It has been said and written that Frawley departed the show because of insurance issues, is it possible that is not the real reason? The show moved to CBS, MacMurray may have asked for more money to continue in the series (he was reported to be very tight with money) and costs of filming in color may have created a need to make budget cuts. Frawley was a TV legend, maybe the production company didn't want to carry the salary. Demarest was a lower cost alternative, and this switch along with Tim Considine leaving may have been enough for the show to remain viable. Frawley's character was a supporting charactor how much could the insurance have been.

They could've offered William Demarest the same salary that William Frawley was paid. Both men had an extensive list of credits so I don't see the so-called TV legend status having anything to do with it and Frawley probably earned that distinction after his death and from the countless reruns of I Love Lucy, not during it's original airing.

I've read that William Frawley was a heavy drinker for years. He would drink during work, and as he got older he would also nod off while they were filming. Between his age and the drinking I'm thinking that is why!

I love Bill Frawley, so I'm not saying anything gossipy or malicious. It is just what I have heard. Even as early as I love Lucy when he was Fred, if you look closely and notice sometimes he really has the shakes, like he needs a drink!!

William became a liability because he couldn't remember his lines.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30088/being-fred-mertz-life-william-frawley

I'm sure the MacMurray method of shooting out of sync didn't help him. I always feel sorry for him when I get to his final episode.

They could've offered William Demarest the same salary that William Frawley was paid. Both men had an extensive list of credits so I don't see the so-called TV legend status having anything to do with it and Frawley probably earned that distinction after his death and from the countless reruns of I Love Lucy, not during it's original airing.

This is happening in the midsixities, I Love Lucy was the the "It" show of the first generation of TV series. Frawley's connection with that would have put him in a good position when negotiating his original contract. Demarest was known character actor but he would not have been in the same negotiating position as Frawley, and ultimately this is a business.

William became a liability because he couldn't remember his lines.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30088/being-fred-mertz-life-william-frawley

I'm sure the MacMurray method of shooting out of sync didn't help him. I always feel sorry for him when I get to his final episode.

"William became a liability because he couldn't remember his lines", this may indeed have been the key factor in letting him go. It seems more plausible than the insurance story.

This is happening in the midsixities, I Love Lucy was the the "It" show of the first generation of TV series. Frawley's connection with that would have put him in a good position when negotiating his original contract. Demarest was known character actor but he would not have been in the same negotiating position as Frawley, and ultimately this is a business.



They obviously made Demarest a reasonable enough offer but you nor I have any idea what type of negotiating was going on at that time. If Frawley did indeed couldn't remember his lines then he was obviously in no condition to negotiate anything. The salary paid to William Demarest is irrelevant if Frawley was in failing health and made him an insurance liability. They found a replacement, agreed to terms and he was hired. The article below concurs with the notion that William Demarest was hired to replace Frawley due to health issues and not because he possibly wanted more money. Wiki can be in error at times and I'm not saying they're correct in this case but I haven't found anything that corroborates what you're suggesting. Bottom line is that Fred MacMurray was in a position to possibly ask for a higher salary, Frawley was not.

His most famous television role was in the ABC and then CBS sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972, playing Uncle Charley O'Casey. He replaced William Frawley, whose failing health had made procuring insurance impossible.

Wiki article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Demarest)

William became a liability because he couldn't remember his lines.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30088/being-fred-mertz-life-william-frawley

I'm sure the MacMurray method of shooting out of sync didn't help him. I always feel sorry for him when I get to his final episode.
A very interesting read poor William.

I decided to do some more research on this topic. It turns out that what bonniegirl62 and I said about William's Frawley's health was true. He did suffer from alcoholism and the effects of old age which caused him to sleep on set and forget his lines. However, it really was an insurance issue!

These quotes are from Fred MacMurray: A Biography by Charles Tranberg.

Each year the actors had to have a physical for insurance purposes. According to Stephens, the company had a doctor who "would pass anybody" and Frawley had always been insured, but this time the doctor told Stephens he couldn't pass him, "He should have been dead two years ago." Stephens didn't tell Frawley what the doctor told him, but instead gave a report of the situation to Don Fedderson and they decided to gamble on keeping Frawley alive for the first thirteen episodes of the fifth season and then take it from there.

According to Gene Reynolds, Fred began to worry about Frawley. "Fred would come up to me and say he was worried that Bill was having a series of small strokes, because as time went on he had a harder time recalling his lines."


When the first 13 episodes of the season were completed, the decision was made; they couldn't risk continuing with Frawley on the show without insurance. Frawley was informed of this and, according to Stephens, "he didn't take it well." Fedderson decided that Frawley was too beloved in the role of Bub for another actor to take over the part.

Frawley and Demarest were roughly the same age, but Demarest was in much better mental and physical condition.

Keep in mind also that Frawley left the show in 1965 and died in 1966. What really touched me about the situation was the cast and crew's reaction to Frawley's health and passing. They loved him deeply and tried their best to keep him on the show.

Reynolds says he tried to make it easier for him, "sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I didn't." It got to be that Frawley would be "so bombed" after lunch that John Stephens would have to put him in a master shot next to Tim Considine who "had to stand next to him with his arm around him, and when it was time for Bill Frawley to give him a line, Tim had to hit him to wake him up. He'd fall asleep standing up."

When informed of his death, Fred called Frawley's passing, "a great loss...I'm terribly sad."

