Though it continued to change directors during its first
three seasons, from Peter Tewksbury in Season 1, to Richard Whorf in Season 2,
to Gene Reynolds in Season 3, My Three
Sons had pretty much settled into a formula by the second half of Season 2,
alternating between attempted madcap comedic episodes and sentimental
melodramatic episodes, both emphasizing the theme that the Douglas family, with
its many shortcomings, was as good or better than any other. While its varied
formula vaulted it to #11 in the Nielsen ratings for 1961-62, the highest
ranking of the show's 12 seasons, it had already started wearing thin by Season
3, when it fell to #28.
The series begins to repeat itself from the outset of 1962
with the episode "Chip Leaves Home" (January 4, 1962) mirroring
"Bub Leaves Home" (January 12, 1961) a year prior. Both Chip and Bub
feel unappreciated, which is why they seek a better life elsewhere but then
come to realize a la Dorothy in The
Wizard of Oz that there is no place like home. However, in Chip's case, he
doesn't even last a single night on the lam, getting frightened by an alley cat
and a pair of police patrolmen so that he sneaks back home and sleeps overnight
in the attic. But when Robbie finds his goodbye note stuffed in Tramp's collar
and his bed empty, the rest of the family, particularly Steve, manically try to
get the police to find him, only to eventually realize he never left. Thus this
episode begins with the series' melodramatic mold and switches to its madcap
comedy theme. But the series keeps coming back to Chip and Bub feeling
unappreciated in future episodes such as "Le Petit Stowaway"
(February 15, 1962) in which Chip sneaks on to an airplane Steve is taking on a
top-secret business trip to France after their original plans to travel to
Chicago together get canceled; "Chip's Party" (March 22, 1962) in
which no one shows up for Chip's birthday party because parents are worried
about Steve having contracted German measles; "Chip's Last Fight"
(November 15, 1962) in which Chip is insulted that he has to have a babysitter
on a night when everyone else is going out, so he tries to join a secret boys'
club that requires him to fight a bigger boy as a rite of initiation; and
"Mother Bub" (December 27, 1962) in which Chip is disappointed that
Steve is going to be out of town on his birthday, so he follows Sudsy's advice
to fake being sick to nudge Steve into buying him an expensive toy car. 
This last episode also reprises the sentimental trope that
Bub is as good if not better than any mother already covered in the Season 2
episode "Chip's Composition" (November 30, 1961): Sudsy tries to
convince Chip that he has it made since he doesn't have a mother to say
"no" when he wants something after his father has approved it. When is
caught Chip faking his illness and tells his father about Sudsy's philosophy of
the role mothers and fathers play in a child's life, Steve pulls out photos of
Bub baking a cake for Chip's first birthday and escorting him on his first day
of school to remind him that Bub has fulfilled all the duties of a typical
mother. And when Steve agrees to buy Chip the toy car despite his attempt to
trick him into it, Bub puts his foot down because he doesn't want Chip to think
he can manipulate his father into getting anything he wants, and Chip willingly
lets the toy car go because he says he already has everything he needs, meaning
Bub. The idea that Bub is more than a match for any biological mother is reinforced
in "What's Cooking?" (November 8, 1962) in which Bub wins a
PTA-sponsored cook-off against two female competitors. But like many a
housewife, Bub decides to break the monotony of housework to seek employment
outside the household in "Bub Gets a Job" (February 8, 1962) only to
find out that his "salty" temperament is a poor match for working in
retail when he can't restrain himself from telling off demanding customers. The
rest of the family, however, comes to appreciate Bub's contributions once again
as the boys' cooking efforts while he is busy with his new job are scarcely
edible.
