[8] Premiere episode:[9][8] Replacement cast:[2] Newsday columnist Jo Coppola harshly criticized the television adaptation, saying "Even when the industry gets its hands on superior material, the end result is rotten."

She called the script "inept, implausible and routine," and said that Ames character emerges as a "rude, bumbling and arrogant man" and lacking in the original production's warmth and humor.

[10] New York Times reviewer Jack Gould called the premiere episode a "tawdry and pedestrian Hollywood farce in the worst video tradition," and described the title character as a "monstrous caricature of the original.

"[11] Mary Cremmen, the Boston Globe television columnist, observed that the Ames' first performances "exaggerated the raving, explosive aspects of the Father far more than we ever recalled seeing on stage," but that his characterization had "mellowed considerably" by the December 27, 1953 program.

[12] Gould expressed similar views in a February 1954 review, saying that the show has "retrieved itself splendidly" and praised Ames' performance, saying "there is now the warmth and characterization vital to faithful interpretation of the Clarence Day Jr.