The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – ABC

Created by George Tibbles, under executive producer Don Fedderson

Opening theme music by Frank De Vol

• 001. Chip Off the Old Block – 9/29/1960
  • Steven Douglas (Fred MacMurray) has been a widower for six years and is now raising his three sons Mike (Tim Considine), Robbie (Don Grady), and Richard “Chip” (Stanley Livingston). Helping him take care of the boys in their Bryant Park home somewhere in the Midwest is his live-in father-in-law Michael Francis “Bub” O’Casey. Chip is annoyed that a little girl from his class named Dorine Peters (Debbie Megowan) is hounding him and his normal response is to kick her in the shin, but Steven sits him down and tells him that a gentleman will be polite. Meanwhile Steven’s friends Hal (Harlan Warde) and Nancy Mosby (Betty McMahon) introduce Steven to their single friend Pamela MacLish (Patricia Barry), who begins to pursue Steven. She invites him to a dinner party, which turns out to just be for the two of them, which begins to irritate Bub as the meal he prepares doesn’t get eaten by Steven. Although Chip is extremely reluctant to accept an invitation from Dorine to a dance party, Bub ends up teaching him to dance. Pamela stops by and Chip invites her to accompany his father to the dance where he will be a chaperone. During the dance Chip and his father discuss the fact that leading both of the women in their lives isn’t very gentlemanly and they agree to gracefully get out of the relationships. Chip tells Dorine that dancing is giving him a rash, but Steven ends up making another date with Pamela much to Bub’s amusement. George N. Neise is the salesman. 12/16/16

• 002. The Little Ragpicker – 10/6/1960
  • Chip is working on collecting old rags for a ‘rag drive’ at school, Mike and Robbie are roughhousing in the house, and Bub is painting while waiting for a plumber to show up to fix the leaky water. Chip approaches the neighbor Cynthia Pitts (Marjorie Eaton) for rags, as she spies Bub using alcohol for paint thinner and believes that Bub is drunk and Chip is being neglected. Furthermore Chip has filled Bub’s old painting overalls with the rags, and when Miss Pitts spots the boys carring the ‘dummy’, she believes that it is Bub passed out. She keeps Chip at her house, feeding him junk food, to prevent him from seeing Bub in this condition. The plumber Oscar Reems (Charles S. Thompson) eventually shows up and lazily goes about trying to fix the leak. At one point, Mike and Robbie spot their father talking to Oscar and think he’s the dummy and pull him by the legs out of the bushes. When Steve helps him indoors, it once again appears to be Bub drunk. Although another neighbor Irene Sailor (Lois January) assures Miss Pitts that the Douglases are all above board, Miss Pitts keeps Chip for two hours, making him late and worrying Steve. When Chip gets home, Steve attempts to scold him, but Chip is too busy boxing the ‘dummy’ which falls out the window, causing Miss Pitts to faint. Steve helps her indoors and explains everything… but now Irene spots her being helped inside and fears that she is now drunk. 12/16/16
• 003. Bub in the Ointment – 10/13/1960
  • Bub visits the Webster Elementary School PTA meeting, where he stands up for the students’ rights to play the violent ‘sock-ball’ game at recess, leading to confrontations with the chairman Mrs. Towler (Frances O’Farrell) and other mothers. Meanwhile Mike plans to meet with Mr. Finch (Mack Williams) with State College admissions about getting a scholarship and worries the Bub might embarrass him. Robbie is pestering his father to help buy a car engine, and later also gets embarrassed by Bub when he comes to his school and interrupts their Junior High Jamboree practice and seemingly overwhelms their teacher Mr. Theodore (James Malcolm). Chip too has become embarrassed at the spectacle that Bub made. When Bub does in fact interrupt Mike’s interview, Steve finally reluctantly decides to have a conversation with Bub about interfering, despite the fact that Bub gave up his career as a theater manager to come help take care of them when the boys’ mother died. Fortunately the conversation is unnecessary when Mike and Robbie find out that both Finch, Towler, and Theodore find Bub’s candor refreshing. In addition Bub has surprised Robbie by buying him a car engine. Kathy Hagan and Boby Boysen are students Marilyn and John. Ida Mae McKenzie is one of the mothers. 2/22/17
• 004. Countdown – 10/20/1960
  • On the Monday morning of a countdown to the launch of a satellite into space, which plays continuously on the television, the Douglas family sluggishly struggles to get ready for the day. Bub deduces that everyone is still sleepy because he’s set the clocks ahead for Daylight Savings Time. Robbie is afraid of failing a paper describing his most dramatic moment…but feels he hasn’t had any. Chip needs something interesting to take to school for a show-and-tell. Robbie yells at Chip thinking he took his trumpet. While Mike helps Robbie find his trumpet, Steve finds arrowheads for Chip to take to school,  and he also realizes that the drawings he’s been working on are missing, having worked their way into the trash. While looking for the plans in the trash, which Mike has thrown in the incinerator, Robbie finds his trumpet which was dragged in with the bed sheets. Mike saves the plans at the last minute. As Steve and the boys head out, the satellite takes off and explodes before leaving the atmosphere. They then realize that Bub should have set the clocks back instead.  They also learn from the TV announcer (Paul Frees) that the launch they’ve been watching was from 1957, and they are now getting ready to launch the real satellite. Robbie uses the morning’s event for his ‘dramatic’ paper. 2/23/17
• 005. Brotherly Love – 10/27/1960
  • One of the prettiest girls in school Judy Doucette (Cheryl Holdridge), confides in her friend Gordy (Ronnie Sorensen) that she has a crush on Mike, but Gordy mistakenly thinks she is talking about Rob and tells Rob to meet her at the library. Meanwhile Mike is heading to the library to drop off some books, and when they all three run into each other, it becomes clear she is interested in Mike. Rob accuses Rob of trying to steal her away and a fight ensues, with Rob later ambushing Mike in the front yard. Bub thinks they should fight it out, but Steve feels they should behave like adults and talk out their problems. The argument between Steve and Bub eventually explodes as well, causing Mike and Rob to re-think how they handle the problem. Temporary peace returns to the brothers… until Chip instigates yet another argument. Beau Bridges appears as Mike’s friend Russ Burton. 8/16/17
• 006. Adjust or Bust – 11/3/1960
  • When Bub complains that he can’t do all the shopping and pickups that he needs with Mike’s car, Steve agrees to take his jalopy and let Mike have his car. The hot rod proves to be an embarrassment when he has to give a lift to his superior General Heffler (Bill Urban), who plans a dinner visit with the Douglases later that evening. When Mike’s car then breaks down, Steve has to take the bus home, but misses his stop when he is lulled to sleep by the ramblings of an old man (Richard Deacon). When he gets off he goes to the nearest house, which is of a Norwegian family whose patriarch Mr. Swenson (Carl Christie) tries to set Mike up with his eldest daughter Hedwig (Kate Murtagh). Mike comes to pick him up, but Mike starts to worry that the General will get there before him, so he takes a bus, with a driver (David Weaver) who is full of stories as well. Mike shows up and checks with Mr. Swenson, who tries to hook him up with his youngest daughter Thea (Andrea Ofstad). Rob ends up picking up his father on his bicycle and riding home. Steve is no longer worried since the General had to cancel the plans and head back to D.C. anyway. 8/17/17
• 007. Lady Engineer – 11/10/1960
  • Steve’s boss Jim Guthrie (John Gallaudet) assigns him to work with female engineer Joan Johnson (Dorothy Green) on a space project. When he first meets her, he believes she is a visitor and tries to explain the mechanics of the project in layman terms, and then finds out who she really is. Steve enjoys working with her, but is also attracted to her and asks her out to dinner. She however insists on keeping their relationship strictly professional. They end up driving separately to an Italian restaurant – which is only serving Mexican food – and she arrives before him and watches in amusement as Steve tries to make their table more romantic. Steve agrees to ignore romance and they work until 4am and have the secretary Lucille (Ellen Atterbury) document their work. Steve and Joan then head to a drive-in for breakfast. On the way, Steve asks her to stay longer so he can get to know her before she heads back to Washington. He plants a kiss on her as she falls asleep in his car. He calls her hotel the next morning to take her to the airport, and after talking to the wrong Dr. Johnson (Sam Flint), he finds out she’s already left for the airport. Steve accepts the fact that he struck out, but then finds out that Chip had taken a message from her while he was asleep saying she caught an earlier flight to Washington and will try and figure out her dating life. On the plane Joan discusses her regrets about ‘keeping her eyes on the stars’ with a woman named Mrs. Phelps (Barbra Fuller). 2/7/18
• 008. Chip’s Harvest – 11/17/1960
  • The family prepares for Thanksgiving and Steven gives the boys permission to bring a friend to their dinner. Chip plans to bring his old Indian friend Johnny Squanto (Monty Ash), despite his brothers insistence that he is a liar and a bum. Steve tells the boys to lay off Chip, and then goes down to Johnny’s shack by the rail yard to visit with him since he worries about him visiting Johnny so far from home. When Steve starts to tell Johnny that the dinner invite was a mistake, Johnny is silent but crestfallen, so Steve extends the invitation. The next morning the family faces a problem when the stove isn’t working, and the electric company can’t get anyone out to fix it. While Steve looks for electrician Harry Crane and Bub looks for a restaurant, Chip gets Johnny to look at the stove. Mrs. Crane (Sheila Rogers) won’t let her husband be disturbed for the holiday, so he tries to get instructions to do it himself. Johnny tries to prepare the turkey the Wampanoag way by cooking it over a fire in the backyard. When Mike and Robbie make fun of him, he disappears leaving the boys and their guests, Rob’s teacher Miss Benson (Penny Kunard) and Mike’s girlfriend Jean Pearson (Cynthia Pepper) to get the meal ready. Johnny then returns in full Indian regalia and tells the tale of his ancestors’ first Thanksgiving. The family welcomes him back and they prepare for their feast. 2/7/18
• 009. Raft on the River – 11/24/1960
  • Mike and Robbie prepare to head out on a camping trip to Gunman’s Gulch, leaving Chip behind who wishes he could tag along. With nothing to do, Chip consults his father who tells him how to imagine the backyard as an uncharted island full of wild animals and adventures. He doesn’t buy it, but begins tinkering around and attempting to build a raft. Mike and Rob join him and help him complete it before leaving for their trip. Chip decides to spend the night in the raft, with Steve and Tramp joining him when he gets scared of the dark and noises. Bub leaves for a Pinochle game and takes Steve’s house key, resulting in them getting locked outside on the spooky, windy night. They eventually fall asleep and wake up in the middle of the night, but can’t get in because Bub didn’t come home. Their sleep is interrupted by thunder and lightning, fighting cats, strange noises, rain, and a leaky roof. A squealing, shadowy figure brings them the ultimate fright. It turns out to be Bub just arriving home, who tells them that it’s actually only a little after 10pm. They had been outside for just over an hour. The next day, they’re able to figure out that the strange noises came from a squeaky weather vane and an old mop hitting a steel barrel. Steve tells chip never to lose his imagination. 10/12/18
• 010. Lonesome George – 12/1/1960
  • Bub claims that he knows and worked with George Gobel, who is in town to perform in a benefit, but the boys have a hard time believing him. Bub uses the excuse of Steve being out of town as a reason not to invite him. Meanwhile Gobel is at the Grand Hotel only wanting peace and quiet while the hotel public relations VP Ken Monroe (Michael Quinn) has filled up his schedule, committed him to reporter Keith Dittmer (Nelson Olmstead), and insists he meet his mother-in-law Mrs. Spencer (Julia Hall) and her friends Mrs. Tobin (Florence Thompson) and Mrs. Butler (Betty Bronson). Bud goes to the hotel to see him and Gobel pretends he knows him to escape the masses, and agrees to come stay at the house, where he once again feels like he is on display. Steve comes home early in the middle of the night while Gobel is up making a sandwich. They do a remarkable job of missing each other until Steve goes to bed and climbs in with Gobel. The next morning, Gobel enjoys the chaos of all of the males getting ready together , saying it reminds him of home. Ollie O’Toole is the cab driver. 8/1/19
• 011. Spring Will Be a Little Late – 12/8/1960
