After the Honeymoon

During the 11th season of My Three Sons there was an attempt to spin off eldest son, Robbie (played by Don Grady), his wife Katie (Tina Cole) and their triplet boys onto their own series. In the pilot episode, Robbie was laid off from work and moved his family to San Francisco to accept a new job. After the Honeymoon wasn’t picked up, and Grady didn’t return to My Three Sons for the 12th and final season. Tina Cole did return to the bosom of the Douglas family, and her husband’s absence was explained by having him transferred to Peru to oversee a construction job.

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I don't know if that is the reason why Don quit, but a Robbie and Katie spin off sounds a lot more interesting than season 12 of 'My Three Sons'.

I don't know if that is the reason why Don quit, but a Robbie and Katie spin off sounds a lot more interesting than season 12 of 'My Three Sons'.


Thanks for the reply! What was so bad about season 12?

I have to admit I am not a fan of the last two seasons. Never really did like Steve's stepdaughter Doddy. I found her annoying.

Thanks for the reply! What was so bad about season 12?

A lot:

First of all, the title 'My Three Sons' was no longer appropriate because Robbie was gone and Chip and Ernie were more or less pushed to the background. The show was always more interesting when it focused on the boys and their problems.

Too many of the storylines focused on the family's efforts to find Steve's lookalike Scotish cousin Fergus a wife. Those episodes were boring.

Also, the show was in a ridiculous time slot, Mondays at 10pm when its target audience was asleep. It was originally supposed to be back on Saturdays in the fall of '71, but at the last minute was switched with 'All in the Family', which gave that show a big boost, but pretty much killed 'My Three Sons'.

Overall, I think it was just a matter of being a show whose time had passed.

I have to admit I am not a fan of the last two seasons. Never really did like Steve's stepdaughter Doddy. I found her annoying.


I remember watching it on NAN and ITA that Dody came off as really annoying. NAN would air the lost Black and White eps and then jump to 1971, the last color season of the show. When I saw Ernie as a teen, I was like "He's one of the sons now"? I was really confused. Chip was already married to some girl named Polly. I never saw Mike and Robbie had triplets. LOL. It wasn't untill 1991 when TBS ran the show in the morning at 6:35 that I saw color eps from 1965 and then it explained some questions. LOL.

The show had changed too much for me in that last season. I also didn't care for the Dodie character.

To me, he probably quit My Three Sons because he was ready to concentrate on his musical career after 11 seasons of playing Robbie. The show was getting old and tired and the cast had grown considerably with the additions of Barbara, Dodie and Polly.