who played chip douglas on my three sons
My Three Sons To keep the show's title plausible, the show's head writer, George Tibbles, fashioned a three-part story arc in which an orphaned friend of youngest brother Richard (Chip, played by Stanley Livingston), Ernie Thompson (played by his real-life brother, Barry Livingston), awaits adoption when his current foster parents are transferred to the Orient. Steve offers to adopt Ernie, but faces antagonism from Uncle Charley, who finds Ernie a bit grating, and forecasts major headaches over both the boy and his dog. It also transpires that a law requires a woman to live in the home of an adoptive family. A likable female social worker supervises the case, and the Douglases speculate that Steve might marry the woman, to make the adoption possible, but they both agree this is not reason enough for them to be married. The family also does not need to hire a housekeeper, since Uncle Charley already has things running smoothly. The family soon appears before a judge who researches the law, and determines that its intent is to ensure a full-time caregiver is in the household. With Charley meeting that role, and having had a change of heart about Ernie, Charley assents to a legal fiction declaring him "housemother" to the Douglas family.[4]