  • Rob has been hanging out with a girl named Peggy Meredith (Marta Kristen), whom he has nicknamed ‘Pig’, and whom he sees as no more than a mechanic to help him work on his engine. However one day she comes over in a dress and Rob begins to take notice… but she storms out when he continues to call her ‘Pig’ and gets grease all over her dress while saving her from a fall. Rob grapples with his feelings for Pig and becomes angry and moody. Later while playing football with Gordy, Robbie declares he’d rather play short-handed against Lefty (Ronald Anton) and his team than invite Pig to play, declaring he doesn’t play with girls. He tries to impress Pig, who is watching the game with her friend (Judy Charbonneau), and ends up getting a black eye from Lefty. Steve advises Rob on how to cope with his feelings and suggests that he ask Pig on a date. Rob is aghast at the notion but moves forward and takes her out. He does his best to be romantic, but then when she gives him some mechanical advise, he accidentally calls her Pig. In order to recover, he apologizes and attempts to awkwardly kiss her and chips his tooth. Still he comes home on cloud nine indicating to Steve that he gave good advice. 8/1/19
• 012. My Three Strikers – 12/15/1960
  • Steve comes home from work to find that Bub is doing some of the boys’ chores that they have forgotten to do, as well as a written proposal from the boys about doubling their allowances and demands for a trampoline. Steve is overwhelmed by his long days at work, high bills, and the proposal is an extra weight on his shoulders. When Steve refuses to discuss it, he suggests that boys go on strike or join the foreign legion. Chip relates striking to baseball and has a dream about his father striking him out. Rob dreams of being in the foreign legion with Bub, and Mike dreams of feeding his father to the lions in order to see justice done, only to regret it at the last minute. Steve dreams of coming home to the boys who are all in a catatonic state and then watching them disappear. Steve and Mike both wake up and have a late night discussion, with Mike telling him about all of his expenses and Steve saying he won’t possibly double the allowance. The conversation temporarily breaks down, but then they begin to re-negotiate and work through the night laying out their allowance plan. Rob and Chip wake up and join the talks and Steve explains the value of negotiation. Bub also wakes up and sends them to bed, and while cleaning up the mess, he considers going on a strike of his own. 8/1/19
• 013. The Elopement – 12/22/1960
  • Steve is out of town, and Bub begins to get suspicious of Mike’s actions when he overhears Mike and Jean discussing an article about teenage marriage, and then is told by Chip that the two left for City Hall dressed nicely with their suitcase. When Steve arrives home and Bub tells him his suspicions, they go see Jean’s parents Henry (Robert P. Lieb) and Florence (Florence MacMichael). Everyone laughs at the notion, but then Linda finds a marriage certificate on Jean’s desk in her room. Down at the courthouse, Mike and Jean are in fact looking for the judge and get in to see him. Bub can’t locate them at City Hall, and when the parents arrive, a security guard (Joseph Hamilton) tells them that they already saw the judge and left. Defeated, the adults return home. Back at home Mike and Jean continue to work on their sociology project that promotes the hypothesis that teenage marriage is wrong, and also prove that since they are minors, their application would be denied. Mike is relieved to hear this, wile Henry, who hasn’t yet learned the truth, tries to explain to his wife how much money this will save on a wedding. Meanwhile Robbie has written a report for school on his hobbies, and not having any, has falsely indicated that he has a large clock collection. His teacher Miss Benson wants him to present his collection to her Women’s Club, so he scours the house and neighborhood looking for clocks to bring. After all of the elopement confusion, Steve and Bub are concerned when they see him leaving with his suitcase full of clocks, indicating that the women are waiting. Christina Corbin and Richard Franchot are customers at City Hall. 3/10/20
• 014. Mike’s Brother – 12/29/1960
  • When Robbie doesn’t make the basketball team, he starts to feel resentful of Mike for always succeeding and being a favorite of his teachers. Meanwhile Steve is tired of the jam-packed garage and insists that Mike and Robbie put up some shelves that he had ordered wood for. Mike has plans to try out for a job at Ellis’s Sporting Goods store where he will compete for the job with a boy named Barnaby Hawes (Russell Duke), so Steve agrees that each can put together half separately. Mike’s half looks perfect, but Rob rushes through his portion so that he can meet up with a girl. Down at Ellis’s, Mike tries to impress Mr. Ellis (Russ Whiteman) with his high-pressure sales of customer Mr. Fogelson (Arthur Lovejoy), but only winds up spilling golf balls over the floor and annoying the customer. When Mike gets home, he is initially happy to see the shelf, but then Robbie’s half collapses on his car. Robbie blames it on the fact that everything Mike does is perfect, but Steve corrects him by saying that he is using that as a crush to not put forth the effort needed to succeed. Mike comes home and sees the shelf and can only laugh when Robbie yells at him again for being so ‘perfect’ considering he fell on his face so hard at Ellis’s. Rob and Mike make up, and Mike pitches in to help fix the shelf. 3/10/20
• 015. Domestic Trouble – 1/5/1961
  • Bub’s friend Flats Jensen calls late one night and asks Bub to come help him with something, so he tells Steve he needs to go the airport. He passes the buck to Mike who passes it to Robby who passes it to Chip, who then asks Bub to take Mike to the airport. Passing the buck seems to become a habit as they search for domestic help to assist while Bub is goine. This gets passed to Chip too, so he attempts to phone a Domestic Aid Service and winds up calling a Domestic Bliss service that specializes in matchmaking. Chip then puts his father on the phone with Mrs. Barr (Anne Seymour) who promises to send someone over to interview him. Steve thinks he can save time if he stops on his lunch hour, so he heads over to the Domestic Aid Service and leaves the information with the receptionist (Patty Regan). Meanwhile Mrs. Barr comes to the house when only Chip is home and takes a look around the house and Steve’s bedroom, telling Chip that the new woman of the house will undoubtedly be sleeping in his father’s bedroom. The Domestic Aid Service sends over the housekeeper Leona (Dorothy Konrad), and Chip sets her up in his father’s bedroom. When Steve gets home, Mrs. Barr returns for the interview and is shocked and outraged when she finds out that Steve merely wants a woman to do the cleaning and take care of the house. During their discussion, Leona roams into the room surprising both Steve and Mrs. Barr. Finally Steve figures out what has taken place and explains everything to Leona, who moves into a different room. Stever warns the boys about passing the buck, but since Chip seems to get the brunt of having to help Leona, she promises him extra desserts… leading the other boys to volunteer to help her. Steve is happy to see the tough day end, but can’t seem to get his feet covered in bed. 6/21/20
• 016. Bub Leaves Home – 1/12/1961
  • Bud plays pinball in a bus depot, seemingly pleased with himself for ‘running away from home’ for a life of freedom. He thinks back over the last week about how he began to feel unappreciated by the boys. On top of that Steve tells Bub that his mother’s cousin Selina “Selly” Bailey (Mary Jackson) plans to come from South Madison for an extended visit. When she arrives, Bub slowly begins to feel resentful when she feeds the boys between meals. Then she keeps them busy dancing, playing on the soapbox car, and playing baseball. Although he puts on a front of it all being an inconvenience, he gets upset with himself when he can’t participate in the activities for fear of throwing out his back. While waiting in the depot, he listens in to two guys (Jamie Forster, George Dunn) who have also left their leaving their current situations to do what a man has to do when feeling unappreciated. Bub announces to Steve that his friend Flats Jensen in Plainview wants him to come join him and run his Deluxe Theatre for him. Steve tries to ask what is actually wrong, but Bub just says he wants to advance his career. Although the boys are clearly upset, but moves forward with leaving that night. At the bus depot, Bub is shocked to see Selly show up at the depot as she starts her journey back home. She says she never had any intention of staying and that she has a place to live and appreciates having a home where she is wanted or needed. Bub pontificates on whether Steve will bring the incompetent Aunt May to take care of them. When his bus shows up, Bud rips up his ticket and tells Selly that Aunt May will never take his place. He invites Selly to return whenever she wants, asks her for her brownies recipe, thanks her, and goes outside where Steve and the boys are waiting for him. Mark Tanny is the ticket clerk. 6/21/20
• 017. Mike in a Rush – 1/19/1961
  • Mike invites Jean to go to the movies, but she is busy attending a tea party for a sorority she is pledging. As a senior she is preparing for State College, while Mike is still unsure if he’s even interested in going to college. She does invite him to take her to a senior party at the home of Betty Parker (Tracy Olsen), and he takes her up on it. However as he meets new friends George Collingwood (Skip Young), Bobby, Charles, and Bentley (Russell Duke), he feels out of place because they both smoke and are talking about fraternities, and as soon as he says he’s not planning to go to college, they lose interest in him. When a guy named Art Landis (James Bonnet) introduces himself as a member of Kappa Alpha Gamma, he tells Mike that he is K.A.P. material and encourages him to come to dinner. Suddenly Mike is gung-ho to attend college, and tells his father as much. Steve is rather skeptical that he wants to go for the right reasons. Art gets Mike a date with Suzy Carter (Christian Kay). George shows up with Jean, who has to slip Mike money to pay for Suzy’s large order of food. Art invites Mike to come to the K.A.G. Winter Dance. Later Art calls and leaves a message with Robbie that he couldn’t get him into the party after all. Mike doesn’t get the message and shows up anyway. When Mike sees Art and asks why more of his friends aren’t there, Art has to tell him that many had been dropped as fraternity rushes. When he realizes that Jean isn’t there, he figures out that she too was dropped. And when he starts to ask about Jean, Art has to tell him that he was actually dropped as well. Mike makes a huge scene and storms out and head home. Mike and Jean are both there to comfort him, because Mike saw Robbie’s note and called Jean to come over as well. Art comes to see the angry Mike, and tells him that he was his rush sponsor and that the reason that he had been dropped: he hadn’t seemed too interested in college or his future and that bad grades could bring their house average down. Art tells Mike that if becomes serious about school to look him up in the Fall and they will rush him again. All is forgiven, and Mike joins Jean in looking at the college catalog of classes with great interest. Tracy Olsen is Betty Parker. NOTE: Jean is listed as “Joan” in the credits. 10/7/20
• 018. The Bully – 1/26/1961
  • When Chip lines up in gym class, a bully named Ralphie Cole (Hank Stanton) pushes him out of line. The boys scuffle until the coach (James Collier) sends Chip to the back of the line, causing the other kids to all laugh and mock him. That night at dinner, Chip is in a terrible mood and not eating, so Robbie tells Mike what happened to him, causing Chip to get even angrier. Robbie suggests that he will stick up for Chip, but Mike thinks Chip should settle his own problem. He advises Chip to fight back and make sure he hurts Ralphie even if he can’t win the fight. Mike then goes out of town and asks his brothers to look out for him. Chip comes home each day marked up and with a black eye, having lost a fight to Ralphie every day. The principal Mrs. Wisbee (Mary Adams) sends a note home that Chip’s grades are suffering, so Bub has to go in and see her. He reluctantly spills the beans that Chip is getting beaten up by Ralphie every day, so she puts Ralph on probation. Mike comes home early and goes to the school to pick up Chip and sees the fight between Chip and Ralph. To his surprise, it is Chip who attacks Ralphie, and it is Ralphie who tells him that he doesn’t want to fight any more, and especially doesn’t want to beat him up any more since he’s been put on probation. Mike decides to stay out of it, but does explain to Chip that Ralph could be kicked out of school if Mrs. Wisbee catches them fighting again. Chip goes to see Mrs. Wisbee, but happens to accidentally bump into Ralph on the way in, causing Ralph to push him away. Mrs. Wisbee sees this and calls Ralphie back into her office. Chip goes in and tells her that it has been him picking the fight every day since he’s angry that he’s never won. She agrees to let the boys work it out and come back and see her the following week if they can’t. Chip and Ralph walk out together and then start hunting for rocks for their collection. 10/7/20
• 019. Organization Woman – 2/2/1961