Despite the series' efforts to depict the Douglas household
as humble but better than any other, again reinforced for Mike and Robbie in
"Innocents Abroad" (April 12, 1962) when they sneak off to a nearby
town to get jobs during a school break to earn extra money just like Steve's
college friend tells them their father did in his youth, the Douglas boys and
their father still have many warts that can't be washed away. We've already
touched on Chip's underhanded tactics in trying to get a toy car and stowing
away on an international flight to France, in addition to passing off a drawing
of Bub's as his own work in "The Masterpiece" (March 1, 1962). Robbie
intentionally tries to catch Chip's illness to avoid taking a math test that
could disqualify him from an important football game in "The Big
Game" (March 15, 1962), tries to get rich quick so he can impress girls in
"Robbie's Employment Service" (September 27, 1962), fakes a photo
with a pretty girl at school to make others thinks he is going out with her in
"Pretty as a Picture" (November 1, 1962), turns in an old assignment
of his father's as his own so that he can spend a weekend at the lake with
another pretty girl in "Steve Gets an A" (November 22, 1962), and
cheats on his steady girlfriend forcing her to break up with him in "Going
Steady" (December 20, 1962). This last episode paints Steve in an
unflattering light as well as he uses the girlfriend's mother's concern about
the children being too young to go steady as a way to romance the mother and
then tries to excuse Robbie's bad behavior by saying it produced the result the
mother wanted in the first place--the ends justify the means, in other words.
And Mike is no angel in "Too Much in Common" (May
10, 1962) when he dumps in Steve's lap a fictitious excuse about why Mike isn't
coming home from college one weekend to be with his steady girlfriend when he
is really going to a play with a college girl he suddenly finds more
interesting. Steve again comes off rather badly by covering for Mike and then can't
even apologize when he is called out by the hometown girlfriend's father who is
trying to provide a similar fictitious excuse for his daughter who is going out
with another guy. Mike is also intimidated into participating in a dangerous
prank initiated by his college fraternity superiors in "The Hippopotamus
Foot" (May 31, 1962). His fickleness with girls is exposed again in
"Weekend in Tokyo" (September 20, 1962) when he complains about going
with his family to Japan because he claims to be so serious with his current
girlfriend that they are talking about marriage, only once in Tokyo he soon
forgets about his American girlfriend when he meets a pretty Japanese woman his
own age. His snobbishness almost wins out in "Moment of Truth"
(October 11, 1962) when he nearly stiffs a waitress he invited to his
fraternity dance after listening to his fraternity brothers tell him how out of
her element she would be amongst the uppercrust. In "Heat Wave"
(November 29, 1962) he is embarrassed at his own family's simple ways when he
invites yet another current girlfriend to dinner, then complains that things
aren't fancy enough like what she is used to at her house, a virtual repeat of
Robbie's embarrassment in "The Musician" (May 11, 1961). Finally,
Mike alternates in "The Beauty Contest" (December 6, 1962) between the
ethical choice of not choosing his own girlfriend as a finalist in the beauty
contest and then using his position as judge to get dates with the other
contestants. Sure, these are all teachable moments, and usually the boys learn
what the correct choice should have been from the start, but why, if theirs is
an ideal family, do they keep making bad choices each week, seemingly unable to
distinguish between right and wrong? Of course, if they did actually grow and
learn over time there wouldn't be much of a TV series--who wants to watch a
family consistently behaving well? But cycling through the same pattern of
mistakes and poor judgment doesn't make for much of one either.
However, Mike's penchant for being accused of dating
underage girls is something you might expect to see on Curb Your Enthusiasm, not My
Three Sons. And yet, in "Blind Date" (January 18, 1962) Mike and
Robbie both have blind dates that wind up getting mixed up when Sudsy takes
down the address of Robbie's date but Chip thinks it is for Mike so that
college student Mike takes out a 15-year-old. Things get even edgier in
"Casanova Trouble" (March 29, 1962) when Steve's secretary is worried
about her 13-year-old daughter going out with an older boy. Steve volunteers to
help her identify the boy but winds up believing that Mike is the guilty party
when the secretary produces Mike's fraternity pin, saying she found it amongst
her daughter's things. Of course it turns out that Robbie had borrowed the pin
from Mike and had been riding home with the 13-year-old in a friend's car, not
actually dating her, so Mike is cleared of any impropriety. On My Three Sons the whole affair is played
as a dead serious drama, missing out on the chance for cringe-worthy comedy
gold. But then My Three Sons will
never be mistaken for a series that was ahead of its time.
