1.7.: The Lady Engineer

Boy, I am enjoying this show.

For the seventh week in a row, I haven't known what to expect from an episode. And, My Three Sons threw another curveball at me. This episode is, indeed, a slower, more dramatic one than the previous episode so my guess on the format at the moment seems to be correct. But, the episode is so perfectly different I can only imagine that shows like Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best were hanging their heads in shame at the lack of creativity they were exhibiting.

The title goes a long way to explaining what seems to be the premise of the episode. But then, very intelligently, the focus of the episode shifts and it becomes quite charming, with Fred MacMurray pulling out all the stops. A large chunk of the episode is just Steve and Dr. Joan Johnson, the "Lady Engineer", working and talking. And, it's great.

Steve is at work, finishing a project. (His next project seems to involve a rocket to the moon.) His bosses send him a Dr. Johnson to help him finish his work. Well...Dr. Johnson's a woman. And, once that hilarity dies down, the episode begins in earnest and it is surprising and rather poignant.

I short-shrift the opening actually. Even if I didn't have the title, I'd know that Dr. Johnson was a lady. The thing that makes the pre-meeting scene work is the way it's handled. Steve meets a lovely lady and gives her directions through the maze of offices. He's looking for Dr. Johnson but more interested in the lady. I'm not 100% sure how the offices where he is work but I imagine that they are similar to (but more narrow than) the office maze in Tati's Playtime. You know the scene. Where Mr. Hulot is standing above the cubicle maze watching people move through it like rats. Well, Steve and the lady spend several minutes maneuvering this crowded place and missing each other. In the end, they meet in the same office and we learn who she is.

Well, Steve falls for her pretty hard and tries to get her to dinner and flirts with her a lot. It's very tough to tell what she thinks of him but, c'mon!, how can she not be charmed. I know that she is very professional but it's Steve Douglas for Heaven's Sake! He is pretty dopey, though, like a schoolboy. His scene in the Italian restaurant is very good. In fact, it has a lovely embarrassment factor to it that I don't expect from a 1960 sitcom. As the peisode progresses, we see them working hard for several days and, the night before she has to leave, well, they kiss. But, she does seem distant...

At this point, 19 minutes in to a 25 minute episode, the only member of the main cast I've seen has been Steve. The three sons and Bub? Nowhere to be found. Wow. That's rather bold. I'd say it was experimental but we're only 7 episodes in and the show hasn't settled anywhere yet. So, I'd like to say that this is how the show will be. Wouldn't that be great?

After the lovely night scene with the kiss, the last 6 minutes take place in the Douglas house on a Saturday morning at around 9AM. The kids are spazzing around. Bub is complaining about the washing machine. Standard sitcom stuff is screaming all around. And, at the calm center, Steve stands...I don't want to ruin the ending but this scene perfectly captures that thing, that thing...What thing? Well...You know...When I started college, I lived in a tiny room that they called a "triple". It was crowded, smelly and loud. At this point, some years removed, I can't imagine how the heck I got through it. But, I did. I do, however, remember the great stillness I had when a very wonderful woman entered my life for a time (and that is another story). We were seeing each other quite a bit and growing closer and closer. I enjoyed spending time with her so much that when I entered the triple room -- it didn't touch me. The noise, the stink, the endless crowded conditions. I was above it. And, when she stopped seeing me, the ache I felt kept me outside of it, too. In a different way, of course, but it did. That's what Steve carries in this closing scene. If I've explained it correctly, than you should know what I mean. He doesn't bump into things or goof up due to distraction but he's above the noise. It's a drone in the background that he blocks out. And, it's so unexpected in an American sitcom of the time, that I was thrilled.

It's a wonderful episode. And, with each My Three Sons I watch, I get tempted to pile them on. But, I will attempt to keep to one a week, if possible.

At the very end, I smiled the same exact smile Steve did and though "Gosh, I hope they bring Dr. Johnson back."

With my luck, Mrs. Pitts will come back first.

1.6.: Adjust Or Bust

Life is a series of small adjustments...

...and polkas.

Another great episode. I will start with the fact that I don't think I laughed and I was unsure where it was going at first...but once Steve is at work with the General things take off. It remains low key throughout but, my my my, it's entertaining.

Mike and Steve swap cars one morning after Bub pulls an extremely passive-aggressive bit at dinner to convince Steve that the house is out of food. Mike will pick up Bub and take him grocery shopping in the station wagon. Steve will travel in Mike's souped-up jalopy. Well, this is the day, Steve is driving a Two-Star General and his aide around town. There is a very funny scene with nice silent movie music of the three of them crammed into the front seat going all over town. Then, the episode takes off.

Cars break down. People miss their bus stops. Mike polkas with a lovely young lady. And, I kept thinking, "If there were cell phones, this episode would be fifteen minutes shorter." And, then I kept thinking, "God, this kind of stuff was so much better before cell phones." mainly because there's actual suspense! The general is coming over for dinner to discuss a big contract. The jalopy breaks down. Steve is on the bus. Mike is waiting at the stop in the station wagon. A boring man puts Steve to sleep. Steve winds up in some Little Poland neighborhood of town. (Or, possibly, Little Bavaria. I'm not sure there was a difference at that time.) Calls keep going back and forth. People keep missing each other....It's fantastic.

