What do you think?
Rate this book
Father Does Know Best
Profiles the woman who played Kathy Anderson on "Father Knows Best," detailing her fairy-tale TV life and the horrors of her real one, including her twenty-year slide after the show stopped and her subsequent recovery
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
221 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1989
83 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 14, 2017
Growing up on shows in the early to mid-1960s which portrayed American life as the traditional working and slightly harassed father, "homemaker" mother, and 2 or 3 children who got into occasional "scrapes" now and then but nothing too serious, perhaps the show that best epitomized these idealized values was "Father Knows Best." I was one of 3 in my family, with a girl on either side of me, so it was probably natural that I identified most with this show. In addition, my older sister was somewhat of a "princess" like, well, Princess on "Father" and my younger sister was a tomboy like Kathy or 'Kitten' on "Father."
Reading the autobiography of the girl who grew up in front of all of us playing Kathy, Lauren Chapin, was occasionally unpleasant but ultimately a rewarding read. Chapin pulls no punches, but doesn't seem to go out of her way to exploit her long, sad journey from TV fame to drugs, alcoholism and prostitution and eventually towards ultimate faith and redemption. Indeed, she hardly needs to. The facts alone would fill 10 volumes. Molested by her own father, physically abused by her older brother, Billy, also an actor (there was a still older brother who doesn't figure that much in the story as he was often away at school), and others, Chapin grew up fast in terms of harsh and even sordid experiences but was ill equipped to deal with any of it as she'd hardly had anything approximating a "normal" childhood like the girl she portrayed on television.
It's a sad denouement of the price of "young" fame. Ultimately, Chapin became a slave to her own desires, bad choices and addictions. Some of the story sounds the same tones as Linda Lovelace's "Ordeal." For a time, Chapin was practically held in bondage and forced to prostitute herself.
I agree with another reviewer that the end comes quickly, and seems rather matter of fact in terms of how Chapin ultimately finds strength in God and other positive forces, and finally surrounds herself with people she can rely on. It's almost as if she received her page limit from the publisher and realized she had to end the story quickly. For example, the man she finally married and remained with is pictured in the photographs included, but not even mentioned in the text. After all the harrowing experiences with drugs, sex and booze, the fact that Chapin turns her life around in the matter of a few pages and then bids us adieu leaves the reader thinking, "Well, that just happened, didn't it."
On the other hand, the book is still well worth reading. Chapin doesn't try to make herself out to be much of a victim. She names names. She seems to try to give credit where it's due, and even though her stereotypical stage mother is presented as something of a villain, there doesn't seem to be any hate or animosity in the portrayal. Truly, as Sidney Poitier says to the Elizabeth Hartman character in "A Patch of Blue," Chapin was "much sinned against."
It is good to know that Chapin ultimately found peace through faith in God and other means. It is heartbreaking to know what she had to go through to get there though. At times the book is terrifying in its depiction of the pain and humiliation and degradation that Chapin suffered. But if you have read books such as Lovelace's "Ordeal," or more religious oriented redemption stories where the famous took a similar path such as B. J. Thomas' "Home Where I Belong," then I think you will enjoy and get much out of reading Chapin's story.
Reading the autobiography of the girl who grew up in front of all of us playing Kathy, Lauren Chapin, was occasionally unpleasant but ultimately a rewarding read. Chapin pulls no punches, but doesn't seem to go out of her way to exploit her long, sad journey from TV fame to drugs, alcoholism and prostitution and eventually towards ultimate faith and redemption. Indeed, she hardly needs to. The facts alone would fill 10 volumes. Molested by her own father, physically abused by her older brother, Billy, also an actor (there was a still older brother who doesn't figure that much in the story as he was often away at school), and others, Chapin grew up fast in terms of harsh and even sordid experiences but was ill equipped to deal with any of it as she'd hardly had anything approximating a "normal" childhood like the girl she portrayed on television.
