As it continued its initial season in the winter and spring
of 1961, what would eventually become TV's second-longest-running live-action
comedy was still searching for its identity, despite being helmed by veteran
director Peter Tewksbury, formerly of Father Knows Best. The series tries its hand at parody in "The
Delinquent" (February 16, 1961) in which Mike is suspected of and then
encourages his girlfriend Jean Pearson to believe he is part of a motorcycle
gang when he is secretly building her a new hi-fi set for her birthday with his
friend Time Weede. His sneaky behavior is paralleled by Bub watching a
stereotypical juvenile delinquent movie on TV and Tramp's extracurricular
adventures with a forward poodle from down the street. Not surprisingly, the parody
comes off a bit forced, as it does in the following episode "Man in a
Trenchcoat" (February 23, 1961) in which Robbie is suspected of being a
delinquent for stealing hubcaps off Mr. Pearson's car when he is really
sneaking around with classmate Judy Doucette under the auspices of studying
together, thereby arousing the suspicions of his steady girlfriend Vivian
Gibson, who sends her brother out to spy on him wearing a trenchcoat, an
obvious attempt to play off B-grade suspense thrillers. Robbie's sense of
intrigue and paranoia is heightened from addictively reading pulp suspense
novels, which by episode's end his father convinces him are a waste of his
time. It's as if the series has to try on and poke fun at other formulas
because it hasn't yet established it's true core yet. It's often easier to say
what you are not than what you are.
This definition by denial is brought up again in
"Organization Woman" (February 2, 1961) in which the Douglas's are
visited by Steve's sister Harriet when he is away on business. Harriet's
husband is an efficiency expert, so when she walks into the chaotic Douglas
household, she decides to try out some of her husband's principles on them, and
after some initial hurdles, the family is soon operating at maximum efficiency,
until Steve returns home from his trip and is completely confounded by her
system. Though he tries to adapt, Harriet eventually comes to realize that
while maximizing traffic flow and resource usage, she has eliminated human
interaction, the primary purpose of living together. Thus, the family has to
become something it isn't in order to recognize the value of what it has.
Likewise, in "Other People's Houses" (February 9, 1961) Robbie
initially thinks his friend Hank's home is better than his because Hank, an
only child, has his own room, but Hank is actually starving for the messiness
of having siblings and wants to go to a military academy just to get away from
the stifling gaze of his parents. In the end Hank's father tells Bub not to
change a thing about the Douglas household because doing so would be a mistake.
In other words, things are perfect just as they are in the Douglas household. 
The same point is made in a different way in "Bub
Leaves Home" (January 12, 1961) in which Bub feels displaced after Steve's
Aunt Selina comes to visit. At first all the boys think Selina is great because
she can help Mike fix the motor in his car, will toss the football with Robbie,
and helps Chip work on his scooter, so much so that Bub thinks they prefer her
as his replacement. He makes up an excuse about taking a job with his old
vaudeville friend Flats Jensen and goes to the bus station to take the next bus
out of town. But while there he runs into Selina, who says that she was only
there on vacation and is returning to where she belongs because she's not one
to think that the grass is greener elsewhere. Bub realizes that Steve and the
boys will be lost without him or be forced to call on the incompetent Aunt Mae,
so he tears up his bus ticket and heads outside where Steve and the boys are
waiting to take him home.
And in an episode that recalls one of Fred MacMurray's early
films, Alice Adams, Robbie is embarrassed about his low-brow
family in "The Musician" (May 11, 1961) after visiting the palatial
home of Elizabeth Martin, a girl he fancies and whom Bub invites to dinner
before Robbie can tell him not to. Though Bub and the boys dress up and try to
act proper to make a good impression, Robbie through nervousness spills water
all over Elizabeth and then staggers into the kitchen, thinking he has ruined
everything and can't figure out if he is the real Robbie or the one he imagines
Elizabeth expects him to be. He is jolted back to reality when he hears the
strains of Dixieland jazz coming from the living room and returns to find
Elizabeth leading the family in a spirited rendition of "When the Saints
Go Marching In." He tells her he thought she only liked classical music,
but she says she likes all kinds and invites him to join in, in other words, to
just be himself. Once again Robbie is taught that he needn't put on airs or
feel that any other family is better than his.
