always liked Elinor Donahue. I remember her short lived 70s drama, "Mulligan's Stew". My mom couldn't figure out why a little kid would want to watch shows like that and "Family". By the time I was in junior high and hooked on "Dynasty", she had figured it out.

Remember when Lucy said "Why are husbands so messy."

And Ethel replies "I have sufficient."

R105, I don't get that. Is there a word or two missing in Ethel's reply?

One of my favorite Lucy/Ethel moments is when Lucy picks out an outfit for Ethel (a pair of hostess pants) that Ethel hates. Ethel then accuses Lucy of calling her "a hippopotamus." Lucy's reply: "I just implied that she was a little hippy... though she has got the biggest potamus I've ever seen."

Kind of amazing that they got away with that on 1950s television. Especially when they weren't even allowed to speak the word "pregnant."

R106 I love that line, too.

Sorry for the ancient bump, but like OP, I only recently saw this show for the first time on the mesothelioma channel. There was a really bizarre episode where an old friend of the father's visits with his strange wife. She smokes, reads Kafka and scares the children. She makes the mother very uncomfortable, but by the end they understand each other and you can see the mother resting her feet on the couch and reading The Trial.

[quote] I saw a Father Knows Best episode today where Bud tracks down a professor who was supposed to interview Betty for a scholarship...in a steam bath! So Bud turns up and want to go in, but someone tells him he needs to take his clothes off. He goes in, wrapped in a sheet, and starts chatting up strange men, and then he follows the professor into the massage room and has to get a massage as well, by a well-built man.

The episode is "Be Kind to Bud Week". There may be full episodes somewhere, but here is part of the scene you mentioned.

Another vote for Ronnie Burns. Thank God he was adopted. He was far better looking than any possible offspring of George.

He was no me, that's for sure

He was hotter than you, Wally, and you know it.

Elinor Donahue is showing up as a spokeswoman for MeTv lately pimping "The Andy Griffith Show." Looking very pretty. She is 79.

[R112] - I can't believe Elinor Donahue is 79! Sheesh. I always liked the episodes where they showcased her dancing ability. She began at MGM. Here she is with Jane Powell playing Jeanette MacDonald's daughters.

None of these boys is as hot as Wesley Morgan (Junior on The Life of Riley) once he grew up. He was not only the handsomest but also the only one who had muscles.

r111

He wasn't even as hot a me

r114

You're right on that account, he was nice to look at but a horrible actor. He made Larry Matthews look like Oscar material.

If I were a time traveler to 1954 the first thing I'd do is fuck Billy Gray.

No, you'd look at Tony Dow or even Mike or Robbie from My Three Sons first.

[quote] If I were a time traveler to 1954 the first thing I'd do is fuck Billy Gray.

Hell, the first thing I'd do is fuck Montgomery Clift

R119, Monty was handsome but I can't do tinymeat. You know Billy was packing.

Monty was so beautiful, he could have a micropenis and I'd still have gone in there happily.

I wanted Spin and Marty to take me on one of their adventures. I used to want to sleep between them in bed. I was too young to know why.

Wally was cute, though I attribute that more to his being charming than good looking. However, if I found myself in the Cleaver home, I'd head straight for daddy Ward.

Paul Petersen was married to notorious lesbian suicider Brenda Benet.

My older sister had his 45 single "My Dad." She and her friends would sit around listening to it declaring their love for him. "He's so gorgeous! Can you IMAGINE if he was your boyfriend? I would DiE!"

Paul Petersen turned out super creepy with his ill fitting false teeth and that hideous rug that hasn't changed in 30 years. I cringe when his commercials come up on the Mesolthelioma Channels

I should say "alleged suicider" Brenda Benet. Right wing gun nut Tammy Bruce was present when benets supposedly shot herself.

Wasn't Tammu Bruce like 19 or 20 then?

I realize we're talking looks here... But as treacly as some of the Father Knows Best TV shows were, the radio versions are sharper & funnier. Father didn't always know best...he was sometimes rude, and the kids sasses back. I guess they decided to be a bit more respectful on the tube. I just heard a couple of episodes on my local NPR station during an old time radio marathon.

They didn't call him Billy Gay for nothing...

Why did the censors allow Bud's nipples?

The children were much better on the radio version of "Father Knows Best." Only Mr Coffee carried over to the TV version, which was inferior

[quote]Paul Petersen was married to notorious lesbian suicider Brenda Benet.

So did Bill Bixbie

I had such a crush on Billy Gray. Do we have some good photos of Bud and his nipples?

[quote] Only Mr Coffee carried over to the TV version, which was inferior

Joe DiMaggio?

I think you meant Mr. SANKA.

Paul Peterson started an organization for the protection of child actors and to help them in adulthood.

I think it started after a number of suicides of young people who had been famous on TV. I looked this up some time ago.

I know that Rusty Hamer from "Make Room for Daddy" was one.

r135

He would've been a junkie and killed himself regardless of what he did with this life.

Paul is mad because Shelley succeeded brilliantly where he failed miserably

I liked Eddie Applegate who played Patty Duke's boyfriend Richard. He was big a dumb - just the kind of guy who would have a BIG dick and want to fuck all the damned time.

They should've putten band-aids over his ne-pals

He was very correct in his opinion of the show. But he should have known that to make the show more realistic would have probably been disastrous. Who wants to see the boring crap most real American families deal with on a daily basis?

They had realistic episodes, it's just that they didn't cover EVERYTHING.

