Mike and family are getting things ready for a backyard barbecue, with a married couple coming as guests. Mike and Sally are seen playfully playing tag, chasing each other around the house, as young couples might well do.
After their friends arrive, the other couple start to do the same thing, when suddenly the wife stops, acting as though she's ill. "Dr." Bub takes a quick look and diagnoses her problem, telling the husband that he's about to become a father.
We move ahead to a scene where Mike goes to Sally's and finds out she is taking care of another friend's little baby. In typical TV sitcom fashion, Mike practically panics when Sally hands him the baby, afraid he'll "break it." We quickly shift to a scene at the college library where Mike runs into an old friend, Howard Sears, he hasn't seen for a long time. Howard tells him that his wife, Francie, is almost due to give birth. He says he has, I think, 10 people lined up, including Francie's mother, to be able to rush her to the hospital at the time, just in case it comes when he is working in his night job at the factory. He wants to add Mike's name to the list, partly because Mike knew Francie back in grade school. Mike agrees, figuring one of the others will surely be able and he won't have to do anything.
Of course, the next scene has a late night call from Francie, so we next see Mike and Francie arriving at the hospital. As many other shows have done, instead of Mike going up to the admitting nurse and saying, "Hi. I'm Mike Douglas. The is Francie Sears. Her husband is still at work, so I brought her here to have her baby..." we get the usual short answers to questions as the nurse assumes he is the husband.
Then Mike is with other fathers-to-be in the waiting room. They are watching a game on a TV set, and when the nurse comes in to tell "Mr. Sears" he has a baby daughter, Mike faints.
Now Mike is telling Dad he is calling off his wedding because he's not ready to become a father. But Steve tells him about how unprepared he was when Mike was born, and Mike realizes that his fears are natural and that he'll grow into it, so he cancels plans to tell Sally that he no longer wants to get married.
We finish with a kid coming up to Mike working on his car, wanting to play catch. Mike tosses the ball a couple of times to him and then Sally comes out and tells him this is her nephew. She had talked to Steve and wanted him to realize babies don't stay that way, to help him realize he can handle these things. "Uncle" Mike goes off to play catch with the kid.
In short scenes between what I've described, we see Robbie and Chip taking advantage of Mike's glazed look as he fears a future as a father, by having him drive them and their friends all around, telling him he agreed to do so, knowing he'll just say, "OK" even though he never actually agreed.
The whole show was amusing, but not all that funny. A better title would have been "Father by Proxy." They could have just started with the barbecue couple bringing their baby over and had more funny scenes with Mike trying to take care of the baby. As far as all the major plot points, it was fine.
In this episode, it's the little things that bothered me. Bub knowing the woman was expecting when she didn't know herself was one example. Mike is supposed to be about 10 years older than Chip, so how could he be so scared of holding a baby? Surely he had many occasions to do so with his youngest brother, especially since their mother had died. In the end, in talking with his to-be nephew, he was stunned that the kid was 5, or that a 3-year-old could talk (as told by the boy he was talking to).
It also seemed wrong that both Sally and Mike referred to him as a "nephew-in-law", saying after the wedding Mike would be his "uncle-in-law." I have absolutely never heard anyone use those terms. It's logical for someone to say, for example, "this is my brother-in-law..." but it would surely suggest some huge family hostility for someone to introduce two people saying, "This is my Aunt Myrtle and my Uncle-in-law Elmer." As the mother is being checked into the hospital, I'm not sure there would have been a reason for the nurse to ask about her maiden name, or what the father's middle name is (when she thought Mike was the father).
The IMDB plot summary says both Mike and Sally wonder how they will handle babies in the future. Actually, Sally didn't have any fears, only Mike did.
I note that one of the other fathers in the waiting room was played by series producer Don Fedderson's son, Mike Minor (stage name). This was the fifth of nine appearances on My Three Sons for Minor, who was a fraternity brother of Mike previously, as three different characters. He also did one guest spot on Petticoat Junction, which led to him joining the cast as a regular, a pilot named Steve Elliott, where he seriously dated the eldest Bradley daughter, Billie Jo-played by Meredith MacRae-before marrying the youngest daughter Betty Jo on the series, a year before marrying the actress, Linda Kay Henning in real life, a marriage that sadly lasted only five years.
This was the first episode in which Minor and MacRae each appeared, although they had no scenes together.
The nephew was played by freckle-faced Brian Nash, who was 7 at the time. He is best remembered as Joel Nash on the TV-series Please Don't Eat the Daisies, the second oldest son of four to Jim and Joan Nash (Pat Crowley and Mark Miller) that aired from 1965-67. The same last name was just a coincidence.