But while the Douglas' family is depicted as a paragon, they
are not without their flaws. In "The Wiley Method" (April 13, 1961)
Steve suggests that Robbie adopt some of the flamboyant, unconventional methods
of his history teacher Mr. Wiley in order to attract the attention of the new
girl in school, Maribel Quinby, only to have Robbie's efforts backfire and
nearly get him expelled. After Wiley gets the two kids together by sending them
both to the library separately in search of the same book, Robbie returns home
to tell his father that he will never give any son of his such horrible advice.
And Steve has to hand Chip some tough love in "The National Pastime"
(April 27, 1961) after encouraging Chip not to give up on baseball just because
he fails the first time, but then as umpire has to call him out at home plate
when Chip's new-found confidence turns into overconfidence and he runs through
a third-base stop sign. He also has to console Robbie when he loses in the
finals of the "Soap Box Derby" (March 30, 1961) after failing himself
to fix a missile launch problem he was brought in as a consultant to solve.
By Season 2 this brand of sentimentality started becoming
the stock-and-trade of the series, ironically after Tewksbury, the Father Knows Best director, was let go
and replaced with Richard Whorf. Tewksbury was something of a control freak (according
to Charles Tranberg's Fred MacMurray: A Biography,
he threatened not to join the show for Season 1 if Ryan O'Neal were cast as
Mike), and his perfectionism not only drove other cast and crew crazy but his
insistence on reshooting scenes over and over cost the producers an extra
$125,000, which they were forced to pay MacMurray when his scenes ran 25 days
over the allotted number in his contract at a price of $5,000 per day.
Season 2 episodes find Tramp saving the family from a fire
in "Tramp the Hero" (October 26, 1961) after Chip feels embarrassed
that Tramp can't perform any tricks like his friend Sudsy's dog can. In "A
Perfect Memory" (November 2, 1961), Steve drives all over town reliving
memories of a high school sweetheart who comes back wanting to see him but
then, after leaving clues that have Steve trying to catch up with her, leaves
town before seeing him so that she doesn't spoil the sweet memories they still
have of each other. "Bub's Lodge" (November 9, 1961) finds Mike
embarrassed about what his fellow fraternity pledges will think about Bub's
gawdy lodge brother costume and silly membership chants until his father makes
him realize that he is willing to endure equally humiliating treatment in order
to be accepted into his fraternity. And in "Chip's Composition"
(November 30, 1961) Chip's teacher assigns her class to write an essay on
"What My Mother Means to Me." Chip doesn't think he can get a pass
from his fierce teacher just because he doesn't have a mother, and Steve
prefers to let Chip work things out for himself rather than telling him what to
write about a mother he never really knew. So Chip ends up writing a
tear-jerking ode to the ways in which Bub is the best mother any boy could hope
for.
However, Chip has it right that Bub is the best thing about
the Douglas household. While Don Grady as Robbie often comes off forced, and
Tim Considine as Mike and Stanley Livingston as Chip are merely adequate,
William Frawley shines as the crusty former vaudeville hoofer with a heart of
gold, William "Bub" O'Casey. Perhaps it's because the character of
Bub hews close to Frawley's real personality, as described in a August 5, 1961 TV Guide cover story, which despicts him
as alternately charming or withering. In "Bub Goes to School"
(December 14, 1961) he turns on the charm with all manner of witty repartee in
trying to woo a senior night school student. His lines roll off his tongue as
if he is improvising, and his sarcastic banter with the boys saves many
episodes from sinking into maudlin pap. His is the one character in the series
who is a true original. Sadly, he would appear in only the first five of the
show's twelve seasons.
