My Three Sons - General Discussion

[Gemma Violet]

On 6/10/2018 at 3:10 PM, Blergh said:

As long as I'm  doing trivia, it should be noted that,some years after the show, Tina Cole (Katie) married the stepson of Beverly Garland( Barbara) and had three children by him. Even though that marriage ended in divorce, from all accounts Miss Cole and Miss Garland stayed good friends until Miss Garland's death but perhaps it helped that they'd been coworkers long before the marriage had happened.

Thanks.  Interesting tidbit. 

I was wondering how old Tina is now--she's 74.

On 6/7/2018 at 3:14 AM, Blergh said:

BTW, Mrs. Williams was played by the I Love Lucy alum Doris Singleton who'd forced Lucy's hand as Carolyn Appleby 

I had recognized her name before I recognized her face.  After the first episode of the Williams story arc, I was reading the credits and saw her name, and I thought that sounded familiar.  The next day, I watched and put the name and the face together. 

She was so great as Carolyn Appleby.   

[SanDiegoInExile]

A five-year-old 30 minute meTV interview with Tina Cole. Well, a five minute interview padded with endless mindless pitter patter from the Fresno host.

Edited June 12, 2018 by SanDiegoInExile

[Blergh]

SanDiegoInExile,

 

 Miss Cole sure was FAR more patient with that 'host' than I would have been ! At least she was able to tell how she got permanently cast as Katie  -yet didn't mention that she'd been on the show as two different characters beforehand so it's not as though she'd been a completely unknown quality prior to that rather unusual audition!

[SanDiegoInExile]

It does appear that METV intends to show the full run of the show.  Friday (6-15) marks the return of Katie's Mother.  It's a cockamamie storyline where the 50+ year old single, pearl-wearing fashionista-of-her-era grandmother takes 3 toddler triplets to live with her in St Louis FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH.  I had never seen this episode before and watched it recently on YT. In the previous syndication package, stations usually ended the run with Thursday's episode (Ernie and Paula -- really? they chose a name so similar to Polly/Pauline? -- testing their theories of suggestion).  The next episode would always jump back to the Mike+Sally Get Married and Move Away episode.  

I read through the episode guide for the rest of Season 11 and sampled a few on YT.  Seems to be quite a few stinkers, though having never seen them, I have my TV set to record them.   And then we have Season Twelve !

Edited June 16, 2018 by SanDiegoInExile

[Blergh]

11 hours ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

It does appear that METV intends to show the full run of the show.  Friday (6-15) marks the return of Katie's Mother.  It's a cockamamie storyline where the 50+ year old single, pearl-wearing fashionista-of-her-era grandmother takes 3 toddler twins to live with her in St Louis FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH.  I had never seen this episode before and watched it recently on YT

 Of course, it seems that Mrs. Miller had no   job outside the home but evidently was living quite comfortably on whatever the late Mr. Miller had left her. I mean, she was wealthy enough to fly halfway across the country to pop in on Rob and Katie AND be able to spring for the triplets' return plane tickets at the last minute(as well as being able to maintain a large apartment and even spring for maids who got overwhelmed by the triplets). 

All of this made it more puzzling as to why Katie never considered it an option to move   herself and the triplets  back in with her instead of the Douglases when Robbie jaunted to Peru- except that this may have a ploy to keep Miss Cole steadily employed by M3S regardless of Mr. Grady's leaving!

[Gemma Violet]

On 6/11/2018 at 9:41 PM, SanDiegoInExile said:

A five-year-old 30 minute meTV interview with Tina Cole. Well, a five minute interview padded with endless mindless pitter patter from the Fresno host.

Thanks for posting this.  Very interesting.

[Gemma Violet]

Weird episode.  Katie had no qualms about being away from her kids for a month and apparently wasn't worried about the fact that someone the kids barely knew was taking them to unfamiliar surroundings for all that time.   

[Cobb Salad]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

All of this made it more puzzling as to why Katie never considered it an option to move   herself and the triplets  back in with her instead of the Douglases when Robbie jaunted to Peru- except that this may have a ploy to keep Miss Cole steadily employed by M3S regardless of Mr. Grady's leaving!

