My Three Sons: Difference between revisions

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[[Dom Com]] about a wise, kindly widower raising his three sons by himself; kind of like half ''[[The Brady Bunch (TV)|The Brady Bunch]]''. Starred Fred MacMurray and William DeMarest.

* [[An Aesop]]

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Possibly the originator of this trope, except in name. As mentioned below, Bub was no longer referred to sometime after William Frawley left; sometimes, even flashbacks showed only Uncle Charlie. Once after Mike left, it was discussed having the two younger boys move in with him, and then he was mentioned no more, neither was Ernie's being adopted. One imagines the re-marriage and Dody would have eventually been so retconned, making Beverly Garland's character a very tired woman. Knowing of this policy, Katie's actress wondered what would happen to her if the show continued without Robbie. It only lasted one season past this, though.

* [[Cousin Oliver]]: Ernie (the Douglas' adopted son, joining the household in 1965), and later, Dodie (played by Dawn Lyn), as Steve's stepdaughter after he re-marries in 1969.

** In the case of the addition of Dodie, the former [[Jump the Shark]] website entry for ''My Three Sons'' had some very negative remarks about the character, eventually prompting Lyn to post her own entry sharing her positive experiences on the show and working with MacMurray, Garland, Demarest and the rest of the cast.

* [[Dom Com]]

* [[Long Runner]]: Ran for 12 seasons (five on ABC, seven on CBS). Had it not been for faltering ratings during the final season, the possibility existed for renewal for the 1972-1973 season.

* [[Missing Episode]]: Averted. But with 380 episodes, two rerun packages were made of the show. The first (and most popular) consists of the 1965-1970 color episodes, spanning the sixth through midway through the 11th seasons. The other package has the first five seasons (1960-1965, all black-and-white) ''and'' the final 1 1/2 seasons (the second half of the 1970-1971 and the full 1971-1972 seasons). To those unfamiliar with the workings of syndication, the shows that aren't part of the package currently shown on cable or their particular local station might conclude the other episodes are either missing or lost.

* [[Missing Mom]]: Steve's first wife had died at some point before the series began, leaving him a widower with three sons. At some later point, Steve hires his father-in-law (his first wife's father), Charles "Bub" O'Casey (William Frawley), to help manage the household.