Musically, most Season 1 episodes credit only theme composer
Frank De Vol, profiled in the 1960 post on My Three Sons. However, two episodes later in the season had other composers: Jeff
Alexander scored "The Musician" (May 11, 1961), and Pete Rugolo
(profiled in the 1960 post on Thriller)
scored "Trial by Separation" (May 25, 1961), which includes a mambo
number playing at a high school dance. Four episodes in Season 2 have scores by
Ramey Idriss--"Bub's Lodge," "Chip's Composition," "Bub
Goes to School," and "Robbie's Band," the last three of these in
collaboration with Gene Garf, who played organ on the Green Acres theme. Idriss' greatest claim to fame was writing the
"Woody Woodpecker Song," for which he received an Oscar nomination in
1949, but he also provided material for Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, and Marion
Hutton and played the balalaika in the score for the film Patton.
Only the first two seasons have been released on DVD by
Paramount Home Video; the last of these was in 2010, and no announcements have
been made about future releases.
The Actors
For the biographies of Fred MacMurray, William Frawley, Tim
Considine, Don Grady, and Stanley Livingston, see the 1960 post of My Three Sons. Several other actors had
recurring supporting roles--Ricky Allen (shown on the left) as Chip's friend Sudsy Pfeiffer, Olive
Dunbar as his mother Mrs. Pfeiffer, Keith Taylor as Chip's friend Frederick
Ryan, Peter Brooks as Robbie's friend Hank Ferguson, and Andrew Colmar as
Mike's friend Tim Weede. But other than their filmographies, nothing is
published online that would provide enough information for a true biography.
Cynthia Pepper
Cynthia Anne Culpepper was born into the entertainment
business. Her father Jack Pepper was a longtime vaudevillian song-and-dance
man, the first husband of Ginger Rogers, who relocated to Hollywood when the
last of the vaudeville houses closed down and found work as a character actor
in films. Her mother, Dawn Stanton Pepper, was a dancer who had appeared in the
Ziegfeld Follies and some of Billy Rose's productions before teaming up with
Pepper for a husband-and-wife act. Cynthia was a child model by age 3, and her
father would bring her on stage and sing to her during his vaudeville days, but
her own acting experience only amounted to a small part in the Broadway
production It's a Gift and an
uncredited part in the 1950 feature film Cheaper
by the Dozen before she replaced her mother in her father's act toward the
end of her high school years. Her father had her tutored in the ways of show
business by a team of former vaudevillians, but her acting career didn't really
take off until after she graduated from high school. In 1960 at age 19 she had
a few, mostly uncredited TV appearances on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Bourbon
Street Beat, 77 Sunset Strip, and
Thriller before being cast as
girlfriend next door Jean Pearson on My
Three Sons, on which she appeared 8 times during the first season.
One of those appearances caught the attention of producers
Larry Klein and Hal Goodman, who cast her as Roaring '20's teenager Margie
Clayton in her own series Margie in
the fall of 1961. Though she was also being courted by Desilu at the same time,
Margie would prove to be the high
point of her career, as afterward she managed only a handful of movie roles,
most notably opposite Elvis Presley in Kissin'
Cousins in 1964, and a smattering of TV guest spots on shows like Perry Mason, Wagon Train, and The Addams
Family as well as a final return to My
Three Sons in 1964 in which, as Jean Pearson, she learns that Mike has been
engaged to another woman. She was cast in the TV pilot for Three Coins in the Fountain in 1970, but the series was never
picked up. She had married for the second time in 1968 and after the failed
pilot, she devoted herself to her marriage and raising her son from her first
marriage. However, she somewhat recently appeared in a bit role in Sandra
Bullock's Miss Congeniality 2. Pepper
currently resides in Las Vegas and makes appearances at Elvis Presley and other
nostalgia-based conventions.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 1, Episode 15, "Domestic Trouble": Anne
Seymour (appeared in All the King's Men,
The Gift of Love, The Subterraneans,
and Fitzwilly and played Lucia
Garrett on Empire and Beatrice Hewitt
on General Hospital) plays matchmaker
Mrs. Barr. Dorothy Konrad (Mrs. Trilling on The
Last Resort) plays housekeeper Leona.