It's a sad denouement of the price of "young" fame. Ultimately, Chapin became a slave to her own desires, bad choices and addictions. Some of the story sounds the same tones as Linda Lovelace's "Ordeal." For a time, Chapin was practically held in bondage and forced to prostitute herself.
I agree with another reviewer that the end comes quickly, and seems rather matter of fact in terms of how Chapin ultimately finds strength in God and other positive forces, and finally surrounds herself with people she can rely on. It's almost as if she received her page limit from the publisher and realized she had to end the story quickly. For example, the man she finally married and remained with is pictured in the photographs included, but not even mentioned in the text. After all the harrowing experiences with drugs, sex and booze, the fact that Chapin turns her life around in the matter of a few pages and then bids us adieu leaves the reader thinking, "Well, that just happened, didn't it."
On the other hand, the book is still well worth reading. Chapin doesn't try to make herself out to be much of a victim. She names names. She seems to try to give credit where it's due, and even though her stereotypical stage mother is presented as something of a villain, there doesn't seem to be any hate or animosity in the portrayal. Truly, as Sidney Poitier says to the Elizabeth Hartman character in "A Patch of Blue," Chapin was "much sinned against."
It is good to know that Chapin ultimately found peace through faith in God and other means. It is heartbreaking to know what she had to go through to get there though. At times the book is terrifying in its depiction of the pain and humiliation and degradation that Chapin suffered. But if you have read books such as Lovelace's "Ordeal," or more religious oriented redemption stories where the famous took a similar path such as B. J. Thomas' "Home Where I Belong," then I think you will enjoy and get much out of reading Chapin's story.
May 10, 2015
Father Knows Best, a sitcom that predates my parents, has recently become one of my few and favorite television shows to watch, and my children enjoy it too. My mother had mentioned years ago that the little girl who played the youngest daughter was abused by her father and a family friend, and when I went on Lauren Chapin's web site, I saw she had a great testimony of redemption; I ordered this autobiography she'd written.
Whew, rough read though. I found myself mourning for this love-starved girl and all she'd lacked from a self-absorbed, alcoholic mother, and barely able to read the accounts of the dad who was so undeserving of the title. The brother who "punished" her on behalf of the mother, and then the life of failed relationships, drugs, suicide attempts, and prostitution were harrowing. To see the interconnection between drugs, prostitution, and the occult involvement of Chapin's pimp was particularly eye-opening -- talk about hell unleashed on earth. This happened many decades ago but I found myself praying over the innocent children caught in the cross-fire of these slaves of drugs and lust. How I long to see this darkness vanquished once and for all over the earth!
The creepiest part of the whole narrative to me, however, was Chapin's "treatment" at the State Hospital. Manipulation and mind control games and other bizarre tactics were employed, and naturally did not help those incarcerated - little wonder State Hospitals and Penitentiaries are haunted, when their "healing" techniques sometimes consisted of using demons to treat demons.
After all that darkness, it was more than a little thrilling to hear how God used a handful of unlikely people in Chapin's life, including her little boy, to bring her into the Kingdom. My faith was definitely ignited by how her life was spared over and over when she should have been dead, and how God overcame the tremendous bondage of her addictions and despair to transfer her into His kingdom of marvelous light.
The book ended rather abruptly and left many questions unanswered: Rudy, the father of her boy, is mentioned at one point as being in her life for 17 more years, but is then left a loose thread (at the time of publication, 1989, there is a wedding photo of her from 1988 and she's married to someone else). Chapin also mentions not seeing "Satanic" Eddie Valentine for another three years, but doesn't follow up on what that interaction was like (was he finally apprehended, etc.) I also wondered how much she witnessed and ministered to former colleagues and cast members, old pals, etc. and who discipled her and what else God spoke to her. What was her vision/mission after encountering Him?
All in all, a raw but redemptive read, and certainly one that increased my faith in God's faithfulness to break every chain.
