- 7.5/10130 votes
#1 - Chip-Off the Old Block
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1960
Aeronautical Engineer Steve Douglas and his youngest son Chip face a parallel problem -- how to rid themselves of two designing females: Widower Steve is introduced to attractive and eligible Pamela MacLish, and is pursued by her because she wouldn't mind being the new Mrs. Douglas. Steve's youngest son Chip, aged eight, has similar problems with his classmate Dorine Peters, who would love to be his steady girlfriend. Pamela decides to call upon Steve with some leftover cake from their dinner, only to be met with a rambunctious houseful of children. Michael O'Casey, Steve's father in law, affectionately known as 'Bub' attends to the household chores. The eldest son Mike, aged eighteen and named after his Grandfather, is talking on the telephone, while middle son Robbie, aged fourteen, plays with the family's shaggy dog, known as Tramp. Before long Steve is accompanying Pamela and Chip to Chip's grade school dance. Chip takes it upon himself to give his father some sonly advice. Me
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: George Tibbles
- 6.9/10111 votes
#2 - The Little Ragpicker
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1960
The Annual School ragdrive starts Chip off on a scavenger hunt of the neighbourhood. Everytime Miss Pitts looks out the window she sees strange happenings at the Douglas household. She sees Bub outdoors waving a bottle that looks like whiskey,and later, Robbie carrying in a dummy that she thinks is Bub smashed to the nines. Later she goes over to talk to Steve about her concerns, and sees Chip in his bedroom hitting the dummy and when it accidentally falls out of the upstairs window, she faints on the sidewalk.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: David Duncan
- 6.7/1091 votes
#3 - Bub in the Ointment
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1960
When Bub steps on the toes of each grandson in turn, Steve is about to rebuke him when the household returns to normal once again. Being chief cook, dishwasher and housekeeper to three boys is not fun for a grandfather as Bub soon finds out.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: George Tibbles, Peter Tewksbury
- 8.4/10141 votes
#4 - Countdown
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/1960
A Missile launch, sleeping in and Daylight Saving make for an interesting Monday morning. The Douglas household is a chaotic affair of lost indian arrow heads for Chip's turn in show and tell at School, Robbie's missing trumpet and some important lost plans of Steve's that Mike has nearly burned in the incinerator.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: George Tibbles, David Duncan, Peter Tewksbury
- 7.2/1082 votes
#5 - Brotherly Love
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/27/1960
When Mike and Robbie cross swords over a blonde schoolgirl, the issue widens until the whole family is involved in the argument. But it is difficult for Steve to teach his sons that violence solves nothing with a pugnacious father-in-law around.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 6.7/1080 votes
#6 - Adjust or Bust
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/3/1960
Steve's theory that 'life is just a small series of adjustments' is put to the test in just one day's discovered doings. Steve must meet with a top Air Force General to discuss plans for a rocket design, and in the process, he must borrow Mike's car, but gets a flat tire and must take the bus home.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: Peter Tewksbury
- 7.3/1088 votes
#7 - Lady Engineer
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/10/1960
Steve is enamored of his new business associate, an attractive woman who is strictly business. He is tempted to mix business with pleasure but finds that she thinks only about the job at hand and doesn't have any plans to expand her love life, despite this romantic interlude.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/10109 votes
#8 - Chip's Harvest
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/17/1960
Thanksgiving Day's turkey dinner is threatened when the electricity is short-circuited throughout the neighborhood. Chip decides to bring along his Indian friend as his sole guest much to the annoyance of his brothers who say he is a bum who lives near the railway tracks in a rundown old shack.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/1089 votes
#9 - 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.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 6.7/1083 votes
#10 - Lonesome George
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/1/1960
TV Star George Gobel is invited to dinner by Bub, who forgets to tell his son-in-law Steve who returns from an out of town business trip and arrives home late at night. He tiptoes around the house only to find a strange man occupying his bed.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/1080 votes
#11 - 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.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: Jack Laird
- 6.8/1067 votes
#12 - My Three Strikers
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/15/1960
