Season 1

1960–1961

Sep 29, 1960 · 25m

Aeronautical Engineer Steve Douglas and his youngest son Chip face a parallel problem -- how to rid themselves of two designing females.

E2. The Little Ragpicker

Oct 6, 1960 · 25m

The Annual School rag drive starts Chip off on a scavenger hunt of the neighbourhood. Every time the neighbor, Miss Pitts, looks out the window she sees strange happenings at the Douglas household.

E3. Bub in the Ointment

Oct 13, 1960 · 25m

When Bub steps on the toes of each grandson in turn, Steve is about to rebuke him when the household returns to normal once again. Being chief cook, dishwasher and housekeeper to three boys is not fun for a grandfather as Bub soon finds out.

E4. Countdown

Oct 20, 1960 · 25m

A Missile launch, sleeping in and Daylight Saving make for an interesting Monday morning. The Douglas household is a chaotic affair of lost indian arrow heads for Chip's turn in show and tell at School, Robbie's missing trumpet and some important lost plans of Steve's that Mike has nearly burned in the incinerator.

E5. Brotherly Love

Oct 27, 1960 · 25m

When Mike and Robbie cross swords over a blonde schoolgirl, the issue widens until the whole family is involved in the argument. But it is difficult for Steve to teach his sons that violence solves nothing with a pugnacious father-in-law around.

E6. Adjust or Bust

Nov 3, 1960 · 25m

Steve's theory that 'life is just a small series of adjustments' is put to the test in just one day's discovered doings. Steve must meet with a top Air Force General to discuss plans for a rocket design, and in the process, he must borrow Mike's car, but gets a flat tire and must take the bus home.

E7. Lady Engineer

Nov 10, 1960 · 25m

Steve is enamored of his new business associate, an attractive woman who is strictly business. He is tempted to mix business with pleasure but finds that she thinks only about the job at hand and doesn't have any plans to expand her love life, despite this romantic interlude.

E8. Chip's Harvest

Nov 17, 1960 · 25m

Thanksgiving Day's turkey dinner is threatened when the electricity is short-circuited throughout the neighborhood. Chip decides to bring along his Indian friend as his sole guest much to the annoyance of his brothers who say he is a bum who lives near the railway tracks in a rundown old shack.

E9. Raft on the River

Nov 24, 1960 · 25m

Feeling left out when Mike and Robbie decide to go camping at Gunman's Gulch—and at the urging of his father to use his imagination, to conjure up an adventure—a lonely Chip decides to spend the night on a raft his brothers made him in the backyard.

E10. Lonesome George

Dec 1, 1960 · 25m

TV Star George Gobel is invited to dinner by Bub, who forgets to tell his son-in-law Steve who returns from an out of town business trip and arrives home late at night. He tiptoes around the house only to find a strange man occupying his bed.

E11. Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year

Dec 8, 1960 · 25m

Robbie is baffled when his girlfriend rejects the excitement of his new motor in favor of standard feminine frills. He tries to win her over by telling the boys on the football team that no girls are allowed, knowing this will upset her as she is considered one of the guys.

E12. My Three Strikers

Dec 15, 1960 · 25m

The boys want a raise in their allowance, but Steve tells them that they are spending money recklessly and not doing their chores. Bub has been picking up the slack and doing their work for them. Everyone has bad dreams that night.

E13. The Elopement

Dec 22, 1960 · 25m

Mike and the girl next door arouse the suspicions of Steve and Bub when secrets are exchanged and the two are seen leaving with suitcases. Meanwhile, Robbie is on a clock salvaging attempt to find historic clocks after he gets into a spot of bother with his teacher.

E14. Mike's Brother

Dec 29, 1960 · 25m

Constant comparison to his brother, Mike, leaves Robbie feeling inferior and angryâ€”and their father has to face the consequences as Robbie and Mike are about to come to blows when Steve shows up just in the nick of time from work.

E15. Domestic Trouble

Jan 5, 1961 · 25m

When Bub is suddenly called out of town, Steve seeks an agency to get temporary helpâ€”unaware that he may be recruiting a wife. With his older brothers passing the buck, Chip accidentally rings Domestic Bliss, Inc. - a marriage seeking department who send out a woman inspector right away.