Perhaps the potential of more people available to babysit?  It looked like it was only Katie’s mother in St. Louis   

Maybe I’m misremembering but it seemed like just about all of the season 12 episodes have some mention of Robbie even though Don Grady had left the series.  I think he was still listed in the opening credits which was confusing to me watching as a youngster at the time.  

[Blergh]

Since we're in the thread about Douglas wives, while it may have seemed as though they rushed Chip to wed Polly in 1970  (when Chip was roughly 18) as a means to give a somewhat awkward teen something to do on the show, it should be noted that when Stanley  Livingston himself was that age (in 1968), he married a go-go dancer named Sandra Goble over the objections of Fred MacMurray but with his parents' reluctant permission on the grounds that his own parents had met when his mother charmed the senior Mr. Livingston as a  fan dancer!  While the marriage didn't prove a lifelong bond, it actually lasted about six years and did produce a daughter named Samantha (whom her uncle Barry said unconditionally loves her father) . Oh, and the then-Mrs. Livingston appeared as one of Polly's friends in the episode 'Polly's Secret Life' in which she enrolls in a modelling class as a means to surprise her new husband. 

   It may have made an interesting episode had Chip attempted to do the same with a go-go dancer but with him actually listening to Steve's advice not to do so.

[Blergh]

Yes, and it seemed Mrs. Lorraine Miller never even took them out of her apartment the entire time she'd had them there- not even to a park or zoo! Still, one would think in a case where a mother had been left high and dry, she'd have preferred to have had her OWN mother try to help out rather than her in-laws but it's to the show's credit that Katie and the in-laws DID indeed consider themselves family.

 

Cobb Salad,

 

 In the original Season Twelve  opening credits, Mr. Grady's name was removed but, for some reason, when they re-ran the Grady-free episodes, they re-edited the episodes via including the earlier credits where he DID appear!

[smiley13]

Katie's Mother was a bit confusing.  When Katie was introduced,  her Mother was in California.   They mentioned going to Glendale.   At some point,  they would mention Katie going "back East" to see her.  And now St Louis?

[Blergh]

2 hours ago, smiley13 said:

Katie's Mother was a bit confusing.  When Katie was introduced,  her Mother was in California.   They mentioned going to Glendale.   At some point,  they would mention Katie going "back East" to see her.  And now St Louis?

And that's not counting her relatives. Lorraine Miller's mother comes to Katie's wedding and is known as 'Grandma Collins'  and even has a touching moment with her own wedding picture from the turn of the last century with the late Grandpa and herself in white. Then there's a later episode in which Katie's never-married Aunt Cecile Blackman (played by the prolific performer Marsha Hunt- still with us at 100!)  who is supposed to be Lorraine's sister. Does this mean that Grandma Collins was married twice and had children by both marriages?  If the late Mr. Blackman was Aunt Cecile's father then it would have been somewhat unconventional for Grandma to have worn WHITE to her 2nd wedding to Mr. Collins.

[SanDiegoInExile]

4 hours ago, smiley13 said:

Katie's Mother was a bit confusing.  When Katie was introduced,  her Mother was in California.   They mentioned going to Glendale.   At some point,  they would mention Katie going "back East" to see her.  And now St Louis?

I think it was established fairly early on that Katie had relatives in Glendale CA.  They made it sound so far from LA.  The Douglas house is somewhere near Beverly Hills, since Ernie conveniently fell off a nearby trail and into Zsa Zsa Gabor's swimming pool.  That would make Glendale a whopping 12 miles away.  True, the urban sprawl was less pronounced in the late 1960s, but still.....

As for Lorraine, I think she has always been based in St Louis.  I made note of this often, as I grew up in St Louis and it was rare to ever have my hometown mentioned on a TV program.  Lorraine appeared in several episodes throughout the engagement, but I don't recall her being around or mentioned again until the triplets were born.  She arrived unannounced, from out of town, when her intuition told her that Katie was preggers.  She was in the Birth Episode and I also vaguely recall both Robbie and Katie frequently mentioned the triplets were conveniently "with Katie's folks in Glendale". But they never really said "mother".  Also, there was an episode when Katie took a break from the Douglas Family and went to stay with her mother --- I'm pretty sure it was mentioned as St Louis.