The kids were close to Frawley and would accept Demarest, but not with the same warmth. Stanley Livingston was especially close to Frawley, who had become a kind of surrogate grandfather to him. "I was pretty upset...the fact that he wasn't coming back. Until my brother came aboard, he probably was the person I was closest to."

Demarest was more distant with the kids, unlike the beloved Frawley. "Frawley may have been a cantankerous old guy," according to Stephens, "But he loved kids and got along great with them. Bill Demarest was much more of a professional, and he was tougher on the kids."

As for Demarest, he conceded that when he joined the show he had landed in a "soft spot" due to the work Frawley had done in defining the part, but quickly added, "I intend to make the part mine."

Money doesn't appear to have been a factor in CBS carrying the show or in Fred's decision to continue the show.

But the most important decision was Fred's who, according to Stephens, had ended the season not really knowing if he was going to return for a sixth year, and ABC was anxious to renew the show, not for only one more season but for two seasons. But Fred kept hemming and hawing and finally, despite the ratings ABC decided to take a pass on the show. Fred may have been distracted in making up his mind because shortly after the end of the fifth season, his mother, who had been in failing health for some time, died in early August at the age of 84.

Fred finally made up his mind on the future of the show and told Fedderson, "You know, I think I want to do the show again." Only thing, the network had already passed, but then CBS came to the rescue, decided to pick the show up for the network and according to John Stephens, "the deal with CBS was unbelievable. They paid a goodly amount of money."

I hope this answers your question Duster76! Sorry, I can't provide page numbers. I have this book on my iPad. I bought it on sale several weeks ago and haven't had the time to read it. I'm going to start now because this topic has peaked my interest.

I came across this interview with Stan Livingston that mentions William Frawley's exit and the insurance. The bold text is from Stan.

And then William Frawley left, and you had Uncle Charlie.

He went in for his insurance physical… We all did just to make sure there was nothing wrong [and the doctor] said, “Hey, I can’t hear this guy’s heartbeat. He’s not gonna make it.” And because of the way we filmed…it’s not like you could shoot, say, three or four shows and then if he died [you could just write him out]…so they just let him go and we cast William Demarest… as Uncle Charlie who, I think, was a friend of Fred MacMurray’s, ‘cause they’d done..a lot of films together… So he came in, took over…and about 2-3 months later Bill dropped dead on Hollywood Blvd…

On Hollywood Blvd? He was just walking or…?

He was just walking. He had a heart attack… Yeah. Sad. It must’ve been big not to come back to the show and whatever the circumstances…Hollywood’s merciless… Looking at what happened, it was probably a good thing they didn’t [rehire him] from a production standpoint. But from the human side it was kind of a sh**** thing to do.

Source: http://thelosangelesbeat.com/2014/07/stan-livingston-from-how-the-west-was-won-to-my-three-sons-a-life-of-creativity-production-and-direction-out-of-childhood-stardom/

Frawley by all accounts loved doing the show. It was definitely a health/insurance issue that led to his departure, not money. In fact, he continued to show up on the set to watch filming after he was no longer part of the cast. But the producers had to ask him to stop because he was so bitter about losing his job that he was making a lot of comments on set about William Demarest. Both John Stephens and Stan Livingston have been quoted about what a painful period it was for everyone, and Don Grady said the show was never the same after Frawley left.

Frawley by all accounts loved doing the show. It was definitely a health/insurance issue that led to his departure, not money. In fact, he continued to show up on the set to watch filming after he was no longer part of the cast. But the producers had to ask him to stop because he was so bitter about losing his job that he was making a lot of comments on set about William Demarest. Both John Stephens and Stan Livingston have been quoted about what a painful period it was for everyone, and Don Grady said the show was never the same after Frawley left.



That is sad! Poor Bill! :( I remember seeing some of the old eps with Bub when they had My three sons on Nick at nite so long ago. I'd love to see them again. First run at my age, I grew up watching My Three Sons with Uncle Charlie! I'd like to see some of the old Bill Frawley eps. Wish METV would play them!

Yes, Bill Frawley just fell over and died on Hollywood Blvd. ! SAD!! :(

Hollywood Blvd and Ivar Avenue: the corner where actor William Frawley dropped dead on the street of a heart attack in 1966. Frawley, who had played neighbor 'Fred Mertz' in the classic TV show "I Love Lucy" (and 'Bub' on "My Three Sons") had been out to see a movie, and collapsed on his way back. A nurse dragged him into the lobby of the Knickerbocker Hotel, but he was DOA. Ironically, his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located just a half block away, on the south side of the street.


https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRbPFq1X8kcno6azB7qeLQwl6olIyIje7CFbX_-oP4ZawkA1Kw1

Ironic that his one early marriage had ended in divorce decades earlier without any offspring AND he seemed to have no other family besides some even older and more decrepit brothers he kept working to provide for so I like that he DID get to have a family with 'MTS'- and as 'cantankerous' as he [and Bub] may have been, he sincerely had a heart of gold (like the character). Oh, and yes, it was sad that they let him go but at least his last two jobs, he was surrounded by folks who adored him [the very last job he had was that touching 'Lucy Show' cameo in which she had him billed as 'Our Own Bill Frawley' ]. Not entirely a happy ending but far better than either a continuation of decades of obscurity and alcoholic hazes OR the antagonistic relationship he had with Vivian Vance on set.