  • Steve’s sister Harriet (Joan Tewkesbury) is planning to come and stay with Steve and the boys, and is trying to efficiently get out of the house and impress her Efficiency Expert boyfriend Frank Watson (Robert Cleaves) by showing off her efficiency. He is irritated however that she doesn’t have time to greet him or say goodbye before she leaves. When she arrives at the house, she decides to try out her skills and surprise Steve, who is out of town, by getting the Douglas house to run efficiently. She creates charts with initials for every chore and task, as well as a map of the traffic flow throughout the house. She makes several of the doors one way only in order to prevent bumping into one another. After five days, the boys and Bub learn the patterns and the house begins running like clockwork. Unfortunately on the day that Steve is supposed to arrive home, Harriet oversleeps, causing the schedule to get slightly off. Steve comes home early and witnesses things seemingly in chaos, with everyone barking out initials and stumbling over him since he appears to be in the way. He gets irritated with the change, especially since no one had time to greet him hello. He and Harriet get into an argument, and he tells her that if she and Frank were so efficient, she’d be married by now, and then storms off… the wrong way out a one-way door. Harriet later notices that her charts were down and assumes that Steve has pitched them, but he is in fact studying them and trying to incorporate himself into the charts. Harriet however sees that even though the house is indeed running smoothly, all of the joy seems to have gone out of the house, so she rips up the charts. The boys are slightly disappointed since their showers, TV, and phone time all seem to be on schedule, but once the charts are gone, they enjoy going back to the chaos. The house is a mass of confusion as Harriet calls Frank, and he tells her that he isn’t efficient as she thinks and tries to tell her all the way he is disorganized, which she can hardly hear over the commotion. 1/25/21
• 020. Other People’s Houses – 2/9/1961
  • Rob visits his clumsy friend Hank Ferguson (Peter Brooks) and is astounded how quiet his house is, and the fact that he has his own room and his own phone. Hank on the other hand seems to share no joy with his parents and requests to go to Greystokes boarding school. Robbie can talk about nothing else when he gets home and feels like his house in disarray and is interrupted while practicing his trumpet by constant noise. Steve sees his point and starts to look into constructing a bedroom for Robbie in the basement. With Hank’s father George (David White) and Mother Laura (Helena Nash) busy for the weekend, Robbie offers to have Hank over at his house for the weekend. Hank is enchanted by the chaos and camaraderie in the house and has great fun helping with the chores on Saturday morning. Laura’s plans fall through and calls Hank to see if he wants to come home, but Hank wants no part of it. She becomes lonely and depressed, while George works with his boss Wilkinson (Owen Cunningham) and can’t keep his mind on his work as he thinks about where he went wrong with his family. Both George and Laura stop by separately to see Hank at the Douglas house, and when George walks in and sees everyone playing keep away with a helmet in the house, Bub becomes embarrassed and tries to lay down the law. George corrects him and tells him he’d be making a mistake to discouraging everyone from having fun, as he felt the love minutes after walking in. He tells Laura that the need to home together and start acting like a family, inviting Hank to join them the next day. Hank reconsiders leaving for Greystokes and says he might try it the next year… or never. Robbie says he has no interest in having his own room, as Chip couldn’t survive without him. 1/25/21
• 021. The Delinquent – 2/16/1961
  • While Jean is waiting over at the Douglas house watching the film noir Goodbye Charlie, Mike is staying late at his friend Tim Weede’s (Andrew Colmar) and working on building a hi-fi stereo to surprise Jean for her birthday. Meanwhile Tramp has been staying out late, and Jean overhears Rob and Chip talking about how he is always staying out nearly all night and might have a new girlfriend. Jean naturally assumes that they are talking about Mike. Jean goes home next door and catches Mike pushing his car into the driveway in order not to wake anyone up. Jean thinks he is in some sort of trouble and wants to talk to his father when he gets back into town. Bub catches Mike coming in the house and berates him for his poor treatment of Jean, so Mike finally admits what he’s doing for her. When Jean overhears Mike and Tim talking about a woofer, they pretend that woofer is a person, and make up a story about Woofer from a gang in Ohmsville. She gets even more concerned police officer Andy Whitman (Bill Hale) shows up to bring Tramp home. She thinks this all relates to the gang activity, until Mike finally admits that he’s making her a stereo. She is angry that he made a fool of her, but when he puts on a record, she acquiesces and dances with him in the garage. Tramp’s new girlfriend shows up, and Tramp rushes off again. 5/20/21
• 022. Man in a Trenchcoat – 2/23/1961
  • Robbie and Judy Doucette are out walking after a study date, when they are caught messing with the neighbor’s hubcap by a man in a trench coat walking his dog, and they take off and run. Back home, Steve is irritated by all of the pulp mystery novels that Rob has been reading. Rob’s life turns into somewhat of a mystery itself when the man in the trench coat starts following them all over town. Rob’s steady girlfriend Vivian Gibson (Cindy Carol aka Carol Sydes) seems irritated with him as well, because she suspects that Rob is interested in Judy. Rob enlists Mike to help find the person who is following him, but when they try to nab him, they only end up wrestling with each other. Jean later tells Mike that her father Henry had a man walking his dog tell him about someone trying to steal his hubcaps. Judy, Henry, and Vivian all get mysterious letters telling them to meet in the Douglas basement. It turns out to be Mike who wrote it, and he hopes to solve the mystery as to what is going on. He convinces Jean’s father that Robbie was actually putting the hubcaps back on after catching someone taking them. They then see the man in the trench coat outside and are able to subdue him. It is Jean’s brother Andy (Paul Engle) who has been following Rob around, and it was done at Vivian’s request because she was jealous of Judy. It was also him who had taken the hubcap for a scavenger hunt, and Vivian was blackmailing him to follow Mike. Judy ends up walking home with Andy, and Rob and Vivian head to the malt shop. Robbie is ready to burn his mystery books after his experience. Audley Anderson is the old man at the malt shop. 5/21/21
• 023. Deadline – 3/2/1961
  • Mike comes home angry at the school newspaper The Bryant High Bugle, and its editor Stu Walters (Mike Slade) for allowing female reporter Agnes Finley (Charlotte Stewart) to write about his track meet, in which he feels he didn’t get the coverage that he deserved. Meanwhile over at the sports page editor’s office, Stu is telling his faculty advisor Mr. Edgar Loos (Woodrow Chambliss) that he’s going on vacation and needs someone to cover for his as editor. Mr. Loos suggests one of the staff writers Russ Burton (Beau Bridges), who claims illness. Agnes suggests Mike as the editor, but Stu suggests Frank Gordon. Agnes seems to think he might be over at the Douglas house, so Stu calls over there… only to hear Mike badmouthing him in the background. Stu seems to think it will serve Mike right to saddle him with the job. Mile allows Agnes to submit poetry for the Sports Page to get her off covering the track meets. He assigned Russ to interview Stiffy Brothers (Don Voyne). Everything seems to be going smoothly, and Mike thinks he can lay out the sport page after running in the track meet, and be done in time for the school dance. As Mike is losing the race, Russ finds out that Stiffy really doesn’t like him, when he gets punched for asking personal questions. Mike suddenly find himself with a lot of work to do to get the page complete, while Jean waits for him at the dance. When Jean opens the window in the office, the pages blow all over the room. Even though Jean is growing impatient, she helps him get it together again. The Agnes comes into the room, and the wind scatters the pages again. Mike is ready to give up, but Jean talks him into finishing the job. The paper finally gets completed, and almost every story – and poem by Agnes – is about Mike. He is glad to complete his time on the paper, but Mr. Loos calls and tells him that Stu isn’t returning and wants him to continue to run the sports page. 9/13/21
• 024. The Lostling – 3/9/1961
  • Steve comes home after a hectic day of his secretary Bernadene Foote (Marilee Phelps) taking his car grocery shopping and forgetting to bring it back right away. She has left her leg of lamb from the store in the car, so he brings it into the house, but forgets to tell his family he has it, as he has to take off for a golf date with a friend. Mike is borrowing his car to go camping with friends. Meanwhile across the street, new neighbors John (Robert Marchand) and Mary Hawkins (May Heatherly) are moving in next door. Mary’s mother Laura Thompson (Opal Euard) is helping them, and she lays their baby daughter Betty down in the back of the car because the baby likes to sleep there…which turns out to be Steve’s car, because they are identical, which Steve left in the street because the moving van was blocking the driveway. Mike moves the car into the driveway, and Robbie later finds the baby in the back of the car. Coincidentally Chip has been wishing for a baby sister, so when Robbie brings her in, he thinks it is because of his wish. Bub wants to find the owner of the baby as soon as possible, so he calls the police, who refers him to social services. When Bernadene calls looking for her lamb, Bub assumes that the ‘lamb’ she is referring to is the baby. Bub can’t believe how casual she is about leaving the ‘lamb’ there for the night. She is also confused as to why they are bathing the ‘lamb’ and covering it in talcum power. The Hawkins keep checking on the baby in the car, and think she is just fine, although they are actually seeing a toy doll laying back there. Bernadene shows up to pick up her lamb at Bub’s insistence, and when he hands her the baby, she has no idea why. Mike then comes home, and they finally realize that they have the Hawkins’ baby, and they are able to manage sneaking it back into the car without anyone knowing what had happened. Bub and the boys are sad to see her go. Mike reminisces about how his boys were once that size. The lamb has actually carried off by Mike, and he and his friends are roasting it on the camping trip. John Lawrence and Alec Victor are the moving men. 9/14/21
• 025. Off Key – 3/16/1961
  • Robby is trying to figure out how a mirror works, and why it reverses him horizontally, but not vertically. Steven shows his a trick whereby he writes a quote vertically on a paper, using only letters that read the same when reversed. Robby is eager to show Chip, as he sees himself as the answer man for his little brother, but Chip and his friend Huey “Sudsy” Pfeiffer (Ricky Allen) have moved on to playing the piano in the living room. Bud gets tired of the noise, so he sends them all outside. They move their piano playing over to Sudsy’s parents’ house, where Robbie is able to demonstrate his rock and roll piano playing, which impresses both Chip and Sudsy, who is in a constant competition to prove that his brother Harold is better than Robbie. However, when he is done playing, he realizes that on of the keys on the piano is not working. Chip, always trying to prove Robbie is better than Harold, challenges him to fix the piano. Robby goes back home to take at look at their own piano, but Steven criticizes him for climbing on the piano, and gives him several books to help explain mirrors. Steven notices that one of their piano keys isn’t working either, so he pulls out books that explain pianos and sets about fixing it. Robby nearly completely disassembles the Pfeiffer piano to the point that it looks irreparable. Steven works on their piano and finally gets it fixed, while Robby is toiling across the street. Robby then calls his father to get some advice on piano fixing, and Steven describes what the just read. Steven also tells him that Sudsy’s mother Ruth (Olive Dunbar) had stopped by looking for Sudsy and is on her way home. Robby sends the boys outside to intercept her, so he has a few more minutes to get the piano together. While the boys keep Mrs. Pfeiffer busy by asking her about mirrors and showing her Steven’s trick sentence, Robby is able to put the piano back together is just minutes. When Mrs. Pfeiffer gets in the house, she starts to piano and tells everyone how surprised she is that the key that was broken this morning now works correctly. Chip brags that Robbie fixed it, which leads her to asking him to fix the organ at her church. Robby gives all of the credit to his father, so Mrs. Pfeiffer calls him to ask him to do it. He agrees, until he looks up organs in his book and realizes that they have thousands of parts. Meanwhile, Sudsy brings Robbie all of his broken toys and asks him to fix them. 3/13/22
• 026. Small Adventure – 3/23/1961
