My Three Sons
My Three Sons | |
---|---|
Original release | |
Network | ABC (seasons 1–5) CBS (seasons 6–12) |
Release | September 29, 1960 April 13, 1972 | –
My Three Sons is an American television
The series originally featured William Frawley (who had first co-starred with Fred MacMurray 25 years earlier in the film Car 99) as the boys' maternal grandfather and live-in housekeeper, William Michael Francis "Bub" O'Casey. William Demarest, playing Bub's brother, "Uncle Charley", replaced Frawley in 1965 because of Frawley's declining health. In September 1965 (when the show moved from ABC to CBS and began to be filmed in color), eldest son Mike (Tim Considine) married fiancée Sally Ann Morrison (Meredith MacRae), and his character was written out of the show. To keep the emphasis on "three sons", original youngest son Chip's (Stanley Livingston) friend Ernie (Barry Livingston, Stanley's real-life brother) was adopted. In the program's later years, Steven Douglas married Barbara Harper (Beverly Garland) and adopted her young daughter Dorothy Anne ("Dodie") (Dawn Lyn).
The series was a cornerstone of the ABC and CBS lineups in the 1960s.
A Lawrence Welk cover version of the theme song reached #12 in Canada, April 24, 1961.[2]
History
ABC years
The show began on ABC in black-and-white. The first season, consisting of 36 episodes, was directed in its entirety by Peter Tewksbury, the Emmy-winning director of "Father Knows Best," who produced and occasionally scripted the programs.[3]
During the 1964 fall season, William Frawley, who played Bub, was declared too ill to work by Desilu Studios, as the company was informed that insuring the actor would be too costly. Frawley continued in the role until a suitable replacement could be found at midseason. He was replaced by William Demarest, who played his hard-nosed brother (great) Uncle Charley, introduced partway through the 1964–1965 season (the last on ABC). According to the storyline, Bub returns to Ireland to help his Aunt Kate celebrate her 104th birthday. Soon after, brother Charley visits and stays on. Charley, a cello-playing merchant sailor, was a soft-hearted curmudgeon, who proved to be a responsible caregiver. Frawley left the series before the end of the 1964–1965 season. He died March 3, 1966.[4]
The address of the fictional home in Bryant Park was 837 Mill Street. The actual address of the home used for the Bryant Park episodes was 837 5th Avenue in Los Angeles California. Many of the 1960s My Three Sons external shoots were actually done on location on 5th Avenue.
Directors
Peter Tewksbury directed the first season. The succeeding director,
CBS years
My Three Sons moved to the CBS television network for the 1965–1966 season after ABC declined to underwrite the expense of producing the program in color. Along with the change in networks and the transition to color, Tim Considine (who had earlier worked with Fred MacMurray on
To keep the show's title plausible, the show's head writer, George Tibbles, fashioned a three-part story arc in which an orphaned friend of youngest brother Richard (Chip, played by Stanley Livingston), Ernie Thompson (played by his real-life brother, Barry Livingston), awaits adoption when his current foster parents are transferred to the Orient. Steve offers to adopt Ernie, but faces antagonism from Uncle Charley, who finds Ernie a bit grating and forecasts major headaches over both the boy and his dog. It also transpires that a law requires a woman to live in the home of an adoptive family. A likable female social worker supervises the case and the Douglases speculate that Steve might marry the woman to make the adoption possible, but they agree that this is not reason enough for them to be married. Also, the family has no need for a housekeeper; Uncle Charley already has things running smoothly. The family soon appears before a judge who researches the law and determines that its intent is to ensure that a full-time caregiver is in the household. As Charley meets that role and has had a change of heart about Ernie, he assents to a legal fiction that declares him the Douglas family's "housemother".[6]
While the three sons were always central to the storyline, several major changes took place by the late 1960s. In the spring of 1967, the series' ratings began to sag, and it finished its seventh season in 31st place in the Nielsen ratings. It was decided that the 1967–1968 season would bring the program not only a new time slot but also new storylines to spice up the ratings. In the fall of 1967, CBS moved My Three Sons to Saturday at 8:30 pm ET. In the season premiere episode, "Moving Day", the Douglas family and Uncle Charley relocate from the fictional Midwestern town of Bryant Park to Los Angeles, California. Robbie (Don Grady) marries his girlfriend Katie Miller. Katie is played by Tina Cole, who had appeared in different roles on three previous episodes: "House For Sale" from the fourth season (February 13, 1964), "The Coffee House Set" from the fifth season (November 19, 1964), and "Robbie and the Little Stranger" from the sixth season (February 17, 1966). At the end of the 1967–1968 season, the ratings had improved from the previous year with the series placing at 24th in the Nielsens. The following season, the newlyweds discover that Katie is pregnant and she gives birth to triplets named Robert, Steven, and Charles. Originally played by sets of uncredited twins, the boys were later played uncredited by Guy, Gunnar, and Garth Swanson; and in the last two seasons by Michael, Daniel, and Joseph Todd.