It does sorta bring up a point.  Whatever happened to Barbara's mother?  She was Dodie's grandmother, but the only post-wedding episode I recall seeing her in was the great London Grill episode, where she concocts the menu plan to feed Steve's co-workers and wives -- and shrieks that she left her car in the driveway with the engine running.  You would think Mrs Vincent might have been used a bit more.

The same is true with Polly's parents.  Do we ever even see them again?

Edited June 16, 2018 by SanDiegoInExile

[Blergh]

Good questions, SanDiegoinExile,

 

   Mrs. Vincent had been the one to urge her daughter to marry Steve and had gotten along fine with him and his family and she lived in the very same city so why wouldn't she have stopped by every now and then to catch up with her daughter and granddaughter (or for that matter why wouldn't Barbara and Dodie have not visited her)? At least for the brief time she was a regular, Eleanor Audley got to play a likable and sympathetic character- unlike the Candy Factory Supervisor in I Love Lucy or Oliver's mother in Green Acres!

 Of course, it's also worth noting here that none of the Harper family (Dodie's late father's kin) ever get a mention much less make an appearance. I guess the late Mr. Harper must have been an orphan and it's interesting how all the Douglas men seemed to wed women who were only children without any sibs.

   Another good question about Polly's parents (the Williamses). While it's true that Polly's original story arc was marrying Chip as a means to get out of Mr. Williams's rather overwhelming thumb, by the end of the last episode the Williames appeared in, Polly, Chip and Mrs. Williams had managed to guilt trip Mr. Williams into being civil to Polly and Chip. IOW, it would have been more understandable for the audience to never see the Williamses again had Polly stayed estranged from her father (and her mother had been too passive to attempt to help things) and I could even understand it if Steve, Barbara and Uncle Charley would have preferred to have nothing more to do with Mr. Williams (who'd made a rather hostile first impression on all of them) but why not have an occasional appearance by Polly's parents even if at most the senior Douglases could only muster the scantest civility towards Mr. Williams?

[Gemma Violet]

26 minutes ago, Blergh said:

At least for the brief time she was a regular, Eleanor Audley got to play a likable and sympathetic character- unlike the Candy Factory Supervisor in I Love Lucy or Oliver's mother in Green Acres!

She was the candy factory supervisor?  I had no idea.  She sure looked different.  I'll have to look for that next time I see the episode.  I remember her from a lot of TV shows back then--I think the one that stands out for me is Mrs. Billings on The Dick Van Dyke Show.  She had a knack for playing prim and proper society ladies.  lol 

[Blergh]

Gemma Violet,

 

 Sorry, it was Elvia Allman who played the Candy Factory Supervisor while Eleanor Audley played Eleanor Spaulding/the Flower Judge in those episodes when Lucy moved to Connecticut but Miss Audley DID play Oliver's mother! It's rather uncanny how similar those two actresses names are. Sorry about that!

Anyway, Miss Audley DID do a good job played Barbara's mother and Dodie's grandmother!

[Gemma Violet]

7 hours ago, Blergh said:

Gemma Violet,

 

 Sorry, it was Elvia Allman who played the Candy Factory Supervisor while Eleanor Audley played Eleanor Spaulding/the Flower Judge in those episodes when Lucy moved to Connecticut but Miss Audley DID play Oliver's mother! It's rather uncanny how similar those two actresses names are. Sorry about that!

Anyway, Miss Audley DID do a good job played Barbara's mother and Dodie's grandmother!

 

LOL--no problem.  Their names are indeed similar.  It must have been nice to be a character actor in those days (and now too) and jump from show to show.  No stardom, but a really steady income.  

[smiley13]

9 hours ago, Blergh said:

 Of course, it's also worth noting here that none of the Harper family (Dodie's late father's kin) ever get a mention much less make an appearance. I guess the late Mr. Harper must have been an orphan and it's interesting how all the Douglas men seemed to wed women who were only children without any sibs.

  

There was one episode where Barbara's former FIL came to visit.  It was Season 10, Episode 23, Mister X.

[Blergh]

5 hours ago, smiley13 said:

There was one episode where Barbara's former FIL came to visit.  It was Season 10, Episode 23, Mister X.

Interesting. I'll have to check that out.