There's a lot of verve here and, although the show never goes fast, it never grinds to a halt. Like a few of the previous episodes, it's more like a mini-movie with the theme being in the title. Both Steve and The General say that life is a series of small adjustments. And, that's what this episode is except for the fact that, in the end, Mike has been adjusted to Polka Town, which is actually pretty funny.

I was, again, surprised. I've no clue where this show is going but if it keeps up the invention and keeps arriving at places like this...God, I'm excited to see what's next! I almost watched two episodes last night but I did not. I kept strong and watched an episode of Get A Life instead. But, I almost faltered. Maybe one episode a week is the perfect way to watch this sort of show. Then, you can really appreciate what goes on and look forward to watching the next one.

So far, so good. And, it is holding to my one drama then one wacky template. That means the next one will be a calmer, more dramatic one. Maybe I should go back and re-watch the second episode. I may like it a lot more now.

Oh, this episode was produced, co-written and directed by Peter Tewksbury. How often does that happen in sitcoms?

1.5.: Brotherly Love

A pretty great episode that seems to stick to the pattern I mentioned in the last review. This one has less wackiness and more drama. It's pretty cool having no idea what exactly this show is supposed to be and where it is going.

The plot is simple. Mike and Robbie fight over the same girl. Steve intervenes and tries to get them to talk it out. But, Bub is right there the whole time insisting that Steve let the boys fight it out. It all comes to head at the breakfast table where the hostility shifts to the two grown-ups and Steve and Bub fight out back with switchblades drawn. No. Not really...They talk it out and it's handled nicely.

The episode begins as if is going to be about Mike, Robbie and Judy. Judy falls for Mike. However, through calm, almost clinical for a sitcom, plotting, a friend thinks she's referring to Robbie. Both boys wind up at the library. Judy goes with Mike. And, Robbie hides in the bushes until Mike gets home. As I watched the opening, I kept thinking "This is like Laurel & Hardy. We've had situations like this all over movies, TV & radio for twenty or more years. They know that and so do we. So, they've slowed it down and have made it very obvious but still quite charming. This is the definitive version of this storyline." Oddly enough, all this stuff with Judy is just set-up for the second half of the episode: Steve dealing with his sons and Bub and their tendency for violence.

In fact, Judy vanishes from the second half of the episode. The real point of the episode is in the scene when Mike and Robbie are sent to bed and Steve walks to their room and talks (or tries to talk) to them. He is trying to get his boys to make up. He is trying to get everything to calm down. But, the anger at bedtime is palpable. And, if you've grown up with brothers and sisters, you've probably gone to bed like that a few times But life goes on. The great part about all this is Fred MacMurray.

Bub thinks the boys should brawl and get it over with. Steve thinks fighting may be necessary at times but not here. But, Bub is consistently badgering him and Steve is having a hell of a time figuring out how he can get the boys to shed their animosity. Fred MacMurray brings a real feel of sadness to the scene at night. When he goes to bed knowing that Mike & Robbie hate each other at this moment, there is a real sense of "What can I do? How can I make them see?". It's quite nicely done. He's trying to raise his boys to be better men than Bub thinks they are.

I won't ruin the closing scene but Steve & Bub have it out and it's nicely done. When Steve puts his foot down, it doesn't just quiet the room but I gasped a bit, too. For one moment, in complete control, he asserts his authority. And, he proves to his boys that fighting isn't the first and best answer.

The music and sound effects in this one are great. A lot of goofy noises pepper the first half. Then, when Steve declares that breakfast is like the Cold War, military noises and sounds pepper the soundtrack. These culminate in Steve's brief outburst. Possibly the sounds and such are a little too obvious (especially after the smooth use of them throughout Countdown) but it shows that they were doing more than just writing generic "sitcom".

Robbie arrives with this episode. He is a confused, awkward kid entering those wacky teen years who is clearly jealous of his older brother. He drops his books, whines a lot and starts fighting at a moment's notice. Of course, he also feels completely misunderstood even though he's as transparent as your undershirt.

Mike is nicely oblivious of the fact that his brother gets jealous at the drop of a hat. He drives around in his car, charms the gals and bursts into violence when provoked. Only Chip gets through this without much trouble because he doesn't do anything.

Bub spends the whole time spouting advice about how the boys should just fight it out and how Steve is being wishy-washy. The fact that Bub cannot see at all what his son-in-law is trying to do either shows that things were incredibly different when Bub was a parent or Bub's a bit of a jerk. The jury is still out.

Another good episode. So far, the show is almost an anti-sitcom sitcom. When the humor is pushed, there is usually something else going on. When the drama is pushed, the humor is usually people trying to defuse awkward situations. What will things be like 200 episodes in the future, I wonder?

1.4.: Countdown

All right, after this episode, I think we are onto something. We had a dramatic episode followed by something more slapstick-filled, then another dramatic one and then another running-around one. I like this set-up. I wonder if this is the way the show will continue to go as it grows?

Countdown - A superb episode. Well-paced, well-written, well-directed, acted with great verve and some funny moments. Everyone gets something to do. Mike is studious. Robbie yells a lot. Chip has a wonderful curiosity to him as he stares at a rocket launch on TV. Bub keeps the house running. Steve keeps the boys moving. And, there is some excellent suspense in here, too.

This might seem disappointing but that's all I'm going to tell you. Rent the DVD (or buy it or track it down) and watch it. The less you know, the more clever it is.

You'll enjoy it. Trust me. Maybe sometime in the future, I'll go in-depth. But, not now.

Next episode: Slapstick or dramatic? I'm here for ya.