The following year in the 10th season, 1969–1970, Steve remarries. His new bride, widowed teacher Barbara Harper (Beverly Garland), brings with her a five-year-old daughter, Dorothy "Dodie" (Dawn Lyn), whom Steve adopts. Dodie is wary of Steve at first, believing that he wants her to just forget her late father, but he explains that he wants her to always remember and love him, but since he's no longer alive, Steve wants to raise her in his place and he hopes she'll come to love him, too. The series' last year and a half feature fewer appearances from both Don Grady and Stanley Livingston. Grady's character was written out at the end of the 11th season, which allowed for his wife Katie and their triplet sons to remain in the Douglas household for the following season (as a structural engineer Robbie was working on a bridge construction in Peru). Meanwhile, Chip and his teenage wife Polly (Ronne Troup), who had eloped after Polly's disciplinarian father refused to sanction their marriage, move into their own apartment.
At the end of the 1970–1971 season, the show's 11th year, My Three Sons was still garnering healthy ratings. By the spring of 1971, it had finished in 19th place. A 1971 television pilot with Don Grady and Tina Cole called Three of a Kind, then retitled Robbie—about Robbie, Katie, and the triplets moving to San Francisco—was filmed but not picked up as a series.
For the series' 12th and, ultimately, final season, CBS moved the show to Mondays at 10:00 pm ET. In addition to the time changes for the 12th season, a new four-part story arc is introduced with MacMurray in a second role, that of his cousin, the Laird (Lord) Fergus McBain Douglas of Sithian Bridge; English actor Alan Caillou's voice was dubbed over MacMurray's. The plot centers on Lord Douglas's arrival in Los Angeles from the family's native Scotland, in search of a bride to take back to Scotland with him.
He finds Terri Dowling (Anne Francis), a waitress at the Blue Berry Bowling Alley. While initially reluctant to give up her life in America and return to Scotland as nobility, she finally accepts. This storyline continues a plot idea that originally began in the fourth season, when the Douglases visited Scotland on the pretense of having been told they had inherited a castle in the Highlands.[8]
With a later time slot, the show finished the season outside the top 30. To save the series, CBS moved it in midseason back to Thursdays at 8:30 pm ET, its old time slot. Nevertheless, My Three Sons ended its primetime run in the spring of 1972 after 12 years on the air. CBS also aired daytime reruns starting in September 1971 (only the CBS color shows), for about one season.
Cast
Main
- Fred MacMurray, Steve Douglas (1960–1972)
- William Frawley, William Michael Francis Aloysius "Bub" O'Casey: Steve's father-in-law (1960–1965)
- William Demarest, Charles Leslie "Uncle Charley" O'Casey: Bub's younger brother (1965–1972)
- Tim Considine, Mike Douglas: Steve's son (1960–1965)
- Don Grady, Robbie Douglas: Steve's son (1960–1971)
- Stanley Livingston, Richard "Chip" Douglas: Steve's son (1960–1972)
- Barry Livingston, Ernie Thompson-Douglas: Steve's adoptive son (1963–1972)
- Meredith MacRae, Sally Ann Morrison-Douglas: Mike's wife (1963–1965)
- Tina Cole, Katie Miller-Douglas: Robbie's wife (1967–1972)
- Beverly Garland, Barbara Harper-Douglas: Steve's 2nd wife (1969–1972)
- Dawn Lyn, Dorothy Anne "Dodie" Harper-Douglas: Barbara's daughter (1969–1972)
- Ronne Troup, Polly Williams-Douglas: Chip's wife (1970–1972)
- Michael, Daniel, and Joseph Todd, playing Robbie, Stevie, and Charley Douglas: Robbie & Katie's triplet sons respectively (1970–1972)
Recurring
- Cynthia Pepper, Jean Pearson (1960–1961)
- Peter Brooks, Hank Ferguson (1960–1963)
- Cheryl Holdridge, Judy Doucette (1960–1961)
- Ricky Allen, Hubert 'Sudsy' Pfeiffer (1961–1963)
- Hank Jones, Pete (1964–1966)
- Bill Erwin, Joe Walters (1962–1964)
- Doris Singleton, Helen Morrison (1964–65) and Margaret Williams (1970)
- John Howard, Dave Welch (1965–1967)
- Joan Tompkins, Lorraine Miller (1967–1970)
- Eleanor Audley, Mrs. Beatrice Vincent (1969-1970)
- Norman Alden, Tom Williams (1970)
Episodes
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Rank | Rating | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | Network | |||||
1 | 36 | September 29, 1960 | June 8, 1961 | ABC | 13 | 25.8[a] | |
2 | 36 | September 28, 1961 | June 7, 1962 | 11 | 24.7 | ||
3 | 39 | September 20, 1962 | June 20, 1963 | 28 | 21.0 | ||
4 | 37 | September 19, 1963 | May 28, 1964 | 27 | 21.9 | ||
5 | 36 | September 17, 1964 | May 20, 1965 | 13 | 25.5 | ||
6 | 32 | September 16, 1965 | April 28, 1966 | CBS | 15 | 23.8 | |
7 | 32 | September 15, 1966 | May 11, 1967 | 29 | 20.2[b] | ||
8 | 30 | September 9, 1967 | March 30, 1968 | 24 | 20.8 | ||
9 | 28 | September 28, 1968 | April 19, 1969 | 14 | 22.8 | ||
10 | 26 | October 4, 1969 | April 4, 1970 | 15 | 21.8[c] | ||
11 | 24 | September 19, 1970 | March 20, 1971 | 19 | 20.8 | ||
12 | 24 | September 13, 1971 | April 13, 1972 | 42[9] | 17.2[10] |
My Three Sons had 36 episodes each in the first two seasons. The series had at least thirty episodes in each of the first eight seasons; the episode output then decreased by two episodes until the eleventh season, which had twenty-four episodes, along with the twelfth season. The first five seasons were filmed in black & white, then after the move to CBS, it was filmed in color for the remainder of its run.