 

OK, I've checked it out. It starts out a bit of a potential thriller with Steve working on a secret project and being told to be on the look out for suspicious characters. Despite Steve's efforts to downplay how secret this project is around the family, Ernie picks up the vibes. Anyway, Ernie notices this unusual character sitting in a car  reading a newspaper- for two days straight while Chip just shrugs it off and Uncle Charley thinks nothing of singing like a canary about Steve's aeronautical engineering skills to this character he meets in the park.  Thanks to Dodie attempting to use the project for a toy, Steve, Chip, Ernie and Uncle Charley suddenly get suspicious about this character and call the Fed fuzz on him and they're all ready to pounce on him when. . Barbara returns from her shopping and calls him 'Papa'. It turns out that this  is Professor Harper, her late husband Larry's father and Dodie's paternal grandfather and he simply wanted to make sure his onetime daughter-in-law and granddaughter were now settled in a good family!    Still, even though Professor Harper is depicted as a sympathetic character who has suffered the fate of outliving both his wife and son, it does seem a bit jarring that he'd have spied on the family for two days before attempting to visit them despite the fact that he and his former daughter-in-law had had a warm bond. In any case, all's quiet on the Douglas front as Professor Harper leaves.  Oh, it should be noted that Professor Harper was played by none other than Lew Ayres the star of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) a timeless classic movie condemning war!  Curiously, he was several months younger than Mr. MacMurray, yet  the character was supposed to be a generation older than the senior Douglases. Even more curious was that Mr. Ayres was credited as 'Mister X' despite him being identified as Professor Harper in the climactic scene- AND the fact that at NO point was he termed that by any of the other characters. Oh, and one last bit of trivia re Mr. Ayres, despite depicting a grandfather here, he himself had only  become a father about two years earlier when his only child Justin was born by his 3rd and last wife (and his second wife had been none other than Ginger Rogers).

Edited June 18, 2018 by Blergh
addendum about episode

[SanDiegoInExile]

16 hours ago, Blergh said:

.....why not have an occasional appearance by Polly's parents even if at most the senior Douglases could only muster the scantest civility towards Mr. Williams?

The only possible reason I can figure is that it was 1970s version of cost cutting.  With such a large regular cast, the producers opted to spend as little as possible on supporting cast, unless they were absolutely necessary.  Mrs Vincent was necessary in the Dinner For Eight episode, as they needed 8 diners to gobble up the food. 

One thing I noticed about these later episodes is that the show readily spews out a reason for Person X of the main cast not appearing.  People are "away" or "at practice" routinely.  Sometimes there isn't even a reason given, for example in the first episode after Polly nearly kills her husband with her cooking, as they all prepare to appear in the fashion show, Chip is merely "away".  What could possibly lead to an 18 year old college student newlywed to be "away"? 

I am not sure how cast contracts were written in this era, but it makes me wonder if some of the actors signed for only a portion of the year's episodes?  Or maybe it was just a function of the crazy filming schedule?

All three of the new in-laws were fairly well-known, well-established character actors in that era.  Maybe they were never even considered for ongoing supporting recurring characters. Perhaps they had regular gigs on other sitcoms of the era and were unavailable.  "Mrs Vincent" was heavily featured on Green Acres throughout its run.

I also think we shouldn't discount the heavy-handed theme which was slammed down our throats in "St Louis Blues".  Steve Douglas is the be-all, end-all, super-parent.  He is wise and insightful, gives the best advice, and validates all that is right/wrong about every situation.  There was no need for other "parents".

ETA:  Another idea is that maybe references to in-laws have been edited for show length.  As best as I can tell, METV airs 6 minutes and 30 seconds of commercials during each episode.  That's at least two minutes of show that is lost.  It may even be more.

Edited June 18, 2018 by SanDiegoInExile

[smiley13]

So today's episode was about yet another friend from Bryant Park who was never in any of the Bryant Park episodes.  Just like Sylvia, the former lady friend of Steve's.

Why not just use people who were former guest stars?

[SanDiegoInExile]

2 hours ago, smiley13 said:

So today's episode was about yet another friend from Bryant Park who was never in any of the Bryant Park episodes.  Just like Sylvia, the former lady friend of Steve's.

Why not just use people who were former guest stars?

And have more horrific debacles like the Asian family episodes ?

[smiley13]

1 hour ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

And have more horrific debacles like the Asian family episodes ?

At least we knew them.  They weren't fake Bryant Park people,  lol.

