In 1969, when the television pilot for Nanny and the Professor did not initially sell, Dawn was released from her contract with ABC. She was then cast as Dodie Douglas in the long-running family comedy television series My Three Sons. ABC sued unsuccessfully to get her to perform in Nanny and the Professor after she had already been cast for My Three Sons. My Three Sons had been on the air since 1960, and in a foretelling of how many other TV series over the years would try to inject some life into a show that was approaching the end, they introduced a cute new character. Remember when The Partridge Family introduced Ricky Stevens? Or when The Brady Bunch introduced cousin Oliver? This was before all of that, and it made Dawn famous almost instantly. I was very proud of her, but I was also a little bit jealous. She was younger than I was, we had both been going to a lot of screen tests and auditions, and just like that, she was part of a hit TV series. That’s what I wanted. But we all benefited from it. I would get to go to the set and watch her work, and there was also some travel involved that I got to take part in as well. I remember a fun trip to Phoenix for a charity event all of the actors were taking part in. My mom obviously liked it because it provided a steady income for us, and that helped us through what were becoming some fairly lean years.
One thing that happened to Dawn on My Three Sons provided another glimpse into the future: how they marketed the doll that she played with on the show. Remember Myrtle? Well, Myrtle was actually marketed by Mattel and was one of the most popular toys of the year. But there was an issue: Dawn’s image was included on the packaging, but she never received any money for that. My mother (and I suppose our agent as well) was not savvy about things like licensing and merchandising, so she missed out on that opportunity. It was that kind of lack of awareness that would ultimately cause me problems as well, but that was still a few years away.