# What TV show had a doorknob in the center of the front door? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021 "2006-01-21T20:58:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/21 "2006-01-23T14:08:07Z")
How about **Bachelor Father**. It’s been a long time, but I think it had that doorknob, and it was a hit in 1957, about the time the house was being built. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/22 "2006-01-23T15:03:03Z")
I bet it was an old show. My cousins house had a doorknob in the middle like that, and we grew up in the '60’s. They put it there because it was easier to close the door for the kids than one in the outer part of the door. Their arms didn’t reach that far. The one in the edge still worked, the one in the middle did nothing of course. We thought it was pretty cool. We played with that for hours. Things were so simple then…sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/23 "2006-01-23T15:07:02Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > I’m almost certain that Captain Kangaroo’s door had a knob in the middle. I don’t know why that sounds dirty to me but I think that the fact that it does means I’m going straight to hell. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/24 "2006-01-23T15:14:13Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > It was on a show I liked at the time, which lets out The Brady Bunch and Family Affair. Maybe it was Father Knows Best or something. Timely, or possibly _The Donna Reed Show_? Mmmmm… Donna Reed. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/25 "2006-01-23T15:56:13Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > When my parents were planning details of the house they had built in 1957 or '58, I was 9 or 10 years old. I suggested they get a front door with a doorknob in the middle Your word choice confuses me. The past perfect “had built” suggests that the house was built in 1957-1958, and they were remodelling it some time later. Alternately, “the house that they _were building_” both the construction of the house, and the suggestion about the front door, occured in 1957-1958. And I don’t mean that to be a petty quibble, because the time period you are takling about would help narrow down the possibilities of the TV show. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/26 "2006-01-23T17:15:07Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Your word choice confuses me. The past perfect “had built” suggests that the house was built in 1957-1958, and they were remodelling it some time later. Alternately, “the house that they _were building_” both the construction of the house, and the suggestion about the front door, occured in 1957-1958. > > And I don’t mean that to be a petty quibble, because the time period you are takling about would help narrow down the possibilities of the TV show. I read it as the house that they _had built_ for them. Passive voice. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/27 "2006-01-23T17:38:52Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > IIRC, the door to Uncle Bill’s apartment in _Family Affair_ had a center doorknob, but that was the late 60s. I remember that very well. That was my favorite thing about that show in that strange way that children sometimes pick up on the most peripheral things and completely miss the content. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/28 "2006-01-23T17:54:41Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Your word choice confuses me. The past perfect “had built” suggests that the house was built in 1957-1958, and they were remodelling it some time later. Alternately, “the house that they _were building_” both the construction of the house, and the suggestion about the front door, occured in 1957-1958. > > And I don’t mean that to be a petty quibble, because the time period you are takling about would help narrow down the possibilities of the TV show. I hate to be confusing. We moved into the house in early 1959, so the planning would have been a year or two before that. It was a made-to-order house, and they had to go through several builders before they found one willing to build a swimming pool in the lower level of a tri-level house. It was a scary concept at the time. They took a blueprint from a tri-level that had the 2-car garage on the lower level, and they put the garage on the other end of the ground level, and put the pool on the bottom. (A tri-level means the top floor is stacked on the lower level, and the middle is off to the side, higher than the lower and lower than the upstairs. When you stood in the lower level, the ground outside was about waist-high. We had some interesting details. There was a firewood pass-through between the garage and living room. There were two walls of built-in bookshelves in the living room, and built-in cabinets in two of the bedrooms. My folks played bridge, so we had a little niche in one wall that held two card tables. There was a row of little coat closets in the hall to the garage. And, of course, there was that wacko front door. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/29 "2006-01-23T18:26:02Z")
I was thinking “My Three Sons”, but that didn’t come out until '60. And FWIW, I remember telling my parents that _we_ needed a front door with the knob in the middle, ---
**Author:** ![Jihn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Jihn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jihn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/30 "2025-04-11T14:01:17Z")
The Tv show was Dr. Kildare episode “Will love save my apartment building”. You can also see the door in this clip “The Wild Life of Lisa Loring Wednesday Addams Family TV” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/31 "2025-04-11T15:17:28Z")
I can’t answer the original ancient question, but do occasionally notice one of the center doorknobs on a TV show or movie and consider starting a thread about them, to wit: “what’s up with that?”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/32 "2025-04-11T15:22:23Z")
I saw a fair number of such houses when I visited Ireland. Might it have been a show set there? > [@AskNott](#): > > It was a made-to-order house, and they had to go through several builders before they found one willing to build a swimming pool in the lower level of a tri-level house. Now, what’s really difficult is convincing them to put it on the upper level. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021/33 "2025-04-11T15:24:06Z")
The question was answered. It was A Family Affair. > **[Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=family%2Baffair%2Bfront%2Bdoor&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1119US1119&oq=family%2Baffair%2Bfront&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTINCAIQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAMQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAQQABiGAxiABBiKBTIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRigATIHCAcQIRigATIHCAgQIRigATIKCAkQABiABBiiBNIBCTEwNDE1ajBqN6gCGbACAeIDBBgBIF_xBfapnjeaj74g&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=bJbJgkkJe0eWWM&vssid=_7DP5Z__yEbPhkPIP44nVwQk_41)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-had-a-doorknob-in-the-center-of-the-front-door/341021.md?page=1)