[SanDiegoInExile]

8 hours ago, smiley13 said:

So today's episode was about yet another friend from Bryant Park who was never in any of the Bryant Park episodes.  Just like Sylvia, the former lady friend of Steve's.    Why not just use people who were former guest stars?

Wasn't this "Jim Bell" just a stunt-cast ?  The actor was Sal Mineo, who had been some type of teen heart throb in the 50s/60s.  He co-starred with James Dean in several legendary movies.  He was nominated for an Oscar, but never found much success later in his short life.   He was murdered in 1976 at age 37.

https://www.queerty.com/sal-mineo-murdered-forty-years-ago-today-was-also-victim-of-entertainment-industry-homophobia-20160212

I suspect the Jane Wyman casting as "Sylvia" was also some type of stunt-cast.  After all, her ex-husband was running the state of California.

We could probably also throw The Beaver into the stunt-cast mix.  Although his character wasn't from Bryant Park.  He was just a mustachio-ed neighbor jerk.  (Hmm, did METV skip the Jerry Mathers episode from Season 10?)

Edited June 19, 2018 by SanDiegoInExile

[smiley13]

4 hours ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

Wasn't this "Jim Bell" just a stunt-cast ?  The actor was Sal Mineo, who had been some type of teen heart throb in the 50s/60s.  He co-starred with James Dean in several legendary movies.  He was nominated for an Oscar, but never found much success later in his short life.   He was murdered in 1976 at age 37.

https://www.queerty.com/sal-mineo-murdered-forty-years-ago-today-was-also-victim-of-entertainment-industry-homophobia-20160212

I suspect the Jane Wyman casting as "Sylvia" was also some type of stunt-cast.  After all, her ex-husband was running the state of California.

We could probably also throw The Beaver into the stunt-cast mix.  Although his character wasn't from Bryant Park.  He was just a mustachio-ed neighbor jerk.  (Hmm, did METV skip the Jerry Mathers episode from Season 10?)

The Jerry Mathers episode was not skipped.   It aired recently on MeTV.  

[Blergh]

16 hours ago, smiley13 said:

So today's episode was about yet another friend from Bryant Park who was never in any of the Bryant Park episodes.  Just like Sylvia, the former lady friend of Steve's.

Why not just use people who were former guest stars?

You make a fairly good point here. However; with the viewers seeing all these folks 'from Bryant Park' in North Hollywood who had never before been depicted or mentioned on the show, it DOES open the possibility that maybe (just maybe) Mike + Sally and other relatives &friends the audience HAD seen (but who had seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth), could possibly have visited and interacted with the Douglases in Bryant Park when the audience wasn't watching. Remember: the show only depicted a single half hour a week for roughly 30 weeks in their lives so other stuff may have happened in the other 167 and a half hours that the audience was unaware.

[Jacqs]

Dodie is handled badly by the producers. Doesn't help that S 10 - where she has "hatchet hair" and exposed bloomers under super-short dresses - is the only Dodie season most ever see.

[Blergh]

10 minutes ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

Dodie is handled badly by the producers. Doesn't help that S 10 - where she has "hatchet hair" and exposed bloomers under super-short dresses - is the only Dodie season most ever see.

Agree- and also it doesn't help that especially the first season, she spoke in a rather flat, annoyed monotone most of the time but her diction DID improve as did her overall acting ability (though it never became award-worthy).

 

To keep this ontopic (even though Dodie wasn't anywhere near this particular scenario), I have to say they did a fairly good job depicting the characters' reactions to the preposterous yet dangerous scenario in "There's a What in the Attic?" in which a real  escaped lion got loose in the Douglas house in Season Six. I know that the Livingston brothers have said that the lion was drugged and never really in the scenes with them. However; they DID pull off scenes showing Steve in his pajamas in the very same shot as the lion trying to keep his family safe and I don't think CGI had been invented yet!

Edited June 21, 2018 by Blergh
got between the lions

[Gemma Violet]

So where's Chip and Polly these days on MeTV?  It's been a few episodes since we've seen them.  Was Stanley holding out for more money or something? 

[Jacqs]

Don't they usually bring in Suspiciously Similar Substitutes or McLean characters if unreasonable money demands get thrown about?