Season 1, Episode 16, "Bub
Leaves Home": Mary Jackson (shown on the left, played Emily Baldwin on The Waltons, Sarah Wicks on Hardcastle
and McCormick, and Great Grandma Greenwell on Parenthood) plays Steve's Aunt Selina Bailey. George Dunn (Jesse
Williams on Cimarron City) plays a
bus passenger.
Season 1, Episode 17, "Mike in a Rush": James
Bonnet (went on to become a screenwriter for Tarzan, Adam-12, Kojak, Barney Miller, and Knots
Landing) plays fraternity organizer Art Landis. Skip Young (see the
biography section for the 1960 post on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays fraternity member George Collingwood.
Season 1, Episode 18, "The Bully": Mary Adams (shown on the right, see
the biography section for the 1961 post on Window on Main Street) plays school principal Mrs. Wisbee.
Season 1, Episode 19, "Organization Woman": Joan Tewkesbury
(later was a writer for feature films Thieves
Like Us, Nashville, and A Night in Heaven, directed episodes of Doogie Howser, M.D., Felicity, and The Guardian, which she also produced) plays Steve's sister Harriet
Watson.
Season 1, Episode 20, "Other People's Homes": David
White (Larry Tate on Bewitched) plays
Robbie's friend's father George Ferguson.
Season 1, Episode 22, "Man in a Trenchcoat": Cindy
Carol (Alma Hanson on Leave It to Beaver,
Binkie Massey on The New Loretta Young
Show, and Susan on Never Too Young)
plays Robbie's steady girlfriend Vivian Gibson. Cheryl Holdridge (Julie Foster
on Leave It to Beaver) plays another
girl he has been studying with, Judy Doucette. Robert P. Lieb (Harry Thompson
on Hazel) plays Jean Pearson's
father.
Season 1, Episode 23, "Deadline": Mark Slade (Malone
on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,
Eddie on Gomer Pyle, USMC, Patrick
Hollis on The Wackiest Ship in the Army,
Billy Blue Cannon on The High Chaparral,
and Taylor Reed on Salty) plays high
school newspaper sports editor Stu Walters. Woody Chambliss (Captain Tom on Yancy Derringer and Lathrop on Gunsmoke) plays faculty advisor Edgar
Loos. Beau Bridges (shown on the left, played Seaman Howard Spicer on Ensign
O'Toole, Richard Chapin on United
States, Dave Hart on Harts of the
West, Judge Bob Gibbs on Maximum Bob,
Dan Falco on Beggars and Choosers,
Tom Gage on The Agency, Maj. Gen.
Hank Landry on Stargate: Atlantis and
Stargate SG-1, Carl Hickey on My Name Is Earl, Nick Brody on Brothers & Sisters, Barton Scully on
Masters of Sex, and Tom Miller on The Millers) plays high school reporter
Russ Burton. Charlotte Stewart (starred in Eraserhead
and Tremors and played Maybelle
on Bachelor Father, Eva Beadle Simms
on Little House on the Prairie, Tamra
Logan on The Young and the Restless,
Betty Briggs on Twin Peaks, and
Collette Swanson on Life Goes On)
plays high school poet Agnes Finley.
Season 1, Episode 24, "The Lostling": May
Heatherly (Heather McNabb on The Man From
U.N.C.L.E.) plays new neighbor Mary
Hawkins.
Season 1, Episode 25, "Off Key": Olive Dunbar
(shown on the right, played Heather Ruth Jensen on My World and
Welcome To It and Bertha Bottomly on Big
John, Little John) plays Chip's friend's mother Mrs. Pfeiffer.
