Peter Tewksbury

[merlinjones]

I've been impressed by the excellent first first season episodes of My Three Sons written and directed by Peter Tewksbury. These are very polished shows and remarkably inventive at times (like the episode just about everyone trying to get ready for work/school).

Anyone know why he left the show after what I assume was received as a successful first season?

[stevea]

Peter Tewksbury was a very successful director, taking over Father Knows Best for the last four seasons.

All I remember reading about him somewhere was possibly an insistence on near perfection of scenes requiring many takes, which upped production costs.

There was quite a succession of directors in the black and white years. They settled on James V. Kern in the fifth season, and he went on until he died in the seventh season, with James Sheldon completing any necessary scenes. This is why you see dual director credits in many episodes.

Then they settled on Fred DeCordova for the 8th thru 11th season, switching to Earl Bellamy for the final season when DeCordova left for the Tonight Show.

[PhoenixAcres]

Agreed, I consider Peter Tewksbury one of the best TV directors in history. One of the major reasons I enjoy Father Knows Best so much is his expert cinematography and attention to detail.

One of the very few My Three Sons episodes I've seen from the first season was when Steve was away from home and for some reason a bomb found its way inside his family's house, all the while Steve is frantically trying to contact them. It seemed like an unusual plot for a sitcom but Tewksbury was never afraid of experimentation and was able to put together a genuinely thrilling story.

[Hazel Anyday]

I've been watching seasons 1 & 2 over the past year or so and each time I watched an episode from my TV Land/Family Channel/Nick At Nite DVDs I then re-watched the same episode all over again from the mostly unedited commercial DVDs. It was sometimes a bit tedious to sit thru the same scenes again but it was all worth it each time I saw the 3 minutes of show that were cut out of the Cable broadcasts. It was also very interesting to see how these shows were sometimes extremely slyly edited. On some shows 5 or 10 seconds were cut here and there maybe a minute here or there and other times entire 3 min. segments were edited out without any sly subtle editing at all. Having just seen the cable versions it always stood out to me when watching the commercial DVDs (with the gosh awful "new" music background) Wow, that scene was cut, ooh, look at that, I never saw that before! It was fascinating to see scenes and bits of scenes that I had never saw before.

Now I'm into season 3 and I no longer have to watch my DVD set before I watch the commercial version since the commercial DVDs are now using the original music!! Happy Day! But now I have to worry about what the occasional edits are happening to even the commercial DVDs. I know songs are usually cut out, but other bits I am not aware of. But it is nice not to have to watch the same show twice in a row.

[merlinjones]

Tewksbury set such a high bar for the My Three Sons - it's almost a completely different experience than the later seasons.

I too liked his Father Knows Best shows - especially interesting is Billy Gray's acting and the James Dean-ish actorly business he creates in many scenes.

[someguy23475]

This is the first time I have seen most of these episodes. I did miss several while out of town, but out of what I have seen, the household is so hectic. Is this mostly a Tewksbury thing, or does it last a few seasons?

[merlinjones]

IMHO, the "hectic" first season show really delivers on the original concept of an all-male household without "orderly" female influence (in 1960 POV). It was a "what if?" concept in its time!

Of course, today, they would just all sit around looking at separate screens, playing video games, uploading shows, and ordering pizza...

[stevea]

Originally Posted by merlinjones

Of course, today, they would just all sit around looking at separate screens, playing video games, uploading shows, and ordering pizza...

Not directly related to Peter T: Recently Blondie had had a comic, where Cookie and Alex were going to the mall. Dagwood asked what they were going to do:

Cookie: We're gonna meet and look at our phones.

So typical. Young people in public staring at their phones.

[Hazel Anyday]

AHH, you just mentioned the one thing I don't like about the first season of My 3 Sons, it's the what I call the "forced, practiced, rehearsed mass confusion" scenes. It is really annoying especially since they seem to do it so often in several different episodes. You can't hear anyone talking just a bunch of purposeful running back and forth and the dog on cue starts insanely barking and jumping. Really really annoying to me. I usually fast forward thru these "practiced rehearsed confusion" forced scenes. They certainly are not funny and not entertaining, WHY did they do them, is what I wonder? Did no one tell them these oft repeated phony confusion scenes were terrible?

OK, everything else about the show I really like. So I guess just one bad thing is excusable (oh, that and getting rid of Jeanie, I liked her, she should have stayed with the show in the second season. She left and got her own show "Margie" about a teenage girl in the early 1900's. I've seen most of the episodes just because I like the actress who plays her, but they are hardly the best things on TV I've ever seen. Margie only lasted one season, so why didn't Jeanie (I don't remember her real name) return to the show in season 3??

[stevea]

Somewhere (probably Wikipedia) I've read positive comments on that first season rocket launch episode. It's supposed to demonstrate a busy, hectic morning in the Douglas household. To me it's a big bundle of nothing. Only my opinion, though.

[Hazel Anyday]

I agree, and repeating these same phony confusion scenes again and again in other episodes didn't help. Thank goodness someone there came to their senses and finally called a halt to these annoying scenes.

[stevea]

I will say there was none of this nonsense in Father Knows Best, and Tewksbury directed over half the series. It may be that Eugene Rodney and Robert Young ran things with an iron fist.

I just noticed Tewksbury wrote a fifth season episode of FKB. He probably wrote some episodes of M3S as well.

[merlinjones]

I have to disagree with the last few posts - To me, the first season Tewksbury episodes are remarkable, especially the episodes mentioned, as these defy easy, repetitive formatting and go for a more filmic concept. Beautifully shot, lots of interesting setups and character business and egergy. Very unusual for the time. And sort of brilliant!

It's like a completely different show entirely from the stagey color shows which seem eerily disconnected - although certainly relaxing and untaxing.

[Cloudymoor]

I grew up in the New York tri-state area where I never saw these Bubba episodes. (They always started reruns with Mike getting married and Ernie coming on board.) What a different tone the show had! And I agree about the yelling and forces chaos being hard to take. Robbie really did learn to tone it down as an actor in later seasons.

One small point---I really like how much homier the Bryant Park house is. Very lived in----lots of character and the messy books and binders in the little built in area behind the chair where they talk on the phone. I always found the California house SO sterile--the clutter-free counters, the entry area devoid of mail, schoolbags, et al., . the charmless kitchen with that godawful out-of-place cabinet with the orange back.

[merlinjones]

I liked Robbie as a hothead - it made him far more interesting with that specific characteristic. The original three sons has separate, defined personalities, where in the color episodes they are all sort of kick-back alike, except Ernie who is kind-of-a-know-it-all, but not quite. Robbie became sort of bossy/eager like Mike was, but not quite.

Similar thing happened on Petticoat Junction - the first two Bobbie Jos were way more interesting as overconfident man-chaser. I liked Meridith but her character was comparatively undefined.