[SanDiegoInExile]

4 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

So where's Chip and Polly these days on MeTV?  It's been a few episodes since we've seen them.  Was Stanley holding out for more money or something? 

I agree that it's somewhat jarring to go from episodes where they were the main storyline to a string of episodes where they aren't mentioned at all.  A quick scan of the episode guide shows that they will be back in Season 12.  Ronne Troup was not a regular during Season 11.  The closing credits only list her on episodes in which she appears, while the other three female cast members (Beverly/Tina/Dawn) are always listed, whether appearing or not.  It is possible that mentions of them have been edited out, since METV adds 3 extra minutes of commercials than CBS had in the early 1970s.  The post-elopement episodes have seem unusually choppy.  Not sure if that's in the edit or script.

[pieinmyeye]

On 5/30/2018 at 2:41 AM, SanDiegoInExile said:

And within two years, Katie would contemplate divorce (something that her father in law seemed to support).  Hopefully, meTV will air the little seen Final Season and not force the Bub Years on us again.

I keep checking the listings and hope for a Fergus mention in the description -- that would prove meTV is going through all the seasons!

Can you please tell me the season and episode number. Thanks :) While searching YouTube for that episode, I saw Ferguson episodes listed.

[SanDiegoInExile]

EP 378: LONESOME KATIE

Katie becomes disillusioned about life without Robbie, and seriously thinks about divorce after speaking with other wives in the same situation.Aired: 3/30/1972

 

The Season 12 episodes on YT have come and gone multiple times in the past decade.  Cannot be sure how long it will last.   It is the third to last episode of the series. We are still about 25-26 episodes away, if METV airs them all.   It should air near the end of July or early August.

Edited June 23, 2018 by SanDiegoInExile

[Blergh]

OK, how about a positive episode from its heyday?

 I thought "Douglas a Go-Go"(1966) had some good moments. Long-short is that Chip has turned 13 and insists he's ready to make the scene with girls so he wants to   have a formal party thrown to make his intentions known. Steve and Uncle Charley agree to set it up in their living room then discreetly 'chaperone' it from the kitchen popping in every so often. OK, perhaps the most retroactively funny moment happens when they suddenly quit hearing music and discover the teens have turned out the lights. They rush in only to find that the teens had just HEARD about how much fun could be had in the dark but had no idea WHAT they could do in that state. Ah, the innocence of mid-Sixties' sitcoms! Can anyone imagine a sitcom in the last two decades in which teens would have NO idea what could happen under the cover of dark? The biggest 'uh-oh' moment, though, is when Chip's guests start to leave due to the record player breaking and the hosts are worried about how to keep the party from collapsing when Ernie has an idea before the fade to commercial. It's only upon returning that the audience finds out that Ernie's idea is to recruit an impromptu live band- with Steve playing his saxophone, Robbie his guitar and Uncle Charley his cello! The latter three do a fairly good job keeping the dancing (and party) on track and they played long enough to entertain the guests (and audience) with their respective talents re these instruments but not stopping the entire episode's actions to do so.  Oh, and it was refreshing seeing Chip in particular THANK Ernie for the idea rather than just being a oblivious teen.

 I have to admit, I always liked when they'd have a 'family band' (and the performers all definitely were quite able in playing these instruments- no faking or dubbing for them!). It should be noted that Mr. MacMurray had started his performing career playing the saxophone in college (which was one reason that the instrument was featured in the theme song) while Mr. Demarest had played the cello from childhood onward as a means to support his mother and Mr. Grady not only was quite the guitarist but could play seven instruments from childhood onward!

[Gemma Violet]

10 hours ago, Blergh said:

Mr. Grady not only was quite the guitarist but could play seven instruments from childhood onward!

Wow.  Besides the guitar, he played the trumpet on the show as well.

[Blergh]

18 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

Wow.  Besides the guitar, he played the trumpet on the show as well.

True- and I might as well tell it here that Mr. Grady got cast as a Mouseketeer in 1955 at age 11 under his original name of Don Agrati after having gone through a casting cattle call with hundreds of other children in San Francisco's Cow Palace (where better for one?) via playing those seven instruments, then singing and dancing in five minutes time! Why his original surname was good enough for the Mouse but not MacMurray, I'm not sure!   However; via the earlier show, he would act alongside Tim Considine under the latter's 'Spin and Marty' Mouse series about teens coming of age on a dude ranch. Yeah, the umbrella show was a bit cheesy but it had some surprisingly good serial series for those past the letter-block stage of life to be entertained by. Yes, Robbie was a few years younger than he was but it helped that he was of slightly less than average height and his voice was still in the cracking stage when cast.