I get the same reaction from "Beaver" but "Beaver" covered things like alcoholism, shady relatives, homelessness, divorce, adoption and even premarital sex (Wally was against it, while a girl in his car wanted to).

Billy Gray was a fine young actor, and a great-looking guy. Nice to see him receiving DL love!

Before he got old he was a hot sexy man too.

My dream team orgy of 60s TV beefcake.

Billy Gray

Tony Dow

Paul Peterson

Don Grady

et moi!

Very surprised that a thread about TV sit-com sons, and their relative beauty, hasn't had more than one mention of:

"They didn't want Princess, the spoiled brat to grow up. They had her in pigtails and little frilly dresses way into puberty and she cried every episode, toward the end probably because of cramps, but she was dressed a little girl."

That was Cindy Brady r33

Would it have killed you to have at least posted a picture or link OP? Would it? I mean would that have really been so hard? Would it? Why don’t you try to think more of others next time before you post? What's your problem? I mean really, what's your damn problem?

So many of the episodes were Betty being a hateful bitch to someone (usually a boy she felt beneath her or some unfortunately less privileged girl), getting her ass handed to her, squalling in regret, and trying to make up for it.

No one deserved a comeuppance more than Betty Anderson....and it was delicious when she got it.....yes R150 it was repetitious, but wonderful......

Eldergay here. Not eldergay enough to have seen “Father Knows Best” in its original run, but enjoyed later in syndicated reruns in the 70s. Always thought Billy Gray was a fine actor and nice-looking guy.

While I know that Gray later expressed some ambivalence about the message and legacy of “Father Knows Best”, I’ve never seen him speak of his colleagues on the show with anything less than fondness. I’ve seen televised interviews with the “FKB”’children and Jane Wyatt over the years, and it was obvious there was warmth and affection among them — Gray included.

A friend of mine met Jane Wyatt a few times, and Billy Gray’s name came up. He said that Wyatt spoke of him fondly and said that it was a shame he wasn’t able to transition more successfully into adult roles. She didn’t mention the pot arrest, but she did mention that he was not very tall, and this may have worked against his casting sometimes.

I actually met Gray about fifteen years ago at an autograph show (don’t judge, DL!). A real treat. He was very nice and engaging, but Wyatt was right — I’m 5’10”, and he was several inches shorter than me

Child actors are almost always short for their age, so they can appear younger than they are, and hopefully be able to portray advancing age realistically. But what often ends up happening is that you end up with adult kids who are far shorter than their TV parents. See: "Married With Children," "Modern Family," "The Brady Bunch," etc.

Wow in real life Betty is only a year older than Gray.

R154, why is that surprising? They played siblings.

R152 Short stuffs

Michael J. Fox, James Cagney, Richard Dreyfus 5'4"

Dustin Hoffman, Daniel Radcliffe 5'5"

Alan Ladd. 5'6"

Tom Cruise, Mark Wahlberg, and Al Pacino, 5'7"

This thread has prompted me to revisit several episodes of “Father Knows Best” via TubiTV. One featured Rita Moreno has a visitor from India, one featured Ron Ely as a BMOC putting the moves on Betty, one featured Susan Oliver as a country cousin Betty sneered at, and a couple featured cute Paul Wallace (Tulsa in “Gypsy”) as Bud’s pal Kippy.

Billy Gray is very likable and endearing as Bud. Besides being a fine, natural actor, he’s the most appealing of the three kids on the show. A FB friend of mine posted a birthday tribute to Gray earlier this year on the occasion of Gray’s turning 81 (!!) and the responses were flooded with guys (not exclusively eldergays, either!) proclaiming their affection for Gray. Watching these shows again, I can totally understand!

60's dream:Billy Gray, Tony Dow, Paul Peterson, and Luke Halpin in a Helix- type foursome.

Watching “FTB” today on Tubi-TV — Billy’s so cute and appealing!

Shelley Fabares' aunt was the late Nanette Fabray (real last name Fabares)

R80... I was about 5 or younger when I watched MMC and Spin and Marty. However, even then I found "Ambitious" dreamy. I didn't really know why though. I just knew I wanted to go to that camp!

Agreed R6, watching the show now, Billy Gray’s nipples poking through those tight t-shirts should get co-starring billing!

After he left acting, Billy Gray became a speedway motorcycle racer. I remember seeing him at the track in Bakersfield every week as a kid, and meeting him several times. He was extremely popular with the racing crowd -riders, crews, and fans. Years and years later I recall seeing him race at a short-lived speedway track in Carlsbad, CA.

R23 The first scripted series to have a proper finale was Leave it to Beaver in 1963.

R150, that's because family sitcoms like FKB , the Donna Reed Show, Leave It to Beaver and the Andy Griffith Show often tried to teach a little lesson along with the entertainment. In the stories you're talking about, the lessons were (a) don't be a snob; (b) be nice to people; and (c) people who aren't beautiful or part of the in crowd often have more to offer than shallow, superficial popular kids.

r166 It really wasn't much of a finale. Just looking through a photo album as an excuse for a clip show. And wasn't it ridiculous that there were photos of events and situations at which there was no possible way for a photographer to have been present?

R168 It was more than a clip show, and more of a retrospective. Series Finales, up until today, still regularly feature clips from the series. It worked for LITB, since the point of the show was watching Beaver grow up. Also, the series started the idea of answering a running question, since they finally tell us how Beaver got his nickname.

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