Cast Commercials and Sponsors

[Ronny G]

Viewers were treated to a nice surprise the other day while watching My Three Sons on Me-TV. They aired the episode, "You Can't Go Home", and during the closing credits were different images of Kellogg's cereal packages like Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Product 19 and Pop-Tarts. Obviously, Kelloggs was a sponsor back in the day, but these type of things were usually edited out for syndication. It was cool seeing how the packaging looked back then. I hope they show more of these credits intact.
Also, once in a while, Me-TV shows an original My 3 Sons cast commercial of them plugging Heinz Ketchup.

[old grouch]

Darn it, I watched this the other morning but turned it off before the closing credits. Oh well. Maybe when season 10 comes out in 2025 they will keep this in.

[rezny717]

Speaking of cast commercials,remember the one that featured Chip eating lunch and having a hamburger made with Hunt's Steak House ketchup?This was from one of the latter ABC black and white episodes seasons(1964-1965 ,I think)

[Cincy Guy]

In the first season or two, M3S was sponsored by Chevrolet. At the end, Fred McMurray and the cast appeared inviting viewers to watch again the next week and the sponsor's name was mentioned.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...the first four seasons were sponsored by Chevrolet (1960-'64), until they "pulled up stakes" and began sponsoring "BEWITCHED" in the fall of '64; Quaker Oats was an alternate sponsor [they, too, joined Chevy in co-sponsoring "BEWITCHED"]. Hunt-Wesson Foods became the show's primary sponsor in the fall of '64 {moving to CBS with the series in '65}. Alternate sponsors during the CBS era included Kellogg's, and Procter & Gamble.

[missy's pop pop]

In the first four seasons, Chevrolet was the major sponsor for "My Three Sons," and I distinctly remember Fred MacMurray driving a '61 Chevy Nomad (Impala) station wagon in the earliest episodes. And at the end of each episode, they had a montage of various Chevies driving on open highways. For example, a 1962 episode contained shots of an Impala Sport Sedan, a Chevy II Nova station wagon, a Corvair Monza coupe, a Corvair 95 Rampside pickup, and an open-top Corvette running behind the credits.

When Chevy dropped its sponsorship, the auto credit at the episode changed to "Automobiles furnished by Pontiac Motor Division GMC." Some of the last ABC episodes also featured International Harvester pickups in some of the scenes, though there was no credit for that.

In fact, Pontiac had a long, long relationship with Don Fedderson Productions; they also furnished cars for "Family Affair."

[missy's pop pop]

Originally Posted by rezny717

Speaking of cast commercials,remember the one that featured Chip eating lunch and having a hamburger made with Hunt's Steak House ketchup?This was from one of the latter ABC black and white episodes seasons(1964-1965 ,I think)

I think Hunt-Wesson carried over into one of the first color CBS seasons, too. In fact, Hunt's offered three distinct ketchup flavors from about 1965 to 1968: Steak House, such as Chip enjoyed in the commercial; Pizza Flavor Ketchup ("for an Italian accent," the voice-over announcer intoned as the bottle tilted to one side a la the Leaning Tower of Pisa); and Hickory Flavor Catsup.

Of course, they were also marketing Wesson Buttery Flavor Oil (which ConAgra, which now owns Hunt's and Wesson, may have reincarnated as Orville Redenbacher's Buttery Popcorn Oil) and brewing up the first batches of Manwich ("create a bewitching meal to tempt every member of the family"!)

[biffbronson]

I thought I would bump this old thread back up for convenience. I would love to have a late-60s Pontiac GTO or other convertible as seen on the series. Very cool cars!

It seems that there's always a bottle of ketchup at the Douglas table, beginning with Hunt-Wesson's sponsorship in the mid-60s.

So, for morning scenes, I was trying to think of any breakfast foods that ketchup would go with, aside from scrambled eggs? (These days I would also put it on an egg mcmuffin sandwich.) Breakfast sausage, maybe?

[stevea]

Interesting thread. On the syndication episodes, I do remember seeing those season 10 episodes (a few of them) where they left the Kellogg's products in the credits. They probably couldn't find a "clean" copy, and they didn't want to bother masking them in some way.

(from above) They could have just left the bottle of ketchup on the table all the time. Tomatoes are so acidic there wouldn't be a problem before they used it up.

[biffbronson]

Unless I'm mistaken, boxes of some Toni hair products appear at the closing of a Season 6 episode print, as seen on MeTV and elsewhere (just as the Kellogg's cereal and Pop Tarts ones on a Season 10 ep print, mentioned earlier).

Unlike other concurrent series such as Donna Reed, My Favorite Martian, Dobie Gillis, and TAGS, no illustrations were later added to prints in place of product depictions for the Fedderson shows. My ideas: for Family Affair, a little New York skyline drawing. For M3S, how about Chip's old drawing of Tramp? It remained on the walls for years...

[stevea]

In the original opener of later episodes, Fred, on camera, would always say, Hi...Welcome to our show for (sponsor), and the familiar opener rolled next. In the older syndication prints, many of the season 10 and later episodes had Fred on camera, saying Hi, Welcome to our show. This was eventually eliminated--evidently someone figured they could save 5 seconds without it.

[Ronny G]

Originally Posted by stevea

In the original opener of later episodes, Fred, on camera, would always say, Hi...Welcome to our show for (sponsor), and the familiar opener rolled next. In the older syndication prints, many of the season 10 and later episodes had Fred on camera, saying Hi, Welcome to our show. This was eventually eliminated--evidently someone figured they could save 5 seconds without it.

They did the same "Hi...Welcome to our show" with the twins on Family Affair, which was produced by the same company. I think it was the last season.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by Ronny G

They did the same "Hi...Welcome to our show" with the twins on Family Affair, which was produced by the same company. I think it was the last season.

Yes, I remember seeing those on MeTV. Sometimes one of the kids did them, sometimes Sebastian Cabot. It was only on the last season on MeTV, probably more on the original broadcasts, where they probably recorded them only with sponsor tags.

[paul.austin]

Anissa Jones looks very sombre on those final season "welcome to our show' tags. She must have been so sick of playing Buffy. I think she would've killed for a "Buffy's first bra" episode by that point.

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by stevea

Yes, I remember seeing those on MeTV. Sometimes one of the kids did them, sometimes Sebastian Cabot. It was only on the last season on MeTV, probably more on the original broadcasts, where they probably recorded them only with sponsor tags.

I remember seeing Cabot say "So good of you to join us." But wasn't his spot aired before the closing credits? (Johnnie and Anissa were definitely at the openings.)