1961 Chevy Biscayne with My Three Sons

[sd31263]

Chip: "What's a Biscayne?"

Me: "Possibly the ugliest Chevrolet ever built."

[niteowl009]

william frawley was replaced by william demarest...

[MrGuido7007]

I forgot William Frawley was Mr. O'Casey before Fred MacMurray. Frawley was fired for "moral" reasons-he kept showing up on the set drunk.

[RSG2006]

@MrGuido7007 Wrong. Frawley wasn't fired. He left the show because his health was declining (which led to his death in 1966). And he didn't play the same character as Fred MacMurray either.

[rafranks1410]

Didn't My Three Sons usually feature Pontiacs?

[debfan74]

I love My Three Sons in black and white MUCH better than the colored episodes!!

[RSG2006]

After you watch this commercial, do a search for the "I Love Lucy" episode "The Diet," and listen to the dialogue a little over four minutes into Part 1 (immediately after Ricky gets off the phone) and see if anything sounds familiar (besides the sound of William Frawley's voice, that is).

[NESherv]

Product placement at its best.

[peeweecee]

Is that William Frawley (Fred Mertz)?

[thanksforthemusic]

@peeweecee Yes, "Uncle Bub..."

[RayNDeere]

@thanksforthemusic Actually, Bub was the boys' Grandfather. William Demarest played Charlie O'Casey, Bub's brother after William Frawley left for health reasons

[Barnekkid]

@peeweecee yup

[v8foad]

At the end of the show, after the credits, they would show some of the Chevy cars riding down the road in the '61 and '62 seasons. you gotta butter your sponsors bread.

[vividwatch47]

@v8foad, for the 1962-63 season they reverted to using advertisting artwork over the end credits.

[v8foad]

Thanks for reminding me of those. It really was a creative way of doing things,and I really miss it.

[kevw411]

Its strange that they would use a bottom of the line 6cyl Biscayne instead of a V8 Impala Hardtop or convertable in this advertisement.

[RennyGd]

The 409 came out with the inroduction of the Super Sport option on the Impala, but nothing else. 1962 the 409 was available on any full size chevy including the Biscayne

[vividwatch47]

@RennyGd, because of the engine's size, the 409 wasn't availble on the Corvette. I alsways considered the 1961 Impala S.S.409 G.M.'s first true muscle car, not that overrated Pontiac G.T.O.. They claim that the G.T.O,. was for a youth oriented audience. There was a song

"409" by The Beach Boys, which came shortly after the introduction of the package. The Impala S.S.409 is often referred to as "the father of the muscle car".

[DjBass1989]

1961?????????:O

what a car ; ) ; )

dream car ; )

[RennyGd]

Yeah, I've heard stories about William Frawley myself. He use to show up on the set of,"I love Lucie" drunk on his butt and very abusive. Vivian Vance(Ethel) hated his guts to the core and vis-versa. He could be a handful at times.

As for the Chevy Biscayne. I like the clean and uncluttered styling. I would have ordered mine with a 348/w triple carbs, solid lifter cam, 4 speed, and 4:11 posi rear end. A 409 even, but it wasn't available in a Biscayne at that time. I think

[ltlieu61]

OR A BUBBLE TOP,,,,,I Thought 409 was available on the biscayne,,,,348 for sure was on the impala

[Sheri451]

I've heard several comments from Don and Stanley that Bill Frawley would use some pretty course language around them. Stanley sais during a scene where Bub was supposed to be cooking outside for a Thanksgiving scene, something happened to a prop and he began screaming out GD and the F word.But Stanley said he really liked Bill, he was the grandfather he didn't have, his gradnfather must have died when he was a baby

[jim102353]

My family had a 1964 Chevy Biscayne and it eventually became my first car.

[Turbothrift]

Cool old cars.....When they had Real Bumpers

[vividwatch47]

@Turbothrift, cars with today's bumpers (such as on the Japanese compacts) are filled with styrofoam.

[burbank]

he he he and we see where Chevrolet ended up lol. They are part of GM which nearly went to the ground this year if it had not been for a taxpayer bailout. :)

[visor109]

"Dog tracks and grimey little boys tracks!"

So, Chevy is trying to tell you not to put dogs or "grimey little boys" into this fine automobile! If this was to be funny, it wasn't! A bit insulting it was!

[michaeljayklein]

The cast were sometimes forced to make commercials for their sponsors. Needless to say, Frawley hated doing that. When their sponsor was Quaker Oats, Frawley did the commercial. He would ad-lib little jingles of his own. On this occasion it was "Quaker Oats is for the goats. Cream of Wheat is really neat!" You had to love this guy.