  • Steven is away on business in Seattle, and on the Saturday morning before he plans to come home, he wakes up extra early due to the flashing lights outside, and with a scary painting hanging over him, he has a bad feeling about what is going on at home. Meanwhile, an planned construction explosion causes the rest of the Douglas household to wake early as well. Bud tries to get everyone to go back to bed, but Mike and Chip are hellbent on starting their chores, while Robby is cooking a horseradish omelet and peanut pancakes in the kitchen. While Steven is contemplating calling home to check on everyone, construction workers Art (Paul Trinka) and Ed (Ken Christy) find a volatile 20-year old stick of dynamite buried in the area in which they are working. They gingerly dig the dynamite out, and Tramp, who had been playing fetch with Chip, picks up the dynamite and carries it back home. The dynamite makes its way around the house and Tramp drops it and picks it up, causing it to go from the laundry to Mike who plans to throw it into the fire to Chip, who is hammering a project with the dynamite under it. Steven finally gets hold of the family, and as Chip jumps from the counter toward the dynamite, Mike hears a loud explosion in the background and they become disconnected. It turns out to be thunder, and it begins to pour down rain in the Douglas neighborhood, ruining Robbie and Mike’s plans for the afternoon. Tramp picks up the dynamite and drops it right below the downspout. After speaking with the family, Steven is ready to lay back down comfortably in bed. 3/14/22
• 027. Soap-Box Derby – 3/30/1961
  • Robbie goes back to his friend Andy Gibson’s (Paul Engle) house with Trish Markle (Judy Charbonneau) to see the work that Andy is doing on his soap-box derby entry car. Rob is jealous by the attention Trish is giving him, so he mocks the car and says he can build a better one to enter in the derby coming up in just over three weeks. Meanwhile, Steve is offered a job as a consulting engineer for Independent Rocketry building a missile for the United States Air Force, to try and beat out their competition Astral Engineering for a test firing coming up in three weeks. His new boss Paul Rankin (Ralph Story) gives him every resource available to complete the job. Robby and Steve seem to work in tandem on their respective projects, with each going through some of the same phases. Robby draws his plans, while Steve meets with the company’s chief engineer Quinn (Richard McKenzie) on the specs for the missile. Steve also dickers with the chief accountant (Fred Sherman) on how much they should be spending on materials, while Robby negotiates a cheaper price for barrel hoops with a junk dealer (Joe Higgins). Rankin presents Steve with new information on new ideas that are being used by Astral Engineering during the construction of their new missile, as Trish tells Robby some of the difference in the way that Andy is designing his racer. Both Robby and Steven go through a crisis of confidence because of this. Rob finds out from Andy that he hasn’t followed the standards to enter the contest, while Steve finds out that the oscillator doesn’t fit in the missile correctly. Both realize they need to start from scratch and start over, and both feel like they are running out of time and almost give up. However, they return to the drawing board and start working again. The two do all they can on the day before the race and the launch. In the end, it is a hard fought race and Robby and Andy run neck and neck, but ultimately Rob loses the race. The missile launch is also a failure, as it climbs into then nose-dives, so they are forced to blow it up in mid-air. Steve returns home and he and Rob face each other and lament their losses. They joke that they could start a new company called Failures Incorporated. As they get ready to go in for breakfast, they toss a piece of wood onto their garage shelf, causing the boards and paint cans to start falling off. As Bub tries to tell them a joke to cheer them up, Steve and Rob are laughing as they try to put the wood and cans back on the shelf as it all falls off again. 7/16/22
• 028. Unite or Sink – 4/6/1961
  • Both Mike and Robbie are looking for odd job to make some extra money, and the milk man Harry (Robert Gothie) suggests painting the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Carl Jensen. Robbie goes and talks to Mr. Jensen, while Mike has phoned and talked to his wife Sara. When they both show up to do the work, they argue about who gets to complete the work. When the couple realize that they’ve hired them both, Jensen assumes they’ll work together and they’ll get the work completed twice as quickly and it will cost them the same. Once they agree to do the job together, they start getting interrupted by the neighbor Verna Foster (Ann Morgan Guilbert) who think they should sand the fence first. Then Bub comes along and tells them that they should strain the paint. Mr. Kincaid (Malcolm Atterbury) happens along and thinks the sandpaper is the wrong type. Soon conversations turn to other topics and more neighbors show up. Chip and his friend Sudsy show up and start a lemonade stand in the yard for all of the neighbors, workers, and passers-by. The neighbor Pete (Bill Idelson) chats with Harry about how he’s like to help the Jensens out more, but he’s so busy. When Chip and Sudsy run out of lemons, they start helping the vegetable man sell his vegetables. Roseanne Jones (Pearl Shear) chats with Verna, and they start sweeping as they go. As the neighborhood kids play outside, the men start cutting the grass, and the ladies start weeding. Conversations abound all over the board, and by the end of the day the fence is painted, and the yard looks fantastic. Rob and Mike agree that they enjoyed their day working with all of the neighbors. They slip their bill under the door of the Jensens and head home. When Bub tells Steve about the work they did at the Jensens’ place, Steve hits the roof that they took money from the elderly Jensens, who have very little income. However, before he can talk to them, Mr. Jensen calls to thank them that the boys had written ‘no charge’ on their bill. Steve is proud of the boys for doing something so helpful for someone else without payment, so naturally he steps in and gives them some needed money for that evening. 7/16/22
• 029. The Wiley Method – 4/13/1961
  • Rob is quite impressed with his history teacher Jeff Wiley’s (Chris Warfield) methods of interactive teaching, which helps make the material much more interesting than straight lectures. Rob is also quite interesting in a girl in the class named Maribel Quinby (Perri Sinclair), but she seems to purposely ignore him every time he tries to talk to her. He goes home that night and tells his father all about his teacher and his crush. Amid the house chaos of trying to track down a short in the lamp with Bub, Chip trying to cut out photos representing every letter in the alphabet, and Mike asking his father what he thinks of gold teeth, Steve suggests to Rob that he try to use the Wiley method of drama to get Mirabel’s attention. First, he tries to have his good friend Hank Ferguson nearly run over Mirable with his bike so that Rob can ‘save’ her, but Hank nearly runs over another teacher, Cynthia Pitts (Marjorie Eaton) instead. Then after a class of using Hank to represent the state of Kentucky in the Civil war and having other students representing the North and the South have a tug-of-war to recruit him into the Civil War, Rob has Hank put on a big speech about how life is meaningless and then insulting the girls in the class. The boys then feign a fight in the hallway, but are caught by Mrs. Pitts and Mr. Wiley, and taken to his classroom for punishment. It is all for naught as Mirable had lost interest in the argument before the fisticuffs even began. Mrs. Pitts thinks it is all Hank’s fault, but Rob takes the blame and admits by using historical analogies that he was just trying to make Mirabel interested. Mr. Wiley tells Rob that he should just try to be himself, as he is plenty interesting. He also asks Rob to pick up a book for him at the city library on his way home. There he runs into Mirabel, and they each start to run from each other. Rob then changes his mind and tries to talk to her and finds out that Mirable has wanted to get to know Rob all along but was too nervous and confused to even know how to begin the conversation. Rob ends up walking her home and finds out that Mr. Wiley had sent her in to pick up the same book for him. Later, Rob tells his father that he gave him terrible advice that nearly caused all sorts of trouble, and how he will be more careful giving his own son advice. Steve has no idea what he even said to him. Sally Merlin is homely student Wilma Leffingwell. Thorpe Whiteman is Rango.  11/10/22
• 030. The National Pastime – 4/27/1961
  • Mike and Rob are so glued to watching the baseball game that Bub can hardly get them moving to take out the trash so that he can clean the living room. Eventually Steve steps in and gets them moving, and then he and Bub become enraptured in the game. The boys find Chip’s baseball cards and his uniform out on the trash cans, and then find his glove under the couch. It seems he has quickly become disillusioned with baseball after striking out four time during his first game and has quit his Tigers team. Steve and other boys are able to help talk him into not giving up on baseball, and they all offer to give him some lessons in hitting and fielding. Although everyone gets a little frustrated trying to teach him, but eventually they renew Chip’s interest in the game. Chip wants his father to come talk to the Coach Mr. Towsend (William Leslie), or at least send him a note, but Steve tells him that it is up to Chip. He shows up at the next practice to the jeers of some of the boys, while Mr. Townsend is polite to Chip but won’t ask him to rejoin the team until Chip apologizes for quitting and means it. Eventually Chip builds up the courage to both apologize and asks to rejoin the team. Townsend tell him to show up at the game on Friday and he might allow him to play. Coincidentally, Steve is asked to step in as umpire for the same game. Chip sits out for most of the game as the Tigers trail the Rebels by two points in the ninth inning. Bub, Chip, and Rob start yelling from the stands to put Chip in, and eventually he goes to bat. Steve has the task of calling two strikes on Chip, and then Chip finally hits the ball. Despite direction from the coaches to stay at first, Chip runs to second and barely makes it. Then he runs to third and is again to told to stop by his third base coach, but he rounds the base to home, where he is easily tagged out… and Steve has to call it thusly, even though Chip thought he was safe. That night, Chip is crestfallen and angry at his father, who tells him he had to call it as he saw it. Steve also recalls the first time he saw his name in the paper, which reported on his high school away game, when he led off the batting order and struck out. He also tells Chip that he should have followed the coach’s advice. He also suggests that Chip give up baseball if he’s not going to enjoy it and it’s going to cause them to be angry at each other. Chip asks his father to play catch… just for fun. Paul Conrad and Ruth Marion are Mr. and Mrs. Bentley, chatterboxes in the stands. 11/10/22
• 031. The Croaker – 5/4/1961
  • Chip has caught a giant bullfrog that he’s named Malcolm, which he plans to take to school for show and tell. Bub wants the frog out of the kitchen, so Chip leaves him in a box outside. As he leaves for work, Steve accidentally knocks the box over and Malcolm hops into the house. Bud puts him back out twice, but he keeps leaping back in. Soon Bub befriends the frog and starts talking to and petting him. He builds a cage for him, teaches him how to hop into Bub’s hands, and catches flies to feed him. Robbie overhears Bub telling Malcolm that he is going to feed it flies and cricket, and when he approaches Bub, he has hidden the frog inside his jacket. Robbie tells Mike that he thinks Bub is going to serve them flies and crickets for dinner. Bub hides the frog into a pot, but when he realizes the boys are watching him like a hawk, he surrenders and gives them the pot and tells them go outside and dump him in a cage. He has however given them the wrong pot, this one full of green beans. When they all sit down to eat, Malcolm jumps out of the pot on the table. Bub is quick to blame the boys, but then laughs it off. The next morning as the boys head off to school, Chip goes to get Malcolm from his cage to find that he has escaped. All of the boys join in looking for Malcolm, but then decide they need to leave for school. Bub promises to bring Malcolm to Chip’s class stewhen he finds it. Later that day, Bub shows up to Chip’s class with a bag. After student Dorine Peters (Debbie Megowan) presents a painting she drew, the teacher (Irene Martin) turns the class over to Chip for his show and tell. Bub joins him in front of the class and explains how they found and trained a frog. He then tells them how Malcolm was smart enough to escape the cage that he built, and realizes that if it were him, he wouldn’t want to be caged and kept from his family and all of the things he loved doing. Chip looks in the bag and finds only his lunch. Chip agrees with Bub but confesses he will miss Malcolm. Elsewhere, Malcolm is enjoying life again in a lily pond. Alex Barringer and Charlotte Novom are classmates Tommy and Lynn. 12/10/22
• 032. The Musician – 5/11/1961
