Was Fred MacMurray lazy?

[TMC]

At least by 1960s television standards. I mean, he apparently liked the money he got from My Three Sons and was okay working with the adults, but he hated working with the kids. By most accounts, he really just wanted to play golf. He also insisted that he and the four who played his boys had to film as many of their scenes separately as possible.

[TV Guy]

MacMurray didn’t hate working with the boys, at least not according to the actors who played his sons. I think he was reserved with them and that was his nature, but either Stan or Barry said he showed some emotion when the series ended and realized he wouldn’t see them any more.

Fred wasn’t lazy; he was simply further on in his career, and didn’t want to commit to a show where he had to work 39 weeks per year. ABC wanted him for the show, so the production company devised the method where he filmed all of his scenes in two blocks during the season, and the rest of the cast filmed their individual scenes when Fred was off. The “MacMurray” method was later used for Brian Keith on “Family Affair”.

Fred didn’t “insist” on making the boys film their scenes separately. They had plenty of scenes together; but if the boys and Bill Frawley or Demarest had scenes or reaction shots without him, then those were done when Fred was off.

I don’t know why you’re trying to drum up controversy by slandering someone who is long dead. Go back to your dead birthday posts. At least those were harmless.

[Schmo]

MacMurray was still in demand as a film actor while “My Three Sons” was on the air. And not all of the movies were Disney productions. Check out his role as a sleazy womanizer in the 1960 movie “The Apartment”.

[Duster76]

I have to side with TV Guy and Schmo on this one. MacMurray had one the best managed careers in the history of Hollywood. He worked steadily for 40 years transitioning easily from movies to TV, ultimately working in both simultaneously. That's not easy, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Jimmy Stewart tried and failed with TV series. MacMurray was a big star when he signed on to do My Three Sons, they were lucky to get him, he used his strong negotiating position to his advantage, it served him and all the members of the cast and crew and production company of the series very well.

[stevea]

I also doubt the hate working with the boys story. Actors are actors whatever their age. Sometimes kid actors can be a problem, but all of these kids worked on the show for several seasons (Stanley Livingston, for all 12 seasons, and his brother Barry, for 9).

From all I've read it could have been slightly the other way around. The filming supposedly involved a lot of scenes with stand-ins, and filming out of sequence. Probably very difficult for the other actors, not to mention making the film editor job very difficult. Also the writers had to write scripts where Fred's character was out of town on business a lot.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TV Guy

MacMurray didn’t hate working with the boys, at least not according to the actors who played his sons. I think he was reserved with them and that was his nature, but either Stan or Barry said he showed some emotion when the series ended and realized he wouldn’t see them any more.

Fred wasn’t lazy; he was simply further on in his career, and didn’t want to commit to a show where he had to work 39 weeks per year. ABC wanted him for the show, so the production company devised the method where he filmed all of his scenes in two blocks during the season, and the rest of the cast filmed their individual scenes when Fred was off. The “MacMurray” method was later used for Brian Keith on “Family Affair”.

Fred didn’t “insist” on making the boys film their scenes separately. They had plenty of scenes together; but if the boys and Bill Frawley or Demarest had scenes or reaction shots without him, then those were done when Fred was off.

I don’t know why you’re trying to drum up controversy by slandering someone who is long dead. Go back to your dead birthday posts. At least those were harmless.

How exactly am I "slandering" Fred MacMurray for simply making an assumption (I never directly said that he was lazy, mind you) regarding his alleged work ethic when compared to say, any other actor of that time? I can't be the only one who wonders if that can constitute an actor not being "100% committed". If MacMurray managed to arrange a sweet schedule like that, then more power to him. But I'm just saying that it's quite easy to immediately suggest that under those circumstances, an actor isn't "all in" that particular job (i.e. others have to do the "grunt work"). It isn't like MacMurray made My Three Sons an easier show to produce (working around him had to be a logistical nightmare) since they had to work around his absences. So don't act like he isn't completely "innocent" (it kind of strikes me as "wanting to have your cake and eat it to") in all of this.

[Babalu]

Fred MacMurray said, "If you want me, these are my conditions." The producers/network agreed. Supply and demand.

[PracTz]

No, I don't think Mr. MacMurray was lazy but he had adopted two children with his first wife when he was an up-and-coming performer trying to establish his career but by the time the first Mrs. MacMurray had died (in 1953), his career was on sturdy ground. Thus, when he married June Haver in 1954, they decided to adopt two more children but since he'd had far less time with his first family than he'd have liked when they were growing up due to his career, he didn't want that to happen with his new wife or these kids so that's why when he was approached to do a television series, he insisted on the MacMurray System in which he'd shoot all a season's episodes' scenes with himself for only a few weeks while the rest of the cast would work the whole time but then they'd edit his footage.

[Schmo]

Watch 1944’s “Double Indemnity”, in which MacMurray co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. You’ll be surprised this is the same actor who starred in “My Three Sons” and “The Absent-Minded Professor”. The late TCM host Robert Osborne commented that MacMurray was never nominated for an Oscar during his career.
Yes, MacMurray enjoyed golf.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/1191...biography.html

[Schmoopie]

Seems to me that he was quite busy back then because he was pretty much everywhere as far as movies and TV go. I can't imagine him not liking his kid costars though because they worked so well together and it showed on screen.

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by TMC

How exactly am I "slandering" Fred MacMurray for simply making an assumption (I never directly said that he was lazy, mind you) regarding his alleged work ethic when compared to say, any other actor of that time?

Brian Keith made the same type of work arrangement for Family Affair, which began airing in 1965. So in that era, Fred's accommodations were not unique for '65-'71 -- a big chunk of M3S -- as compared with "any other actor."

[merlinjones]

Both Fred MacMurray and Brian Keith were making lots of Disney movies when their shows were on the air, and they seem very engaged in those films, unlike some of the later TV episodes.

[horizonbeach11]

I have watched several interviews with the Livingston brothers on Youtube and they have nothing but kind things to say about Fred MacMurray. He took a personal, fatherly interest in them by all accounts, even cautioning Stanley Livingston on marrying his first wife, a go go dancer, because he was concerned about what kind of life he would have with her.

He may have been less fatherly and more detached by the time that Dawn Lyn joined the cast, although she has nothing negative to say about him either, as far as I have seen. The man aged during the run of the show from 52 to 64, and people change a lot between 50 and 60, perhaps he was just ready to be done by the end, who knew it would last 12 years?

I have read that Dawn would antagonize him a little bit by tugging on his hairpiece and things like that, which really isn't acceptable behavior anyway but that's on the parent, not the child to a certain extent, and since he was past 60 by then maybe he wasn't all warm and fuzzy about it, but things like that waste time and it seems that his time was valuable to him so...

There is an interview with Barry Livingston on Youtube in which he states that they were pretty much all ready for the show to be over by the last season, I'm sure Fred was on board with that and probably just wanted to retire and play golf. It is to his credit that he stuck around for twelve years, IMHO.

[Hazel Anyday]

Actually I read or heard somewhere that Fred wanted to continue on with the series and was not happy when it was cancelled with CBS's purge of all decent family entertainment.