Whew, rough read though. I found myself mourning for this love-starved girl and all she'd lacked from a self-absorbed, alcoholic mother, and barely able to read the accounts of the dad who was so undeserving of the title. The brother who "punished" her on behalf of the mother, and then the life of failed relationships, drugs, suicide attempts, and prostitution were harrowing. To see the interconnection between drugs, prostitution, and the occult involvement of Chapin's pimp was particularly eye-opening -- talk about hell unleashed on earth. This happened many decades ago but I found myself praying over the innocent children caught in the cross-fire of these slaves of drugs and lust. How I long to see this darkness vanquished once and for all over the earth!
The creepiest part of the whole narrative to me, however, was Chapin's "treatment" at the State Hospital. Manipulation and mind control games and other bizarre tactics were employed, and naturally did not help those incarcerated - little wonder State Hospitals and Penitentiaries are haunted, when their "healing" techniques sometimes consisted of using demons to treat demons.
After all that darkness, it was more than a little thrilling to hear how God used a handful of unlikely people in Chapin's life, including her little boy, to bring her into the Kingdom. My faith was definitely ignited by how her life was spared over and over when she should have been dead, and how God overcame the tremendous bondage of her addictions and despair to transfer her into His kingdom of marvelous light.
The book ended rather abruptly and left many questions unanswered: Rudy, the father of her boy, is mentioned at one point as being in her life for 17 more years, but is then left a loose thread (at the time of publication, 1989, there is a wedding photo of her from 1988 and she's married to someone else). Chapin also mentions not seeing "Satanic" Eddie Valentine for another three years, but doesn't follow up on what that interaction was like (was he finally apprehended, etc.) I also wondered how much she witnessed and ministered to former colleagues and cast members, old pals, etc. and who discipled her and what else God spoke to her. What was her vision/mission after encountering Him?
All in all, a raw but redemptive read, and certainly one that increased my faith in God's faithfulness to break every chain.
August 17, 2022
I read this book when it first came out in about 1989. I just finished reading it again. I had heard of Lauren Chapin since she was in Father Knows Best. This is a hard book to read. Lauren Chapin did not have a life like Kathy Anderson. She had a very hard childhood. Her mother preferred her older brother Billy who was also a child actor. She was left alone with a father who molested her. Shipped off to convent at five to live with harsh nuns. While filming Father Knows best, she was being beaten at home by her jealous brother while her mother encouraged the beatings.
After Father Knows Best was cancelled her life became even worse. She married at 16. ended up later with a man who abused her had forced her into prostitution. She spent the next few years trying to get away from the man who abused her. She also ended up on drugs and tried to get herself clean.
This is a brutal book to read. She really had a terrible bunch of years. I am glad to read at the end she was able to save herself from her horrible life. A good but hard to read memoir.
After Father Knows Best was cancelled her life became even worse. She married at 16. ended up later with a man who abused her had forced her into prostitution. She spent the next few years trying to get away from the man who abused her. She also ended up on drugs and tried to get herself clean.
This is a brutal book to read. She really had a terrible bunch of years. I am glad to read at the end she was able to save herself from her horrible life. A good but hard to read memoir.
January 19, 2016
WOW, what a amazing journey! Had me on the edge of my seat. If this book does not make you stop and think, nothing will. Well written for a easy read.
April 21, 2023
Biographies are typically not my style of reading. This is an older book, but it was a good book, it was good to see Lauren know right from wrong, and able to pick the right way for her kids.
April 12, 2024
wow...what a life she led.
I want to know more!
She had years of abuse and substance abuse problems, but crawled her way out.
I'm so glad that she made it out alive and in a better frame of mind.
I want to know more!
She had years of abuse and substance abuse problems, but crawled her way out.
I'm so glad that she made it out alive and in a better frame of mind.
October 25, 2025
Awful parents, awful life, awful decisions, pretty good book
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews