The BEST episodes of My Three Sons

Every episode of My Three Sons ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of My Three Sons!

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].

Last Updated: 12/30/2023Network: CBSStatus: Ended
Share:
The Elopement
star
11.33
3 votes

#1 - The Elopement

Season 11 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/7/1970

Chip asks Steve's permission to elope, but before he grants it, he insists Chip give Mr. Williams the courtesy of asking his approval too. Chip goes to see Mr. Williams only to have him accusingly flaunt a private detective's report. Realizing that Polly's own father had hired a man to trail them, he storms out before asking for her hand.

Watch Now:Amazon
You Can't Go Home
star
11.00
3 votes

#2 - You Can't Go Home

Season 10 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/7/1970

Robbie is asked to be the best man at the wedding of an old friend from Bryant Park. He decides to go back a week early to show Katie around the town where he grew up but ultimately makes a disappointing visit when he realises that time and years do change things.

Watch Now:Amazon
Roman Holiday
star
10.75
4 votes

#3 - Roman Holiday

Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/17/1963

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.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:Amazon
Happy Birthday, Anyway
star
10.67
3 votes

#4 - Happy Birthday, Anyway

Season 12 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1971

Uncle Charley leaves for a week's vacation in San Francisco but meanwhile, birthdays disrupt the Douglas household, when Barbara, Katie and Polly turn against their spouses over the men's apparent oversight.

Directors: Earl Bellamy
Watch Now:Amazon
A Perfect Memory
star
9.17
6 votes

#5 - A Perfect Memory

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/1961

An old high school sweetheart calls for Steve while he is out. Feeling nostalgic, Steve tries to locate her in town, but never seems to be able to catch up with her as he reminisces about their past relationship. As he arrives home the door bell rings and he gets a disappointment then a surprise.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Watch Now:Amazon
A Car of His Own
star
8.25
4 votes

#6 - A Car of His Own

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/17/1963

Mike offers to give Robbie his old car but his response baffles everyone. Robbie says he needs his own car to impress a new girl and does some fancy wheeling and dealing to get it.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Writer: Steve McNeil
Watch Now:Amazon
Bub Leaves Home
star
8.22
9 votes

#7 - Bub Leaves Home

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/12/1961

When Steve invites his second cousin Selena to come and visit, Bub gets the strange impression that he is being neglected and isn't really needed. He decides to take up the offer of managing a movie theater in Plainview, and nothing the boys say or do can make him change his mind.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Watch Now:Amazon
House for Sale
star
8.20
5 votes

#8 - House for Sale

Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/13/1964

The family is excited when Steve might travel to Hawaii on business, but there is dismay on their faces when the 'For Sale' sign goes up outside 837 Mill Street. Going on a trip to Hawaii is one thing, but could the entire family pack up and move there?

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:Amazon
Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year
star
8.18
11 votes

#9 - Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/8/1960

Robbie is baffled when his girlfriend rejects the excitement of his new motor in favor of standard feminine frills. He tries to win her over by telling the boys on the football team that no girls are allowed, knowing this will upset her as she is considered one of the guys.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: Jack Laird
Watch Now:Amazon
How Do You Know?
star
8.00
5 votes

#10 - How Do You Know?

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1963

Steve gives Mike advice on love after he announces his passion for his new girlfriend Darlene, who Mike wants to devote time to, so he hardly welcomes Steve's suggestion that he help find a date for the girl in his office.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:Amazon
Stone Frog
star
8.00
4 votes

#11 - Stone Frog

Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/20/1964

Chip believes in a magical stone frog, given to him by a lady from India and as coincidences stack up, the magic is hard to deny. The boy's belief causes some very interesting circumstances.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Writer: Ed Jurist
Watch Now:Amazon
The Proposals
star
8.00
5 votes

#12 - The Proposals

Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/28/1963

Mike gets cold feet when he decides to propose marriage to Sally. His bungling attempts further confuse the issue. He tries a combination of methods derived from the attempts made by his father and grandfather when they proposed to their respective spouses.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:Amazon
Dear Robbie
star
8.00
4 votes

#13 - Dear Robbie

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/10/1963

Robbie is chosen to write an 'advice to the lovelorn' column for the school newspaper, but Steve gets caught in the middle when a baffling love letter arrives. Robbie suggests that the writer should elope with her boyfriend and Steve tries to talk her out of it.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:Amazon
Trial by Separation
star
8.00
3 votes

