My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American television sitcom that aired from September 29, 1960, to April 13, 1972. The series was broadcast on ABC during its first five seasons, before moving to CBS for the remaining seasons. My Three Sons chronicles the life of widower and aeronautical engineer Steven Douglas (Fred MacMurray) as he raises his three sons.
| My Three Sons | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Don Fedderson |
| Starring | Fred MacMurray William Frawley William Demarest Don Grady Stanley Livingston Barry Livingston Tim Considine Meredith MacRae Tina Cole Beverly Garland Dawn Lyn Ronne Troup Daniel, Joseph, and Michael Todd |
| Theme music composer | Frank De Vol |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 12 |
| No. of episodes | 380 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Don Fedderson |
| Producers | Peter Tewksbury (1960–1961) George Tibbles (1961–1962) Edmund L. Hartmann (1962–1972) |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production companies | Don Fedderson Productions Gregg-Don, Inc. (seasons 1–5) MCA TV (seasons 1–5) CBS Productions (seasons 6–12) |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC (seasons 1–5) CBS (seasons 6–12) |
| Release | September 29, 1960 – April 13, 1972 |
The series originally featured William Frawley (who had first co-starred with Fred MacMurray 25 years earlier in the film Car 99) as the boys' maternal grandfather and live-in housekeeper, William Michael Francis "Bub" O'Casey. William Demarest, playing Bub's brother, "Uncle Charley", replaced Frawley in 1965 because of Frawley's declining health. In September 1965 (when the show moved from ABC to CBS and began to be filmed in color), eldest son Mike (Tim Considine) married fiancée Sally Ann Morrison (Meredith MacRae), and his character was written out of the show. To keep the emphasis on "three sons", original youngest son Chip's (Stanley Livingston) friend Ernie (Barry Livingston) was adopted. In the program's later years, Steven Douglas married Barbara Harper (Beverly Garland) and adopted her young daughter Dorothy Anne ("Dodie") (Dawn Lyn).
The series was a cornerstone of the ABC and CBS lineups in the 1960s. Disney producer Bill Walsh often mused on whether the concept of the show was inspired by the film The Shaggy Dog, as in his view they shared "the same dog, the same kids, and Fred MacMurray".
A Lawrence Welk cover version of the theme song reached #12 in Canada, April 24, 1961.