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My Three Sons

sbkline

sbkline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Anyone familiar with this show?

It's a little before my time, but I got hooked on the reruns on Nick At Night when I was in Junior High and High School.

The oldest Son, Mike (played by Tim Considine) was in the very first color episode (where he got married) and then left the show. He was mentioned in a couple episodes at first, and then he dropped off the face of the Earth, never to be heard from again. They totally wrote him out of the script, re-writing it such that Robbie was now the oldest, Chip the middle and Earnie (who was adopted as the third son) the youngest.

Anyway, I was talking about this show with someone at work the other day and she said that in the very last episode, Tim Considine came back as Mike. I have never seen such an episode and I'm sure I had to have seen the last episode at some point in time. For anyone here who is well familiar with that show, can you confirm or deny that the original oldest son, Mike, did indeed show up for the very last episode?
 
tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
Can't say for sure if he was in the last episode, but I know he was in more than one episode of the show. He left the show to concentrate on writing and directing.

He has long been connected with Disney (as was Don Grady [Robbie] who was a Mouseketeer using his original name) as he was a non Mouseketeer actor on the show in the Spin & Marty episodes and made a few Disney movies and shows. He was also a Hardy Boy on the tv series in the 50's.

Another fact...Chip & Ernie were brothers in real life.
 
Nemo14

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
tigsmom said:
Can't say for sure if he was in the last episode, but I know he was in more than one episode of the show. He left the show to concentrate on writing and directing.

In fact I believe he directed a few episodes of My Three Sons
He has long been connected with Disney (as was Don Grady [Robbie] who was a Mouseketeer using his original name) as he was a non Mouseketeer actor on the show in the Spin & Marty episodes and made a few Disney movies and shows. He was also a Hardy Boy on the tv series in the 50's.

Another fact...Chip & Ernie were brothers in real life.
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That's right! and I think Don Grady's brother made a few appearances on the show too.
 
Uponastar

Uponastar

Well-Known Member
Mike was a regular character on the show from its start in 1960 until he left in 1965. I don't recall him ever returning to the show. In fact, I don't think he was even mentioned much, if at all, after that. The theme of "three sons" continued with Ernie's adoption, so I guess having Mike in the picture, even remotely, wouldn't have worked well. I don't remember the final episode, but I really don't think Mike was in it.
 
Uponastar

Uponastar

Well-Known Member
tigsmom said:
And another bit of trivia I just remembered...Lani O'Grady from Eight Is Enough is Don Grady's sister.

Just saw that she died in 2001. :(
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Yes she did. Sad.

Did you ever watch "The King Family" musical variety show that was on in the 60s? The King Family was an enormous family of musically talented people, revolving around the "The King Sisters". One of the King Sisters was Tina Cole's (Katie Douglas) mother, and Tina herself sang on the show many times.
 
Nemo14

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Uponastar said:
Yes she did. Sad.

Did you ever watch "The King Family" musical variety show that was on in the 60s? The King Family was an enormous family of musically talented people, revolving around the "The King Sisters". One of the King Sisters was Tina Cole's (Katie Douglas) mother, and Tina herself sang on the show many times.
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I remember that! (Boy I really am old!). Watching that show (and Lawerence Welk) were a big family tradition.
 
sbkline

sbkline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Uponastar said:
Mike was a regular character on the show from its start in 1960 until he left in 1965. I don't recall him ever returning to the show. In fact, I don't think he was even mentioned much, if at all, after that. The theme of "three sons" continued with Ernie's adoption, so I guess having Mike in the picture, even remotely, wouldn't have worked well. I don't remember the final episode, but I really don't think Mike was in it.
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Ya, I've seen pretty much all the black and white ones and he was in there until the first color season. He was only in one color episode (the one where he got married). After that he was mentioned in a few episodes during that season (such as the phone ringing and one of the boys telling their father that it is Mike on the phone, etc). Then, when the family moved out to California, Mike was never to be mentioned again.

Something tells me, though, that this woman may be thinking of Robbie. Because she said something about him showing up in the last episode and having three children of his own, but I bet she is referring to Robbie, whose wife had triplet sons.

