Series synopsis
My Three Sons is an American comedy family television series that premiered on CBS on September 29, 1960. It ended on April 13, 1972. It stars Fred MacMurray, Don Grady, Tim Considine and Stanley Livingston.
A widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and later the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son, a stepdaughter, wives, and another generation of sons join the loving family in later seasons.
Premise
A widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and later the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son, a stepdaughter, wives, and another generation of sons join the loving family in later seasons.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Fred MacMurray as Steve Douglas
- Don Grady as Robbie Douglas
- Tim Considine as Mike Douglas
- Stanley Livingston as Chip Douglas
- Barry Livingston as Ernie Thompson
- William Demarest as Charley O'Casey
- Beverly Garland as Barbara
- William Frawley as Bub O'Casey
Supporting cast
- Dawn Lyn as Dodie Harper Douglas
Guest cast
Episodes
This series spans 12 seasons with 380 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 36 | September 29, 1960 | June 8, 1961 |
| Season 2 | 36 | September 28, 1961 | June 7, 1962 |
| Season 3 | 39 | September 20, 1962 | June 20, 1963 |
| Season 4 | 37 | September 19, 1963 | May 28, 1964 |
| Season 5 | 36 | September 17, 1964 | May 20, 1965 |
| Season 6 | 32 | September 16, 1965 | April 28, 1966 |
| Season 7 | 32 | September 15, 1966 | May 11, 1967 |
| Season 8 | 30 | September 9, 1967 | March 30, 1968 |
| Season 9 | 28 | September 28, 1968 | April 19, 1969 |
| Season 10 | 26 | October 4, 1969 | April 4, 1970 |
| Season 11 | 24 | September 19, 1970 | March 20, 1971 |
| Season 12 | 24 | September 13, 1971 | April 13, 1972 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Chip-Off the Old Block Aeronautical Engineer Steve Douglas and his youngest son Chip face a parallel problem -- how to rid themselves of two designing females. |
September 29, 1960 |
| 2 |
The Little Ragpicker The Annual School rag drive starts Chip off on a scavenger hunt of the neighbourhood. Every time the neighbor, Miss Pitts, looks out the window she sees strange happenings at the Douglas household. |
October 6, 1960 |
| 3 |
Bub in the Ointment When Bub steps on the toes of each grandson in turn, Steve is about to rebuke him when the household returns to normal once again. Being chief cook, dishwasher and housekeeper to three boys is not fun for a grandfather as Bub soon finds out. |
October 13, 1960 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Birds And Bees When Chip announces Tramp is the father of six puppies, Steve is concerned because he has never explained the cycle of life to his son. But before long a confused Chip thinks that his teacher is going to marry his father. |
September 28, 1961 |
| 2 |
Instant Hate The good neighbour policy gets a real workout when the boys, and later Bub, tangle individually with members of the new family across the street. Steve lectures them but on his way to work as he's backing out the driveway, he is delayed by a fender-denting idiot who turns out to be none other than Mr. Kaylor - the neighbor across the street. |
October 5, 1961 |
| 3 |
The Crush Mike has found a girl at college, Mary Beth. But when he brings her home to meet the family, she makes a beeline straight for Steve, who is trapped into tutoring her in trigonometry. This gives Mike a few jealous moments until all is resolved. |
October 12, 1961 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Weekend in Tokyo Steve is going on a business trip to Japan and thinks he might as well take his family along with him. Mike gets involved in a new romance with another beautiful girl named Kimiko and suddenly he forgets his girlfriend back home. |
September 20, 1962 |
| 2 |
Robbie's Employment Service Robbie and Hank think there is only one thing in the whole world that impresses girls -- money! So they decide to open their own home help unit in the hope of making the big bucks that they are constantly in need of. However, they run into competition from Chip who organises baby-sitting as a means of increasing his allowance to buy a new bicycle. |
September 27, 1962 |
| 3 |
Tramp's First Bite Tramp supposedly takes a nip out of pampered young Alan Edgerton and the court case that follows, gives Robbie the chance to help out the family's lawyer with some special investigating when he realises he can prove that the dog acted in self defense. |
October 4, 1962 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Almost the Sound of Music To capture the affections of a pretty blond, Robbie turns pop composer and produces a novelty song. The family agrees to do the vocal background, but when they are selected to sing the song on television, Steve gets a bad case of stagefright. |
September 19, 1963 |
| 2 |
