I'm watching all of the episodes of My Three Sons, thanks to both the official DVD releases and a bootleg I recently purchased. I figured I'd talk about all of the episodes. I'm not calling this a review because I feel like a review would have me rating each episode, like "This episode gets 2 and a half out of 3 Sons." ;)

1. Chip Off the Old Block
Original Airdate: September 29, 1960
Written By: George Tibbles
Directed By: Peter Tewksbury

Cast: (included is the Wikipedia page for those who have one)
Steve Douglas . . . Fred MacMurray (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_MacMurray)
Bub O’Casey . . . William Frawley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Frawley)
Mike Douglas . . . Tim Considine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Considine)
Robbie Douglas . . . Don Grady (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Grady)
Chip Douglas . . . Stanley Livingston (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Livingston)

Dorine Peters . . . Debbie Megowan
Salesman . . . George Neise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_N._Neise)
Hal Mosby . . . Harlan Warde (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Warde)
Nancy Mosby . . . Bette McMahon
Pamela MacLish . . . Patricia Barry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Barry)

Synopsis:
A cosmetics salesman comes to the door of the Douglas family looking for the lady of the house. Chip sends him Bub, who informs the man that he’s the nearest thing to a lady in this house. Moments later, the phone rings. Mike is sure it’s for him. Robbie is sure it’s for him. Steve answers it but it turns out to be for… Chip. The youngest Douglas answers and is immediately enraged. It’s a dumb girl asking about a homework assignment. This particular girl is Dorine Peters and she has a crush on Chip, a fact that has given him the nickname “Hot Lips Douglas” by his peers. Steve has a talk with his son and finds out the crush is not mutual but insists that Chip be a gentleman to her nevertheless. Later on, Steve accepts an invitation from Pamela MacLish, a woman with whom he has no romantic interest in, and finds himself in the same boat as his son. The next day, Pamela arrives at the Douglas house to see Steve. Chip invites her to a school dance he’s being forced to go to as his dad’s date. Later on, at the dance, father and son come to the conclusion that leading these two ladies on is not being very gentlemanly and agree to break things off with them.

Worthy of Note:

- The ages of the characters aren’t mentioned in this debut outing for the series. However, below is a list of the actor’s ages when this episode aired in September of 1960 (if my math was correct).
Fred MacMurray was 51.
William Frawley was 73.
Tim Considine was 19.
Don Grady was 16.
Stanley Livingston was 9.

- Steve has been a widower for six years at the start of the series. By the way he behaves around Pamela, it’s clear that he’s not in any hurry to find a new wife.

- It’s mentioned in this episode that Bub’s real name is Michael Francis O’Casey. However, when Mike was little, he had trouble saying “Grandpa.” It kept coming out “Bub,” and the nickname stuck. This is contradicted in later episodes. First claiming that Bub's real name is Bill and that it was Chip who started calling him Bub. I'll mention this again when those particular episodes come up in my viewing.

- Chip is in the 2nd grade.

- Bub makes reference to Lucrezia Borgia in this exchange...
Steve: "I’m sure the only thing she has in mind is cooking dinner for a few friends."
Bub: "That’s what they said about Lucrezia Borgia."

Here’s the Wikipedia page for Lucrezia Borgia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucrezia_Borgia
She lived from 1480 to 1519. “Rumors about her and her family cast Lucrezia Borgia as a femme fatale, a role in which she has been portrayed in many artworks, novels and films.”

Patricia Barry was a pretty good choice for her role in this episode. Nice-looking, but not so gorgeous as to be irresistible by any means -- although I will say with less dowdy clothes, she could be a turn-on.

Really sad that so many of the ladies of M3S and Family Affair are no longer with us. I always watch for them on other series.

Patricia Barry was in reality William Frawley's girlfriend after they met on the show. Storys at the time were that she was after his money, whether that's true, I don't know. But she and Bill did go out with each other and Bill liked her, he even left her his fortune in his will after he died.

shame they didn't go for Debbie Megowan over Ronne Troup. A girl willing to stalk a boy and loiter in front of his house when she's only six is a very interesting character indeed!