E16. Bub Leaves Home

Jan 12, 1961 · 25m

When Steve invites his second cousin Selena to come and visit, Bub gets the strange impression that he is being neglected and isn't really needed. He decides to take up the offer of managing a movie theater in Plainview, and nothing the boys say or do can make him change his mind.

E17. Mike in a Rush

Jan 19, 1961 · 25m

Mike prepares for the transition from high school to college and the question of joining a fraternity is one that complicates his life considerably. When Mike and Jean attend a party as prospective applicants, he later finds out the they have been dropped from the waiting list and suddenly the cold war turns pretty hot.

E18. The Bully

Jan 26, 1961 · 25m

Chip falls foul of the school bully who isn't interested in fighting with him. Steve soon realises that Chip is deliberately provoking the boy each day in the school yard to prove a point, and feels the boy must must solve his own problems even though it costs him detention in the Principal's office.

E19. Organization Woman

Feb 2, 1961 · 25m

Steve's ever efficient sister arrives for a visit, and immediately changes and complicates the entire Douglas household. The challenging aspect to the whole deal is a decision that Harriet soon regrets, especially once Steve returns home from his business trip.

E20. Other People's Houses

Feb 9, 1961 · 25m

When Robbie Douglas sees his new friend's home he is envious of what he thinks is really the perfect teenage home and becomes almost as envious as Hank is of the turbulent, happy-go-lucky Douglas household.

E21. The Delinquent

Feb 16, 1961 · 25m

Mike Douglas and the family mongrel Tramp keep disappearing at night, and Jean becomes increasingly suspicious, unaware that Mike and his friend Tim are building her a hi-fi set for her upcoming Birthday.

E22. Man In a Trench Coat

Feb 23, 1961 · 25m

On a dark night when Steve is away, Robbie and his date are frightened by a man in a trench coat. It all happens when Robbie is seen putting on the hubcap of his next door neighbour. Steve isn't too concerned when he hears about the incident as he thinks it all stems from Robbie's steady diet of spy and mystery stories.

E23. Deadline

Mar 2, 1961 · 25m

Mike has to finish the layout and write a sports article for the school paper by himself in between running in a track meet and going to a dance with Jean.

E24. The Lostling

Mar 9, 1961 · 25m

Chip begins to think it would be great to be an older brother, so he wishes for a little sister. After the new Hawkins family move into the vacant house across the street, a wild sequence of events results from an improbable case of mistaken identity -- an infant is somehow confused with a leg of lamb left in the boot of Steve's station wagon.

E25. Off Key

Mar 16, 1961 · 25m

Chip brags to his new playmate that his genius brother Robbie can fix almost anything. Soon Robbie is repairing a Grand Piano and has five minutes to have it fixed before the boy's mother comes in and wants to practise a new tune on it.

E26. Small Adventure

Mar 23, 1961 · 25m

With Steve away in Seattle on a business trip, the Douglas household's version of man's best friend has been known to drag home anything he can get his jaws into. This time Tramp slinks in with a large stick of dynamite that has somewhere and somehow survived since the end of the Second World War.

E27. Soap Box Derby

Mar 30, 1961 · 25m

Unaware of each other's problems, Steve and Robbie engage in what seem to be widely varied projects. Robbie is trying to construct a race kart and Steve is in a rush to help a missile manufacturer get his project off the launch pad in a race to beat a rival company.

E28. Unite or Sink

Apr 6, 1961 · 25m

Robbie and Mike want some extra pocket money but Steve tells them that they will have to earn it by themselves. The boys ask their neighbours if they could paint their front fence and before long several neighbors pitch in together to help restore the yard to its former glory.

E29. The Wiley Method

Apr 13, 1961 · 25m

Robbie can't seem to arouse the interest of the affairs of the heart with his classmate Maribel Quinby. So with the help of his best friend Hank Ferguson, he proceeds to try and get her attention by noting the theatrical method of approach that his history teacher employs to make a dull subject interesting.

E30. The National Pastime

Apr 27, 1961 · 25m

Chip is so discouraged by his batting slump that he quits the baseball team. After his brothers encourage him to return, one of the parents, a volunteer umpire, calls in sick and Steve is asked to substitute. Chip thinks this will be the perfect opportunity to become the team hero.