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'''My Three Sons''' was a situation comedy that ran from September 29, 1960 to August 24, 1972. ''My Three Sons'' chronicles the life of an aeronautical engineer and widower Steve Douglas, played by Fred MacMurray, and his three sons. This seemingly simple premise was a huge hit and a cornerstone of the CBS lineup in the 1960s. With 380 episodes produced, it is second only to ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'' as television's longest running (live-action) family sitcom. The show began on ABC in black-and-white, but moved to CBS for the 1965–66 season after ABC would not commit to the expense of producing the program in color.
Along with the change in networks and the transition to color, other changes happened during 1965: William Frawley (who had played Fred Mertz in ''I Love Lucy'' in the 1950s) played "Bub" the boy's maternal grandfather until he was declared too ill to work by Desilu Studios and the producers could no longer find insurance for him. They took a gamble on Frawley for half a season, until a suitable replacement could be found. He was replaced by William Demarest who played his brother Charley. According to Frawley's biography "Meet the Mertzes," he was never pleased with being written out of the show. He would frequently return to the studio and criticize William Demarest's performances. Frawley died a short while later. Tim Considine, who had worked with MacMurray on The Shaggy Dog, played oldest son Mike and did not renew his contract. Considine was into car racing, which his contract forbade. The character was written out with Meredith MacRae who had played his fiance and (in his last episode) new wife.
To keep the show's title plausible, Tim Considine wrote a storyline where youngest brother Richard (better known as Chip - and played by Stanley Livingston) had an orphaned friend named Ernie Thompson (played by his real-life brother Barry Livingston) who was awaiting adoption. When Steve tries to adopt Ernie, he faces trouble as a widowed parent, until Uncle Charley (Demarest) comes to the rescue. (In the storyline, the law requires a woman to live in the home of an adoptee. The judge determined that the intent of the law was to make sure a full-time caregiver would be present; with Uncle Charley meeting that role, he assents to a legal fiction declaring him "housemother" to the Douglases.. While three sons were always central to the storyline, the last year and a half of the series had fewer appearances of Don Grady and Stanley Livingston, whose characters were now both married. Grady's character was in the military, which allowed for his wife Katie and their triplet sons to remain within the Douglas household. Chip and his wife Polly had moved into their own apartment.
Reportedly, MacMurray's contract stipulated that he work only 65 days per year. His scenes for each season were produced in two blocks of filming. He would report to the Desilu-Gower lot in late May and work thirty-five days (five days per week, weekends off), then take off for 10 weeks. He would then return to complete his remaining 30 days of shooting and was finished altogether around Thanksgiving. MacMurray's ten-week hiatus in the middle of each season's production schedule freed the actor up to follow other pursuits, while the filming of scenes with the other cast members continued. This sometimes produced noticeable continuity problems onscreen, especially as the boys grew and changed styles.
''My Three Sons'' was created by George Tibbles and produced by Don Fedderson throughout the show's run, with MCA Television co-producing the series during its 1960-65 ABC run. CBS Paramount Television presently owns distribution rights to the entire series (including the more widely seen 1965-71 CBS episodes), while the ABC episodes and the final season on CBS (1971-72) are included in a separate syndication package. The color episodes were syndicated during the 1970s; the earlier black-and-white episodes were seen on Nick-at-Nite in the 1980s, as the color ones were during the 1990s.

Contents

Main Cast

External links

Main Cast

★ Fred MacMurray, Steven "Steve" Douglas

★ Tim Considine, Michael "Mike" Douglas (1960–1965)

★ Don Grady, Robert "Robbie" Douglas

★ Stanley Livingston, Richard "Chip" Douglas

★ Barry Livingston, Ernest "Ernie" Thompson/Douglas (1965–1972)

★ William Frawley, Michael Francis "Bub" O'Casey (1960–1965)

★ Meredith MacRae, Sally Ann Morrison Douglas (1963–1965)

★ William Demarest, Uncle Charley O'Casey, Bub's brother (1965–1972)

★ Tina Cole, Katie Miller Douglas (1967–1972)

★ Beverly Garland, Barbara Harper Douglas (1969–1972)

★ Dawn Lyn, Dodie Harper Douglas (1969–1972)

★ Ronne Troup, Polly Williams Douglas (1970–1972)

★ Daniel, Joseph and Michael Todd, Robbie, Stevie and Charley Douglas (respectively, 1970–1972)
Recurring cast:

★ Cheryl Holdridge, Judy Doucette (1960-1964)

★ Mimi Gibson, Carol (1966-1968)

★ Lesley-Marie Colburn, Frieda (1964-1965)

★ Marcia Mae Jones, Mary (1964-1968)

★ Susan Gordon, Eloise (1962-1967)

★ Marta Kristen, Linda Francis (1960-1964)

★ Ricky Allen, Sudsy Pfeiffer (1961-1967)

★ Hank Jones, Pete (1964-1966)

External links

★ The Museum of Broadcast Communications' page on ''My Three Sons''

★ My Three Sons TV Show - My Three Sons Television Show - TV.com

★ My Three Sons website from Vintage TV & Movies