Why Did ABC Cancel My Three Sons?

[icecream]

It was doing great in the ratings at #13 during season 5, which ended up being its final season on ABC. My Three Sons was longer lived on CBS with 7 seasons there.

[biffbronson]

The only reason I've ever heard is that ABC didn't want to go to the expense of filming in color. Given the ratings you mention, it does seem odd. Maybe someone can give us more insight.

[James28]

Given its Top-20 ratings, I agree that ABC's unwillingness/refusal to produce My Three Sons in color was a mistake, because reasons I've heard so far are just baffling. This is probably a good opportunity to ask "What if My Three Sons NEVER moved to CBS, and stayed on ABC for the duration of its 12-year run?"

How different would things have been then? For example, would MTS have been shorter-lived if it stayed on ABC?

[stevea]

It's possible ABC was too cash-poor to fund color at the time--they didn't strike gold and were an also-ran until around 1976 or whenever Happy Days peaked. Still they knew color was a must by the next season anyway.

As far as what would've been different--there was a gradual change to sillier scripts in season 6 (first on CBS) and per a Wikipedia check I made, the ratings dropped from 15 in 6 to 29 in 7. So much of what happens on shows is at the network's direction, you have think this was CBS's fault. Season 7 really started weak, with no George Tibbles multi-episode arc. In the third episode Steve is visited by an old flame he can't remember--a really weak script by Joseph Hoffman. In the second episode the family visits Steve's home town--ho, hum.

So as season 7 ended, the show was nearly out of the top 30. In a major change the Desilu Studio was closing, necessitating a My Three Sons change to being produced at CBS. So a family move was written in to open season 8--a move to California. George Tibbles took over again, and wrote a story arc encompassing the move, plus Rob's quick marriage to Katie. This inched the show out of ratings trouble, and another Tibbles arc to open season 9, the saga of the birth of the triplets, took the show into the top 20 for that season, and the next two seasons had multi-episode openings and top 20 performance. (Season 12 had a disappointing opening series of episodes. By now the triplets were older and totally wild, Don Grady had left the show and Katie was alone--all the signs of the end were there.)

Would ABC have handled things differently, and would the show not have had struggles around the seventh season? Hard to know. Why did the seventh season not have an interesting opening story arc by head writer Tibbles?

Would the show have run as long on ABC? Given ABC's normal last-place finish at the time, I'd have to say it would have run as long, or maybe longer, on ABC.

[Hazel Anyday]

A bit of the same story with the Patty Duke Show. It ran on ABC till color became popular in 1965 then ABC cancelled Patty rather than re-gear the show for color. Re-gearing meant painting the walls on the sets and changing out all the light greens and grays on the set for real color. Still doesn't make sense, as they would have to switch to color eventually anyway.

[stevea]

Yet after 13 seasons in black and white, they converted Ozzie and Harriet to color for one season.

But they let Patty (and Bewitched) go on in b/w for 1965/66, and cancelled My Three Sons.

They probably knew Patty Duke was getting restless and was going into its last season, but the more logical thing to do would have been to go color on Sons (rather than lose it), and leave Oz in b/w.

There could have been other considerations. Patty and Bewitched were probably expensive shows anyway due to extensive editing and special effects, so color would have thrown the cost even higher.

Regardless, they still should have found a way to go color on Sons, to keep a ratings winner.

[biffbronson]

The re-painting is an interesting aspect; I suppose production companies were becoming keenly aware that their paint color choices, existing or new, would have to "work" well on color film -- and I would guess that the networks had concerns that their shows remained appealing visually. So glad personally that Ozzie & Harriet continued, love it.

Good point that color was inevitable. I wonder if Screen Gems repainted Donna Reed's bedroom interior when it appeared in Gidget, or if those were the original coiors -- just seen previously in b & w?

[Dude111]

They were stupid is why

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by Dude111

They were stupid is why

The most simple answer oftentimes is the best.

[paul.austin]

Occam's Electric Shaver - the quickest and easiest answer.

[merlinjones]

Just a theory -- but in those days a five year contract for TV shows was common and maybe they (or Fred?) wanted a better deal and ABC declined (or stalled) but CBS ponied up.

Similarly Bewitched was renegotiated after season five as was The Donna Reed Show (both ran 8 seasons on ABC).

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by Hazel Anyday

Re-gearing meant painting the walls on the sets and changing out all the light greens and grays on the set for real color. .

I've heard similar observation about Addams family and the Munsters. But it's NOT strictly a matter of fashion.

I'm not claiming expertise, but the way I read it was they could get away with certain color combinations in B&W that just didn't work in color. Such as a pastel green with a pastel pink looking like two different colors of grey on a black and white camera, but looking horrible in the real world. Or a mid tone of blue "dusted" around the edges of an alabaster wall, to make it appear shaded in B&W, but look like blue splattered over alabaster in a color set up. They used colors for different effects in a B&W set, than they used in color. Wearing a lite blue dress shirt on a color set actually appearing whiter than a white shirt does... while on a B&W set, the lite blue shirt appears pastel grey.....stuff like that


I believe they were dealing with real world realities, such as "how many more seasons does this series have left in it?" One or two might not be worth the investment required to go color?

[GentlemanJim]

Regarding the show's termination, just speaking for me personally, as the boys grew older, it became less and less like the show I originally found appealing. The daughter in law, etc.

[stevea]

With certain black and white shows on NBC they shot a few episodes in color in a given season. I'm most familiar with Hazel's one color episode, and the sets look fine (they were obviously prepared for the set colors). But to me the most noticeable problem was the lighting was a little dark, like they made no adjustments there.

[Howard]

The 1st season of "Hazel" was in B&W but was in" living color" for the rest of its run. I recently discovered that they colorized the 1st 2 seasons of "Bewitched" and I'm surprised they didn't colorize the 1st season of "The Lucy Show". Maybe at some point they will?!