Scotch Broth The Douglas family inherit a castle in Scotland from their Scottish Grandfather and the whole family descends upon Sheehan Bridge to see it. Not only does 'The Castle' turn out to be an entire village pub in the highlands, but other members of the clan give them a freetly welcome. |
September 26, 1963 |
| 3 |
Didya Ever Have One of Those Days? It's a bad day for Steve when everything seems to be going wrong for him. His run of bad luck starts when he cuts himself shaving, burns his hand on the toaster, and then can't get his car started. Worse yet, he has to clinch a deal with a very important client. |
October 3, 1963 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Caribbean Cruise Steve sails aboard the S.S. Carolina in order to establish a business contract with a firm but his task is complicated by Robbie who has a vacationing job as a steward onboard the same liner. They both find that business and pleasure do sometimes mix. |
September 17, 1964 |
| 2 |
A Serious Girl Robbie and Ernie find that women are full of surprises and not all of them pleasing. Robbie tires of his noisy rock and roll girlfriend and switches to a more dignified girl who has no time for the childish pursuits of her peers, such as football and sock hops. And unfortunately for Robbie Douglas, Lorraine is also serious about getting married and before he knows it, he's engaged! Can even the sagacious Steve Douglas find a graceful way out of this mess? |
September 24, 1964 |
| 3 |
The Practical Shower Realising the need for economy, Mike and Sally decide that her shower will be productive of useful gifts for the kitchen, but Bub is all for romance but Mike's practical ideas meet resistance when Bub plans a bridal shower for Sally. Chip and Ernie manage to turn the shower into something very impractical indeed. |
October 1, 1964 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The First Marriage Mike and Sally finally get married and leave for the East where Mike has a job as an assistant college psychology instructor. Robbie happily moves into Mike's old room. When Uncle Charley notes that they may soon be calling Steve 'Grandpa' he becomes somwehat concerned about growing old and calls up his former girlfriends. Robbie, now a college man, offers to help his father make friends with younger women, and while pretending to be disinterested, tries a few of his suggestions. When it is learned that Ernie must return to an orphanage, because he will not be allowed to accompany his foster parents in their move to the orient, Chip invites Ernie to move in permanently, giving Steve three sons once more. |
September 16, 1965 |
| 2 |
Red Tape Romance Steve explores the possibility of adopting 10-year-old Ernie but runs into antagonism from Uncle Charley, who can forsee nothing but more work with a new boy to take care of. The family desperately wants to adopt the boy and Robbie decides that Steve must make a play for the lovely Miss Coulter. Her boss comes to inspect the house just as the boys have made a shambles of the place. At eight the next morning, Miss Miller returns. She inspects the house, spic and span now, and ushers in a happy Ernie, who is to stay on a temporary basis. |
September 23, 1965 |
| 3 |
Brother Ernie Ernie's adoption into the all-male Douglas household is threatened by a regulation that there must be a lady of the house. Steve again makes a request to adopt the child, but Misses Coulter and Miller of the adoption agency, say they are powerless to change the regulations. Miss Miller has a brilliant idea, however, and soon the family is appearing before a judge who decides that housekeeper Uncle Charley can legally be designated the 'lady of the house'. Charley approves if this fact is kept secret and Ernie is enthusiastically welcomed into the family. |
September 30, 1965 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Stag at Bay The usually all-male Douglas household becomes a refuge for an attractive girl dancer who has been evicted from her apartment, when Steve attends an office stag dinner. He takes her home where he lends her some of Robbie's clothes. |
September 15, 1966 |
| 2 |
Fly Away Home Steve Douglas takes his family to his birthplace of Bedford Springs. He tries to locate his 1940 fiancee Ellen, married and still living in town, but he is disenchanted by the changes in her. Still pretty, she lives with her obnoxious husband and ill-mannered children. |
September 22, 1966 |
| 3 |
Forget Me Not Steve Douglas receives a perfumed letter from an old girlfriend announcing she will stop by and see him. She terrifies Steve by acting as though she plans to accept a proposal of marriage he hasn't made. Steve does his best to convince her that his old college chum is the man for her. |