Season 1, Episode 26, "Small Adventure": Ken
Christy (Bill Franklin on Meet Corliss
Archer) plays demolition expert Ed. Paul Trinka (Patterson on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) plays
younger co-worker Art.
Season 1, Episode 27, "Soap Box Derby": Ralph
Story (the narrator on Alias Smith and
Jones) plays engineering project leader Paul Rankin. Richard McKenzie (Walter
Chaiken on It Takes Two) plays junior
engineer Quinn. Joe Higgins (Nils Swenson on The Rifleman, Jake Shakespeare on Arrest and Trial, and Sheriff Chuck Bevans on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters) plays a junk dealer.
Season 1, Episode 28, "Unite or Sink": Robert
Gothie (Sam Hanson on The Gallant Men)
plays milkman Harry. Ann Morgan Guilbert (shown on the left, see the biography section for the
1961 post on The Dick Van Dyke Show)
plays neighbor Verna Foster. Malcolm Atterbury (starred in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, The
Birds, and The Learning Tree and
played John Bixby on Wagon Train and
Grandfather Aldon on Apple's Way)
plays neighbor Mr. Kincaid. Bill Idelson (Babcock on The Bill Dana Show and wrote screenplays for multiple episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, USMC, and The Odd Couple as well as many other
programs) plays neighbor Pete. Pearl Shear (Zuleika Dunbar on The Waltons) plays neighbor Roseanne
Jones.
Season 1, Episode 29, "The Wiley Method": Chris
Warfield (Rev. Dr. Frank Thornton on Going
My Way) plays history teacher Jeff Wiley. Marjorie Eaton (appeared in That Forsyte Woman, Witness for the Prosecution, Mary
Poppins, and The Trouble With Angels)
plays English teacher Cynthia Pitts.
Season 1, Episode 30, "The National Pastime":
William Leslie (shown on the right, appeared in The Long Gray
Line, Hellcats of the Navy, Up Periscope, and Mutiny in Outer Space and was the narrator on The Prosecutors: In Pursuit of Justice) plays baseball coach Mr.
Thompson.
Season 1, Episode 32, "The Musician": Sandy
Descher (appeared in Them!, The Cobweb, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and A Gift for Heidi and played Judy Massey on The New Loretta Young Show and Susan on The New Phil Silvers Show) plays young pianist Elizabeth Martin.
Season 1, Episode 33, "The Horseless Saddle":
Arthur Hunnicutt (starred in The Red
Badge of Courage, The Last Command,
The Cardinal, and Cat Ballou) plays pony-ride proprietor
George. Betsy Jones-Moreland (Judge Elinor Harrelson in 7 Perry Mason TV movies) plays stock-trader's wife Flo Afton.
Season 1, Episode 34, "Trial by Separation":
Florence MacMichael (shown on the left, played Winnie Kirkwood on Mister
Ed) plays Jean Pearson's mother.
Season 1, Episode 35, "The Sunday Drive": Florence
MacMichael (see "Trial by Separation" above) returns as Jean
Pearson's mother Florence. Robert P. Lieb (see "Man in a Trenchcoat"
above) returns as Mr. Pearson.
Season 1, Episode 36, "Fire Watch": William Boyett
(Sgt. Ken Williams on Highway Patrol
and Sgt. MacDonald on Adam-12) plays
senior fire watchman Joe Mitchell. Tiger Fafara (Tooey Brown on Leave It to Beaver) plays lost hiker
Roger. Candy Moore (Angie on The Donna Reed Show and Chris Carmichael on The
Lucy Show) plays his sister Shirley.
Season 2, Episode 1, "Birds and Bees": Joan Taylor
(shown on the right, starred in Apache Woman, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, and 20 Million Miles to Earth and played
Milly Scott on The Rifleman) plays
teacher Muriel Stewart.
