"My Three Sons" Takes A Hit.

I'm going to take an excursion from my series about TV theme songs to talk a little
bit about "My Three Sons"
Two major cast members of it have died within the last two days:
Don Grady, who played the original Number Two Son, and Doris Singleton, who
was a great character actress, and played two major recurring roles.
She had enough screen time during the series that she could be considered a regular.

I was never a big fan of "My Three Sons"
It was softball comedy.
The kind of show that Mel Brooks used to refer to as a "hummer".
It would be on in your house, you wouldn't be paying attention to it, and all
of a sudden you'd hear this noise.
A humming sound.
And you'd say to yourself "What's that humming sound?
And you'd realize that it was coming from the TV set.
And you'd go over to the set and shut it off.

I suppose it had a certain charm.
But not the kind of charm that would make you laugh out loud.

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but "My Three Sons" began a precedent
on how shows were shot.
In order to land Fred MacMurray to play the lead, they really had to twist his
arm.
He simply did not want to devote that much of his year to commit to a TV series.
The producer, Don Fedderson, came up with a unique solution.
He promised MacMurray that he wouldn't have to spend more than three consecutive
months a year on the series.
The rest of the year, he could goof off, or make Disney movies, or whatever else
he wanted to do.
So all 39 episodes of the season wold be pre-prepared, and they scheduled all of
MacMurray's scenes.
His closeups, masters, would be shot during those three consecutive months.
So a lot of time was spent for the other actors talking to MacMurray's character,
when in reality, they were talking to the dialogue coach.

When Brian Keith signed on to do "Family Affair", with the same producer, he
agreed, with the proviso that he have the Fred MacMurray deal.
He was acquiesced to.
And, of course, it looked it.

Another hummer.

We have not heard the end of "My Three Sons".
It will show up again when we get back to the "TV theme songs" series.

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If you'd like one, contact me at macchus999@aol.com.


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