50 Fun Facts About My Three Sons

William Frawley, Bub on My Three Sons, was already famous as landlord Fred Mertz on which sitcom?

I Love Lucy made William Frawley famous in his sixties, and he followed it with five seasons as Bub, the Douglas family's live-in housekeeper.

Which later CBS sitcom set in a Malibu beach house matched My Three Sons by lasting twelve seasons?

Two and a Half Men ran on CBS until 2015, and it too outlived a big cast change, killing off Charlie Sheen's character before season nine.

Which animal turns up in the Douglas attic on My Three Sons after a family day at the circus?

A lion strolls in from the yard while Ernie is camping outside, and nobody believes the newly adopted boy until it reaches Steve's bedroom.

What is the profession of Steve Douglas, the widower played by Fred MacMurray on My Three Sons?

Aeronautical engineer Steve Douglas has been raising his boys alone for six years when the series opens, and well-meaning friends keep trying to find him a wife.

To which state do the Douglases of My Three Sons move in 1967 after seven seasons in the Midwest?

California became home when Steve was transferred to Los Angeles, a move that let Robbie meet his future wife Katie at his new college.

Before My Three Sons, Fred MacMurray played a murderous insurance salesman in which classic film noir?

Double Indemnity cast him as Walter Neff, who schemes with a client's wife to kill her husband, a world away from kindly Steve Douglas.

Which future two-time Oscar winner appeared on My Three Sons as a child, playing a friend of Dodie?

Jodie Foster played Priscilla Hobson, one of two friends Dodie invites to stay, years before her Best Actress wins for The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs.

What set the Douglas home of My Three Sons apart from other family sitcoms when it began in 1960?

An all-male household of a widower, his three boys and their grandfather started a television trend for single-parent families.

Fred de Cordova, the busiest director of My Three Sons, left to produce which late-night institution?

The Tonight Show kept him as Johnny Carson's producer until the host's final broadcast in 1992, after 108 episodes directing the Douglas family.

Which surprise do newlyweds Robbie and Katie deliver in the ninth season of My Three Sons?

Triplet boys named Robert, Steven and Charles arrive, played at first by uncredited sets of twins, which kept the title's promise going for another generation.

What is the name of the Douglas family dog on My Three Sons, trained by animal handler Frank Inn?

Tramp is a mongrel who drags home anything he can get his jaws on, including, in one first-season episode, a stick of dynamite left over from the Second World War.

How is Bub, the live-in housekeeper of My Three Sons, related to widower Steve Douglas?

His wife's father Bub is the boys' maternal grandfather, who has helped Steve raise them ever since their mother died.

Which real-life younger brother of the actor playing Chip joined My Three Sons as adopted son Ernie?

Barry Livingston first turned up in 1963 as the kid next door, then was written into the family two years later when the eldest brother left.

Which former Mouseketeer played Robbie on My Three Sons before leaving to become a full-time composer?

Don Grady spent eleven years as Robbie, then wrote scores and signature tunes, including the one that opened The Phil Donahue Show.

Which star of Disney's Spin and Marty serials played eldest brother Mike on My Three Sons until 1965?

Tim Considine went on to a small but famous film moment: he is the shell-shocked soldier slapped by the general in Patton.

Which veteran of Preston Sturges comedies took over the kitchen on My Three Sons as Uncle Charley?

William Demarest arrived midway through season five and earned an Emmy nomination for the role, two decades after an Oscar nod for The Jolson Story.

Why did William Frawley leave My Three Sons midway through the 1964–65 season after five years as Bub?

Failing health made him too costly to insure, so the studio declared him unable to work and Bub was written out; he died the following year.

Meredith MacRae, Mike's bride Sally on My Three Sons, next joined which rural sitcom as Billie Jo?

Petticoat Junction made her the third actress to play Billie Jo Bradley, a role she held from 1966 until the series ended in 1970.

Why did My Three Sons leave ABC for a rival network in 1965 after five seasons on the air?

The cost of color was more than ABC would underwrite, so CBS took the series and aired its remaining seven seasons.

Which demand in Fred MacMurray's My Three Sons contract was later copied by other television stars?

His scenes shot in blocks became known as the MacMurray Method: the star worked 65 days a year while co-stars finished each episode without him, sometimes months later.

On My Three Sons, Bub leaves to help his aunt celebrate her 104th birthday in which country?

Ireland was the writers' exit for Bub when his actor left the series: he goes to see Aunt Kate, and his brother soon turns up to take his place.

What had Uncle Charley done for a living before he moved in to keep house on My Three Sons?

Merchant sailor Charley was due to ship out for the Caribbean within days when he first called on the Douglas family, and he never left.

Which string instrument does gruff Uncle Charley play on My Three Sons, the subject of a 1970 episode?

Cello solos on lonely Saturday nights lead Barbara to build a string quartet around Charley, who promptly gets himself thrown out of it.

Which singer from the King Family played Robbie's wife Katie on My Three Sons from 1967?

Tina Cole had already appeared on the series as three different girls before she was cast as the one Robbie marries.

Which star of the 1950s crime drama Decoy joined My Three Sons as Steve's second wife, Barbara?

Beverly Garland joined in the tenth season, and a North Hollywood hotel her husband built was later named after her.

Barbara first meets Steve Douglas on My Three Sons through which job, with Ernie among her charges?