September 29, 1966 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Moving Day The Douglases move to California, where at first they are depressed to find the residents as chilly as the weather is warm. Robbie enrols in the University and is totally captivated by a blonde girl, and Uncle Charley is initiated into the rapid-fire procedure of shopping in supermarkets. The family begins to feel that their next door neighbors represent the characteristic stand-offishness of all Californians until they discover that they moved into the neighborhood the day before they did. |
September 9, 1967 |
| 2 |
Robbie Loves Katie After advice from his father who tells him it isn't right to tie himself down to one girl, Robbie Douglas, intending to break off his romance with Katie Miller, ends up proposing to her. Soon his heart over rules his head and he buys an engagement ring and sets a wedding date. |
September 16, 1967 |
| 3 |
Inspection of the Groom Robbie and Katie pick a wedding date two weeks off. Katie's sorority sisters decide to do some private investigating on their own. Prospective groom Robbie then undergoes the complete once-over by his fiancee's family and runs the gamut of numerous cousins, aunts and a crotchety grandmother. |
September 23, 1967 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Great Pregnancy While the family is doing some spring cleaning, Katie faints behind the couch. Soon her mother's intuition brings her to the house and she announces that Katie is going to be a mother. Once it is confirmed by a doctor, the family dotes on Katie, but seems to ignore the father to be. |
September 28, 1968 |
| 2 |
Dr. Osborne, M.D. Controversy erupts in the Douglas household over the selection of a doctor for Katie during her pregnancy. While Robbie and Katie want to choose their own doctor, Katie's mother insists on making an appointment with the Miller family doctor. Meanwhile, Steve stands in for an absent Robbie at his first baby class. |
October 5, 1968 |
| 3 |
Life Begins in Katie The baby stirs inside Katie and Robbie feels its movement and suddenly sheds his youthful ways to become very much the sober and altogether too serious expectant father. Meanwhile, fatherhood is taking a different approach when Tramp's puppies to the next door neighbor's dog Francis, are about to be born. |
October 12, 1968 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The First Meeting Robbie and Katie move into an apartment on the next block and widower Steve Douglas becomes the target of Katie's relentless matchmaking. However, Steve meets a remarkable woman in a high school corridor and the two are quickly attracted to each other. |
October 4, 1969 |
| 2 |
Instant Co-Worker Robbie needs to talk to his dad-who seems unreachable |
October 11, 1969 |
| 3 |
Is it Love? The whole Douglas clan conspires to encourage Steve's romance with the lady in question, Barbara Harper. After dinner, Steve and Barbara go back to her house where Steve is predictably nervous around her. They are both serious about their relationship, but neither of them realizes it. |
October 18, 1969 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The First Anniversary Chip begins studying with a pretty co-ed whose disciplinarian father wants to know why her new friend is spending so much time with her. Meanwhile, on the eve of Steve and Barbara's first wedding anniversary, Dodie announces she is throwing a surprise party, but neglects to tell everyone when or where. |
September 19, 1970 |
| 2 |
The Once-Over Uncle Charley and Barbara suspect that Chip and Polly are becoming serious about one another. Polly, unhappy at home because of her father's strictness, is afraid of losing Chip because of her parents' meddling. She asks Chip to elope, and taken aback, he asks his father for advice. |
September 26, 1970 |
| 3 |
The Return of Albert Barbara is flustered when she receives a phone call from a former college suitor, and is very apprehensive when Steve invites him to dinner. The entire family is anxious to meet her old flame, thus compounding her uneasiness. |
October 3, 1970 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Advent of Fergus Steve's look-alike Scottish nobleman cousin Fergus, comes to America looking for a bride to take back to his hometown of Sithian Bridge and moves in on the entire Douglas family, much to the dismay of Uncle Charley. |
September 13, 1971 |
| 2 |
Fergus for Sale When Uncle Charley learns that Fergus is looking for a wife to take back to Scotland to provide him with heirs to carry on the family name, he takes out an ad in the local newspaper in an effort to rid the Douglas home of his nemesis. |
September 20, 1971 |
| 3 |
Lady Douglas Steve's Scottish cousin Fergus, after only one date with Bowling Alley Cocktail Waitress Terri Dowling, proposes but gets turned down by her. She feels inadequate to return to Scotland as royalty, but is eventually persuaded by Steve. |
September 27, 1971 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | CBS |
|---|---|
| First aired | September 29, 1960 |
| Last aired | April 13, 1972 |
| Status | Ended |