My Three Sons

[phdhorn 6224]

Bingeing this weekend on Decades TV (OTA channel, I swear OTA channels are better nowadays than most pay-for TV!).

Watching this show as a toddler is among the first memories of my life, although I have almost no real cohesive memory of it.  I really only got to know it through syndicated showings well after it went off the air, and for some reason they almost never seemed to show anything but the last 3-4 years, when the show jumped the shark, got stale, and really was awful.

Man, but these early years (1960-64) are being binged on Decades and wow!  This was a very, very well-acted and written show, now that I've been watching them... I really can't stop.  No wonder this show is still the 2nd longest running live (not animated) sitcom in history - 12 years (for the record, Ozzie and Harriet is still the leader as well, 14 years).  Obviously the Simpsons has blown all sitcoms away, but not in this category.

I had no idea how good an actor Stanley Livingston (Chip) was as a little kid!  He's awesome... all I know is the teenage Chip, who was dry and so flat it was embarrassing.  And Robbie (Don Grady) in the later years became the cool oldest brother... but in the early shows he was much, much more animated, schitzy, and angst-ridden - again, much better written for Robbie's part.  The 3 brothers fit so well... Mike (Tim Considine) the older, cooler, calm brother; Robbie, the volatile, hyper, angsty middle, and Chip, the mischievous, irreverent little kid brother.  The show made much more sense, had much better plots, and actually had Fred MacMurray act, often losing his temper and not just being the plastic "father figure" of the later years.  And many of the shows think out of the box - and use the music in witty and funny ways.  One show had coverage of a satellite launch juxtaposed with the Douglases' typical day's ups and downs.. frequent jump cuts back and forth.  These were exceptionally good shows.  I guess they actually started jumping the shark once Ernie got into the family, although by that point when Considine left and Robbie became the oldest, Ernie was the best thing on at that point.

Anyway, I'm so glad I got to see these shows, and they're kind of valuable.  You can't stream them and I'm not sure they're available for purchase.  I'd sure like to get them, at least the first 4 years.  A much, much different world than I knew with the ones I've seen.

OTA has 3-4 channels that show a lot of lost shows from the past 50 years and I love the hell out of them (Decades, MeTV, Rewind, and Antenna TV). 

[Nuge 1954]

I can still hear the theme song though its been 40+ years since I've seen any of the episodes.

[burntorangebongos 10681]

William Fraley was the "Uncle Charlie" first but he was a drunk and they cut him from the show because he couldn't pass the physical. He died shortly after. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Yep, a staple of my viewing routine as a kid.

[RPM 26168]

Heard some behind the scenes stuff on MTS and Family Affair. Both were Don Fedderson productions anchored by big name talent that were busy filming other projects. Fedderson came up with the idea of shooting the entire season of Fred MacMurray's and Brian Keith's scenes at the start of filming and then they were free to do other projects while the rest of the cast shot the series around them. After a while MacMurray didn't even change wardrobe between episodes.

[phdhorn 6224]

11 hours ago, burntorangebongos said:

William Fraley was the "Uncle Charlie" first but he was a drunk and they cut him from the show because he couldn't pass the physical. He died shortly after. 

Well, true and not.  He did like the bottle, but the reason they didn't hire him again was because of his age (78 at his last year) and that they couldn't get insurance on him (which I'm sure now is a court case).  Whether the bottle contributed is probably a good bit of it, but Frawley never drank on the set (kids around, plus it was in his contracts) and tried to be a decent guy.  Frawley had said he really enjoyed the show and the writing, and reluctantly left, although he was in pretty bad shape physically by then, and even though he didn't like filming around MacMurray's unusual way (as the star, MacMurray filmed all of his season's episodes squeezed into about 2 months; the rest of the cast had to adjust, doing parts of shows and having to do things to maintain continuity as weeks might go by before resuming filming on a particular episode).  Ironically, Frawley was going to be the main character in the show, but then they landed bigger star MacMurray after some concessions, and even playing 2nd banana to him, Frawley enjoyed the role.  But I'm sure the alcohol wore him out... he had a lot of health issues when he left the show (died of a heart attack in 1966 at 79).

Maybe the worst part of it was that Frawley was replaced by lifelong nemesis Bill Demarest.  They always disliked each other since Vaudeville days, would strive to avoid working together, and had nothing kind to say about each other.  In interviews, some of the cast would liken Frawley to a "friendly drunk" while Demarest was an "angry drunk" (anyone who's seen the Uncle Charlie shows knows what a curmudgeon Charley - and Demarest - was).

[burntorangebongos 10681]

He didn't drink on set but he drank enough off it that he would get the shakes filming if he went too long without it. So much so that he took to putting his hands in his pockets to hide the tremors. This happened on the I Love Lucy set. But he was a consumate professional and worked through whatever adversity and disputes he had to play his part. He hated Vivian Vance but never let that show. I think he took his discipline on that set into this show but the toll on his body was evident. No one could ever call him a slouch, he did his job very well.

[DougO 5238]

I never saw the Fred Mertz version of the show until a couple of years ago. It is definitely far superior to the Uncle Charlie era. Man, that show lasted forever. \

[RPM 26168]

I still remember an episode where the boys formed a band. They stood on this little riser and fake played the most generic instrumental 60's rock you ever heard. It was terrible went on for fucking ever. They must have been wayy short on script pages that episode.