[Gemma Violet]

I totally forgot he was a Mouseketeer.  I was really little when that show was on, but I do have vague memories of it.  

[pieinmyeye]

Thanks for the info, SanDiegoInExile!

[Blergh]

OK, here's another from the Black and White Bub Years: ' Steve Gets An A' (Season Three). It starts out with Robbie lamenting that he's overwhelmed with homework (in particular a history term paper) on a Friday night and is worried that he won't be able to make a weekend date with a cute girl who's only recently showed an interest with him. No surprise Steve mandates that schoolwork must take precedence which gets Robbie to half-heartedly agree to call the girl to break their date. However; just when he's trying to summon up the will to do so, lo & behold the girl herself shows up at Casa Douglas and re-emphasizes how much she's looking forward to spending the weekend with him at her parents' lake house (though one wonders how many parents would have truly wanted to chance two hormonal teens not getting carried away in such close, secluded quarters together even back in 1963) . Robbie simply can't admit to her that it's no longer possible so he lets her leave thinking that the date's still on. Not surprisingly, he feels worse than before when older bro Mike takes pity on him and tells him a way to solve his dilemma. Mike tells Robbie that he doesn't condone the action yet he shows Robbie a trunk full of Steve's old high school and college papers in the attic and, on condition that Robbie write an extra history term paper, he tacitly lets Robbie pick one from the trunk then turns a blind eye while Robbie rushes to copy it late into the night. Gleefully, Robbie then spends the weekend on the lake with the girl swimming and canoeing,etc.  believing his troubles are over. Alas, when the teacher returns the papers, he gives Robbie an F AND a note for Steve. Robbie contritely passes the note to Steve and fesses up to having copied Steve's history paper. Steve gets close to becoming his most angry by not only lecturing Robbie about how wrong it was to cheat but also insists that Robbie sit in his room the rest of the night without any supper or snack whatsoever! Steve's righteousness towards Robbie gets dealt a major blow when the teacher quotes an incriminating passage from Robbie's paper and explains that it was VERBATIM from a treatise about the Sioux genocide written in 1874. Now it's Steve's turn to be mortified as he has to conclude that he himself had had to have cheated via copying that older work way back when. Steve himself fesses his evident youthful crime to Robbie and Robbie agrees to keep it between them since his brothers know what kind of brother he is but to have them think Steve himself could have been that way would be disheartening to them. Late that night, Steve awakens and looks at his original paper then realizes that it had been for a TYPING class and, thus, was NOT plagiarism on his own part but he admits that having shared with Robbie his own clay feet had gotten them closer than ever and he tells Bub that he'd rather not have THAT image (rather than his flawlessly honest one) shattered in Robbie's eyes so urges Bub to keep that in confidence for that reason. Although, Steve  punishes Robbie by not letting him go on a subsequent weekend date with that girl, it doesn't appear that he punished Mike in any way for being an accomplice even after Mike fessed his OWN role (and this does beg the question of whether Mike himself had ever made use of Steve's trunk papers himself).  Still, Steve and Bub both admit that they'd have been tempted to ditch the term paper for the girl had they been teens she was interested in.

[Gemma Violet]

Attention all Fergus fans.   :-)

 The Fergus episodes will be this week on MeTV (Tuesday to Friday).

[Blergh]

3 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

Attention all Fergus fans.   :-)

 The Fergus episodes will be this week on MeTV (Tuesday to Friday).

I guess that means that insomniacs will be able to get their zzs for four nights.

[SanDiegoInExile]

And miss the bad voice/accent dub?

Season 12 hasn't aired in decades, so it will be sorta fun to see these episodes in all their glory.  Also, unseen for ages, the last half of Season 11 was pretty dreadful, though it had its moments, especially the episode where "Debbie Does Douglas" and the strangely bizarre Uncle Charley's BFF episode.  Oh, and Dodie starting to climb out the window to escape her punishment for "crossing the street".  

Plus, the show airs @730A, so its early morning zzzz's.

