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.

I certainly remember this show, especially the first episode. Cameron Brooks has just arrived in Millsburg. In a flashback, we see him as a young man when he was preparing to leave that town many years before. He is with a young girl named "Tina" and is telling her good-bye. They promise that when he returns to Millsburg, they will kiss. Back to the present, Brooks is seen meeting the townspeople. One of these is a woman named Chris Logan. As this episode moves toward its conclusion, it is seen that this woman is actually the "Tina" he said good-bye to (full-name Christina). He reminds her of the promise from years earlier that they will kiss. She remarks it was a promise made many years before. He notes that "promises were meant to be kept" and they do kiss. I thought it was a beautiful way to begin the TV series. Chris, played by Constance Moore, was a regular in the show.Persons should remember that Robert Young had recently finished being in Father Knows Best (1954-1960) when he began this series. In fact, Father Knows Best continued on in prime time for two seasons (1960-61, 1961-62) on CBS. As such, Young was actually being seen in two separate shows in prime time during that 1961-62 TV season. Window on Main Street was on Mondays and Father Knows Best was on Wednesdays. Maybe the plot was too similar for the new series to take hold. Window was trying to solve the concerns of someone from the town in 30 minutes just as Father had tried to do with a family member or friend during its long run.It's a series few remember or know of, but I do; particularly that opening episode.

We recall him for Jim Anderson, head of that splendid nuclear family of the Eisenhower Middle American on FATHER KNOWS BEST, and again for his ideal physician DR. MARCUS WELBY. Robert Young never was ignored in the movies. His credits were above average: THE MORTAL STORM, THREE COMRADES, CROSSFIRE, WESTERN UNION, NORTHWEST PASSAGE, PART I - these are wonderful credits with top notch performances by Young to his credit. But like so many fine actors in the movies, he did not gain national fame until he was on American television in two smash series.What is not recalled is how after FATHER KNOWS BEST, Young did this series, WINDOW ON MAIN STREET. He was a newspaper man returning to his Midwestern home town, and telling the stories of the people in the town one by one. But it was not a successful series. It came out in 1961, so I was too young to get involved in watching it. The only thing I remember was Young in a coming episode advertisement at the end of one of the shows holding up a dollar bill from the 1920s (which was larger in size than the ones in the 1950s and 1960s up to today), and said, "Do you remember when the dollar was this big?" I think that was the only time a commercial for a television episode was the most memorable thing about a show. I cannot tell what precisely went wrong with WINDOW ON MAN STREET, but it barely lasted half a season (judging from the number of episodes). It may have been the subject matter or the scripts or the position of the show in the weekly schedule. At least it did no real damage to Young's career - that's something. But it must have hurt his pride a bit - Young worked on the scripts and production.