[zekepig]

My favorite car was the Impaler.

[scootergreen3]

The announcer at the end sounded like

Dick Tufield who was the voice of the Robot on the Old TV series, Lost In Space! Am I right folks? Mikie D

[Sheri451]

Who is the little girl?

[somewhere4me]

although I don't remember this commercial, this still brings back wonderful memories

[Juliaflo]

I just loved integrated commercials. They gave audiences that viewer-friendly feeling.

If you think today's shows are so retarded, raise your hand.

[RSG2006]

Oddly enough, there's an episode of "I Love Lucy" that has a similar joke...except that time it was Frawley whose question was continuously ignored, but answered when Ethel asked the same question. Like Chip here, Frawley then says "Now what was I doing wrong?"

[samplerman53]

I heard that rumor from someone that had worked on the show in Hollywood. Little known fact I guess. I heard the design of the interior was a copy of his home for this reason.

[MerleOberon]

Bub making a prize cake? And Tim Considine getting fired for being a homo?

[BuddyNovinski]

I think you're mean Tommy Kirk, who played Joe Hardy opposite Tim Casidine as Frank Hardy. In any case, I'd like to have their looks any day. Both actually appeared to talk about their Hardy Boy days with Disney for the 50th anniversary.

I hate to sound mean, but why did Tommy Kirk fool with a 15-year-old boy? I think even today Disney was right to fire Kirk for having an affair with a 15-year-old. What is the age of consent in California? It should be the same for either kind of consent.

[seebee73]

Chevy provided cars for the first few seasons, then around 1964 Pontiac provided the cars up until 1970-71. Interestingly, Ford Motor Company furnished cars for the last '71-72 season, Steve had a Mercury Colony Park woodgrained wagon and Katie had a '71 Mustang!

[ENCOMAN]

Your right, 1964 was the beginning of the muscle car wars. Jim Wanger's head of advertising & marketing got Pontiacs on "My three sons", "the Monkeys", Kelloggs, Tom McCans shoes, advertisments. On many other shows and products all to sell Pontiacs even G.T.O. cologne. John Delorian & Jim Wangers were out of Pontiac division by 1970. Check out Jim's book "the Glory Days"

[vividwatch47]

...and Robbie had Mike's old '54 Pontiac Convertible until the eighth season.

[64098]

It's strange, Pontiac furnished the cars for "My Three Sons", unless they weren't when this commercial was made. GM's '61 cars were all beautiful to me.

[vividwatch47]

Pontiacs were also used on "I Dream Of Jeannie".

[64098]

I remember the Pontiacs on IDOJ, they were actually used for a while too on "Bewitched" around when the Salem episodes were filmed. "Wendy And Me" with George Burns and Connie Stevens seemed to have Oldsmobiles, the one or two times I saw it.

[samplerman53]

Fred MacMurray never visited the studio for shooting. Whenever he was in a shot, it was filmed at his home. That is why you dont see him much in the show. Strange.

[RandRdriver]

I don't think Fred MacMurray filmed at home. I saw a documentary once that said all of his parts for the whole season was filmed in a couple of weeks and the rest of the cast had to film around the shots were already done. They said they lost some props along the way and had to be creative to fit all the shots together.

[weenielongus]

I'd heard the same thing, and when I'd watch the reruns back in the 70s, I'd notice how the son's hair lengths wouldn't always be the same between the scenes shot with Fred MacMurray and the scenes without him in the same program. You didn't have to pay too close attention to notice the lapse in continuity...

[Nationsnotregimes]

It could be that Fred MacMurray understood the real picture before this was written, perhaps through personal experience. ?

Preface Culture Of Critique

[rdillon7872]

whats a Biscayne? Lol

[OldsVistaCruiser]

Actually, Biscayne is the name of a bay, a key and a national park just off Miami.

Imagine that! A low-priced car named for a high-rent district!

[fromthesidelines]

Chevrolet sponsored the series during its first four seasons (1960-'64) on ABC- as a custom, the cast usually appeared in an "integrated" commercial for the sponsor, at the end of the program...but Fred MacMurray rarely appeared in these..

[storrs19]

Stars regulary did commercials for their sponsor. That used to be the norm and many of the commercials were related to the exact show they were from.

[sassyback]

Awesome!!!

[nosleep62]

clips like this are invaluable to pop history buffs like me-thanks much!

[PineTreePictures]

Pioneering infomercial?