The boys want a raise in their allowance, but Steve tells them that they are spending money recklessly and not doing their chores. Bub has been picking up the slack and doing their work for them. Everyone has bad dreams that night.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.2/1071 votes
#13 - The Elopement
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/22/1960
Mike and the girl next door arouse the suspicions of Steve and Bub when secrets are exchanged and the two are seen leaving with suitcases. Meanwhile, Robbie is on a clock salvaging attempt to find historic clocks after he gets into a spot of bother with his teacher.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: Phil Leslie, John McGreevey
- 7.2/1076 votes
#14 - Mike's Brother
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/29/1960
Constant comparison to his brother, Mike, leaves Robbie feeling inferior and angry—and their father has to face the consequences as Robbie and Mike are about to come to blows when Steve shows up just in the nick of time from work.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: John McGreevey
- 7.2/1078 votes
#15 - Domestic Trouble
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/5/1961
When Bub is suddenly called out of town, Steve seeks an agency to get temporary help—unaware that he may be recruiting a wife. With his older brothers passing the buck, Chip accidentally rings Domestic Bliss, Inc. - a marriage seeking department who send out a woman inspector right away.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: Peter Tewksbury
- 7.0/1083 votes
#16 - 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.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: John McGreevey
- 7.0/1085 votes
#17 - 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.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: AJ Carothers
- 6.6/1079 votes
#18 - The Bully
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/26/1961
Chip falls foul of the school bully who isn't interested in fighting with him. Steve soon realises that Chip is deliberately provoking the boy each day in the school yard to prove a point, and feels the boy must must solve his own problems even though it costs him detention in the Principal's office.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 6.9/1077 votes
#19 - 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.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: Peter Tewksbury
- 7.1/1077 votes
#20 - Other People's Houses
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/9/1961
When Robbie Douglas sees his new friend's home he is envious of what he thinks is really the perfect teenage home and becomes almost as envious as Hank is of the turbulent, happy-go-lucky Douglas household.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: John McGreevey
- 7.0/1074 votes
#21 - 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.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 7.5/1087 votes
#22 - Man In a Trench Coat
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/23/1961
On a dark night when Steve is away, Robbie and his date are frightened by a man in a trench coat. It all happens when Robbie is seen putting on the hubcap of his next door neighbour. Steve isn't too concerned when he hears about the incident as he thinks it all stems from Robbie's steady diet of spy and mystery stories.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: N/A
- 6.9/1084 votes
#23 - Deadline
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 3/2/1961
Mike has to finish the layout and write a sports article for the school paper by himself in between running in a track meet and going to a dance with Jean.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/1076 votes
#24 - The Lostling
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/9/1961
Chip begins to think it would be great to be an older brother, so he wishes for a little sister. After the new Hawkins family move into the vacant house across the street, a wild sequence of events results from an improbable case of mistaken identity -- an infant is somehow confused with a leg of lamb left in the boot of Steve's station wagon.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: David Duncan
- 6.7/1070 votes
#25 - Off Key
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/16/1961
Chip brags to his new playmate that his genius brother Robbie can fix almost anything. Soon Robbie is repairing a Grand Piano and has five minutes to have it fixed before the boy's mother comes in and wants to practise a new tune on it.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Writer: David Duncan
The Best Episodes of My Three Sons Season 1
Every episode of My Three Sons Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of My Three Sons Season 1!
A widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and later the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son,...
Genres:ComedyFamily
Network:CBS
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Chip-Off the Old Block" is the best rated episode of "My Three Sons" season 1. It scored 7.5/10 based on 130 votes. Directed by Peter Tewksbury and written by George Tibbles, it aired on 9/29/1960. This episode is rated 0.6 points higher than the second-best, "The Little Ragpicker".