And yet in an ironic twist, the show that glorified the
all-male household employed a remarkable number of female scriptwriters. Of the
38 episodes aired in 1962, 11 were written or co-written by women. Two were
written by Joanna Lee ("Chip Leaves Home" and "Chip's Last
Fight"), who also wrote 22 episodes for The Flintstones and multiple episodes for Gilligan's Island, Nanny and
the Professor, Room 222, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, and The Waltons after a brief career as an
actress in which she appeared in such cult classics as Plan 9 From Outer Space and The
Brain Eaters. Kitty Buhler wrote "Second Time Around" (January
25, 1962) which brings back Patricia Barry as Steve's former girlfriend Pamela
MacLish from the very first episode; though Buhler's scriptwriting career was
not extensive, she would later marry decorated Army general Omar N. Bradley. The
story for "Bub Gets a Job" was co-written by series casting director
Judith Adkins Specht. Dorothy Cooper contributed four episodes in 1962 ("Le
Petit Stowaway," "A Holiday for Tramp," "Coincidence,"
and "Mother Bub") and 23 overall during the series' 12-year run;
Cooper worked on many other series in her career, most notably Father Knows Best under the tutelage of
original My Three Sons director Peter
Tewksbury. Gail Ingram wrote a pair of 1962 episodes ("The
Masterpiece" and "The Big Game") and contributed 17 other scripts
for the series through 1967; she also worked on earlier TV series Mama, The Big Story, The
Millionaire, and Deadline. Muriel
Roy Bolton penned the episode "Casanova Trouble" as the last script
in a long career that included 38 episodes of The Millionaire and five Henry Aldrich feature films. Shirley
Gordon wrote "Daughter for a Day" (October 18, 1962), one of three
scripts and stories she provided for My
Three Sons between 1961-63; Gordon contributed to 55 scripts for The Bob Cummings Show and later worked
on Bewitched and The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Notably, when a story dealt with
warmth and emotion, such as in "Daughter for a Day" and "Mother
Bub," it was often written by a woman. While on-screen the series
suggested that a woman's touch wasn't needed to knit a family close together,
behind the scenes was a different story.
As of this post, the first five seasons have been released
on DVD by CBS Home Entertainment. However, beginning with Season 3, the releases are
manufacture-on-demand (MOD) DVD-Rs, and the film elements used are often
truncated syndicated episodes that run 22 or 23 minutes and have not been
remastered, so the video quality is considerably below that of the first two
seasons. At some point, probably during editing for syndication, the episode
"Tramp's First Bite" mistakenly had the credits for "Daughter
for a Day" tacked on the end, which is carried forth in the DVD version. The
backs of these later DVD sets also note that "Music has been changed for
this home entertainment version," meaning it is not the original broadcast
music. Even the graphics on these later DVD sets is low-resolution and
pixelated, indicating that CBS cut corners and costs at every turn.
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. As mentioned in the post
on the 1961 episodes, recurring supporting actors--Ricky Allen as Chip's friend
Sudsy Pfeiffer, Olive Dunbar as his mother Mrs. Pfeiffer, Peter Brooks as
Robbie's friend Hank Ferguson, and Andrew Colmar as Mike's friend Tim Weede--have
too little information published online to provide a true biography.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 2, Episode 14, "Chip Leaves Home": Howard
Caine (Schaab on The Californians and
Maj. Wolfgang Hochstetter on Hogan's
Heroes) plays a police desk sergeant.
Season 2, Episode 15, "The Romance of Silver Pines":
Ed Begley, Sr. (shown on the near left, starred in Sorry, Wrong
Number, The Great Gatsby (1949), Deadline U.S.A., The Turning Point, 12 Angry
Men, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Hang 'Em High and played Mr. Koppel on Leave It to Larry) plays vacationer Ed
Wallace. Irene Ryan (shown on the far left, appeared in The
Woman on the Beach, Bonzo Goes to
College, and Desire in the Dust
and played Granny Daisy Moses on The
Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat
Junction) plays his wife Rusty. Jan Clayton (starred in Sunset Trail, The Wolf Hunters, and This
Man's Navy and played Ellen Miller on Lassie)
plays vacationing widow Fran Borden. Dal McKennon (see the biography section
for the 1961 post on 87th Precinct)
plays resort clerk Mr. MacIvers.