I’m beginning to watch and record this from Me TV & will be adding some threads of my own. Right now they’re near the end of the Bub years.

shame they didn't go for Debbie Megowan over Ronne Troup. A girl willing to stalk a boy and loiter in front of his house when she's only six is a very interesting character indeed!

A few other ideas for marriage to Chip:

* Annette O'Toole (born April 1, 1952)
* Morgan Brittany (born Dec. 5, 1951)
* Darleen Carr (born Dec. 12, 1950)
* Ann Jillian (born Jan. 29, 1950)
* Jan Smithers (born July 3, 1949)
* Meredith Baxter (born June 22, 1947)
* Lori Martin (born April 18, 1947)

Stan Livingston was born Nov. 24, 1950 -- now approaching age 70. Megowan: Oct. 14, 1953. Troup: June 10, 1945.

Morgan Brittany appeared a few times on the series (as Suzanne Cupito), Annette O'Toole appeared, and Lori Martin had a couple of roles. I think only Smithers had not yet started her career when Troup was cast as Polly.

I thought I would revive this thread as a means of offering more episode reviews.

Happy Birthday World -- Season 7 (Nov. 17, 1966) -- Featured: Robbie

Many of you are familiar with this episode. Robbie gets the idea to start a birthday cake delivery enterprise, seeing that out-of-town parents whose children are in college in the Bryant Park area would like a means to give them freshly-baked cakes on their birthdays. Everything becomes an in-house operation, with Charley as baker, Chip & Ernie joining in for deliveries, and some friends in on the cake decorating. Things get way out of hand, spelling the end of the business.

This episode I believe without doubt is most noteworthy for the massive "food fight" of cakes that ensues. As with many episodes, Fred MacMurray's involvement is minimal, basically with Steve as the voice of reason that such an ambitious business can't be run from the Douglas home.

Then we have the late Brenda Benet as Robbie's girlfriend Elyse. Her role is VERY minimal here, just being the one-shot love interest as a means of triggering Robbie's birthday cake idea. She would return as a different character in Season 10, with a great substantial role affecting both Robbie and Steve (and their spouses).

A somewhat difficult episode to assess. It wasn't often that the Fedderson shows dabbled in slapstick. I'm reminded though of Sebastian Cabot getting a shot of pressurized whip cream in the face on Family Affair. Fun stuff, out of the norm.

If you're a Benet fan like me, it's good to see her, but her Season 10 ep is really the one to watch as she turns on the heat.

I'm going to give Happy Birthday World 3 stars out of 5, close to 3.5. Premise and execution both good.

I’m totally in as long as the MTS eps proposed are easily accessible by YT or a free streaming channel that I get. I used to be able to get MeTV which aired a 7:30 a.m. ep EST but my antenna no longer picks it up and I don’t have cable.

Happily, this one is & I’m going to watch it this afternoon.

This is a great idea. Would love to do the same for O & H eps, several of which are up on YT.

I thought I would revive this thread as a means of offering more episode reviews.

Happy Birthday World -- Season 7 (Nov. 17, 1966) -- Featured: Robbie

Many of you are familiar with this episode. Robbie gets the idea to start a birthday cake delivery enterprise, seeing that out-of-town parents whose children are in college in the Bryant Park area would like a means to give them freshly-baked cakes on their birthdays. Everything becomes an in-house operation, with Charley as baker, Chip & Ernie joining in for deliveries, and some friends in on the cake decorating. Things get way out of hand, spelling the end of the business.

This episode I believe without doubt is most noteworthy for the massive "food fight" of cakes that ensues. As with many episodes, Fred MacMurray's involvement is minimal, basically with Steve as the voice of reason that such an ambitious business can't be run from the Douglas home.

Then we have the late Brenda Benet as Robbie's girlfriend Elyse. Her role is VERY minimal here, just being the one-shot love interest as a means of triggering Robbie's birthday cake idea. She would return as a different character in Season 10, with a great substantial role affecting both Robbie and Steve (and their spouses).

A somewhat difficult episode to assess. It wasn't often that the Fedderson shows dabbled in slapstick. I'm reminded though of Sebastian Cabot getting a shot of pressurized whip cream in the face on Family Affair. Fun stuff, out of the norm.

