Week of October 3: Don Fedderson's Shows and a Word About Split Seasons On DVD

This week, the first part of the first season of "My Three Sons" was released on DVD. I'll get to the issue of split seasons on DVD in a moment, but first, a look at the work of Don Fedderson, who created "My Three Sons," "Family Affair" and other programming.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications has a good synopsis about "My Three Sons":

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/mythreesons/mythreesons.htm

And here's the intro, from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-PbwJ0VXhs

It's been a long while since I was able to watch the show; syndicators haven't had it since at least the early 1980s, and I didn't have a cable connection to watch it on TV Land. I watched the color (CBS) episodes with William Demarest as Uncle Charlie, and some of the later seasons. I found the show entertaining. I think "Full House," which ABC produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is a good modern-day comparison show to "My Three Sons."

Don Fedderson produced "Life With Elizabeth," which starred Betty White in one of her early roles, and was an executive producer of "Who Do You Trust?" a game show that brought together Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon. He was a producer on "The Millionaire," a character study kind of program in which a millionaire would give money to people he had never met, and the show would follow what they did.

Probably the best and most beloved Fedderson series was "Family Affair," which ran on CBS from 1966-71. In the show, Brian Keith played Bill Davis, a bachelor engineer with "gentleman's gentleman" Mr. French (played so well by Sebastian Cabot). Their lives are turned upside down when Bill's brother and sister-in-law die in a plane crash, and he and French wind up having to raise the three children: Teenager Cissy (Kathy Garver) and young twins Jody (Johnnie Whitaker) and Buffy (Anissa Jones, whose performance as Buffy and tragic real life both broke hearts). One of the best things about "Family Affair" was its diversity - people of different cultures, backgrounds and financial conditions.

Here's a clip from an early episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3lPf11LvMo

All five seasons have been released on DVD, and a full-show box set is planned for release around Thanksgiving. Kathy Garver has hosted extras on all five seasons, and from the show's background to collectibles to the child star issue, she and the crew have done a good job, as has MPI Home Video with the release. Incidentally, Gregg Fedderson, who played Cissy's boyfriend on the show, is Don Fedderson's son, as is Michael Minor, who played Betty Jo's husband on "Petticoat Junction" (and was married for a time in real life to Linda Kaye Henning, who played Betty Jo), and was also on "All My Children" in the early 1980s.

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The release of only the first part of "My Three Sons" first season compels me to write about the most annoying trend in the release of classic television shows on DVD: Partial season releases.

Shows such as "Ironside" and "Perry Mason," which both starred Raymond Burr, have been subjected to this treatment. It is true that television shows often filmed at least 30 episodes a season during the 1950s and 60s (These days, networks are lucky to get 20 episodes a season from most scripted shows.). But especially in a bad economy, there's only so much money for people to spend, and they should be able to get a whole season at a time if they wish.

During the early days of DVD, some shows, such as "M*A*S*H" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" kept up what they'd done with VHS and released collector's sets. That's not a bad idea. Eventually, those shows released full seasons (MTM is still releasing seasons; "M*A*S*H" has released the entire series individually and on a very good box set.). But giving half a slice to someone who's paid for a whole slice is a bad idea. Studios and distributors need to get their seasons together for loyal viewers.

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!