Season 2, Episode 16, "Blind
Date": Trudi Ames (appeared in Bye
Bye Birdie, Gidget Goes to Rome,
and The Impossible Years) plays Robbie's
blind date Janie Miller. Carole Costello (daughter of Lou Costello) plays Mike's
blind date Bonnie Walters.
Season 2, Episode 17, "Second Time Around": Patricia
Barry (shown on the right, played Kate Harris on Harris Against the
World, Lydia McGuire on Dr. Kildare,
Adelaide Horton Williams on Days of Our
Lives, Peg English on All My Children,
and Sally Gleason on Guiding Light)
plays Steve's former girlfriend Pamela MacLish. George Cisar (see the biography
section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays Steve's work colleague Giles. Wally Brown (appeared in Notorious, The Left Handed Gun, and The
Absent-Minded Professor and played Jed Fame on Cimarron City and Chauncey Kowalski on The Roaring '20's) plays Bub's pinochle partner Max. Richard Reeves
(Mr. Murphy on Date With the Angels)
plays pinochle partner Smitty.
Season 2, Episode 18, "The Girls Next Door": Jody
Fair (appeared in High School
Confidential, Hot Rod Gang, The Brain Eaters, and Sex Kittens Go to College) plays stewardess
Dodo. Marlyn Mason (Sally Welden on Ben
Casey and Nikki Bell on Longstreet)
plays stewardess Ellen. Barbara Lyon (daughter of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels,
popular singer, and played herself on Life
With the Lyons and Dream Time With
Barbara) plays stewardess Georgia.
Season 2, Episode 19, "Bub Gets a Job": Raymond
Bailey (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays department store customer Mr.
Dennis. Peggy Mondo (Mama Vitale on To
Rome With Love) plays customer Mrs. Bleeker. Rusty Stevens (see the
biography section for the 1960 post on Leave It to Beaver) plays her son Cletus. Jonathan Hole (Orville Monroe on The Andy Griffith Show) plays floorwalker
Mr. Tully. Bryan O'Byrne (Man in the Middle on Occasional Wife) plays an employment service interviewer.
Season 2, Episode 20, "Le Petit Stowaway": Bill
Erwin (Glenn Diamond on Struck by
Lightning) plays Steve's boss Joe Walters. Bert Remsen (Detective Lawrence
on Peyton Place, Mr. Pell on Gibbsville, Mario on It's a Living, and Jack Crager on Dynasty) plays Steve's business contact
Capt. Maynard. Beatrice Richter (shown on the right, was the host of Sketch-Up and played Franziska Velten on Salto Postale and Gerti Schofeld on Storm of Love) plays young French girl Marie.
Season 2, Episode 21, "Robbie Valentino": Nancy
Kulp (Pamela Livingstone on The Bob
Cummings Show, Jane Hathaway on The
Beverly Hillbillies, Mrs. Gruber on The
Brian Keith Show, and Mrs. Hopkins on Sanford
and Son) plays Robbie's physics teacher Miss Fisher. Judee Morton (appeared
in Zotz! and The Slime People and played Dr. Smithson on General Hospital) plays Robbie's classmate Marilyn Turnthurston.
Season 2, Episode 22, "The Masterpiece": Natalie
Masters (shown on the left, played Wilma Clemson on Date With the
Angels) plays Chip's teacher Miss Bergen. John Gallaudet (appeared in Pennies From Heaven, Girls Can Play, and In Cold Blood and played Chamberlain on Mayor of the Town, Lt. Dan Harmon on Johnny Midnight, Judge Penner on Perry Mason, and later played Bob Anderson on My Three Sons) plays Sudsy's father Mr. Pfeiffer. Gilman Rankin (Deputy
Charlie Riggs on Tombstone Territory)
plays Chip's principal Mr. Shutley.
