I'm 40 years old and, until this past week, I had never seen a B+W episode of My Three Sons. The last time they aired on TVLAND I didn't have it available on my cable system. TVLAND is running them at the moment 8-9 A.M. M-F. I'm sure that someday all the old B+W episodes will have their own cable network home.

Jim Gill

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All are welcome to join my egroup at http://www.egroups.com/group/TVLANDfans

I hope so,too.I'm 46 so I remember Bub and the others a little more-but if you first tuned in on My Three Sons in the fall of 1965,you would have no evidence that Uncle Charlie wasn't always a member of the family. I found Bub more lovable than Uncle Charlie,but Uncle Charlie had his moments.

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Richard Ranke

From the little I've seen of Bub he WAS kinder and more loveable. I guess its because he as always in the boys lives and Charley was a salty old merchant marine. I don't remember but did he ever meet them before he showed up in late 1964?

Originally posted by jamesanthony
From the little I've seen of Bub he WAS kinder and more loveable. I guess its because he as always in the boys lives and Charley was a salty old merchant marine. I don't remember but did he ever meet them before he showed up in late 1964? I don't think that they ever mentioned Uncle Charley in the episodes between 1960-1964. I know that William Frawley left the show midway through the 1964-1965 season because of ill health and they had a few episodes where they said Uncle Bub was away and then Uncle Charley took over and stayed for the rest of the series' run.

Hey BravesFan:

I meant had he met them offscreen? I've only seen 3 b&w episodes and never saw any of the first Charley episodes so i thought maybe he had been away at sea for years and years and never met Steve or the boys.

As Editor of the database at TV Tome, I can tell you that originally George Tibbles had written a script where both Bub and Charley reunite, only problem being that in real life, both actors couldn't stand one another. From sources I have been privy to in interviews I have conducted, there was quite a bit of animosity between them, for whatever reason. Frawley used to hang around the Desilu studios to observe the filming, and it got so bad between them that eventually (before the end of the 1964-65 season was over) that he was told he was no longer welcome to visit the studio.

But to answer your question, in Charley's debut episode Steve had previously met Charley which is hinted at in the show's basic narrative of that episode. Steve introduces the boys and Charley comments that he hasn't seen Chip since he was "this high" (meaning younger) which Steve reminds him that he was actually referring to oldest son Mike... it had been that long!

And of course in real life series star Fred MacMurray had worked with both Wm. Frawley and Wm. Demarest (separately of course!)
during his early movie career in the 1930s. I have been told that it was Fred who campaigned to have his friend Demarest join the program to replace the ailing Frawley.

Thanks for the info Geoff. I read your site and it's one of the most thorough I have seen on tvtome. I liked reading about year 12 because I've never seen those episodes though I'd like to. Do you think that people would buy a companionbook if you created one?

I can imagine why Frawley hated Demarest. He viewed him as being his replacement. From what little I remember of Bub he was much less grouchy than Charlie, but it seems like the opposite was true in real life.

If you can picture Fred Mertz as a grandpa, then you get the general idea of what Bub was like.

James Anthony, thanks for your sentiments... I get many emails from all over the world asking that very subject. And believe me I have tried. Discussions have been with Doubleday in New York, Bantam and even Renaissance Books, all without success.

I have even tried to get the ball rolling from here in Melbourne, Australia where I live, and have had some initial interest from a local publisher but nothing substantial. It's a dream of mine that perhaps one day will come to fruition.

I scour these messageboards all the time (even the one at TV Tome is getting virtually no traffic) but interest generally wanes because the series is not in wide distribution. Granted, the first season is being rerun back to back on alternate months in Canada, and selected local stations are still carrying color episodes in the U.S. If it were being seen more often, it would ensure more interest is generated.

I myself have a huge library of books on television - books on specific shows, books on tv genres and various encyclopaedia books on the history of network television etc. One of the trends I have noticed in the last ten years, in my regular jaunts to bookstores, is that almost no new books (with maybe the odd exception) are dedicated to classic shows of the past. What does appear are tons of books on all the current teenybopper hit shows of the moment.

I think that the biggest reason for this is that those who felt the urge to create and develop a project relating to a favourite tv show can now do so on the many and various fansites on the world wide web. This negates the additional turmoil of finding an interested publisher and being critiqued and edited so much that what you actually did write has been watered down so much that one barely recognises it.

In my profile at TV Tome I give the main reason why I volunteered to become editor of that site. Those reasons still stand. I truly love the show and the comfortably numb nostalgia that the program evokes. TV has certainly changed over the years and will continue to evolve to what viewer expectations are, for right or wrong.

I get so much joy out of watching all the old shows, the classics from the 50s and 60s (and even the 70s) but there is very little that grabs my interest these days, and to be honest I can't imagine too many of today's so-called "hits" being the perrenial reruns of the future, can you? I think most people are generally sick of the info-tainment type shows, the reality shows and especially the survivor programs. They are not escapist fare, and not even good tv fare in my learned opinion.

One of my greatest "pats on the back" regarding my work on TV Tome is that I have a contact who works at a Museum of Broadcasting in the U.S. (who I originally met through one of the messageboards) and who is continually proud of my work to the extent that he has emailed me many times and told me that should funding ever come his department's way (he is an acquisitions manager at the Musuem) then he would love to do a retrospective on the series with the surviving cast members, and has promised to fly me in as an 'Executive Consultant'!

The reality is that it will probably never happen but it would be a dream come true, and boy would it be an expensive return air fare from Australia!! LOL.

hey geoff,

the new shows are lacking. my three sons was never laugh out loud hilarious but it has a good uplifting and warm feel to it that virtually nothing on tv has now.

this show was looked down upon in its time by critics and the like. it never won any emmies for example. yet it ran for 12 years and had strong ratings. cbs had to move it to a bad time slot in its last year to justify getting rid of it.

Originally posted by jamesanthony
Thanks for the info Geoff. I read your site and it's one of the most thorough I have seen on tvtome. I liked reading about year 12 because I've never seen those episodes though I'd like to. Do you think that people would buy a companionbook if you created one?

I can imagine why Frawley hated Demarest. He viewed him as being his replacement. From what little I remember of Bub he was much less grouchy than Charlie, but it seems like the opposite was true in real life.

Bill Frawley did not want to leave the show, he was forced out because he was too sick to qualify for insurance. Therefore it is understandable why he would have some animosity towards his replacement. Too bad, it would have been great to see Bub and Charley together for at least one episode and would have been a more natural progression.

Originally posted by jamesanthony
hey geoff,

the new shows are lacking. my three sons was never laugh out loud hilarious but it has a good uplifting and warm feel to it that virtually nothing on tv has now.

this show was looked down upon in its time by critics and the like. it never won any emmies for example. yet it ran for 12 years and had strong ratings. cbs had to move it to a bad time slot in its last year to justify getting rid of it.

If My Three Sons had a bad time slot during its last season, blame it on All in the Family. In the fall of 1971, MTS was originally scheduled to be on Saturday at 8PM and AITF was supposed to be on Mondays at 10PM. At the last minute, they were switched. The results: AITF was the number one show for five years and MTS had its worse season ever and was cancelled.

If My Three Sons had a bad time slot during its last season, blame it on All in the Family. In the fall of 1971, MTS was originally scheduled to be on Saturday at 8PM and AITF was supposed to be on Mondays at 10PM. At the last minute, they were switched. The results: AITF was the number one show for five years and MTS had its worse season ever and was cancelled.


Of course, in TV land the times were a-chbangin' (sounds like one of Ernie or Robbie's "half-baked" Dylan ripoffs).