Unaired episodes filmed at start of season 3

[JRR4]

According to what I've been reading they filmed 2 episodes at the start of season 3. The first was filmed without Valerie, she was a no show, and the second was filmed with her. Then they hired Sandy and filmed the season 3 premiere. My question is, does anyone know the storylines of those first two episodes. Are they ever aired?

[Edster2973]

Originally Posted by JRR4

According to what I've been reading they filmed 2 episodes at the start of season 3. The first was filmed without Valerie, she was a no show, and the second was filmed with her. Then they hired Sandy and filmed the season 3 premiere. My question is, does anyone know the storylines of those first two episodes. Are they ever aired?

Nope, they're never aired. According to Jeremy Licht, the first episode to feature Sandy Duncan as Sandy Hogan in the Season 3 premiere (entitled "Movin' On") was a twice re-worked episode that was originally intended as a Valerie episode.

The first draft didn't have Valerie Harper in it since she was in contract negotiations with the producers. At that time, no agreement was reached so she refused to show up for work. They shot the episode without her, with the explanation that Valerie Hogan was away visiting her parents back East. As in the final draft of the Season 3 premiere, Michael Hogan comes down and enters the kitchen, only he had a band-aid on his face. David asks him what happened to him and Michael answers "Your mother used my razor before she went visiting back East."

By the time filming was done for the episode, an agreement was reached between the producers and Valerie so she came back to work and the episode was re-shot to include her. This was the second draft.

Afterwards, and there's never been a satisfactory explanation as to what happened or why it occurred, but the decision was made to fire Valerie Harper and to replace her with Sandy Duncan. So the episode was re-written to kill off Valerie Hogan and to introduce Sandy Hogan as the aunt to the three boys.

The confusion is why Valerie was fired. If it had been due to her greed, then why did her bosses give in to her at first? If she had been hostile and that was disruptive, then why give in to her at first? Why have her come back, give her a raise and sign a new contract, shoot episode 1 of Season 3, and then fire her? It made no sense and she was able to prove that ultimately, assuring her victory in court.

Hope this helps. If there's ever a DVD release of the show, I'd love to see these re-shoots of Episode 1 of Season 3 as an extra. I'm sure it'd sell for that reason alone. Time will tell I guess...


Ed