Season 2, Episode 23, "A Holiday for Tramp": Eve
Arden (shown on the right, starred in Stage Door, No, No, Nanette, Sing for Your Supper, Mildred
Pierce, Tea for Two, Our Miss Brooks, and Anatomy of a Murder and played Connie
Brooks on Our Miss Brooks, Liza
Hammond on The Eve Arden Show, and
Eve Hubbard on The Mothers-in-Law)
plays former actress Marisa Montaine. Maudie Prickett (see the biography
section for the 1961 post on Hazel)
plays her assistant Brownie. Johnny Silver (Ludicrous Lion and Dr. Blinkey on H.R. Pufnstuf) plays Montaine's
chauffeur. Reta Shaw (Flora McCauley on The
Ann Sothern Show, Thelma on The Tab
Hunter Show, Mrs. Stanfield on Oh,
Those Bells, and Martha Grant on The
Ghost and Mrs. Muir) plays Bryant Park Mother of the Year Mrs. Bradshaw. Charles
Seel (Otis the Bartender on Tombstone Territory, Mr. Krinkie on Dennis the Menace, and Tom Pride on The Road
West) plays a train conductor.
Season 2, Episode 24, "The Big Game": Nancy Kulp (shown on the left, see
"Robbie Valentino" above) plays
Robbie's math teacher Miss Fisher.
Season 2, Episode 25, "Chip's Party": Olive Dunbar
(Heather Ruth Jensen on My World and
Welcome To It and Bertha Bottomly on Big
John, Little John) plays Sudsy's mother Mrs. Pfeiffer. Natalie Masters (see
"The Masterpiece" above) returns as Chip's teacher Miss Bergen.
Season 2, Episode 26, "Casanova Trouble": Brenda
Scott (shown on the right, married and divorced actor Andrew Prine three times, now married to
producer Dean Hargrove, played Midge Pride on The Road West and Dr. Gina Dante Lansing on General Hospital) plays Steve's secretary's daughter Linda Evans.
Season 2, Episode 27, "The Pencil Pusher": William
Tannen (Deputy Hal Norton on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays an Air Force colonel. Sydney Mason (Insp. J.J.
Burke on Craig Kennedy, Criminologist
and Sheriff Walt Downey on My Friend
Flicka) plays Air Force base Fire Chief Miller. William Sargent (Jerry
Carter on Peyton Place) plays Air
Force pilot Lt. Smith.
Season 2, Episode 28, "Innocents Abroad": Roy
Engel (shown on the left, played Doc Martin on Bonanza, the
police chief on My Favorite Martian,
and President Ulysses S. Grant on The
Wild, Wild West) plays Steve's college friend Wally Osborne.
Season 2, Episode 29, "Robbie the Caddy": Robert
J. Wilke (appeared in Best of the Badmen,
High Noon, The Far Country, Night
Passage, and Stripes and played
Capt. Mendoza on Zorro) plays professional
golfer Danny Donnigan. Louis Nicoletti (assistant director on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy) plays caddy master Louie. Jimmy Cross (Jesse on How to Marry a Millionaire) plays the
golf course steward.
Season 2, Episode 30, "Coincidence": Billy Barty (shown on the right, see
the biography section for the 1961 post on Peter Gunn) plays stranded bus passenger Billy Longfellow. Mary Jackson (Emily
Baldwin on The Waltons, Sarah Wicks
on Hardcastle and McCormick, and
Great Grandma Greenwell on Parenthood)
plays widowed mother Irene Anderson. Barbara Parkins (starred in Valley of the Dolls, The Mephisto Waltz, and Puppet on a Chain and played Betty
Anderson Harrington on Peyton Place)
plays her daughter Bobbie. Susan Gordon (appeared in Attack of the Puppet People, Tormented,
The Five Pennies, and Picture Mommy Dead) plays her daughter
Kit. Verna Felton (Mrs. Day on The Ezio
Pinza Show and The Jack Benny Program,
Hilda Crocker on December Bride and Pete and Gladys, and voiced Pearl
Slaghoople on The Flintstones) plays
grandmother Mub.