If you're a Benet fan like me, it's good to see her, but her Season 10 ep is really the one to watch as she turns on the heat.

I'm going to give Happy Birthday World 3 stars out of 5, close to 3.5. Premise and execution both good.

I just saw it and thought it was disappointing—I liked the M3S eps where there is a less contrived and formulaic plot.

While I often find 60s shows unrealistic, this ep takes the cake (pun intended). Yeah right. Like a bunch of kids and an aged Uncle could really run such a massive operation. And the ton of costs they had: food, paper, labor, legal advice, health permits — hard to believe they didn’t end up mucho in the red. And then that tired food fight and the unanswered question about how they’re going to fill the many outstanding orders when the goods were just ruined. And, collaterally, a lot of ruined birthday parties because of missing cakes, and bitter feelings toward a business that failed to deliver. This ep, in it’s glibness, skips merrily over this.

I truly love the affectionate and solid family nature of the show, and all the cast really rocks, but I don’t think this was one of the better eps. The superb cast is blameless; throw a pie in the eye of the writers—who sucked big time with this one.

From 0-5, I’d give it a 1, the particularly low score reflecting how sub-par it is from the generally endearing, more solid story lines. An example of a 5/5 for me is Guest In The House. And yes, when you have a fav actor or actress appearing, it’s fine to “bump” up the score by one. My fav is Tim Considine. So if he were here I’d go up to a (very generous) 2

Given how great some of the MTS eps can be, this one was a real disappointment.

(P.S. I started a similar thread on the O & H board for the ep The Blue Moose, it’s a nice ep)

Yes, this is definitely a slapstick episode, and you'd never see MacMurray involved in this. Funny, just saw Sherwood Schwartz's attempt at this, on a late-in-the-game Brady Bunch.

Back to M3S I've never been a huge fan of seasons 6 and 7. This particular one is another recycled sitcom script, that probably started with a Lucy episode. Didn't they have a pie fight in a diner?

I'd agree with the 3.5--I like some slapstick once in awhile. Out of 380 episodes that's the only one I recall.

I'm reminded of a Petticoat Junction website where members were giving the first color episode (Season 3 of PJ) ratings of 4 or higher out of 5, when I thought it was about a 2.5 at best, maybe 3. So varying views are not going to be rare.

I tend to suspend practicality if the episode registers for me as memorable. The Birthday ep does not attempt to try to tie up loose ends, like cancelled cake orders, but I don't expect that from a half-hour sitcom. As far as food production at home, shows like Hazel (Season 5), I Dream of Jeannie (the final ep), The Lucy Show and ILL also did episodes of that theme. So hardly rare for a sitcom.

Taking the premise at face value, I thought M3S did pretty well with it. They got Charley and the boys into the act in appropriate ways. Maybe what they needed was to have a finite monetary goal. On Hazel, we knew production would end when enough money for the pool table was raised. M3S instead took a comedic approach into chaos.

Edit - I wrote this before reading stevea's post, so it make make a little more sense to read his after mine.

I'm reminded of a Petticoat Junction website where members were giving the first color episode (Season 3 of PJ) ratings of 4 or higher out of 5, when I thought it was about a 2.5 at best, maybe 3. So varying views are not going to be rare.

I tend to suspend practicality if the episode registers for me as memorable. The Birthday ep does not attempt to try to tie up loose ends, like cancelled cake orders, but I don't expect that from a half-hour sitcom. As far as food production at home, shows like Hazel (Season 5), I Dream of Jeannie (the final ep), The Lucy Show and ILL also did episodes of that theme. So hardly rare for a sitcom.

Taking the premise at face value, I thought M3S did pretty well with it. They got Charley and the boys into the act in appropriate ways. Maybe what they needed was to have a finite monetary goal. On Hazel, we knew production would end when enough money for the pool table was raised. M3S instead took a comedic approach into chaos.

Another common sitcom recycled script is the kid-allergic-to-dog episode. These are always resolved, but M3S didn't. And probably in the next episode, Ernie is back with Tramp again, as though there never was an allergy.

