My Three Sons

[Corky Marlowe]

I wonder how many days a year Fred Macmurray was putting in by the 1971-72 season. I would imagine he would have negotiated his hours downward a lot in the 12 years he did the show.

I think I read (maybe on the late, great Jump The Shark) that filming was set up so MacMurray could do all of his scenes at the beginning of the production schedule; Kind of like James Arness did during the last few seasons of "Gunsmoke".

 

[Legend City]

Yeah, Fred would come in and shoot dozens of connector scenes, frequently "phoning it in" from the office, or would do reaction shots. From that they would have the other actors do the show around that.

I worked for Don Fedderson's wife for a while...lots of pictures of Fred MacMurray and William Demarest everywhere...and lots of other B list 70's celebs....

 

[joeybabe25]

And, of course, had Mike and Sally stayed, then Meredith MacRae would have been unavailable to take the Billie Jo Bradley role on PJ. I guess that's 6 degrees of Bea Benaderet

Sounds like an idea for a neat thread!

Joe

 

[desertv]

Season eight saw a major plot change with the Douglas clan moving from the Midwest to California.

In that final season, MTS fell victim to a lame plot device, with the introduction of Steve's "cousin" from Scotland, Fergus McBain Douglas, played by Fred MacMurray himself.

Kinda like "Oliver" in The Brady Bunch!

 

[bpatrick]

I wonder how many days a year Fred Macmurray was putting in by the 1971-72 season. I would imagine he would have negotiated his hours downward a lot in the 12 years he did the show.

12 years is a long time for a sitcom, and even though MTS was not a "rural" comedy like so many that were cancelled dispite good ratings (bad demos though) I think it would have been out of place on a network that had shows like "Maude", "All In The Family", "The Jefferson's" "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Bob Newhart". Having said that, I would have continued to watch even then. But I think it was too much "Ozzie and Harriett" for the new "urban" CBS.

BTW, O&H was another quite cleverly written show that was never really given enough credit. Like MTS.

Joe

MacMurray worked 65 days a year on "MTS," about the same as Brian Keith on sister show "Family Affair." On both shows the other cast members had to shoot around the star.

As for the discussion of kids outgrowing their roles, not only Jay North but Jerry Mathers outgrew his (Jerry put on quite a bit of weight, plus his voice changed). Perhaps that's why a woman does the voice of the male kid on that "certain animated show."
Matt Groening need never worry about Nancy Cartwright's voice changing; he also decided long ago that Bart would always be in fourth grade. Related to "MTS," it's why Tim Considine left the show when he did.

 

[BD Sullivan]

I wonder how many days a year Fred Macmurray was putting in by the 1971-72 season. I would imagine he would have negotiated his hours downward a lot in the 12 years he did the show.

12 years is a long time for a sitcom, and even though MTS was not a "rural" comedy like so many that were cancelled dispite good ratings (bad demos though) I think it would have been out of place on a network that had shows like "Maude", "All In The Family", "The Jefferson's" "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Bob Newhart". Having said that, I would have continued to watch even then. But I think it was too much "Ozzie and Harriett" for the new "urban" CBS.

BTW, O&H was another quite cleverly written show that was never really given enough credit. Like MTS.

Joe

MacMurray worked 65 days a year on "MTS," about the same as Brian Keith on sister show "Family Affair." On both shows the other cast members had to shoot around the star.

As for the discussion of kids outgrowing their roles, not only Jay North but Jerry Mathers outgrew his (Jerry put on quite a bit of weight, plus his voice changed). Perhaps that's why a woman does the voice of the male kid on that "certain animated show."
Matt Groening need never worry about Nancy Cartwright's voice changing; he also decided long ago that Bart would always be in fourth grade. Related to "MTS," it's why Tim Considine left the show when he did.

One of Pernell Roberts' MANY complaints about the concept of Bonanza was the fact that three adult men were all still living at home with their father, as if they were incapable of having a life of their own.

 

[joeybabe25]

This quote from Michael Landon was televised, so I hope its ok here.

Johnny Carson remarked that through the years there had been rumours that the Cartwrights were gay. Four men living well into adulthood all under the same roof in the lonely west didn't seem quite right.

Landon sad unequivocally that it was untrue that the Cartwrights were homosexual.

But thank God for Hop-Sing!

Joe

 

[bpatrick]

When "My Three Sons" was on the drawing boards somebody
(either Don Fedderson or an ABC executive) wanted to call it
"The Fred MacMurray Show." He wouldn't do it, saying he'd
have to be there all the time, which he didn't want to do.

To the person who worked for Don Fedderson's wife, I wonder
if she had any interesting stories about some of the people
associated with Fedderson: Lawrence Welk, Liberace, Johnny
Carson, Brian Keith, John Forsythe, Henry Fonda, Betty White,
or Marvin Miller, in addition to MacMurray.

Is it also true that she has finally released the first half-season
(January-June 1955) of "The Millionaire" on DVD?

 

[Tim L]

Is it also true that she has finally released the first half-season
(January-June 1955) of "The Millionaire" on DVD?

Just in a brief search, I'm not seeing any "Official" releases but surprising that there are a number of "bootlegs" out there including supposedly the complete series..

 

[cspotrun]

i never thought MTS was what you would call "Funny", If you bought the premise, THAT was pretty much the show, it was a little easier to take than the brady bunch, but if it was worth watching, only for William Frawley, because he was a great crusty old man, which i guess he was in life. i always thought Fred MacMurray was a very good actor and maybe bailed out of movies for TV too soon.