Season 2, Episode 31, "Air Derby": Wallace Rooney
(Andrew Winters on The Doctors and
Tim Butterfield on Lou Grant) plays
hobby shop owner Pop Johnson. Joey D. Vieira (Hollis Bridwell on The Pride of the Family, Porky Brockway
on Lassie, and Norman Zelinko on Hank) plays high-school student
Roly-Poly Bates. Ed Prentiss (the narrator on Trackdown and played Carl Jensen on The Virginian) plays his father. Chick Hearn (shown on the left, legendary Los Angeles
Lakers play-by-play announcer) plays the air derby announcer. Butch Patrick
(Greg Howard on The Real McCoys,
Eddie Munster on The Munsters, Gordon
Dearing later on My Three Sons, and
Mark on Lidsville) plays a hobby shop
customer.
Season 2, Episode 32, "Too Much in Common": Carolyn
Craig (appeared in Giant, House on Haunted Hill, and Studs Lonigan) plays Mike's girlfriend
June Barker. Bill Zuckert (shown on the right, played Arthur Bradwell on Mr. Novak and Chief Segal on Captain
Nice) plays her father Harry. Richard Clair (see the biography section for
the 1961 post on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays June's date Ken Everetts. Don Edmonds (appeared in Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Beach Ball, and Wild Wild Winter and played Nicky D'Angelo on Broadside) plays a school librarian. Josie Lloyd (Nurse Roth on Dr. Kildare) plays Mike's date's friend
Linda Prentiss.
Season 2, Episode 33, "Chug and Robbie": Ryan
O'Neal (shown on the left, starred in Love Story, What's Up, Doc?, Barry Lyndon, Paper Moon,
A Bridge Too Far, and The Main Event and played Tal Garrett on
Empire, Rodney Harrington on Peyton Place, Bobby Tannen on Good Sports, Robert Roberts, Jr. on Bull, Jerry Fox on Miss Match, and Max Keenen on Bones)
plays high school football hero Chug Williams. Del Moore (Alvin on Life With Elizabeth and Cal Mitchell on Bachelor Father) plays his father.
Season 2, Episode 34, "Good Influence": George
Wallace (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays Chip's friend's father Mr.
Selby. Mary Anderson (starred in Bahama
Passage, The Song of Bernadette,
and Lifeboat and played Catherine
Harrington on Peyton Place) plays his
wife Claire.
Season 2, Episode 35, "The Hippopotamus Foot": Douglas
Lambert (Eddie Weeks on General Hospital
and Walter Schiff on Inside Story) plays
fraternity brother Buzz Talbot. Mike Minor (Steve Elliott on Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies and Brandon
Kingsley on All My Children) plays
fraternity brother Ray. Alexander Lockwood (Judge Owen Baker on Sam Benedict) plays college Dean Talbot.
Hank Patterson (shown on the left, played Fred Ziffel on Green
Acres and Petticoat Junction and Hank
Miller on Gunsmoke) plays college
caretaker Quinby Lewis.
Season 2, Episode 36, "The Kibitzers": Lloyd
Corrigan (starred in A Girl, a Guy, and a
Gob, Hitler's Children, Captive Wild Woman, The Bandit of Sherwood Forest, and Son of Paleface and played Papa Dodger on Willy, Wally Dipple on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Ned Buntline on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Uncle Charlie on Happy, and Professor McKillup on Hank) plays Bub's pinochle partner Mr.
Smithfield. Burt Mustin (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on Leave It to Beaver) plays pinochle
partner Max. Natalie Masters (see "The Masterpiece" above) returns as
Chip's teacher Mrs. Bergen. Eddie Quillan (starred in The Grapes of Wrath, Mandarin
Mystery, Mutiny on the Bounty,
and Hi, Good Lookin'! and played
Eddie Edson on Julia and Poco Loco on
Hell Town) plays air-conditioning
contractor Handley Hewlitt. Bill Erwin (see "Le Petit Stowaway"
above) returns as Steve's boss Joe Walters.