  • Robbie shows up to band practice early with his trumpet, only to find a girl from the girls school Glenmore named Elizabeth Martin (Sandy Descher) playing Beethoven on the piano like a virtuoso. The two take an instant liking to each other, even though Robbie is so nervous, he introduces himself at “Bob.” Robbie pretends he is a classical music fan, and she asks if the wants to work on a duet with her. She invites him to come back to her house, where he is astonished by how fancy the place is. She shows off their paintings, statuary, her Russian Wolfhound Lady, and Coat of Arms. He meets their maid (Mabel Pettijohn) as well. Before the afternoon is over, he has asked her to go steady with him. Robbie returns home, feeling disillusioned about his living conditions and the chaos in his house. After Robbie has been at her house for dinner four days in a row, Bub speaks to her on the phone when she calls and invites her over to their house for steak and kidney pie. When Rob finds out, he is mortified to bring such a refined girl into their chaotic home. He makes a plea to his father to make sure his brothers behave, but Steve tells him he’d better be comfortable with having her around the family or break it off with her. His brothers clean the house from top to bottom, and Bub sets the dining room in a refined manner with the good silver and crystal. Rob is on pins and needles, and when Chip questions listening to Beethoven, and then Tramp starts howling from the kitchen, Robbie goes into a near-trance and roams into the kitchen himself. He listens as Chip runs his mouth and Bub tries to quiet him down and change the subject. Steve comes home late from work and tries to have a talk with him. Rob feels emotionless and feels like he’s floating all over the house. His father tells him he can sit in the kitchen and feel sorry for himself, and Rob agrees to do just that… as the sound of Elizabeth playing jazz on the piano comes out of the living room. Before long, the entire family is playing a pop version of When the Saints Go Marching In. Elizabeth tells Rob that she likes all kinds of music, but only played Beethoven because she thought it was what Robbie liked. She tells him she’d be happy to eat burgers in the kitchen with him. She also calls him “Robbie” for the first time instead of Bob. NOTE: Marion Burns is credited as Mrs. Martin but does not appear in the episode. 12/10/22
• 033. The Horseless Saddle – 5/18/1961
  • Bub receives an anonymous C.O.D. package from Ogallala, Nebraska, that costs him twenty-five dollars. When they open it, it is a pony saddle that Chip quickly claims as his own. Meanwhile, Chip’s girlfriend Dorine Peters (Debbie Megowan) visits a traveling pony ride proprietor named George (Arthur Hunnicutt). He introduces her to the ponies Lightning and Hurricane, as well as the wild pony Cyclone, who isn’t tame enough to ride. Dorine calls Chip and asks him to meet her at the pony rides, so he has Mike take him and he brings along the saddle. A lady named Flo Afton (Betsy Jones-Morland) is visiting with George and looking for items to buy to decorate her husband’s office in western motif. George doesn’t have anything to sell her, but Mike sells her the saddle, which she will use as a footstool, in order to recover Bub’s money. When she pulls out onto the street, the saddle falls off the mound of stuff already in her car, and then it gets picked up by a garbageman. Chip is upset that the saddle is gone, and while they are discussing it, Cyclone escapes from being tied up and runs off. George mentions that Cyclone may have run back to where they last were: Ogallala, Nebraska. George borrows Mike’s car to go search for Cyclone, while Mike stays behind to watch over the ponies and the rides they are giving. Meanwhile, the dump truck that picks up the garbage carries the saddle on its very top. It drives by Steve’s office where he is working on an engineering problem with his colleague Rudy (Harvey Johnson). When Steve sees the saddle out of the office window, but can’t see the truck carrying it, he tells Rudy about it, and they both, but Rudy especially, becomes obsessed with figuring out the mystery of the floating saddle. Mrs. Afton figures out the saddle is gone and returns to the ponies to see if Mike actually put it in the car. When Cyclone runs by, Mike sends Mrs. Afton to follow it. George also returns, and Mike sends him after Cyclone as well, but George does a U-turn right in front of a police officer (Don Lloyd). The saddle falls off the dump truck right in front of Chip’s house, where he finds it and takes it to the backyard. A parade of cars including George, Mrs. Afton, and the police officer speed through the neighborhoods trying to track down Cyclone, which winds up in front of the Douglas house also and roams into the backyard. Everyone meets up there and tries to coax the wild pony to come out. Chip winds up riding the pony with the saddle, and it behaves as calm as it ever had. It turns out that Bub’s old friend Buffalo Webster once owned both Cyclone and the saddle in Ogallala. George deduces that Buffalo told his wife to send the saddle to Bub as a souvenir of his life before he passed away. Mrs. Afton had so much fun with the adventure that she lets George keep the saddle for Cyclone. Chip is curious whether the saddle was trying to find the pony, or vice versa. 12/18/21
• 034. Trial by Separation – 5/25/1961
  • Mike and Jean are getting ready for their graduation and the graduation dance, and as he chats with her through their upstairs windows, Mike pokes fun at the curlers in her hair. The two meet up with their friends Ted Stover (Bruce Watson) and his girlfriend Nancy (Mary Ann Harris), and plan to attend the after-party at Ted’s house. However, Mike and Jean get into a fight when Mike continues to poke fun at Jean having her hair up in curlers. She concludes that Mike is still really immature. As they are fighting, Jean drops the bombshell that they won’t have the entire Summer to be together before she leaves for State College, but rather her parents gave her a trip to Europe as her graduation gift and she will be leaving in two weeks. They both are so upset by this that they skip the party, and they go home together. They realize that they might be in love and perhaps should get married, but in order to find out, they decide to not speak to one another for a solid week. For the next week, the two study for their finals and mope around their houses. Mike asks Bub to help define Bub, but he can only talk about the old love songs. He also asks his father, and he tells Mike about you might suddenly feel happy with being able to give more than take, that your communication is enhanced, and you will find yourself sharing more than normal, but beyond that, he won’t try to define it any further. Steve and Jean’s mother Florence discuss the way their kids are moping and decide to have a picnic for all of them. As they eat together, Mike and Jean barely speak to each other, but after the meal they decide to reconvene and discuss their feelings. They both realize how much they missed each other and come to the conclusion that they are probably in love. Mike offers to forego going to Stanton and to join her at State, while she offers to skip her trip to Europe. Both of them refuse to let the other sacrifice so much for the other. Mike even offers to sell his car so they will have some extra money. Their conversation then turns into an argument, and Jean is back to calling Mike immature. They once again revert to the silent treatment, but then begin to argue from their respective windows again. Mike then starts laughing at her when she accidentally throws her sweater behind her when attempting to throw it over her shoulder. When they both start acting clumsy, they break down laughing together. Mike invites her to go to the movies with him. Mike admits that he’s glad he doesn’t have to sell his car, and she’s glad she gets to go to Europe. Bud is still singing romantic songs. 12/18/21
• 035. The Sunday Drive – 6/1/1961
  • Steve has to work on some drawings, but longs to enjoy the Spring weather. Next door at the Pearsons, Henry also has Spring fever and longs to get out for a nice Sunday drive in the country. Mike is over at their house working with Jean and trying to memorize a poem for school. This also puts Henry in a poetic mood as he recites Spring poetry for his wife Florence. He finally talks her into going for a romantic drive and suggests to Jean that she and Mike get out of the house. She thinks it sounds like a great idea and will make studying feel like not studying. Robby is more worried about avoiding Mary Lou Miller (Jill Leman), who keeps coming over and calling him. He puts on a disguise and tries to slink in and out of the house unseen. Chip has his friend Huey over and they are playing ‘spacemen’ and making all kind of noise. Mike is having trouble concentrating with the kids making so much noise, so he asks Mike if they could take them along on the drive. Robby also gets the idea to go along so that he can avoid Mary Lou. Once Henry realizes that they will now have seven people and a dog in the car, they realize the car isn’t big enough, so they all decide to take Steve’s station wagon. Bub is painting in the garage and says he wishes he could go too but is too filthy. They all finally get in the car, but before they can get out of the driveway, the girls decide they need sweaters and the boys decide they need pie. Mary Lou shows up, so Rob is forced to hide under a blanket in the back of the car. She hangs around waiting for Rob to show up, but once Henry rounds up everyone and gets them back in the car, now with Bud in tow as well, Mary Lou suspects Rob is in the car and asks if they will drop her off at home. As they try to pull out again, Henry bumps into the boys’ friend Barnaby’s car as it pulls in behind them. Steve wonders about the commotion and wishes them all a nice drive. He daydreams about getting out for a nice, country drive as chaos continues to erupt outside. 4/15/23
• 036. Fire Watch – 6/8/1961
  • Mike is looking forward to a Summer full of excitement when he takes a job with Mike’s old Air Force buddy Joe Mitchell (William Boyett) in the Forestry Department watching for fires from Needle Point Look-Out. Mike and Joe hike to their destination, and Mike is taken aback with how high up the tower is, responding with both excitement and some trepidation when he feels the impact of the wind on the tower. Joe shows him the ropes and how to use the equipment and they begin taking turns on watch. Mike soon realizes that it can get quite boring in the tower as he passes the time writing letters home, making paper dolls and houses of cards, and crossing the days off of his calendar as July passes. In fact, he gets excited when the water stops working, as at least something has happened. When Joe goes down to check on it, a brother and sister named Roger (Tiger Fafara) and Shirley (Candy Moore) show up looking for directions. Mike is so excited to see people that he leaves the tower and starts to accompany them to their trail. Joe returns and orders Mike to return to the tower right away, telling him the next time he leaves the tower when he is on watch that he should just keep walking. As more weeks pass and Joe seems to speak to Mike less and less, Mike finally has had it and starts having conversations with himself, berating Joe for never talking to him. He says that if he’s learned one thing, it is that Joe doesn’t like him and should fire him right away. When Joe won’t fire him, Mike tells him that he is quitting. Joe tells him that is fine, but he had better wait until the storm is over. Joe goes down to check the river levels, leaving Mike in the tower. As the storm rages and the winds pick up to 70mph, the tower sways back and forth and Mike is in near panic. Mike gets a call from the ranger station in Silver Springs to check on him and tells him to hang in there. Once the storm passes, Mike writes home and tells the family about the ‘mild’ storm and how the adventure he was looking for was not the same adventure he ended up with, but has no grown to appreciate the sunrises, the trees, and the animals of the forest. Joe writes a separate letter to Steve and tells him not to share the fact that it was him who called Mike on the night of the storm. He said he was returning the favor of when Steve called him in the war during a blitz in England. 4/15/23

SEASON 2

• 037. Birds and Bees – 9/28/1961
  • Chip comes home with big news when he announces that Tramp is now the father of six puppies with Billy Snider’s dog Jelly Bean. He also gives a note to his father, inviting him to attend a Webster school seminar on the pre-adolescent discovery of the opposite sex and how it should be handled at home. The lecture will be given by the teacher Muriel Stewart (Joan Taylor), who the boys describe as an ‘old bat’. Since Steve is planning on having the talk with Chip sometime soon, he decides the session will be a good idea, and he insists that Bub go with him. When Steve overhears Chip talking to the ‘slobby’ Maxine O’Hare incredibly rudely on the phone, it solidifies his resolve to attend one of the meetings. Steve and Bub wind up being almost the only men in the relatively small meeting, and quickly learn that Miss Stewart is an attractive young woman rather than an old bat. They introduce themselves to Miss Stewart after the class, and she tells Steve that he should talk to Chip about the life cycle since he seems to be noticing girls, in particular Muriel Stewart. Steve also agrees to get involved with the group and help with the father-and-son dinner that is coming up. When Steve arrives at home, he goes in to talk to Chip about the life cycle. Chip thinks he understand it all since he knows about the birth of frogs. As Steve tries to relate the life cycle to him, he hypothetically mentions that if he got married again, he could have another child, making a new sibling for Chip. Steve eventually gives up and Bub takes over with the tales of the birds and the bees, and he too mentions Steve getting re-married. When Chip tries to relate this all to Robbie, he is left with the impression that Steve is getting married again. When Chip spots his father in the cafeteria with Miss Stewart, he starts to think that she will be his new mother. Steve helps her gather more fathers for another seminar, and when Bub teases him about calling her by her first name, he tells Bub that she’s already getting married. Chip continues to stew about the subject, but when Miss Stewart stops by, Chip decides to bite the bullet and tells them that he thinks their upcoming marriage is ‘swell’. When they finally realize what he thinks, they both start laughing, forcing Chip to run off in embarrassment. Steve speaks to Chip and tells him that they were only laughing at the situation. He promises Chip that if he ever decides to get married, he’ll check with the boys for a vote. Robbie and Mike bring home two of Tramp’s puppies. Hank Stanton is now Chip’s friend Joey. 4/26/23