 

[MCarney]

Here are some cast commercials and sponsor open/closes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbdtnSDAHk8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_wlonVsO8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzbbkzKNelU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlWW-qf7QZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjx6g66kRV4

Too bad they butchered the DVD release (all the music was replaced and rescored due to possible music rights issues).

 

[BD Sullivan]

I always thought Fred MacMurray was a very good actor and maybe bailed out of movies for TV too soon.

True, but I'm sure Fred didn't mind the residual checks that regularly arrived. In a similar vein, Shirley Booth was chided by her friend Burt Lancaster (who had co-starred with her in her Oscar-winning effort in 1952's "Come Back Little Sheba) for deciding to star in Hazel, saying the role was beneath her stature. Shirley (who owned a piece of the show) simply said that it was her retirement policy, and it panned out because the show lasted five years, and went into syndication for years.

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

Oh, and the original sponsor was Chevrolet -- and a couple of the seasons had line-art drawings of the various Chevy models.

--Russell

Interesting little side-note about that. After 5 years of driving Chevrolets in glorious B&W on ABC....all of a sudden, "Steve Douglas" was in living color and driving Pontiacs on CBS.

OH!...And about Don Fedderson. Has anyone mentioned that his son (who worked under the name "Mike Minor" would become a regular on "Petticoat Junction" during the middle of the show's run?

 

[joeybabe25]

Ha! Another Hollywood family connection. I never knew about the Fedderson-Minor family relationship. I guess those PJ residual checks (probably far gone by now) were just pocket change to Mike Minor.

Good for him. I wish my Daddy had been rich too. And so did he!

Joe

 

[rwells2265]

Oh, and the original sponsor was Chevrolet -- and a couple of the seasons had line-art drawings of the various Chevy models.

--Russell

Interesting little side-note about that. After 5 years of driving Chevrolets in glorious B&W on ABC....all of a sudden, "Steve Douglas" was in living color and driving Pontiacs on CBS.

And putting Hunts "Catsup" on his french fries. ;D

As for cars, I guess Steve Douglas felt that once you wide track you'll never go back.

 

[Markxxx]

MacMurray worked 65 days a year on "MTS," about the same as Brian Keith on sister show "Family Affair." On both shows the other cast members had to shoot around the star.

I have the DVDs of "Family Affair" and Kathy "Cissy" Garver said, she and Sebastian Cabot had it rough as all of Keith's scenes were done at once and then they did all of the scenes of Buffy and Jodie next, because they could only work so many hours being kids. Then they would film her and Mr French scenes last. So she and Cabot had to stay on the studio every day from 6am till past midnight. Garver was 18 when the show started.

She said on the DVDs if you watch you will see a lot of Cissy and Mr French are always together where French and the other cast members or the cast member and her are not because their spliced together.

And she laughed saying how hard it was to pretend to be talking to "sweet little Buffy," while in reality it was a teamster with a cigar standing opposite of her reading Buffy's lines.

 

[Legend City]

When "My Three Sons" was on the drawing boards somebody
(either Don Fedderson or an ABC executive) wanted to call it
"The Fred MacMurray Show." He wouldn't do it, saying he'd
have to be there all the time, which he didn't want to do.

To the person who worked for Don Fedderson's wife, I wonder
if she had any interesting stories about some of the people
associated with Fedderson: Lawrence Welk, Liberace, Johnny
Carson, Brian Keith, John Forsythe, Henry Fonda, Betty White,
or Marvin Miller, in addition to MacMurray.

Is it also true that she has finally released the first half-season
(January-June 1955) of "The Millionaire" on DVD?

It was his last wife, don't know when she married him, she is a consummate con-artist co running a sham of a charity which is millions in debt and she keeps making a ton of money off of it. Lots of pictures with Merv, and Little House on Prairie stars, and lots of forgotten 70's stars. One pic of Carson, but it is obvious that he didn't pose for it...it is just one they caught of him standing and listening to something. (Carson wasn't big on any faith based organization, and was almost certainly an atheist, back when it wasn't cool)

 

[johnbasalla]

Didn't know about the Mike Minor relationship to Don Fedderson. Please visit the Petticoat Junction thread entitled "Bea Benaderet Look" for a PJ related comment about Mr. Minor's major role in that series.

 

[Fenway1912]

Chip adored William Frawley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzTv1Z4lIU

I read somewhere that William Frawley was basically fired from My Three Sons because he got sick and the producers didn't want him anymore so they gave the job to Frawley's old friend William Demarest which made Frawley so unhappy that he didn't speak to Demarest ever again before Frawley died in 1966 of cancer. Is this true?

Frawley died of a heart attack, although he had been suffering from prostate cancer. He was fired because the studio couldn't get insurance to cover him anymore.

I don't know what kind of relationship Frawley and Demarest had, but it's not exactly a secret that William Frawley was "misanthropic," had few friends in or out of Hollywood, and had a serious drinking problem (although he behaved himself during the run of I Love Lucy). From what I've read about him, his only real friends in the business were Lucy & Desi, and Fred MacMurray.

 

[Fenway1912]

Many of MTS episodes were directed by Fred De Cordova who only left the show to produce Carson when Johnny moved to Burbank.