Season 3, Episode 1, "Weekend in Tokyo": James
Yagi (shown on the left, appeared in The Gallant Hours, Bridge to the Sun, and King Kong vs. Godzilla and played
Charlie Wong on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays Steve's Japanese contact Mr. Tanaka. Caroline Kido (appeared
in The Nun and the Sergeant and Confessions of an Opium Eater) plays the
Douglas' host's granddaughter Kimiko. Buck Young (Deputy Buck Johnson on U.S. Marshal and Sgt. Whipple on Gomer Pyle: USMC) plays Robbie's
wrestling coach.
Season 3, Episode 2, "Robbie's Employment Service":
Booth Colman (shown on the right, played Zaius on Planet of the Apes,
Prof. Hector Jerrold on General Hospital,
and Dr. Felix Burke on The Young and the
Restless) plays banker Enoch Lieb. Anne Loos (Mrs. Danfield on Mr. Novak) plays Robbie's client Mrs.
Edgerton. Barbara Collentine (Charlotte on Nichols)
plays client Mrs. Randall. Richard Bull (played the Seaview doctor on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,
Thatcher on Nichols, and Nels Oleson
on Little House on the Prairie) plays
city licensor J.C. Dobbins. Patricia Lyon (wife of Robert Fuller) plays
Robbie's girlfriend Betty Stone.
Season 2, Episode 3, "Tramp's First Bite": Tim
Matheson (shown on the left, played Roddy Miller on Window on Main Street, Jim Horn on The Virginian,
Griff King on Bonanza, Quentin
Beaudine on The Quest, Rick Tucker on
Tucker's Witch, Harry Stadlin on Just in Time, Charlie Hoover on Charlie Hoover, Sheriff Matthew Donner
on Wolf Lake, Bill Dunne on Breaking News, John Hoynes on The West Wing, Larry Sizemore on Burn Notice, Dr. Brick Breeland on Hart of Dixie, and Doc Mullins on Virgin River, and voiced Jonny Quest on Jonny Quest, Sinbad, Jr. on Sinbad, Jr. and His Magic Belt, Samson
on Young Samson & Goliath, Jace
on Space Ghost, Capt. John O'Rourke
on The Legend of Calamity Jane, and
Brad Chiles on Scooby Doo! Mystery
Incorporated) plays bite victim Alan Edgerton. Anne Loos (see
"Robbie's Employment Service" above) plays his mother. Dennis
McCarthy (Dr. Sam Hodges on Cimarron City)
plays policeman John. Tyler McVey (Maj. Norgrath on Men Into Space) plays a judge.
Season 3, Episode 4, "Moment of Truth": Penney
Parker (shown on the right, played Terry Williams on The Danny
Thomas Show and Maybelle Jackson on Margie)
plays waitress Jackie Acton. Robert Foulk (Ed Davis on Father Knows Best, Sheriff Miller on Lassie, Joe Kingston on Wichita
Town, Mr. Wheeler on Green Acres,
and Phillip Toomey on The Rifleman) plays
her father Pop. Mike Minor (see "The Hippopotamus Foot" above) plays
Mike's fraternity brother Duke.
Season 3, Episode 5, "Daughter for a Day": Stanja
Lowe (Mrs. Thomas on Peyton Place)
plays Steve's old friend Elizabeth Hill. Morgan Brittany (shown on the left, played Kate Simpson on Glitter and Katherine Wentworth on Dallas) plays her young daughter Jeannie.
Barbara Lyon (see "The Girls Next Door" above) plays an airline
stewardess.
Season 3, Episode 6, "The Ghost Next Door": Loie
Bridge (Chloe Skinridge on Life With
Elizabeth) plays next door neighbor Abbe Pearson.
Season 3, Episode 7, "Pretty as a Picture": Hope
Sansberry (shown on the right, played Mrs. Nell Hall on The Phil
Silvers Show) plays elderly neighbor Clara Gilbert.