For us, watching multiple times, that one to me tends to really suffer from our knowing Ernie's reaction will continue. People seeing it for the first time no doubt will find the mystery remaining unsolved as a more interesting experience. Similarly when Chip goes on "trial" for allegedly spending Chip's rare penny, we know if he's guilty or not. I guess to some extent I envy people who are watching for the 1st time.

Yes, this is definitely a slapstick episode, and you'd never see MacMurray involved in this. Funny, just saw Sherwood Schwartz's attempt at this, on a late-in-the-game Brady Bunch.

Back to M3S I've never been a huge fan of seasons 6 and 7. This particular one is another recycled sitcom script, that probably started with a Lucy episode. Didn't they have a pie fight in a diner?

I'd agree with the 3.5--I like some slapstick once in awhile. Out of 380 episodes that's the only one I recall.

Slapstick can be cute and for some sitcoms it really fits in. I just didn’t think it did for M3S. I love the show best when it’s being serious and/or poignant. And when the comedy is more light-hearted than it was in this ep.

I'm reminded of a Petticoat Junction website where members were giving the first color episode (Season 3 of PJ) ratings of 4 or higher out of 5, when I thought it was about a 2.5 at best, maybe 3. So varying views are not going to be rare.

I tend to suspend practicality if the episode registers for me as memorable. The Birthday ep does not attempt to try to tie up loose ends, like cancelled cake orders, but I don't expect that from a half-hour sitcom. As far as food production at home, shows like Hazel (Season 5), I Dream of Jeannie (the final ep), The Lucy Show and ILL also did episodes of that theme. So hardly rare for a sitcom.

Taking the premise at face value, I thought M3S did pretty well with it. They got Charley and the boys into the act in appropriate ways. Maybe what they needed was to have a finite monetary goal. On Hazel, we knew production would end when enough money for the pool table was raised. M3S instead took a comedic approach into chaos.

Edit - I wrote this before reading stevea's post, so it make make a little more sense to read his after mine.

Some shows, like Green Acres, are just plain silly. And that’s fine because that’s exactly what they’re supposed to be. For a show like GA you don’t expect logic; indeed the show revels in illogic.

But with a show like M3S, I DO expect logic and practicality. Steve is the personification of these qualities, and when the story lines stick closely to this, and emphasize how close-knit and devoted the Douglases are, it truly shines.

Was Happy Birthday World a crappy ep? At face value no, but relative to the generally high caliber of the show IT WAS.

I thought I would revive this thread as a means of offering more episode reviews.

When I started this thread, I had all the intention in the world of keeping it going. However, I'm such a procrastinator. After a while, I figured I'd just give up on it. Thank you for getting things going and keeping the thread alive. I went ahead and changed the title to be more fitting of what it's become now.

I'll include some more episodes sooner or later. Since you're not going in order, neither will I.

Some shows, like Green Acres, are just plain silly. And that’s fine because that’s exactly what they’re supposed to be. For a show like GA you don’t expect logic; indeed the show revels in illogic.

But with a show like M3S, I DO expect logic and practicality. Steve is the personification of these qualities, and when the story lines stick closely to this, and emphasize how close-knit and devoted the Douglases are, it truly shines.

Was Happy Birthday World a crappy ep? At face value no, but relative to the generally high caliber of the show IT WAS.

Good point--you don't expect it on M3S. I'm sure Fred wanted no part of that scene.

When I started this thread, I had all the intention in the world of keeping it going. However, I'm such a procrastinator. After a while, I figured I'd just give up on it. Thank you for getting things going and keeping the thread alive. I went ahead and changed the title to be more fitting of what it's become now.

I'll include some more episodes sooner or later. Since you're not going in order, neither will I.

Great idea! And think about doing it for WINGS. I have all the eps and TOTALLY LOVE the show. Maybe I will too. Discussing and critiquing eps is fun, and would STRONGLY like S.O. to tilt much more in that direction.

It would be pretty easy for me to go over all of the Seasons 6 through 10 episodes in order, but seasons 1-5 (and 11-12) are just not as familiar to me. So while I could have continued in order where Adamantium left off, it's much easier to jump in more-or-less randomly with those later eps. I was considering doing an S1 episode next however, "Chip's Harvest" (S1 Ep8), which I regard as a memorable Thanksgiving episode.

