My Three Sons You Can t Go Home Again

American sitcom

My Three Sons
Genre	Sitcom
Created past	Don Fedderson
Starring	Fred MacMurray William Frawley William Demarest Don Grady Stanley Livingston Barry Livingston Tim Considine Meredith MacRae Tina Cole Beverly Garland Dawn Lyn Ronne Troup Daniel, Joseph, and Michael Todd
Theme music composer	Frank De Vol
Land of origin	United states of america
Original linguistic communication	English
No. of seasons	12
No. of episodes	380 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Don Fedderson
Producers	Peter Tewksbury (1960–1961) George Tibbles (1961–1962) Edmund L. Hartmann (1962–1972)
Running time	25 minutes
Product companies	Don Fedderson Productions Gregg-Don, Inc. (1960–1965) (seasons 1–5) MCA TV (1960–1965) (seasons one–5) CBS Productions (1965–1972) (seasons half dozen–12)
Distributor	Viacom Enterprises (1976–1994) CBS Television set Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC (1960–1965) CBS (1965–1972)
Picture format	Black-and-white (1960–1965) Color (1965–1972)
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	September 29, 1960 (1960-09-29) – Apr xiii, 1972 (1972-04-13)

My Three Sons is an American sitcom. The series had a long run, from 1960 through 1972. ABC broadcast the show from 1960 through 1965, and so the series moved to CBS until the cease of its run on April 13, 1972. My 3 Sons chronicles the life of widower and aeronautical engineer Steven Douglas (Fred MacMurray) as he raises his 3 sons.

The serial originally featured William Frawley (who had outset co-starred with Fred MacMurray 25 years earlier in the movie Car 99) as the boys' maternal grandad 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 testify moved from ABC to CBS and began to exist filmed in colour), eldest son Mike (Tim Considine) married fiancée Sally Ann Morrison (Meredith MacRae), and his character was written out of the show. To keep the accent on "three sons", original youngest son Chip's (Stanley Livingston) friend Ernie (Barry Livingston) 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. Disney producer Beak Walsh frequently mused on whether the concept of the testify was inspired past the film The Shaggy Dog, as in his view they shared "the same canis familiaris, the same kids, and Fred MacMurray".^[1]

History [edit]

The ABC cast of My Three Sons, with William Frawley, 1962. Clockwise from left: William Frawley every bit Bub, Tim Considine as Mike, Fred MacMurray as Steve, Don Grady equally Robbie, and Stanley Livingston as Chip.

ABC years [edit]

The testify began on ABC in black-and-white. The showtime flavor, consisting of 36 episodes, was directed in its entirety past Peter Tewksbury, who produced and occasionally scripted the programs.^[2]

During the 1964 autumn season, William Frawley, who played Bub, was alleged too ill to work by Desilu Studios, as the company was informed that insuring the actor would be likewise costly. Frawley connected in the part until a suitable replacement could exist found at midseason. He was replaced past William Demarest, who played his hard-nosed brother (bang-up) Uncle Charley, introduced partway through the 1964–1965 season (the last on ABC). According to the storyline, Bub returns to Republic of ireland to help his Aunt Kate celebrate her 104th altogether. 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.

Directors [edit]

Peter Tewksbury directed the first season. The succeeding director, Richard Whorf, took over the reins for ane flavor and was in turn followed past former actor-turned-manager Cistron Reynolds from 1962 to 1964. James V. Kern, an experienced Hollywood idiot box managing director who had previously helmed the "Hollywood" and "Europe" episodes of I Love Lucy, continued in this role for ii years until his untimely death at 57 in late 1966. Director James Sheldon was too contracted to finish episodes that had been partly completed by Kern to complete that season. Fred De Cordova was the show's longest and most consistent director of the series (108 episodes) until he left in 1971 to produce The Tonight Testify Starring Johnny Carson. Earl Bellamy rounded out the series as managing director of the show'due south terminal yr.^[iii]

CBS years [edit]