Season 3, Episode 8, "What's Cooking?": Olive
Dunbar (see "Chip's Party" above) returns as Mrs. Pfeiffer. Patsy
Garrett (Mrs. Fowler on Nanny and the
Professor and Miss Hogarth on Room
222) plays Dorine Peters' mother Agnes. Molly Dodd (Miss Scott on Hazel) plays lifestyle reporter Flora
McAvoy.
Season 3, Episode 9, "Chip's Last Fight": Tim
Matheson (see "Tramp's First Bite" above) plays secret boys club president
Gibbs. Barbara Collentine (shown on the left, see "Robbie's Employment Service" above) plays
the mother of another club member Mrs. Aldrich. Celeste Yarnell (Miss Rheingold
1964, starred in Eve, Live a Little, Love a Little, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)
plays Mike's girlfriend Ginny Stewart. Bill Quinn (see the biography section
for the 1961 post on The Rifleman) plays
the Douglas family doctor.
Season 3, Episode 10, "Steve Gets an A": Mimsy
Farmer (shown on the right, starred in Hot Rods to Hell, Riot on Sunset Strip, Devil's Angels, The Wild Racers, and More)
plays Robbie's girlfriend Janee Holmes. William Sargent (see "The Pencil
Pusher" above) plays Robbie's history teacher Mr. Armstrong.
Season 3, Episode 11, "Heat Wave": Anjanette Comer
(starred in The Loved One, The Appaloosa, Guns for San Sebastian, and Rabbit,
Run) plays Mike's girlfriend Janie Stempel. Bartlett Robinson (Willard
Norton on Wendy and Me and Frank
Caldwell on Mona McCluskey) plays
Steve's business client Milton Gibson. Olive Dunbar (see "Chip's
Party" above) returns as Mrs. Pfeiffer. Templeton Fox (mother of musician
Bob Welch) plays paper drive collector Mrs. Fletcher. Billy Beck (Lt. Trask on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, the photo
editor on Lou Grant, Charles on Falcon Crest, and Nick Pappasmearos on Son of the Beach) plays a grocery store
janitor.
Season 3, Episode 12, "The Beauty Contest": Jeannine
Riley (shown on the left, appeared in Strike Me Deadly, The Big Mouth, and Electra Glide in Blue and played Billie Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction, Lulu McQueen on Dusty's Trail, and was a regular on Hee Haw) plays beauty contestant Kim
Franklin. Nancy McCarthy (Bunny [later recast as Mary Ann] in the original
unaired pilot of Gilligan's Island)
plays Mike's girlfriend Laurie. Les Brown, Jr. (son of bandleader Les Brown,
played Jim Bailey on The Baileys of Balboa
and Buzz Coleman on The Young Marrieds)
plays college newspaper assistant editor Arch.
Season 3, Episode 13, "Doctor in the House": Oliver
McGowan (shown on the right, played Harvey Welk on Empire) plays
Steve's former physician Dr. Stasser. Russ Conway (Fenton Hardy on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate
Treasure, Gen. Devon on Men Into Space, and Lt. Pete Kile on Richard
Diamond, Private Detective) plays Steve's boss Joe Walters. Dorothy Konrad
(Mrs. Trilling on The Last Resort)
plays neighbor Mrs. Gilbert. Sidney Clute (Sgt. Same Gerke on Steve Canyon, Det. Simms on McCloud, the National Editor on Lou Grant, and Det. Paul La Guardia on Cagney & Lacey) plays a sign
painter. Shirley O'Hara (Debbie Flett on The
Bob Newhart Show) plays Stasser's nurse.
Season 3, Episode 14, "Going Steady": Marta
Kristen (Judy Robinson on Lost in Space)
plays Robbie's girlfriend Linda Davis. Lola Albright (shown on the left, see the biography section
for the 1960 post on Peter Gunn)
plays her mother Paulette. Madge Kennedy (Aunt Martha Branson on Leave It to Beaver) plays Paulette's
mother Mrs. Lindsay. Buck Young (see "Weekend in Tokyo" above) returns
as Robbie's wrestling coach.