It would be pretty easy for me to go over all of the Seasons 6 through 10 episodes in order, but seasons 1-5 (and 11-12) are just not as familiar to me. So while I could have continued in order where Adamantium left off, it's much easier to jump in more-or-less randomly with those later eps. I was considering doing an S1 episode next however, "Chip's Harvest" (S1 Ep8), which I regard as a memorable Thanksgiving episode.

Me too. Seasons 6 thru 10 were on local TV for years. The first half of season 11 (the Chip and Polly elopement arc) was also syndicated back in the 1990s and has also been on TV Land. It was an odd syndication package

For some reason I can't develop a lot of enthusiasm for the black and white years, but I know a lot of people prefer those episodes.

Season 12 is a mixed bag. It has one of the best episodes in the series (IMO), The Enthusiast. At the other end of the spectrum is the Fergus three-episode set which opened the season--George Tibbles had memorable arcs to open the later seasons, but this one is not one of his best.

Another problem with season 12 is the un-remastered state of the episodes. Since this season was never officially syndicated in the videotape era, the episodes are sourced from 16mm masters which are in varying states of chopped-up editing.

CBS has never done a proper job of remastering any episodes for DVD. Although all the black and white seasons came out on DVD, there are varying problems with all of them.

Sorry, went off on a tangent...

Trouble with critiquing TV show episodes you have always liked is that it is too easy to get negative and only talk about the dumb or negative side of a show. It's an easy trap to fall into. I've done it myself. Then I had to stop myself and ask me "if the show is that bad why do I like it so much?" Then I had to answer myself (I often have these deep discussions with myself) with the answer to most everything you watch on a screen, "it's because it's a TV show, or it's a movie, that's why they do what they do" you're not supposed to think too critically or realistically about it. Do you enjoy it? Do you find it a nice relaxing 1/2 hour? If yes, then enjoy it and don't take it too seriously.

Before I watched the b/w years of My3Sons I liked the color years a lot. Even after I first saw the b/w years when it was on NICK at Nite I still liked the color years best and couldn't wait for the b/w shows to be over to get to the color years. BUT now it's just the opposite for me, I love watching the b/w years especially to see Bub and the way he acts with the kids and everyone. My favorite curmudgeon, I take notes on him so I can act like him now that I've reached those Bub years, (never thought I'd say that). I used to think when I was a kid, one day I'll be as old as Henry Mitchell but thought I'd never be as old as Mr. Wilson, now I'm older than Mr. Wilson. :eek:

So I appreciate the Bub years and yes I also really like the Uncle Charlie years another great grouch. The only period of My 3 Sons I don't really love (but still I find watchable and yes even enjoyable) are the years when those annoying triplets of Katie's come along and esp. the time when Rob runs off to Argentina or Tim Buk Tu and leaves Katie behind to deal with those brats by herself. They should have hired another Rob actor rather than write him out of the show. They could even have had Mike return and dump his nagging wife Meredith and marry Katie who could have sued Rob for abandonment. (Can you just imagine any of this happening?)

At any rate, I like the entire series but now I hope the b/w years don't stop instead of hoping they get over with. Currently I'm in the latter 1/2 of the 4th season so I still have some ways to go. But the first part of the color years are still great, things only go downhill when the triplets come along and also when Ernie loses his buck teeth and starts talking like he thinks he's all with it and great. When Ernie acted like a natural kid and not like a kid who thought he knows it all that's when I like Sons the best. He never should have straightened his teeth.

As far as only being able to talk about the middle years, what with ME TV showing the entire series for a while now I would have thought you could have gotten the entire series recorded and it shouldn't be a problem knowing about all episodes. Tho with DVD recorders no longer being made it is almost impossible for newcomer collectors of TV shows.

I only watch Sons once a week, maybe I should go back to watching twice a week like I used to when I watched my tapes pre-DVD-R days. But once a week does make the b/w years last longer.;)

Actually the triplets are OK when they're just babies. When they get to be toddlers they toddle around and create mayhem wherever they go. I suppose with one it's hard to deal with, but three! Egad!