• 038. Instant Hate – 10/5/1961
  • A new family, the Kaylors, moves in across the street from the Douglas house, and it seems trouble starts right away. The young son Tommy (Michael Flatley) has an immediate run-in with Chip when he warns him not to let Tramp cross the street to their yard. He also points his cat toward Tramp and causes him to retreat. At school, Robbie meets the daughter Barbara (Ann Marshall), who is rude to him at the lockers. When the boys profess their hate for the Kaylors, Steve tells them to stop talking so hateful about the neighbors they barely know. Then as Mike is leaving for work, he and John Kayor (Joe Cranston) back into one another in the street. They have an awkward exchange, which grows more tense when it nearly happens a second time the next morning. That day at work, Steve overhears his secretary Marge (Marilyn Hare) snapping at another worker named Herman (Norman Grabowski), and she likens the situation as being just the opposite as ‘love at first site’. Steve recognizes his own version of ‘instant hate’ and decides that the family will pay a visit to the Kaylors and welcome to the neighborhood. Meanwhile, at the grocery store, Bub is having a run-in with the Kaylors’ Aunt Marian (Lillian Powell). When the Douglases visit the Kaylors, they are finally able to all get along… until Bub realizes that the woman at the supermarket is part of the family too. He tries to apologize, but she is rude to him, sparking more bickering between the families. The Douglases storm out and take their cake with them. Shortly after, the entire Kaylor family comes over and tells them that they blew a fuse and wondered if they could plug in their coffee pot there. Steve tells Chip that he suspects that this is their way of making friends again, and how sometimes even adults aren’t too smart. Minnette King is Margaret Kaylor. 4/27/23
• 039. The Crush – 10/19/1961
  • Mike comes home from college to visit, bringing along his laundry and that of several of his friends. He also brings the news that he has a new girlfriend named Mary Beth Jackson (Jena Engstrom). Steve suggests that they have a cookout and that he can bring her to meet the family. That night Mike and Mary Beth are going to the movies, but they stop at home so that Mike can get his wallet. During their visit, Mary Beth can’t seem to take her eyes off of Steve. Chip notices this, but Robby thinks he is crazy. Mary Beth gets Steve to commit to helping her with her trigonometry. Mary Best tells her mother (Grace Albertson) about the new man in her life, but she is secretly referring to Steve. She decides to call Steve at work to ask him if they can make plans for him to help her with her trig. He tells her that he can go over it with her at the cookout. Mary Beth shows up a day early for the cookout, so Steve has no choice but to help her. When Mike comes home with his friend Tim and finds Steve helping her with her homework, he is taken aback, and tells his father that this will be the last girl that he brings home. The next day, Mike tells his father and Bub that he’s not going to stick around for the cookout, but Steve orders him not to anywhere. As Mary Beth gets ready to put on a fancy dress for the cookout, her mother recognizes the name Steve Douglas and tells her that her Aunt Rose used to date a boy named Steve Douglas who planned to be an aeronautical engineer. She admits that she too had a crush on him. Mary Beth decides to go to the cookout dressed more modestly in slacks. When she arrives, she suddenly begins giving all of her attention to Mike again. Tim comes over with his girlfriend Ellen Brennan (Sandra Downs), who instantly becomes smitten by Steve as well. Mike warns him that he may need to do without Ellen for a few days while she overcomes her crush on his father. Sally Hughes is Steve’s secretary Sally. 4/27/23
• 040. Tramp the Hero – 10/26/1961
  • As Bub is grilling out, Sudsy stops by to announce that his mother told him that he can get a new dog soon, and not a dumb one like Tramp. Chip takes offense at Tramp being called dumb, but sure enough, Tramp starts eating Bub’s burgers. Sudsy shows off his new pedigree German Shepherd Bismarck, who can already do loads of tricks and has a pedigree of ancestors. Sudsy continues to put down Tramp, making Chip feel bad. Chip goes home and tries to teach Tramp some tricks, but Tramp can only bark at the neighbor’s cat. Chip asks his father if he thinks Tramp is stupid, and then asks him not to invite Sudsy into the house because he’ll just want to show off all of Bismarck’s tricks. Mike runs into them outside however and invites them in anyway. After everyone seems impressed with the tricks, Tramp knocks over Rob’s Mt. Everest science project, causing him to call Tramp the dumbest dog he’s ever seen. Chip feels even worse, so Mike offers to give Tramp away for Chip, since there’s a family somewhere who will love Tramp even if he can’t do any tricks. When Chip gets the point, he says he doesn’t want to throw him away. He points out that Tramp is smart, just not educated. Chip goes to see his friends Dianne Ferguson (Chrystine Jordan) and Freddie Ryan (Keith Taylor), who are playing house and treating their dogs Betty Lou and Sally like their children. Chip finds that both of the dogs can walk on their hind legs and realize that dogs can be trained at home. He goes home and tries to teach Tramp to do some tricks using a book that Rob bought for him. With everyone pitching in, they still can’t get him to do anything. After Steve sends everyone to bed, he begins trying to teach Tramp as well. The next morning, Bub points out that young Hubert ‘Sudsy’ Pfeiffer is in the newspaper with Bismarck after he achieved a 97.5 score in the obedience trials. Later, Bub leaves for a lodge meeting and leaves instructions to turn the stove off after the grease melts. Mike and Rob leave the task to Chip, and naturally he forgets. That night while everyone is sleeping, the grease goes up in flames. Tramp smells the fire and wakes up the household. Thanks to his barking, they are able to call the fire department and get the fire out before any real damage is done. Tramp and Chip then get their picture in the newspaper declaring Tramp a hero, which he is sure to ready to Sudsy. They both agree that they’re lucky that they have swell dogs and got their pictures in the paper with them. Chip and Sudsy then think Rob’s second science project of the geological strata of the earth is a cake and attempt to cut into the rock.  4/28/23
• 041. A Perfect Memory – 11/2/1961
  • Steve comes home one afternoon to the usual chaos, including Mike asking him to borrow his car to drive next door to Jean’s party that night. He tells his Steve that he has a flat tire on his car thanks to driving a woman who came to see Steve that afternoon to the drugstore. The woman turns out to be Josephine “Josie” Kringles, his high school sweetheart. Steve rushes over to the drugstore to try and see her, but she has already left. He orders a Lindy Hop Sundae as he flashes back to eating one with Josie (Pat McNulty) on her sixteenth birthday. A 17-year old Steve (George Spicer) was dating her at the time and has to fend off his rival Larry Peckinpaugh (Dennis Whitcomb), who comes in and asks her to go to the Senior Hop. Back in the present, the waiter Tom (Claude Johnson) tells Steve that he remembers that the woman Steve is looking for asked him if they still held the Senior Dances at Wilson Hall, so Steve leaves right away and heads there himself. After playing a clarinet that is lying around, he recalls the dance where he had to play in the band, while Josie stood on the sidelines… and danced with Larry Peckinpaugh. Steve forces the band to play slow number without him so that he could dance with Josie. He tells her that he may give up his dreams of playing in an orchestra so that he doesn’t have to watch her dance with other guys. In the present, the school janitor (Claude Johnson aka Ludwig Stossel) tells Steve that she dropped her glove and left it there about ten minutes earlier. Steve heads to the location where he and Josie once had a picnic and shared their first kiss. He then goes to see the house where she lived and remembers the time that he went to pick her up for a game. She meets him in tears and tells him that her father finally found a job during the Great Depression, but just found one in California. They will be flying out that night, and Josie is worried that Josie will never see Steve again. She embraces him as she breaks down, and then young Steve leaves. Present-day Steve also leaves and heads home, where he finds the family trying to clean up the house because Josie had called and said she was going to stop by. Minutes later, the doorbell rings… but it is the neighbor boy Billy brining a written message from Josie. She explains that really wanted to see him, but realized throughout the day as she visited the locations important to them as teenagers, that she already had a perfect memory of her days with him. She tells him that she is heading back home to her own family… and signs the note Josephine Kringles Peckinpaugh. NOTE: Virginia Rose is credited as ‘woman’ in the episode but does not appear. 8/27/23
• 042. Bub’s Lodge – 11/9/1961
  • Bub is excited when he receives a package that contains his new lodge uniform that he will wear in the Brotherhood of the Cavaliers D’Artagnan of the East Oar. The next night he will be installed as the eighth highest ranking officer in the lodge. Chip is fascinated by the uniform, while Mike and Robby find it amusing. However, when Bub goes to try it on, Mike becomes nervous since his friends Marty Baker (Skip Torgerson) and Doug (Stuffy Singer), with whom he is getting ready to pledge Sigma Gamma Chi fraternity. Although Mike tries to rush them out the door, he doesn’t succeed before Bub comes out and parades around the living room in his ridiculous lodge garb. The guys do in fact poke fun at Mike, but when he complains to his father, Steve only tells him that he respects Mike’s anxiety about joining the fraternity, but also respects Bub’s excitement about taking his new position in the lodge. On the night of the fraternity initiation, Marty and Doug call and tell Mike that they want to bring along Alan, Frank, and Billy to Mike’s house so that they can see Bub in his outfit. Mike is annoyed and tells them how silly it is that they want to see his grandfather embarrass him by parading around in the silly outfit. However, Mike doesn’t know that Bub had gotten on the line to make a phone call and overheard him. Bub feels like a silly old fool himself. Soon the house is overtaken by not only Mike’s fraternity friends, but by the members of Bub’s lodge who have come to start the ceremony at the house and then take him to their lodge. Bub tries to calm his lodge members down and get them out of the house as soon as possible, while the guys all stand by and watch. Mike privately tells his father that Bub will never embarrass him like that again, even if he has to move out of the house. That evening Mike goes to the drugstore to get some pipe tobacco and sees Mike and his friends getting hazed outside the drugstore. Marty and Doug are peddling dead fish, while Mike has a fishing pole stuck inside a tiny goldfish bowl. Steve finds the spectacle humorous, but when Mike gets home that evening, Steve tells him how embarrassed he was by Mike’s role in hazing. Mike understands that Steve is making a point but doesn’t think it is the same as Bud’s situation. However, the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that it is exactly like the situation with Bud. Mike decides to wait up for Bub to get home so he can tell him about fishing in front of Miller’s drugstore for his initiation. He tells Bub that he would have been embarrassed to see him, but Bub says the important thing is that he had fun. As they head off to get some milk together, Mike joins Bub into singing the lodge’s song. Doodles Weaver and Joe Twerp are Bub’s lodge brothers Max and Smitty. Jim Galante is Mike’s fraternity brother Allen Wilson. 8/27/23
• 043. A Lesson in Any Language – 11/16/1961
