The BEST Episodes of My Three Sons
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Aug 30, 2020
Network: CBS
Widower Steve Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and is later aided by the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son, a stepdaughter, wives, and another generation of sons join the loving family in later seasons. Disney producer Bill Walsh often mused on whether the concept of the show was inspired by the movie The Shaggy Dog, as in his view they shared “the same dog, the same kids, and Fred [MacMurray].
#1 - Robbie Valentino
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired Feb 22, 1962
Bub fires Robbie's show business ambitions when he tells him to make the most of an opportunity when Robbie's 9th grade physics class is the subject of an educational film. He is excited when he and a fellow student are told they will be part of a close-up scene.
10.00 #2 - The Masterpiece
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired Mar 1, 1962
Chip tries to snow his teachers so he can win an art contest and almost succeeds with some help from Bub, who actually painted the artwork. Chip's teacher offers his painting to the Principal to show the school board. When Chip learns of this development, he plots with Sudsy to steal it back.
10.00 #3 - A Holiday for Tramp
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired Mar 8, 1962
The Douglas family goes to the train station to meet Steve but when they prepare to leave, they can't find Tramp anywhere. Tramp has wandered into the cabin of a famous actress named Marissa Montaigne who takes a liking to him.
10.00 #4 - The Big Game
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired Mar 15, 1962
Robbie finds out that he won't be able to play in the big game unless he passes a math exam. Steve assures him that if he fails he will not be playing against his team's arch rival. When Chip comes down with the measles, it dampens Robbie's attempt to play even more than before.
10.00 #5 - Casanova Trouble
Season 2 - Episode 26 - Aired Mar 29, 1962
Steve's friend asks him to come up with a solution when she thinks her daughter is dating an older man. Steve is shocked when he sees that the initials of the fraternity pin the man gave her identifies his oldest son Mike. However it is really Robbie who took the use of Mike's pin to fix his button-less shirt.
10.00 #6 - The Pencil Pusher
Season 2 - Episode 27 - Aired Apr 5, 1962
Chip puts his father into the uncomfortable position of defending the importance of his profession. Chip is unenlightened by the tour of the Air Force base until a full-scale emergency arises and Steve is asked to help a desperate pilot down from the air.
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#7 - Air Derby
Season 2 - Episode 31 - Aired May 3, 1962
Robbie's only real competition for winning a school scholarship in a model airplane contest is a young boy named Roly Bates, a studious lad who has his heart set on first prize as its his only chance to get a college education.
10.00 #8 - Good Influence
Season 2 - Episode 34 - Aired May 24, 1962
Steve pushes Chip to go on a week-long vacation with a boy he really doesn't like. The boy is very shy and timid, and when Chip calls him a chicken-clunk, he cops an unexpected black eye for his trouble. Meanwhile Bub tries his hand at painting.
10.00 #9 - The Kibitzers
Season 2 - Episode 36 - Aired Jun 7, 1962
Two of Bub's cronies who are visiting for their usual game of pinochle, accidentally get an earful of the family's woes. Their mysterious interjection to try and solve the problems, leaves Steve and the boys quite baffled.
10.00 #10 - Moment of Truth
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired Oct 11, 1962
College freshman Mike Douglas has invited the reigning campus beauty to his fraternity's Saturday night dance, but he sort of doubts that she'll accept. So to cover all bets, he invites another girl too, which lands him in more trouble than he bargained for.
10.00 #11 - Daughter for a Day
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired Oct 18, 1962
Homeward bound from a long business trip Steve meets an old friend on the plane and he suggests that her daughter stay at the Douglas household while her mother gives a lecture in town, but unfortunately everyone else at the house has plans and Steve is left to entertain the girl.
10.00 #12 - Chip's Last Fight
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired Nov 15, 1962
Chip is thrown out of the neighbourhood clubhouse because he cannot convince the older boys that he is all grown up. He makes a bargain -- he will fight one of the older boys for the privelege of becoming club mascot. But he doesn't count on being sent to hospital to have his tonsils removed the very day of the big fight.
10.00 #13 - Heat Wave
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired Nov 29, 1962
A summer heat wave has tempers flaring. Steve remains cool and calm until some important plans go missing and he thinks it might be in the pile of papers given to the boy scouts for its paper drive.
10.00 #14 - The Beauty Contest
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired Dec 6, 1962
Mike is dragooned into acting as the sole judge of a campus beauty contest and discovers that the hazards of choosing a winner to be a formidable task. Especially when he realizes his girlfriend is a contestant.
10.00 #15 - Doctor in the House
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired Dec 13, 1962
Steve is in too big a hurry to get home to his family and spread the good news of his upcoming business trip to Bolivia, but hurts his back by throwing out his sacroiliac and is convinced that there is only one doctor who can help him.
10.00 #16 - Mother Bub
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired Dec 27, 1962
Chip and Sudsy see a model auto at the toy store. When he is reminded that he is doesn't have a mother to nix the idea, he tries to persuade his father to buy it. But they both don't figure that Bub will have his say on the subject.
10.00 #17 - Honorable Grandfather
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired Jan 3, 1963
Chip gets a relief from boredom when Steve's friend invites him to a birthday celebration for his "honorable" grandfather, and Robbie finds it hard to keep up with a new girl at school who seems unimpressed with him.
10.00 #18 - Roman Holiday
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired Jan 17, 1963
Steve's reluctance to make a business trip to Rome with the family puzzles everyone in the Douglas household except Bub. He remembers that Steve and his late wife were once there and that the place may hold too many memories for him.
10.00 #19 - Flashback
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired Jan 24, 1963
Steve encounters a sweet, old-fashioned 16-year-old at the bus depot, who reminds him of someone from his high school days. After hearing about his family, the girl wants to go on a date with Robbie, who finds she is more wordly than his father had told him.
10.00 #20 - The Dream Book
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired Jan 31, 1963
When he is badgered by one of his co-workers to join the company musical combo as a saxophonist, Steve, who is rather apprehensive about the situation, dreams of being chased by a man carrying a trumpet -- a man who looks very much like his workpal.
10.00 #21 - The Clunky Kid
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired Feb 14, 1963
Chip is overcome with loneliness when Sudsy starts spending all of his time with a new boy in the neighborhood. The entire household rallies together and their efforts to compensate the youngster succeed almost too well.
10.00 #22 - Caged Fury
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired Feb 21, 1963
The members of Robbie's high school wrestling team need higher grades to remain eligible, so they choose Steve as their tutor. Soon the house is quarantined for Diptheria, and when Bub doesn't get his long-awaited rendezvous with "Old Roy," the biggest catch in the lake, watch out boys.
10.00 #23 - Make Way for Yesterday
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired Feb 28, 1963
Bub, representing the older generation, makes some suggestions for Robbie's school club carnival, but to the Committee they sound a mite old fashioned. The junior crowd scorns at the ideas until they see them in action.
10.00 #24 - Robbie Wins His Letter
Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired Mar 7, 1963
Robbie's science master announces a special achievement award for being a straight 'A' student and to his embarassment, Robbie wins it. This causes more trouble than he could have imagined but Steve does his best to assure Robbie that he did deserve the award.
10.00 #25 - High on the Hog
Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired Mar 14, 1963
When Robbie and his friend complain about being broke, another student offers them a pig to fatten in a profit-sharing plan. When the time comes for it to be slaughtered however, nobody is quite sure that they want to do it.
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