[Jacqs]

2 hours ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

Oh, and Dodie starting to climb out the window to escape her punishment for "crossing the street".  

Bah! Dodie has nothing on Stephanie and Michelle Tanner ending up in Auckland, New Zealand! ;)

[tobeannounced]

6 hours ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

And miss the bad voice/accent dub?

Season 12 hasn't aired in decades, so it will be sorta fun to see these episodes in all their glory.  Also, unseen for ages, the last half of Season 11 was pretty dreadful, though it had its moments, especially the episode where "Debbie Does Douglas" and the strangely bizarre Uncle Charley's BFF episode.  Oh, and Dodie starting to climb out the window to escape her punishment for "crossing the street".  

Plus, the show airs @730A, so its early morning zzzz's.

I've been recording these and watching them for the first time. I couldn't even finish that episode it was so odd. And I'll never get the sight of Uncle Charlie in his red long johns out of my head.

It's been fun to see little Jodie Foster in a lot of the episodes as Dodie's friend.

[Gemma Violet]

In today's episode, Robbie walked into Steve's office and told him he was laid off and has a new job in San Francisco.  They then showed the family telling everyone goodbye, Uncle Charlie mourning not seeing Little Charlie anymore, and then Robbie and Katie meeting their San Francisco landlady who takes one look at the triplets and lets K&R have an apartment in the formerly child-free building.  And all this happened in the first 4-5 minutes of the show!

[SanDiegoInExile]

Don't worry, Uncle Charley, the back-door pilot for R+K wasn't picked up by CBS.  The triplets will be back in your house after we get past the Fergus Visit, once Don Grady goes AWOL and Katie moves back home into a previously never-seen, never-imagined "fourth" bedroom upstairs with the kids.

[tobeannounced]

On 7/2/2018 at 6:38 PM, Gemma Violet said:

In today's episode, Robbie walked into Steve's office and told him he was laid off and has a new job in San Francisco.  They then showed the family telling everyone goodbye, Uncle Charlie mourning not seeing Little Charlie anymore, and then Robbie and Katie meeting their San Francisco landlady who takes one look at the triplets and lets K&R have an apartment in the formerly child-free building.  And all this happened in the first 4-5 minutes of the show!

And then today Robbie is off in Peru, Katie is back with the Douglases, and Barbara has long hair! So was yesterday's episode the last one of Season 11 and today's the first one of Season 12? With no explanation at all of what happened in between?

[Cobb Salad]

Tobeannounced, 

Yes.  All of a sudden Katie and the triplets have moved back and Robbie is in Peru.   No details on how that came about.  I guess the pay for the Peru job was much better than the one in San Francisco.  That house must be really crowded now.  I don’t remember seeing Ernie in today’s episode, maybe Katie and the triplets were staying in his room?   I thought in later episodes they were in an apartment nearby or maybe my memory is faulty here, lol.  

Edited July 4, 2018 by Cobb Salad

[Gemma Violet]

2 hours ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

Katie moves back home into a previously never-seen, never-imagined "fourth" bedroom upstairs with the kids.

One for Steve & Barbara, one for Dodi, one for Uncle Charley, and one for Ernie.  So Katie and the kids are in the imaginary fifth room, I think.  Or does Uncle Charlie sleep downstairs in some room behind the kitchen?

[SanDiegoInExile]

4 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

One for Steve & Barbara, one for Dodi, one for Uncle Charley, and one for Ernie.  So Katie and the kids are in the imaginary fifth room, I think.  Or does Uncle Charlie sleep downstairs in some room behind the kitchen?

Uncle Charley has a bedroom off the kitchen, presumably also with the downstairs bathroom.  I don't think he ever slept upstairs, even in Bryant Park.

When they moved to CA, Steve had a room (just a room, not a master with en suite -- this was the late 60s --- master bedrooms were few and far between in SoCal house design), Robbie had a room, and Chip/Ernie shared.  Once the triplets arrived, Robbie's room was expanded (in a somewhat memorable episode where a gruff contractor melted only for Katie).  Once K+R+3 moved "down the street" to their apartment, Steve conveniently moved into the expanded bedroom with new wife Barbara.  Dodie got Steve's old bedroom.

Edited July 4, 2018 by SanDiegoInExile