  • Mike is getting ready to go away for a weekend skiing trip with his friends Tim Weede and Russ Burton, even though he has a Spanish test the following week that he needs to study for. He tells Robby that his friends are getting him a Spanish tutor to help him gaket through it. He is hoping for a curvy seniorita, but it turns out that the ‘tutor’ is merely a Spanish language lesson record meant to be listened to while you sleep. The store clerk (Eddie Robertson) verifies that it can be used to learn Spanish, although it is not as comprehensive as an actual instructor. Mike sets the record on a timer to play overnight from midnight until 6:00am for when he returns from the trip. Meanwhile, Bub is painting the house and Chip is insisting on helping… and mostly painting Bub’s face accidentally. Since the paint smells, Steve decides to sleep in Mike’s empty room that night. When he wakes up the next morning, the record has done a number on him, and he suddenly finds himself spouting off simple Spanish phrases. He has no idea how he is doing it and insists he has never taken a lesson nor visited a Spanish speaking area. One of his co-workers, Joe Walters (Bill Erwin), tells the boss that he thinks that Steve is looking for a new job in South America. The family thinks he is playing a trick on them, and Bub gets annoyed when Steve won’t admit it. The next night, Bub’s room has the new paint smell so he sleeps in Mike’s room, and the next morning, he can say a few Spanish phrases as well. Steve and Bub go hunting in Mike’s room and find the record player and the timer and realize what has happened. Bub tells Steve this is what he gets for letting Mike get too lazy with his studies. The next morning after Mike’s return, he is heard lecturing Rob about the importance of being on time to school, and he also tells Mike that he’s going to skip skiing the following weekend so he can study some of the subjects that he is struggling with. It turns out that Mike had made his own record, lecturing Mike how important his platinum years of youth are to his studying, which has caused his change in attitude. Steve is also offered a raise at work since the boss got wind that he might be shooting for the job in South America. 8/28/23
• 044. The Ugly Duckling – 11/23/1961
  • Rob is offered help studying by a smart girl in school named Carrie Marsh (Karen Green) who clearly has a crush on him, but he turns her down. However, when a new girl from Texas named Beverly Mason (Judi Sherven) starts class in World Literature with Robby, he can think of nothing else. One pompous boy named Charlie Williams (Craig Curtis) thinks that he will be heir apparent to dating her, but Rob tries to come up with a plan to win her over. Carrie continues her pursuit of Robby and beings over World Lit. references to help him study. He again is unappreciative and rude to her, and everyone in the family calls him out for it. Then he returns to scheming to get Beverly. Luck goes his way when their teacher Mr. Teel (Pitt Herbert) is fed up with the students’ lousy performance, so he teams them up to pick a poem and analyze it, which will be half of their grade. Robby ends up partnering up with Beverly, and he invites her to his house to study, while Charlie and their friends Tim (Ron Sorensen) and Billy (Bob Dunlap) are incredibly envious. She comes over that night to study, but it doesn’t take Robby long to realize that she is quite stupid, especially when she forgets the way to her own house four blocks away. Rob suddenly becomes very worried about his grade, since he is a very average student, and she contributes nothing. An annoyed Carrie, who has been partnered with Charlie, stop by and Robby’s house to pick up the books she lent him. Charlie tells her how much Carrie gets on her nerve with her ‘all-A’s’, while Robby tells Charlie how difficult Beverly has been. He tells Charlie that all she wants to do is smooch and run her fingers through his hair, which leads Charlie to propose a trade of partners. When Charlie tells Carrie that Robby has been begging to trade, Carrie is elated to switch to working with Robby. Steve notes to Bub how Rob might not be great in his subjects at school, but he’s very adept at Psychology as a con artist. 8/28/23
• 045. Chip’s Composition – 11/30/1961
  • Chip and his class are assigned by the teacher Mrs. Bergan (Natalie Masters) to write a composition about what their mother means to them. Since Chip’s mother has passed away and he has little memory of her, he struggles with what to say. He asks his father, but ultimately, he decides to let Chip solve the problem on his own, a philosophy with which Mike wholeheartedly disagrees. When Chip discusses this with his friend Sudsy, he offers to let Chip ‘borrow’ his mother for the subject of the paper in exchange for Chip’s lizard. When Chip tries to observe Mrs. Pfeiffer in all her motherly action, he doesn’t get a very favorable picture. However, once Mrs. Pfeiffer finds out what Chip is doing, she suddenly goes on her best behavior, invites Chip to dinner, and then acts sympathetic to Sudsy’s every need, much to the chagrin of Sudsy’s father (John Gallaudet). When Chip goes home and doesn’t get a defense from anyone when Bub yells at him for ripping his pants, nor doesn’t get anyone applying an antibiotic to his wound like Sudsy’s mother did, Chip cries out that it must be nice to have a mother, reinforcing Mike’s point that Chip and the family might have a real problem. Chip asks some of the other kids at school if he can ‘borrow’ their mothers as well, and winds up going home both Dianne Ferguson and Freddie Ryan. Mrs. Ferguson (Lyla Graham) seems extremely lazy and asks Dianne to do all of Dianne’s chores plus her mother’s. At Freddy’s house, Chip finds that his mother buys him lots of toys… but has activities every day while his father works, and Freddy eats dinner alone every night. Chip later works on his composition, while asking Robby many questions about what moms do. Steve and the family are surprised when they are all invited to attend the PTA meeting at school, being promised that they will get a special surprise. Mrs. Bergan asks Chip to read his essay to the full auditorium, and despite feeling like he’s going to be sick, he lumbers through it. Essentially, it describes his mother as being Bub, and how Bub isn’t subject to many of the follies of mothers. He goes into detail about how Bub makes him eat his spinach, isn’t afraid of lizards, and can throw a football forty feet. Bub is choked up by the paper, but later admits he can’t throw a football quite that far. Meanwhile, Rob purposely leaves a girl who keeps calling to try and get him to ask her to a dance hanging because he already has a date. When Rob’s date cancels, he thinks he can then get her on a moment’s notice, but she has already found another date. 9/1/23
• 046. Mike in Charge – 12/7/1961
  • Bub gets a telegram from his old Vaudeville friend Flats Jensen telling him that he is sick, so Bub decides to take a trip and go help him. This intersects with Steve being called away on business by Ed Drake, so Steve initially tries to get out of his trip until Mike assures him that he can take care of the house and kids while they are both gone. Mike makes sure that his father lets the other boys know that he is unequivocally in charge. Mike starts off being strict and making sure that his brothers both get to school on time, even though Rob tries to skip for the day to catch up with his homework. Mike also had to deal with a lady named Annie (June Walker) trying to sell magazines. Mike is then called to the school by Mrs. Bergen because Chip behaved like an ‘uncooperative citizen’ when he would let Mary Lou pick him for her softball team since she hits everyone when they lose. Mike allows Chip to have Sudsy over to spend the night and allows Robby to bring home Hank Ferguson. After Mike serves burgers for dinner, he has to get strict to make Hank go home so Rob will do the dishes and gets Chip and Sudsy to do their homework. Steve calls home and recommends that he have Sudsy go home, but Mike thinks things will be okay. Unfortunately, Sudsy wakes Mike up in the middle of the night with a stomachache and wants to go home. Mike calls Sudsy’s mother and she advises that they usually let Sudsy sleep with them when he wakes up. Mike lets him stay in his bed, but Sudsy’s tossing and turning keeps him up most of the night. The next morning, Mike makes breakfast, but Chip and Sudsy have to rush off without eating. Mike and Rob get into another big disagreement when he won’t allow Rob to go over to Marilyn’s after school since he wants his brothers close to home. After school, Rob doesn’t show up at home, and they find out from Hank’s parents that he hasn’t come home either. Mike is nearly frantic when he gets a call from Troy Cooper from the high school, who tells him that Rob and Hank were setting up the bleachers at school and the structure collapsed. Mike rushes over to Mercy hospital and Chip demands to go with him instead of going to Sudsy’s house. They march in and demand information from the nurse (Mae Willliams). While waiting for her to get it, they run into Robby who is doing just fine. He is greeted by big hugs from both Mike and Chip. After they get home, Mike is even more protective, making sure that Rob’s apple isn’t too green and not letting Chip go to Sudsy’s for fear of him having an accident along the way. When Mike and Bub both arrive home at the same time, Rob and Chop complain that it feels like they’ve been in a jail while they were gone. Steve lets Chip go to Sudsy’s and lets’s Rob go to Hank’s. Mike asks if it is always like this for him, worrying about where they are all of the time. Steve explains that it has to do with ‘parental love’, and Mike tells him he was better off when he though they were a couple of pests. 9/3/23
• 047. Bub Goes to School – 12/14/1961
  • Robbie is trying to find out info about Shays’ Rebellion for school, and he asks everyone in the family except Bub. Then Chip neglects to ask Bub how Indians took a bath in the Winter. Bub gets offended that the only questions that the boys ask him about relate to the laundry. He decides to go to night school at Bryant High School so that he can refresh himself on American History. There he meets a widow named Margaret Cunningham (Harriet E. MacGibbon), who lives in the affluent Elsinore Terrace neighborhood. Bud comes home giddy after flirting with her all evening and tells Steve about his new friend. At the next class they talk about the Civil War and Fort Sumpter, and after it ends, he again chats with Margaret and tells her about his days in Vaudeville, exaggerating about how he knew and worked with Florenz Ziegfeld and David Belasco. He asks her out for coffee, but she tells him that she will have to take a raincheck until after the next class. He walks her to her car and sees that she has a limo with a chauffeur named Eddie (Wayne Winton). Bud instantly feels stupid, and regrets all of the tall tales that he told her. He comes home sad and cranky, but Mike tells him that females expect white lies, and in fact, demands it. He tells Bub to be aggressive and should call her before the next class. Having memorized her phone number from her registration call, Bub takes the advice and calls her. It turns out that Margaret is merely the maid of the Van Etten family, and she gets embarrassed when he calls. She tells him that he has the wrong number. When they see each other again, their encounter is awkward, and she tells him that she has a headache and needs to cancel the date. Bub decides to pop in on Margaret and admit that he is a big phony. When he arrives, he sees that she is just the maid. They both confess their lies to each other, with Margaret telling him that she was just trying to impress him when she heard what a big shot he was in Vaudeville. Bub admits that he was just a hoofer, and that he was only trying to impress her. Bub suggests that they skip their history test that night and go out on the town… and make history themselves. Later, Bub gets a postcard from Margaret from the Florida Keys where she is with the Van Ettens in their cottage. Mike gives Bub advise that he’d better play it cool when she returns because he has her hooked and she may start to get possessive. Meanwhile, Chip trades his rock collection for a bird that he tries to teach to talk. When he has finally given up and decides to get his trade back, the bird repeats him saying “Jeepers.” Robert Cleaves is the teacher Mr. Hemphill. Jerry Ziesmer is the young man in class. 12/19/23
• 048. Robbie’s Band – 12/21/1961