It would be neat, on the one hand, if they had brought him back in the last episode, but on the other hand, they already screwed up the continuity of the show enough by writing him out. It would seem kind of silly to bring him back as the oldest son at the end after spending the past 3 or 4 seasons calling Robbie the oldest.
 
tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
Disnut said:
Who did Lani O'Grady play in Eight Is Enough? I can't remember. :shrug:
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She was Mary.


images
 
tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
Uponastar said:
Yes she did. Sad.

Did you ever watch "The King Family" musical variety show that was on in the 60s? The King Family was an enormous family of musically talented people, revolving around the "The King Sisters". One of the King Sisters was Tina Cole's (Katie Douglas) mother, and Tina herself sang on the show many times.
Click to expand...


I remember that.

*suddenly feels very old*

The OP is talking about seeing the show on Nick At Night and I watched them first run.
 
BiggerTigger

BiggerTigger

Well-Known Member
sbkline said:
It would be neat, on the one hand, if they had brought him back in the last episode, but on the other hand, they already screwed up the continuity of the show enough by writing him out. It would seem kind of silly to bring him back as the oldest son at the end after spending the past 3 or 4 seasons calling Robbie the oldest.
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Yes, but, the Cosby show had the eldest daughter (Sondra I think) in the first few episodes, then she left. They had forgotten about her until the actress that played her was at a taping of the show and mention it to Bill Cosby. They wrote her back in the show.
 
sbkline

sbkline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
BiggerTigger said:
Yes, but, the Cosby show had the eldest daughter (Sondra I think) in the first few episodes, then she left. They had forgotten about her until the actress that played her was at a taping of the show and mention it to Bill Cosby. They wrote her back in the show.
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Ya, she actually wasn't in the very first episode, as in that episode, they mentioned the fact that they had 4 kids (unless Sandra was there and not Denise at that point). But I remember commenting to someone at work that I never see both girls in an episode together; I always would see either Sandra or Denise. Then not too long after that, I started seeing them together all the time.
 
tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
sbkline said:
Ya, I've seen pretty much all the black and white ones and he was in there until the first color season. He was only in one color episode (the one where he got married). After that he was mentioned in a few episodes during that season (such as the phone ringing and one of the boys telling their father that it is Mike on the phone, etc). Then, when the family moved out to California, Mike was never to be mentioned again.

Something tells me, though, that this woman may be thinking of Robbie. Because she said something about him showing up in the last episode and having three children of his own, but I bet she is referring to Robbie, whose wife had triplet sons.

It would be neat, on the one hand, if they had brought him back in the last episode, but on the other hand, they already screwed up the continuity of the show enough by writing him out. It would seem kind of silly to bring him back as the oldest son at the end after spending the past 3 or 4 seasons calling Robbie the oldest.
Click to expand...

I'm not following you here. The actor that played Mike left the show (because they would not let him direct- that is where his passion was) leaving only 2 sons. They adopted Chip's friend Ernie and he then became the third son (thus keeping the name of the show accurate). It wasn't until much later that Robbie married Katie and they also had 3 sons.


Another piece of trivia...Tina Cole who played Katie is/was the real life daughter in law of Beverly Garland who married Steve and became her MIL on the show.
 
BiggerTigger

BiggerTigger

Well-Known Member
sbkline said:
Ya, she actually wasn't in the very first episode, as in that episode, they mentioned the fact that they had 4 kids (unless Sandra was there and not Denise at that point). But I remember commenting to someone at work that I never see both girls in an episode together; I always would see either Sandra or Denise. Then not too long after that, I started seeing them together all the time.
Click to expand...
I don't really recall when she first appeared, just remember reading an article about her being in the beginning of the show and then "went to college" and they forgot they had the eldest daughter until a few years later she was at a taping of the show.
 
tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
sbkline said:
Ya, she actually wasn't in the very first episode, as in that episode, they mentioned the fact that they had 4 kids (unless Sandra was there and not Denise at that point). But I remember commenting to someone at work that I never see both girls in an episode together; I always would see either Sandra or Denise. Then not too long after that, I started seeing them together all the time.
Click to expand...

Denise was let go from the show after she married Lenny Kravitz and adopted a lifestyle that Mr Cosby would not tolerate. :lookaroun She was brought back later after they made amends.

Sondra was not in the first shows, but was added later on during the first season.
 

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