As I said, the problems with this episode are all minor. I happily rate it a 7.
After their friends arrive, the other couple start to do the same thing, when suddenly the wife stops, acting as though she's ill. "Dr." Bub takes a quick look and diagnoses her problem, telling the husband that he's about to become a father.
We move ahead to a scene where Mike goes to Sally's and finds out she is taking care of another friend's little baby. In typical TV sitcom fashion, Mike practically panics when Sally hands him the baby, afraid he'll "break it." We quickly shift to a scene at the college library where Mike runs into an old friend, Howard Sears, he hasn't seen for a long time. Howard tells him that his wife, Francie, is almost due to give birth. He says he has, I think, 10 people lined up, including Francie's mother, to be able to rush her to the hospital at the time, just in case it comes when he is working in his night job at the factory. He wants to add Mike's name to the list, partly because Mike knew Francie back in grade school. Mike agrees, figuring one of the others will surely be able and he won't have to do anything.
Of course, the next scene has a late night call from Francie, so we next see Mike and Francie arriving at the hospital. As many other shows have done, instead of Mike going up to the admitting nurse and saying, "Hi. I'm Mike Douglas. The is Francie Sears. Her husband is still at work, so I brought her here to have her baby..." we get the usual short answers to questions as the nurse assumes he is the husband.
Then Mike is with other fathers-to-be in the waiting room. They are watching a game on a TV set, and when the nurse comes in to tell "Mr. Sears" he has a baby daughter, Mike faints.
Now Mike is telling Dad he is calling off his wedding because he's not ready to become a father. But Steve tells him about how unprepared he was when Mike was born, and Mike realizes that his fears are natural and that he'll grow into it, so he cancels plans to tell Sally that he no longer wants to get married.
We finish with a kid coming up to Mike working on his car, wanting to play catch. Mike tosses the ball a couple of times to him and then Sally comes out and tells him this is her nephew. She had talked to Steve and wanted him to realize babies don't stay that way, to help him realize he can handle these things. "Uncle" Mike goes off to play catch with the kid.
In short scenes between what I've described, we see Robbie and Chip taking advantage of Mike's glazed look as he fears a future as a father, by having him drive them and their friends all around, telling him he agreed to do so, knowing he'll just say, "OK" even though he never actually agreed.
The whole show was amusing, but not all that funny. A better title would have been "Father by Proxy." They could have just started with the barbecue couple bringing their baby over and had more funny scenes with Mike trying to take care of the baby. As far as all the major plot points, it was fine.
In this episode, it's the little things that bothered me. Bub knowing the woman was expecting when she didn't know herself was one example. Mike is supposed to be about 10 years older than Chip, so how could he be so scared of holding a baby? Surely he had many occasions to do so with his youngest brother, especially since their mother had died. In the end, in talking with his to-be nephew, he was stunned that the kid was 5, or that a 3-year-old could talk (as told by the boy he was talking to).
It also seemed wrong that both Sally and Mike referred to him as a "nephew-in-law", saying after the wedding Mike would be his "uncle-in-law." I have absolutely never heard anyone use those terms. It's logical for someone to say, for example, "this is my brother-in-law..." but it would surely suggest some huge family hostility for someone to introduce two people saying, "This is my Aunt Myrtle and my Uncle-in-law Elmer." As the mother is being checked into the hospital, I'm not sure there would have been a reason for the nurse to ask about her maiden name, or what the father's middle name is (when she thought Mike was the father).
The IMDB plot summary says both Mike and Sally wonder how they will handle babies in the future. Actually, Sally didn't have any fears, only Mike did.
I note that one of the other fathers in the waiting room was played by series producer Don Fedderson's son, Mike Minor (stage name). This was the fifth of nine appearances on My Three Sons for Minor, who was a fraternity brother of Mike previously, as three different characters. He also did one guest spot on Petticoat Junction, which led to him joining the cast as a regular, a pilot named Steve Elliott, where he seriously dated the eldest Bradley daughter, Billie Jo-played by Meredith MacRae-before marrying the youngest daughter Betty Jo on the series, a year before marrying the actress, Linda Kay Henning in real life, a marriage that sadly lasted only five years.
This was the first episode in which Minor and MacRae each appeared, although they had no scenes together.
The nephew was played by freckle-faced Brian Nash, who was 7 at the time. He is best remembered as Joel Nash on the TV-series Please Don't Eat the Daisies, the second oldest son of four to Jim and Joan Nash (Pat Crowley and Mark Miller) that aired from 1965-67. The same last name was just a coincidence.
As I said, the problems with this episode are all minor. I happily rate it a 7.