  • Robbie has been rehearsing with his band The Temple Troubadours with his friends Hank, Jess (Bob Dunlap), Carl (Dick Bellis), Jerry (Allen Breneman), and a sixth, and although they are too loud and out of tune, Steve encourages them to keep practicing, despite annoying everyone in the house. Steve had played saxophone and clarinet in college in his own band, so he gives them pointers and teaches them some Dixieland arrangements of their songs. As the band continues to improve, Rob has dreams of being a big jazz success and becoming rich and famous. Meanwhile, Chip’s turtle Lucky keep pulling his head back in its shell every time they play. Mike’s fraternity Sigma Gamma Chi is planning to put on a hop and are looking for a band that they can afford. When Robby hears this, he lobbies to be hired to play the dance, but Mike tells him that they are looking for a professional band, and that this would be out of the question. However, when he realizes that they don’t have enough money to afford more than $33, he reconsiders and presents the idea to his frat brothers Tim and Marty. They aren’t keen on the idea but agree to at least listen to their audition. He brings them to the house to hear them play the Dixieland arrangements of certain songs that Steve had taught them. Although the band can’t fulfill any of Tim or Marty’s requests, after a rocky start, the guys are suitably impressed by their rendition of Rampart Street Parade. Even Lucky sticks his head out to listen. Rob tells them that they will only charge $5, Bub intervenes and clarifies that they would charge $5 per man plus three extra dollars for the bandleader. The band rents old-time Vaudeville uniforms similar to what Steve used to wear, and they continue to rehearse all week, getting better and better as they go. Rob thanks Mike for the chance, and Mike tells him that he only did it for financial reasons, but they really have gotten quite good. All is well until the day of the show, when Hank smashes his lip playing baseball and doesn’t think he can go on. Mike is furious and warns them that they need to find a clarinet and sax replacement before the dance. Steve returns from his business trip in Chicago just as they are discussing this, and they all surround him and beg him to play in the band. Steve flatly refuses, but sure enough, he is there right in the middle of the ensemble as they play his arrangements at the dance. Some of the girls even think he is cute. 12/20/23
• 049. Damon and Pythias – 12/28/1961
  • Robbie is getting ready to go through Club Week in school, and there are several to choose from including the Lightnings, Vikings, Chieftains, and Heroes. Hank doesn’t think that any of the clubs will choose him for membership, so Robbie vows that whatever club he gets in will have to take Hank or he won’t join, sticking together like best friends Damian and Pythias. As they are deciding, a teacher named Mrs. Elliot compliments Robby on some maps he made for the class, and then compares it to the work of his brother Mike. This annoys Rob because he is always being compared to his brother. In fact, when Robby causes a minor explosion in the chemistry lab, his teacher Mr. Cronkite (Fred Kruger) also compares Rob’s action to an even more destructive one that Mike caused. Back home, as Bub is attempting to wallpaper the boys’ room, Mike comes across his old Viking jacket and thinks that it would be perfect for Rob and offers to help Rob get into the club. Rob says he doesn’t want to follow in Mike’s footsteps yet again. When Mike tells him that he had gotten offers from the Lightnings and Heroes as well, so Rob decides to try to get into the Chieftains. Mike tells him that those guys are all stuck up, rich, and haughty. It makes no difference to Rob, who simply wants to differentiate himself from Mike. Rob somehow manages to get an appointment to see their three key officers, Don Hatfield (John Rockwell) the president, and Tony Wade (Bruce Baxter) and Hal Seeley (Buddy Hart) on the committee. These boys discuss Rob before he arrives, and talk about how he has no mother, and how his house seems to always be open to Robbie’s friends. When Robbie arrives, they offer him a spot in the Chieftains and tell him that he has to buy his own jacket and pay for his patch. They tell him they want to hold his initiation at Robbie’s house, which surprises him. However, when Rob asks about getting Hank into the club with him, they tell him that he isn’t a good fit for them. Although Rob persists in asking, they won’t budge, and they tell Rob that he has to decide then and there if he wants to become a member. Rob eventually succumbs to the pressure and tells them his address for the initiation. He then has to tell Hank that they didn’t think that he would like being a Chieftain, leaving Hank alone without a club to join. The initiation proves to be nothing more than a big party, during which Rob serves food and drinks to everyone, and the only ‘initiation’ entails Rob putting on the jacket that he has purchased. In school, Rob hangs out with the Chieftains, and every time Hank sees him, Rob averts his eyes away. He starts to feel guilty, and it manifests itself as getting angry at his brothers and even more so at Hank for being a nobody who can’t get selected by any club. One day, Hank comes over to the house to thank Rob for asking Mike to get him into the Vikings. Rob claims that he didn’t ask Mike, and Mike claims that he didn’t pull any strings for him. Although this is a fib, Hank is thrilled that they actually picked him without being asked to. Mike admits that he did talk to a friend, and Rob tells Mike that he quit the Chieftains and wanted to know if Mike could pulls some strings for him to get in. Steve suggests that to get out from his brother’s shadow, he should try to get in himself, and to ask Hank to vouch for him. 12/20/23
• 050. Chip Leaves Home – 1/4/1962
  • After Chip and Sudsy come home from the movies, they chat about a kid in it who ran away into the jungle. They argue about whether or not each of them to be scared to run away to a jungle or a grocery store. When they go in the house, Chip gets immediately yelled at for leaving marbles on the kitchen floor. The Robbie yells at him for the way he answered a phone call from a girl for him. Mike tells Bub and Robbie that they are being too hard on Chip, who overhear the conversation including Mike’s warning that their treatment of him could cause him to run away from home. Chip later asks his father if he’d miss him if he ran away. Although he tells him that they’d miss him, when he discovers that Chip has cut up his newspaper, he tells him that if he’s going to run away to do it before the newspaper arrives the next day. Before going to bed that night, he gets yelled out once again for destroying the pens that Rob needs for his homework. After everyone is asleep, he leaves a note in Tramp’s collar, packs up some food from the refrigerator, and hits the road. He isn’t gone long after he nearly runs into a police office, hears them talking about how unsafe it is outside, and then gets scared by a growling cat. He heads back home and slinks up into the attic and falls asleep. The next morning, Robbie (Jack Powers) finds the note he left, causing everyone in the house to panic and call the police. While Steve is giving descriptions of Chip to the Police Sergeant (Howard Caine), who advises them to look everywhere in the house, Tramp leads Mike upstairs to the attic door where they find Chip asleep. Steve apologizes to the officer, and then heads up to spank Chip. Using what he is learning in his Psychology class, Mike warns him that it will be more effective to ignore him and leave him up there, so that Chip won’t try running away again. Although they assume Chip is upstairs to embarrassed to come out, Chip has actually found one of Steve’s old electric train sets and has set it up to play with. Steve starts to lose patience, but Mike tells him that they should stand within his earshot and talk about how much they miss him. It is all for naught, as Chip has again fallen asleep. Steve agrees to give him fifteen more minutes to come back downstairs, but in that time, Chip wakes up and makes his way to his own bed to go back to sleep. When Steve goes up to the attic to retrieve him, he finds him missing again and phones the police. The sergeant says he will send over some men and to have a picture of Chip ready to give them. When Rob goes up to get on, he finds Chip alseep in his bed. Steve angrily wakes him up, but all Chip wants to talk about is the train set. The policemen come over to the house to make sure Chip is okay, and one of them (Pat Patterson) warns the other not to respond to future calls from the Douglas house. As Chip and his father play with the train set, Chip admits that he didn’t really want to run away and asks his father why he went through with it. Steve surmises that sometimes we get the feeling we aren’t loved or needed and that it eventually piles up. 12/20/23
• 051. The Romance of Silver Pines – 1/11/1962
  • Steve decides to go on a quiet game up to Silver Pines lodge, where he has no plans or agenda other than to rest and relax. Right away, he meets his neighbor Ed Wallace (Ed Begley) who starts talking Steve’s ear off. He also tells him that he and his wife Rusty (Irene Ryan) met another lady named Fran Borden (Jan Clayton) and hopes that Steve can come along with them on a picnic and fishing trip in order to pair Fran off with someone, so she doesn’t feel like a third wheel. Steve tries to get out of it, but Ed tells him that it will ruin Fran’s time if he doesn’t come. Things get off to a rough start when it becomes clear that Fran doesn’t want to be on the hike any more than Steve does. Steve suggests several times that they stop and have their picnic, but Ed insists that they head to Chippewa Creek, which turns out to be completely dried up by the time they arrive. Unfortunately, the only provisions that Ed and Rusty brought were butter, salt, ketchup, and olives. When Ed goes off to take pictures, Steve confronts Fran as to why she is so cold and unfriendly. She says she blames him because she says he would have been back at the lodge enjoying her book if he hadn’t shown up. She warms up to Steve when he tells her that he feels exactly the same way and had no desire to come. They head back on the nine-mile trek to return to the lodge, and Ed claims he has a big day planned for them the next day. After hiking for a few minutes, they find the highway with a sign indicating that the Silver Pines Lines is just a half-mile away. Ed insists that they start out early at 5:30 the next morning, but when the morning comes, Rusty comes over and tells Steve that Ed has to cancel because he overdid it the day before. Steve and Fran decide to spend the day boating together. After talking about nothing but their kids, they decide to change the subject. Fran relaxes with a book on a little island while Steve fishes out in his boat. As Steve and Fran enjoy their conversation, Ed and Rusty catch up with them and interrupt their peaceful day. They bring them back to the lodge and insist on playing ping-pong. Both Steve and Fran are surprised when the lodge clerk Mr. Charlie MacIvers (Dal McKennon) tells them that they’ve had no calls. The next morning, the Wallaces say their goodbyes to Steve and Fran and tell them how it took 17 years for them to break free from his job to take this trip. He says that time just slips by like it belongs to someone else. He tells Steve and Fran how much it meant to spend their time together. Steve feels guilty for speaking so roughly about them. Fran decides to head back to be with her children. She tells Steve that he must have more character than she does since he’ll now be able to finish out his trip alone. Then Mr. MacIvers reveals that Steve had looked into the train schedule to back home as well. After poking fun at him, Fran agrees to let Steve ride back to town with him as long as they don’t talk about their kids. However, fifteen seconds later, they both start to talk about them again. NOTE: Charlie MacIvers is named Mac Ivers in the credits. 12/21/23
• 052. Blind Date – 1/18/1962
  • Robbie’s friend Hank has already asked a girl named Mary Alice Carter to go to the dance, and then his mother sets him up with a different girl named Janie Miller (Trudi Ziskind aka Trudi Ames). Robbie agrees to take Mary Alice to the dance, but Hank wants Robbie to take Janie. He is reluctant to take a girl that he’s never seen. Meanwhile, Tim Weede wants Mike to take a girl named Bonnie Walters (Carole Costello) off his hands as well, but again it would be a blind date and Mike is reluctant. Another friend named Bob Wilson had offered Tim $5 to take her out because he came down with the mumps, so now Tim offers Mike $5 to take her since he can make $30 by working a lifeguarding job instead. Mike agrees to take her out with the caveat that he has to pretend that he is Bob. Bonnie calls for Bob at the frat house and asks if she can meet ‘Bob’ at his house, so Tim gives her Mike’s house address. Hank calls for Rob to tell him where to pick up his date, but he gives the message to Sudsy, who is over at the house having dinner. Sudsy gives the message to Chip, but Chip calls and gives the message to Mike instead of Rob. When Bonnie arrives to meet with Bob, Robby thinks she is his date. She tells him that his name is actually Robby, and he tells her that he though her name was Janie. Once they figure out who they are, Robby realizes who much older and taller she is than him. He wants to back out of the date, but Bub makes him move forward. Mike picks up Janie, who is clearly much younger than him, but he has to agree that his name is “Robert.” Robby and Bonnie have a very awkward ride to dinner, and he asks her if she ever played basketball since she is so tall. Janie is overly chatty and talks Mike’s head off on the way to their dance. Mike tries to take Janie home after dinner rather than going dancing. As they are leaving, they run into Steve and his date Helen Lawrence (Marjorie Stapp), and Mike is embarrassed. Bonnie tells Robby that someone was clearly playing a joke on them. Robby and Bonnie leave the dance and head to malt shop, where they run into Mike and Janie. They finally realize that they are on the wrong dates, so they match up correctly. That weekend, both boys make plans with their actual dates. Steve drives Robby and Janie to a cotillion and plans to drop Chip off at Sudsy’s house to see their new kittens, leaving Bub home alone. Bub heads out to play pinochle with Max and Smitty, leaving Tramp alone. 12/21/23

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