My 3 Sons moved to the CBS television network for the 1965–1966 season later ABC declined to underwrite the expense of producing the program in color. Along with the change in networks and the transition to colour, Tim Considine (who had earlier worked with Fred MacMurray on The Shaggy Dog), playing eldest son Mike, had chosen not to renew his contract due to a clash with executive producer Don Fedderson over Considine's wish to straight but not co-star in the series. (Considine did, however, direct one of the final black-and-white episodes for ABC.) In an August 1989 interview on the Pat Sajak Bear witness, he explained that he was also devoted to motorcar racing, which his contract forbade. His graphic symbol was written out, along with Meredith MacRae, who had played his fiancée Emerge, in a wedding episode that was the premiere of the 1965–1966 season on CBS. After this episode, Mike is mentioned briefly in simply iv succeeding episodes (including the i in which the family adopts Ernie) and is never seen once more, even at Robbie's and Steve's weddings. (Steve explains briefly in one of these episodes that he has another son who "lives away from home".) In the episode "Steve and the Huntress" (first aired January 27, 1966), Mike is specifically mentioned equally teaching at a college. MacRae joined Petticoat Junction the post-obit year, the last of 3 actresses to play Billie Jo Bradley.

To go on the show's championship plausible, the show's head writer, George Tibbles, fashioned a iii-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 animosity from Uncle Charley, who finds Ernie a scrap grating and forecasts major headaches over both the boy and his dog. It also transpires that a law requires a adult female to alive in the dwelling house of an adoptive family. A likable female person social worker supervises the case and the Douglases speculate that Steve might marry the woman to make the adoption possible, but they concur that this is non reason enough for them to be married. Besides, the family has no demand for a housekeeper; Uncle Charley already has things running smoothly. The family soon appears before a judge who researches the police and determines that its intent is to ensure that a full-time caregiver is in the household. As Charley meets that part and has had a change of heart nearly Ernie, he assents to a legal fiction that declares him the Douglas family's "housemother".^[4]

While the 3 sons were always central to the storyline, several major changes took identify 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 flavor 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 Iii Sons to Saturday at eight:30 pm ET. In the season premiere episode, "Moving 24-hour interval", the Douglas family unit and Uncle Charley relocate from the fictional Midwestern boondocks 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: "Firm For Sale" from the fourth flavor (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 terminate of the 1967–1968 season, the ratings had improved from the previous year with the series placing at 24th in the Nielsens. The post-obit season, the newlyweds discover that Katie is pregnant and she gives nascency to triplets named Robert, Steven, and Charles. Originally played by sets of uncredited twins, the boys were later played uncredited past Guy, Gunnar, and Garth Swanson; and in the last two seasons past Michael, Daniel, and Joseph Todd.

The following twelvemonth in the tenth season, 1969–1970, Steve remarries. His new bride, widowed teacher Barbara Harper (Beverly Garland), brings with her a 5-yr-former daughter, Dorothy "Dodie" (Dawn Lyn), whom Steve adopts. Dodie is wary of Steve at start, believing that he wants her to just forget her late begetter, but he explains that he wants her to always think and honey him, but since he's no longer live, Steve wants to raise her in his place and he hopes she'll come to honey him, too. The series' last year and a half feature fewer appearances from both Don Grady and Stanley Livingston. Grady'south graphic symbol was written out at the cease of the 11th season, which immune 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 later on Polly's disciplinarian father refused to sanction their marriage, move into their own apartment.

At the terminate of the 1970–1971 season, the show's 11th year, My 3 Sons was still garnering salubrious ratings. By the leap of 1971, it had finished in 19th place. A 1971 television pilot with Don Grady and Tina Cole called Three of a Kind, and so retitled Robbie—nearly Robbie, Katie, and the triplets moving to San Francisco—was filmed only non picked up as a series.^[5] The final episode of the 1970–1971 flavour, "After the Honeymoon", really fix the premise for this pilot. Richard X. Slattery and Pat Carroll guest-starred as the landlords of the flat block into which Robbie and Katie movement. However, Don Grady had informed the producers of his intention to leave the serial and pursue a new full-time career as a composer, which he ultimately did.

For the serial' 12th and, ultimately, terminal flavor, CBS moved the show to Mondays at ten:00 pm ET. In addition to the time changes for the twelfth season, a new four-part story arc is introduced with MacMurray in a 2nd part, that of his cousin, the Laird (Lord) Fergus McBain Douglas of Sithian Bridge; English language thespian Alan Caillou's vocalisation was dubbed over MacMurray's. The plot centers on Lord Douglas'due south 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 Blueish Drupe Bowling Alley. While initially reluctant to give upwardly her life in America and render to Scotland as dignity, 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.^[6]

With a later time slot, the show finished the flavour exterior the top 30. To save the series, CBS moved it in midseason back to Thursdays at 8:30 pm ET, its old fourth dimension slot. Withal, My Three Sons ended its primetime run in the leap of 1972 after 12 years on the air. CBS also aired daytime reruns starting in September 1971 (only the CBS colour shows), for about one season.