Season 2, Episode 2, "Instant Hate": Joe Cranston
(Anderson on The Gale Storm Show)
plays new neighbor John Kaylor. Ann Marshall (Angela Brown on My Favorite Martian and later played
Cynthia Wright on My Three Sons)
plays his daughter Barbara. Lillian Powell (Florence Bixel on Noah's Ark) plays his Aunt Marian.
Norman Grabowski (appeared in Girls Town,
College Confidential, Sex Kittens Go to College, Roustabout, The Monkey's Uncle, and The
Towering Inferno and played Padowski on Hank)
plays office worker Herman.
Season 2, Episode 3, "The Crush": Sally Hughes (Sally
Darby on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet)
plays Steve's secretary Sally.
Season 2, Episode 4, "Tramp the Hero": Keith
Taylor (shown on the left, played Harry on Leave It to Beaver
and Tubby on McKeever & the Colonel)
plays neighborhood kid Frederick Ryan. Olive Dunbar (see "Off Key"
above) returns as Mrs. Pfeiffer.
Season 2, Episode 5, "A Perfect Memory": Ludwig
Stossel (appeared in Casablanca, Kings Row, and Pride of the Yankees and played Peter Van Dyne on Ramar of the Jungle and Anton Kovac on Man With a Camera) plays Steve's old
high school janitor Mr. Letov. Dennis Whitcomb (later wrote episodes of Death Valley Days, The Munsters, I Dream of
Jeannie, and My Three Sons) plays
Steve's high school rival Larry Peckinpaugh. Claude Johnson (Officer Brinkman
on Adam-12) plays drugstore waiter Tom.
Season 2, Episode 6, "Bub's Lodge": Stuffy Singer
(shown on the right, played Donnie Henderson on Beulah and
Alexander Bumstead on Blondie) plays
Mike's college friend Doug. Doodles Weaver (narrated Spike Jones' horse-racing
songs, hosted A Day With Doodles, and
played Jack Stiles on Lawman) plays
Bub's lodge brother Max.
Season 2, Episode 7, "A Lesson in Any Language":
Beau Bridges (see "Deadline" above) returns as Mike's friend Russ
Burton. Bill Erwin (Glenn Diamond on Struck
by Lightning) plays Steve's work colleague Joe Walters. Eddie Robertson
(Eddie Thomerson on Fernwood Tonight)
plays a record store clerk.
Season 2, Episode 8, "The Ugly Duckling": Karen
Green (Mary Hammond on The Eve Arden Show)
plays Robbie's classmate Carrie Marsh. Robert Dunlap (Dennis on Peyton Place) plays Robbie's classmate
Billy.
Season 2, Episode 9, "Chip's Composition": Natalie
Masters (Wilma Clemson on Date With the
Angels and Edith Barson on Dragnet)
plays Chip's teacher Mrs. Bergen. Olive Dunbar (see "Off Key" above)
returns as Mrs. Pfeiffer. John Gallaudet (shown on the left, played Chamberlain on Mayor of the Town, Judge Penner on Perry Mason, and later played Bob Anderson on My Three Sons) plays her husband Mr. Pfeiffer. Keith Taylor (see
"Tramp the Hero" above) returns as Chip's friend Frederick Ryan.
Season 2, Episode 10, "Mike in Charge": Natalie
Masters (see "Chip's Composition" above) returns as Chip's teacher
Mrs. Bergen. Olive Dunbar (see "Off Key" above) returns as Mrs.
Pfeiffer.
Season 2, Episode 11, "Bub Goes to School":
Harriet E. MacGibbon (shown on the right, played Margaret Drysdale on The
Beverly Hillbillies) plays elder night school student Margaret Cunningham.
Season 2, Episode 12, "Robbie's Band": Richard
Bellis (Emmy-winning composer for many TV movies) plays Robbie's bandmate Carl.
Robert Dunlap (see "The Ugly Duckling" above) plays Robbie's bandmate
Jess.
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