A teacher covering Ernie's class, Barbara asks to speak to his father, and the two widowed parents spend the rest of the day together.

Dawn Lyn, who played little Dodie on My Three Sons, is the sister of which 1970s teen idol singer?

Leif Garrett and his sister both appeared in the Walking Tall films, and in 1978 she played a groupie to his pop idol on Wonder Woman.

How do Chip and girlfriend Polly marry on My Three Sons after her strict father refuses his blessing?

They elope with Steve's reluctant permission, after discovering that the private detective tailing them was hired by her father.

In which fictional Midwestern town do the Douglases spend the first seven seasons of My Three Sons?

Bryant Park's Douglas home stood at 837 Mill Street, and the family left it behind in the 1967 season opener, Moving Day.

Which carmaker sponsored early My Three Sons after asking for a series representative of America?

Chevrolet approached producer Don Fedderson for the series, and its cars filled the Douglas driveway and the closing credits in the early seasons.

Which composer of The Brady Bunch theme also wrote the My Three Sons theme and most of its scores?

Frank De Vol had a marimba tap out the tune Chopsticks over his melody, and in the final season he appeared on screen as a bandleader.

Which accordion-playing bandleader took the My Three Sons theme into the Canadian charts in 1961?

Lawrence Welk reached number 12 in Canada with it, and it was the sitcom's own producer, Don Fedderson, who had put his band on network television.

Don Fedderson, producer of My Three Sons, also made which sitcom with Brian Keith as a bachelor uncle?

Family Affair gave Sebastian Cabot the housekeeping role as a manservant, and it ran on CBS from 1966 to 1971 alongside the Douglas family.

Peter Tewksbury, director of the first season of My Three Sons, had won an Emmy for which family sitcom?

Father Knows Best won him the Emmy in 1959, and he later left Hollywood to become a Vermont cheese expert known as Henry the Cheeseman.

On My Three Sons, Steve Douglas takes the family overseas to claim an inherited castle in which country?

Scotland greets the Douglases with a resentful clan and a lousy room at the pub, though the locals first mistake Steve for their own laird.

In the final season of My Three Sons, Fred MacMurray also plays which titled relative of Steve Douglas?

His cousin, a visiting lord, was given another actor's dubbed voice, and he wins over a waitress from a bowling alley.

Which Disney comedy starring Fred MacMurray did producer Bill Walsh suspect of inspiring My Three Sons?

The Shaggy Dog, he mused, had the same pet, the same kids and the same leading man, and it also featured the actor who became the sitcom's eldest brother.

Which comic-book superhero was first modeled on Fred MacMurray, later the star of My Three Sons?

Captain Marvel was drawn for Fawcett Comics by artist C. C. Beck, who took the actor as his model back when MacMurray was a leading man in light comedies.

Which instrument did My Three Sons star Fred MacMurray play in dance bands before his film career?

Saxophone jobs kept him going while he studied at the Chicago Art Institute in the evenings, and he kept playing while working as a film extra.

Why did the actor playing eldest son Mike quit My Three Sons in 1965 after clashing with its producer?

He wanted to direct rather than co-star, and he later said the contract had also barred his other passion, motor racing.

To let Steve adopt Ernie on My Three Sons, a judge gives Uncle Charley which unlikely legal title?

Housemother was the judge's fix for a law requiring a woman in any adoptive home: its real aim was a full-time caregiver, and Charley qualified.

In the final season of My Three Sons, absent Robbie is said to be building a bridge in which country?

Peru kept Robbie off screen after his actor left, which let Katie and their children stay on in the Douglas house.

Which other sitcom clan shared a 1977 Thanksgiving reunion special with the cast of My Three Sons?

The Partridge Family had no link to the Douglases beyond a single parent with a large brood, yet the two casts reminisced together on ABC.

Which Hitchcock leading lady plays the case worker handling Ernie's adoption on My Three Sons?

Vera Miles, of Psycho and The Searchers, plays Ernestine Coulter, and the family wonders aloud whether Steve might marry a social worker to satisfy the adoption rules.

Where is Barbara when she finally hears Steve's marriage proposal in the tenth season of My Three Sons?

A police station is where Steve ends up after officers mistake him for a burglar, and Barbara overhears him explaining that he had been trying to propose all evening.

George Tibbles, head writer of My Three Sons, co-wrote an Oscar-nominated song about which cartoon star?

Woody Woodpecker's song, written with Ramez Idriss, climbed to third on the hit parade in 1948, long before Tibbles helped create the Douglas family.

Whose swimming pool does Ernie fall into on My Three Sons while out hunting for film stars' homes?

Zsa Zsa Gabor brings Ernie in to dry off and then invites him to spend the day with her at the movie studio.

Where do Steve and Barbara honeymoon on My Three Sons, in a village he knew from a fishing trip?

Mexico proves less peaceful than he remembers: a travel magazine has made the village famous, and its little inn is packed with young newlyweds wanting advice.

Which Forbidden Planet star plays a waitress courted by a visiting nobleman on My Three Sons?

Anne Francis, also television's Honey West, plays the reluctant bride who must decide whether to give up America for a title.

Frank Inn, trainer of the Douglas pet on My Three Sons, later guided which dog to film stardom?

Benji was first played by Higgins, a shelter mutt from Burbank whom Inn had already put to work on television.