The My Three Sons cast, led by Fred MacMurray as Steve Douglas, is a beloved sitcom that ran for 12 great years. In this video, we're taking a look at the My Three Sons cast then and now to see how they've changed through the years.
00:00 - Intro
0:17 - William Demarest as Uncle Charlie
1:22 - Tina Cole as Katie Miller Douglas
2:27 - Fred MacMurray as Steve Douglas
3:32 - Tim Considine as Mike Douglas
5:07 - Don Grady as Robbie Douglas
6:10 - Barry Livingston as Ernie Thompson/Douglas
7:15 - Stanley Livingston as Richard "Chip" Douglas
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The series originally featured William Frawley (who had first co-starred with Fred MacMurray 25 years earlier in the movie Car 99) as the boys' live-in maternal grandfather and housekeeper, William Michael Francis "Bub" O'Casey. William Demarest, playing Bub's brother, "Uncle Charley," replaced Frawley in 1965 because of Frawley's illness. In September 1965 (when the show moved from ABC to CBS and when it began being 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 remarried and adopted his new wife's young daughter Dorothy Anne ("Dodie") (Dawn Lyn).
While the three sons were always central to the storyline, several major changes took place by the late 1960s. In the spring of 1967, the ratings for the series began to sag and My Three Sons finished its seventh season in 31st place in the Nielsen ratings. It was decided that the 1967-1968 season would bring the program not only a new time slot but also new storylines to spice up the ratings. In the fall of 1967, CBS moved My Three Sons to Saturday at 8:30 pm ET. In the season premiere episode, "Moving Day", the Douglas family and Uncle Charley relocate from the fictional town of Bryant Park in the Midwest to Los Angeles. Robbie (Don Grady) marries his classmate/girlfriend, Katie Miller (Tina Cole). Tina Cole, in fact, had appeared in different roles on three previous episodes of My Three Sons: "House For Sale" from the fourth season (February 13, 1964), "The Coffee House Set" from the fifth season (November 19, 1964) and "Robbie and the Little Stranger" from the sixth season (February 17, 1966). At the end of the 1967-1968 season, the ratings had improved from the previous year with the series placing at 24th in the Nielsens. The following season, the newlyweds discover that Katie is pregnant and she gives birth to triplets named Robert, Steven, and Charles. Originally played by sets of uncredited twins, these babies were later played uncredited by Guy, Gunnar and Garth Swanson. The most familiar triplets in the show's last two seasons are played by Michael, Daniel and Joseph Todd.
For the series' 12th (and ultimately, final) season, CBS moved My Three Sons to Mondays at 10:00 pm ET. In addition to the time changes for the 12th season, a new four part story arc is introduced with MacMurray in a second role, that of his cousin, the Laird (Lord) Fergus McBain Douglas of Sithian Bridge. English actor Alan Caillou's voice was dubbed over MacMurray's. The plot centers on Lord Douglas's arrival in Los Angeles from the family's native Scotland, in search of a woman to marry and return with him to Scotland.
The series' cast had several music connections. MacMurray began his career as a saxophone player during the 1930s, and sometimes played it on the series, as well as clarinet. Frawley had been a vaudeville actor and sang in the 1929 short film Fancy That as well as in the 1936 film The General Died at Dawn and in several episodes of I Love Lucy. Actress Tina Cole (Katie) was born into the King Family, a popular 1950s-1960s group. Ronne Troup (Polly) was the step-daughter of singer Julie London and daughter of musician/composer Bobby Troup (who wrote the song Route 66 and also starred in the TV program Emergency! along with wife London), and Dawn Lyn is the younger sister of 1970s pop idol Leif Garrett. Don Grady (Robbie) composed and produced music, having created successful Las Vegas venues for Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford and pop star David Cassidy.
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