Cast [edit]

Main [edit]

• Fred MacMurray, Steve Douglas (1960–1972)
• William Frawley, William Michael Francis Aloysius "Bub" O'Casey (1960–1965)
• William Demarest, Charles Leslie "Uncle Charley" O'Casey, Bub's brother (1965–1972)
• Tim Considine, Mike Douglas (1960–1965)
• Don Grady, Robbie Douglas (1960–1971)
• Stanley Livingston, Richard "Chip" Douglas (1960–1972)
• Barry Livingston, Ernie Thompson/Douglas (1963–1972)
• Meredith MacRae, Sally Ann Morrison Douglas (1963–1965)
• Tina Cole, Katie Miller Douglas (1967–1972)
• Beverly Garland, Barbara Harper Douglas (1969–1972)
• Dawn Lyn, Dorothy "Dodie" Harper Douglas (1969–1972)
• Ronne Troup, Polly Williams Douglas (1970–1972)
• Michael, Daniel, and Joseph Todd, playing Robbie, Stevie, and Charley Douglas respectively (1970–1972)

Recurring [edit]

• 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)
• Norman Alden, Tom Williams (1970)

Episodes [edit]

My Three Sons had 36 episodes each in the outset ii seasons. The series had at to the lowest degree thirty episodes in each of the first eight seasons; the episode output then decreased past two episodes until the eleventh flavour, which had twenty-four episodes, along with the twelfth flavor. The beginning v seasons were filmed in blackness & white, then later on the motion to CBS, it was filmed in color for the residuum of its run.

Production schedule [edit]

The series was initially filmed at Desilu Studios in Hollywood, but at the start of the 1967–68 flavor, the cast and crew began filming the series at the CBS Studio Heart in Studio City, California. The reasons behind this move concerned the auction of actress-comedian Lucille Ball's studios to the Gulf + Western conglomerate, which owned Paramount Pictures, then Don Fedderson Productions, who produced My Three Sons (along with Family Affair starring Brian Keith), had to speedily brand other arrangements for filming.

Distribution [edit]

Although Don Fedderson gets the credit, My Three Sons was created past George Tibbles and produced past Don Fedderson Productions throughout the show'southward run, with MCA Television co-distributing the series during its 1960–65 ABC airing. When the series moved to CBS in 1965, the latter network assumed total production responsibilities (in clan with Fedderson Productions) until the finish of the series in 1972. CBS now holds the serial' copyright. CBS Television Distribution shortly owns distribution rights to the entire serial (including the more widely seen and aforementioned 1965–72 CBS episodes). The bear witness did not become syndicated until September 1976, when Viacom Enterprises assumed off-network distribution (although CBS did air reruns of the show in its daytime lineup from December 1971 until the fall of 1972), and even so, only the CBS colour episodes aired, while the black and white ABC episodes did not air on broadcast Television receiver at all. At the time, the first one-half of season xi was in the same syndication packet as seasons 6-10, while season 12 and the second half of season 11 were distributed with seasons 1–5.

Nick at Nite aired My 3 Sons from November 3, 1985, to Oct 28, 1991, with episodes from Seasons 1–five, the 2nd half of season 11, and season 12. The Family Aqueduct as well aired but the black and white episodes from September 7, 1992, to July 30, 1993. The Seasons 1–3 episodes had the original Chevrolet closing credits. The Seasons 6–10 (and the first one-half of flavour 11) episodes were subsequently aired on Television set Country in the late 1990s. Odyssey ran all of the colour episodes in the early 2000s. They besides briefly aired the blackness and white episodes. In 2000, TV State briefly aired the black & white episodes again, using the same syndication episode rights that were on Nick at Nite during the 1980s. In 2006 the Retro Television Network broadcast the show. Just seasons half-dozen-ten and the first half of season 11 were aired.

Since fall 2004, the standard U.s.a. syndication package has been Seasons 6-10, though very few stations air the show anymore.

In 2009, FamilyNet began airing the plan as a lead-in for its Happy Days and Family unit Ties program cake, which concluded in February 2010. From 2012 to 2014, and also from October 2015-February 2016, MeTV aired the Season 6-ten episodes in heavy rotation, and about closing credits included the original sponsor tags, such as those for Kellogg's. In 2016, Decades began airing the CBS (colour) episodes in its "binge" blocks on some weekends.

