William Frawley performed the grandfather and housekeeper Bub on ‘My Three Sons,’ however his personality left the display in the middle of Season 5. Here’s why.
(*5*)If you’re of a certain age, then you most likely grew up looking at My Three Sons on tv again in the day. The sequence ran from 1960 through 1972 and told the tale of an aeronautical engineer and widower named Stephen Douglas (performed by Fred MacMurray) as he raised — you guessed it! — his three sons.
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When the display first got here on the scene, it featured William Frawley (of I Love Lucy repute) as William Michael Francis “Bub” O’Casey, the men’ maternal grandfather who lived in the home with them and likewise worked as a housekeeper. However, starting in 1965, Bub disappeared from the show and used to be changed via his brother, “Uncle Charley." So, what happened to Bub?
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What happened to “Bub” on ‘My Three Sons’? Why did he leave?
As is often the case when characters disappear from television shows, there was both a storyline-based and an off-screen reason for Bub’s departure. In Season 5 of the series, Bub wins the Irish Sweepstakes and uses his earnings to bring the whole family to Ireland to meet the extended family. They spend two episodes taking in all that Ireland has to offer, and Bub falls in love with the homeland all over again.
In Episode 17 of that same season, Bub decides to fly back to Ireland to visit his 104-year-old aunt … and then he never returns. Instead, he’s replaced by his brother Charley (played by William Demarest), who ends up taking over Bub’s housekeeping duties and fills the role in the boys’ lives that Bub had held for years.
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It was (presumably) a happy ending for Bub, who got the chance to go back to his beloved homeland and live the rest of his years in Dublin. In real life, however, things were a bit more complicated.
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When William Frawley first started appearing on television shows, it was after a long and successful film career, which in turn had been kickstarted by an illustrious stint in vaudeville. He appeared in more than 100 films over the course of 35 years. However, as he got older, he began to struggle with alcoholism.
By 1965, a combination of alcoholism and old age made it increasingly difficult for William to perform on the show. He continued to flub his lines, resulting in take after take of unusable footage. He would also reportedly doze off on set. Eventually, the studio hired a prop man to lie on the floor just out of view of the camera and tap William on the foot in order to keep him from nodding off during close-up shots. The situation soon became untenable.
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During Season 5 of My Three Sons, William was in such unwell well being that he couldn’t go the studio’s annual medical insurance exam, making him a legal responsibility. He used to be let move from the show and Bub was once given his Irish send-off. Shortly thereafter, in March of 1966, William Frawley died of a heart attack. Fred MacMurray and My Three Sons government producer Don Fedderson have been pallbearers at his funeral (at the side of Desi Arnaz).
Although the reasons in the back of Bub’s departure from the show are quite sad, those that grew up watching the display (or are nonetheless finding it now) can unquestionably get some joy from observing William play Bub. Both Bub and the man who played him unquestionably received’t be forgotten anytime quickly.
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