Production
The series was initially filmed at
Distribution
Although
In 2009,
MeTV began airing the black and white episodes on May 29, 2017,[11] the first time the black and white episodes had aired on broadcast television since their original ABC airings. MeTV aired all episodes in order until August 3, 2018, when the series's last episode aired. This marked the first time a U.S. television station aired the entire series in full. MeTV started reairing the entire series again on August 6, 2018 and has continued to do so ever since. Additionally, Catchy Comedy aired a Catchy Binge of the series from September 9 to 11, 2023.
Reunion special
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2017) |
MacMurray and most of the cast took part in Thanksgiving Reunion with The Partridge Family and My Three Sons, which aired on ABC on November 25, 1977. The retrospective special looked back at the history of My Three Sons and The Partridge Family (other than featuring single parents with a large family, the two series had no narrative, or even a studio, link). The special was notable for featuring footage from early black and white episodes of My Three Sons that, at this point in time, were not in syndication. While most of the collected casts gathered in a studio to reminisce, Demarest appeared in a brief pre-taped segment.
Home media
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first five seasons of My Three Sons on DVD in Region 1.[12][13]
In most episodes, the soundtrack was edited to remove the background musical score, which were originally
On May 13, 2019, the third season was released, in two volume sets, available exclusively through Amazon's made-on-demand (MOD) service.[15][16] Season 4 was released on September 10, 2019[17][18] and season 5 on December 17, 2019.[19][20]
DVD name | No. of episodes |
Release date |
---|---|---|
The First Season: Volume 1 | 18 | September 30, 2008 |
The First Season: Volume 2 | 18 | January 20, 2009 |
The Second Season: Volume 1 | 18 | February 23, 2010 |
The Second Season: Volume 2 | 18 | June 15, 2010 |
The Third Season: Volume 1 | 20 | May 13, 2019 |
The Third Season: Volume 2 | 19 | May 13, 2019 |
The Fourth Season: Volume 1 | 18 | September 10, 2019 |
The Fourth Season: Volume 2 | 19 | September 10, 2019 |
The Fifth Season: Volume 1 | 18 | December 17, 2019 |
The Fifth Season: Volume 2 | 18 | December 17, 2019 |
Explanatory notes
- ^ Tied with 77 Sunset Strip
- ^ Tied with I Spy, the CBS Thursday Night Movie, and The F.B.I.
- ^ Tied with Ironside and The Johnny Cash Show
References
- ^ Korkis, Jim (August 26, 2009). "Fred MacMurray: The First Disney Legend by Wade Sampson". Mouseplanet.com. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ "CHUM Hit Parade - April 24, 1961".
- ^ Oliver, Myrna (February 24, 2003). "Henry Peter Tewksbury, 79; Vermont's 'Cheeseman' Originated 'My Three Sons'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ "The Foote Files: 60 Years Of My Three Sons - CBS Texas". www.cbsnews.com. February 10, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ Season six, episode three - "Brother, Ernie"
- ^ Terrace, Vincent Encyclopedia of Television Pilots, 1937–2012 McFarland
- ^ Season four, episode two – "Scotch Broth"
- ^ "The TV Ratings Guide: 1971-72 Ratings History".
- ^ "The TV Ratings Guide: 1971-72 Ratings History".
- ^ "'ALF,' 'My Three Sons', 'Battlestar Galactica', and more join the MeTV Summer of Me 2017 Schedule". Metv.com. May 6, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ "My Three Sons - Season 2, Vol. 1 Announced: Release Date and Package Art". Tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ "My Three Sons - Release DAte and Package art for 'Season 2, Vol. 2' DVDs". Tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ Shostak, Stu (June 18, 2014). Interview with Michael Schlesinger, Stu's Show; retrieved June 22, 2014.
- ^ "My Three Sons, Season 3 Volume 1". June 19, 2019 – via Amazon.
- ^ "My Three Sons, Season 3 Volume 2". May 13, 2019 – via Amazon.
- ^ "My Three Sons, Season 4 Volume 1". September 11, 2019 – via Amazon.
- ^ "My Three Sons, Season 4 Volume 2". September 11, 2019 – via Amazon.
- ^ "My Three Sons: The Fifth Season Volume 1". DeepDiscount.
- ^ "My Three Sons: The Fifth Season Volume 2". DeepDiscount.