My Three Sons - The First Season, Volume One starring Fred MacMurray ("Shaggy Dog") was an early 1960's cornerstone of CBS sitcom television. Dashing widower Steve Douglas was raising his three sons: 18-year-old Mike (Tim Considine, "The Adventures of Spin and Marty"), 14-year-old Robbie, (Don Grady, one of Disney's original "Mousketeers") and 8-year-old Chip (Stanley Livingston, producer of the film "Checkers"). Life for the Douglas family ran haphazardly and chaotically despite the scheduling efforts of Bub (William Frawley,"I Love Lucy"), Steve's maternal father-in-law. The program ran from September 29, 1960, to August 24, 1972 and chronicles the adventures of this all-male family. It was the second longest-running (live-action) family sitcom in history; the first being "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet."

My Three Sons - The First Season, Volume One depicts the life of astronautical engineer Steven Douglas with his family in his work and home. In "Lady Engineer," Steve develops a love interest with a co-worker and attempts to plan a romantic dinner where they can get to know each other better. And in "Chip Off the Old Block" when young Chip develops girl-problems, Steve has to give him instructions on letting a girl down easily, as he himself has to ward off a marriage-hungry date. "Brotherly Love" shows the competition between brothers, and "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" gives insight to teenager Robbie's love life. "Mike in a Rush" shows the anxiety of choosing a fraternity as he is courted and dropped as a rush because he doesn't have serious plans to attend college. When a relative comes to visit, Bub feels left-out and decides to go back to the theatre business in "Bub Leaves Home." And when the kids complain to their father about Bub in "Bub in the Ointment", they realize just how valuable he really is.

My Three Sons - The First Season, Volume One episodes are in black and white, but hold an interesting nostalgic appeal. The writing was excellent and each 30-minute episode disclosed a lesson in character building. A few of the episodes like "The Little Ragpicker" were out-of-date because noone collects rags for a school sale any more -- now it's garage sales or candy sales. "Countdown" was an innovative approach to parallel the events of the Douglas schedule to a astronautical countdown on TV. "Domestic Trouble" is a light comedy where the Douglas household needs to hire an housekeeper and gets connected with a match-making service instead. Some of the episodes have a little trace of vaudeville or might seem a little silly such as "Adjust or Bust," but nevertheless entertaining with a splash of historical humor.

This is good, wholesome comedy for the whole family depicting the simple strugges through daily life in suburbia. The show ran for 12 years and through syndication hopefully will bless other generations to come.