MeTV began airing the black and white episodes on May 29, 2017,^[9] the first time the black and white episodes accept aired on broadcast television since their original ABC airings. MeTV aired all episodes in order until Baronial 3, 2018, when the serial'due south terminal episode aired. This marks the first time a U.South. tv station aired the entire serial in total. MeTV started reairing the entire series again on August six, 2018 and has continued to do so ever since.

Reunion special [edit]

MacMurray and most of the cast took part in Thanksgiving Reunion with The Partridge Family and My Iii 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 unit (other than featuring single parents with a big family, the two serial 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 [edit]

CBS DVD (distributed past Paramount) has released the first five seasons of My Three Sons on DVD in Region 1.^{[10] [11]}

In most episodes, the soundtrack was edited to remove the background musical score, which were originally stock music from the Capitol Records library; the licensing agreement with Capitol but covered broadcast rights, not home video rights, and clearing the music for domicile video release with the individual composers who worked on the Capitol recordings was deemed cost-prohibitive. The Capitol scores were replaced instead with more modern, synthesized music.^[12] The original theme tune by Frank DeVol has been left unaltered; his musical scores in later seasons of the bear witness, written specifically for the series, would less-probable be affected by licensing problems if the later seasons were released on DVD.^{[ citation needed ]}

On May 13, 2019, the third flavor was released, in ii volume sets, available exclusively through Amazon's made-on-need (MOD) service.^{[13] [xiv]} Season 4 was released on September 10, 2019^{[fifteen] [16]} and flavor five on December 17, 2019.^{[17] [18]}

DVD name	No. of episodes	Release engagement
The First Season: Volume 1	18	September 30, 2008
The First Flavor: Book 2	eighteen	January 20, 2009
The Second Season: Volume one	18	Feb 23, 2010
The Second Flavor: Volume 2	18	June fifteen, 2010
The Third Season: Volume 1	20	May thirteen, 2019
The Third Flavour: Book ii	19	May xiii, 2019
The Quaternary Flavor: Book 1	xviii	September 10, 2019
The Fourth Season: Volume two	19	September 10, 2019
The Fifth Season: Volume 1	18	Dec 17, 2019
The 5th Flavour: Volume 2	18	Dec 17, 2019

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Tied with 77 Sunset Strip
2. ^ Tied with I Spy, The CBS Th Nighttime Moving-picture show, and The F.B.I.
3. ^ Tied with Ironside and The Johnny Cash Bear witness

References [edit]

1. ^ Korkis, Jim. "Fred MacMurray: The First Disney Legend by Wade Sampson". Mouseplanet.com . Retrieved May 18, 2017.
2. ^ Peter Tewksbury at IMDb
3. ^ "My Three Sons - Full cast and crew". IMDb.com. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
4. ^ Flavour six, episode iii - "Brother, Ernie"
5. ^ Terrace, Vincent Encyclopedia of Television Pilots, 1937–2012 McFarland
6. ^ Season four, episode 2 – "Scotch Broth"
7. ^ "The Telly Ratings Guide: 1971-72 Ratings History".
8. ^ "The TV Ratings Guide: 1971-72 Ratings History".
9. ^ "'ALF,' 'My 3 Sons', 'Battlestar Galactica', and more join the MeTV Summer of Me 2017 Schedule". Metv.com. May vi, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
10. ^ "My 3 Sons - Season 2, Vol. ane Announced: Release Date and Package Fine art". Tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
11. ^ "My Three Sons - Release DAte and Package fine art for 'Season 2, Vol. 2' DVDs". Tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on August eleven, 2017. Retrieved May xviii, 2017.
12. ^ Shostak, Stu (June 18, 2014). Interview with Michael Schlesinger, Stu'southward Show; retrieved June 22, 2014.
13. ^ "My Three Sons, Flavor iii Book ane" – via Amazon.
14. ^ "My 3 Sons, Season 3 Volume 2" – via Amazon.
15. ^ "My Iii Sons, Season four Volume 1" – via Amazon.
16. ^ "My Three Sons, Flavor 4 Volume two" – via Amazon.
17. ^ "My Three Sons: The Fifth Season Volume 1". DeepDiscount.
18. ^ "My 3 Sons: The 5th Flavor Book 2". DeepDiscount.

External links [edit]

• My Three Sons at IMDb
• My Three Sons at epguides.com
• My Three Sons at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• My 3 Sons at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Three_Sons

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