#14 - Trial by Separation

Season 1 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/25/1961

Its final exam time and Mike and his girlfriend Jean have thought up a test of their own - to try the strength of their affection by not seeing each other the week before school has its graduation ceremonies.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Watch Now:Amazon
Small Adventure
star
8.00
4 votes

#15 - Small Adventure

Season 1 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/23/1961

With Steve away in Seattle on a business trip, the Douglas household's version of man's best friend has been known to drag home anything he can get his jaws into. This time Tramp slinks in with a large stick of dynamite that has somewhere and somehow survived since the end of the Second World War.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Watch Now:Amazon
Fire Watch
star
8.00
4 votes

#16 - Fire Watch

Season 1 - Episode 36 - Aired 6/8/1961

Mike Douglas gets a Summer job with the Forestry Service and he thinks its going to be a barrel of fun until he learns that he's expected to do a real man's job. When his boss is stranded down at the creek and a wild storm brews up, Mike spends a harrowing time trying to stay calm.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: Paul West
Watch Now:Amazon
What's Cooking?
star
8.00
4 votes

#17 - What's Cooking?

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1962

A cooking contest at school upsets Chip when he realizes he doesn't have a mother to submit a recipe. But there is much rejoicing when Steve's favourite recipe reaches the finals. The prospect of winning keeps Steve on edge, much to the displeasure of the boys and Bub.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:Amazon
The Delinquent
star
7.83
6 votes

#18 - The Delinquent

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/16/1961

Mike Douglas and the family mongrel Tramp keep disappearing at night, and Jean becomes increasingly suspicious, unaware that Mike and his friend Tim are building her a hi-fi set for her upcoming Birthday.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Watch Now:Amazon
The Romance of Silver Pines
star
7.83
6 votes

#19 - The Romance of Silver Pines

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/11/1962

Steve takes a week's vacation from the family where he soon finds that he can fall in love with someone as easily as fall out of love with them. Sure that an older couple he's met are trying to play matchmaker, Fran is unsociable towards Steve at first until he points out that he only came along on the trip to appease his fellow campers.

Directors: Richard Whorf
Writer: Jack Laird
Watch Now:Amazon
Robbie's Employment Service
star
7.83
6 votes

#20 - Robbie's Employment Service

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1962

Robbie and Hank think there is only one thing in the whole world that impresses girls -- money! So they decide to open their own home help unit in the hope of making the big bucks that they are constantly in need of. However, they run into competition from Chip who organises baby-sitting as a means of increasing his allowance to buy a new bicycle.

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Raft on the River
star
7.80
15 votes

#21 - Raft on the River

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/24/1960

Feeling left out when Mike and Robbie decide to go camping at Gunman's Gulch, a lonely Chip uses a raft his brothers helped make in the backyard, on which he and Steve spend a night, pretending to float down the Mississippi. They are accidentally locked out when it begins to rain. Steve begins to worry when he wakes up from a nap and thinks it is way past 4am in the morning and thinks that Bub has not yet returned from his pinochle game.

Writer: Paul West
Watch Now:Amazon
Mike in a Rush
star
7.80
5 votes

#22 - Mike in a Rush

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/19/1961

Mike prepares for the transition from high school to college and the question of joining a fraternity is one that complicates his life considerably. When Mike and Jean attend a party as prospective applicants, he later finds out the they have been dropped from the waiting list and suddenly the cold war turns pretty hot.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Watch Now:Amazon
Cherry Blossoms in Bryant Park
star
7.80
5 votes

#23 - Cherry Blossoms in Bryant Park

Season 4 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/12/1964

Kimiko, a Japanese girl Mike met in Tokyo last year comes to town to test her old feelings for Mike before she can be sure she loves another. Although Mike is now engaged to Sally, could he still feel something for her?

Directors: Gene Reynolds
Watch Now:Amazon
Organization Woman
star
7.75
4 votes

#24 - Organization Woman

Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/2/1961

Steve's ever efficient sister arrives for a visit, and immediately changes and complicates the entire Douglas household. The challenging aspect to the whole deal is a decision that Harriet soon regrets, especially once Steve returns home from his business trip.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury
Watch Now:Amazon
The Horseless Saddle
star
7.75
4 votes

#25 - The Horseless Saddle

Season 1 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/18/1961

Bub has no plans to join the horse race set, but a mysterious someone sends him a saddle. Chip takes his girlfriend for a pony ride along with the old saddle that the Douglases just can't seem to be rid of.

Directors: Peter Tewksbury