After spending almost an entire week without the interwebz, I am finally reconnected. I spent a little time catching up on emails and Facebook drama, getting ready to test out the rested carpal tunnel in my hands, and I had to stop when I saw this: Don Grady Dies At 68.
I has a sad.
Don Grady as Robbie Douglas in ‘My Three Sons’
Don Grady died at the age of 68 at his home in Thousand Oaks Wednesday, after a four-year battle with cancer. His wife of 26 years, Ginny, apparently gave the details. She also said some pretty sweet things about him and his career, his love of music, and my heart broke into a million little pieces.
He is survived by his wife, his mother (Which broke my heart AGAIN!), his two children, Tessa and Joey, and one of his sisters, Marilou Reichel.
I am fully prepared to get told that I’m way too young to remember/care about these shows, or Grady, but oh-how very wrong the person who says it will be.
I think everyone remembers those cartoon feet…
I remember watching My Three Sons with my Grandmother, and old re-runs of The Mickey Mouse Club with my Mom. I loved every second of those shows, and the memories made while watching them even more. (Robbie was awesome!) And, after seeing every single episode, I kind-of felt like he was part of my family too. Plus, he was way cute for a guy I’d mostly seen only in black-and-white.
I’ve since introduced my Mickey Mouse-crazed toddler to the old episodes of what was known in my house as “The Club”. They are full of singing, dancing, no color, and OH-MY-GOD-MOM-CAN’T-I-JUST-WATCH-MY-LITTLE-PONY-ALREADY?! But, the awesome thing? She goes away singing the old song that I grew up with, and she dances around for hours trying to mimic the moves she just saw.
M – I – C, K – E – Y, M – O – U- S – E!
Mom wins.
Don Grady may not have been a Mouseketeer for long, but he was a dang good one. He could jam out on lots of instruments, sing, dance, and act. And it’s that stuff that I really, REALLY, miss. I am not exactly fond of this new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse nonsense, I’m just sayin’.
This. is. crap. Total crap.
Once he left The Mickey Mouse Club at 16, he did so to jump right into playing Robbie Douglas, the middle son of widowed Steve Douglas (Fred MacMurray), on My Three Sons. The show was one of the longest-running family sitcoms of all time, and for good reason. It was good, clean, wholesome entertainment and you really got attached to the family and their many ups and downs, problems, solutions, good times and bad times. It aired from 1960-72, during some of the best television times ever according to me.
I like it old school, what can I say?
He was also in a few other shows like Rifleman and Wagon Train, neither of which I have ever seen, but still, he was there, and I’m sure he rocked it out.
After his stint on everyone’s television screens, he didn’t exactly disappear, he just changed direction. And, according to his wife, Ginny, he went on to do what he has always wanted to do — music. He became a composer and songwriter for television, movies, and theater. He loved his time on-screen, but his music was his passion.
He looks pretty happy to me.
He may have died rather soon, but he seems to have lead a full and happy life. I know he made watching old shows more fun, and the good times will keep on while I torture enrich my daughter’s life the way my parents/grandparents tried to do with me.
Obviously they failed, because I can be found watching Squidbillies re-runs over and over and over again.
Good try, Gramma!
