Three for the Road was a 12-episode CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 drama television series about a recently widowed father and his two sons who in an attempt to assuage their grief, sell their house, procure a recreational vehicle, called the "Zebec", and travel around the United States. The program aired at 7 pm EST Sundays from September 13 to November 30, 1975 opposite The Wonderful World of Disney on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 and The Swiss Family Robinson on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

.

Alex Rocco

Alex Rocco

Alex Rocco is an American actor. His roles have ranged from comedy to playing gangsters in Mafia movies.-Early life:...

 plays the 39-year-old father, Pete Karras, a free-lance writer and photographer, or photojournalist, in search of material to support his livelihood. Vincent Van Patten

Vincent Van Patten

Vincent Van Patten is an American actor and former tour professional tennis player.-Personal life:Van Patten was born in Bellerose, New York. He is the youngest son of actor Dick Van Patten and his wife, Pat, née Poole, a former June Taylor dancer. He is of Dutch and Italian descent...

 plays the 18-year-old, John Karras, and Leif Garrett

Leif Garrett

Leif Garrett is an American singer and actor. He became famous in the late 1970s as a teen idol, but received much publicity in later life for his drug abuse and legal troubles.-Early life:...

 portrays 13-year-old Endy Karras. The first episode focuses on the Karrases' interest in hang-gliding. Stefanie Powers

Stefanie Powers

Stefanie Powers is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart.-Early life:...

, prior to her long-term role on ABC's Hart to Hart

Hart to Hart

Hart to Hart is an American television series, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also moonlighted as amateur detectives. The series was created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg...

, guest starred in the episode "Ghost Story" about a woman who believes her deceased twin sister has been reincarnated.

Other guest stars on Three for the Road were Parley Baer

Parley Baer

Parley Edward Baer was an American actor in film, television, and radio.-Radio:Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Baer had a circus background, but began his radio career at Utah station KSL...

, Kathleen Cody, Brian Cutler, Bradford Dillman

Bradford Dillman

-Early life:Bradford Dillman was born on April 14, 1930 in San Francisco, California, the son of Josephine and Dean Dillman, a stockbroker. He studied at Town School for Boys and St. Ignatius High School. Later he attended the Hotchkiss boarding school in Connecticut, where he became involved in...

, Meg Foster

Meg Foster

Megan "Meg" Foster is an American actress best known for her roles in the TV miniseries version of The Scarlet Letter, Ticket to Heaven, The Osterman Weekend, and They Live .-Life and career:...

, Charles Frank

Charles Frank

Charles R. Frank is an American actor noted for playing Bret Maverick's cousin Ben Maverick in the 1978 TV-movie The New Maverick with James Garner and Jack Kelly, and in the short-lived 1979 television series Young Maverick. Graduated with the class of 1969 from MIddlebury College.-Career:From...

, James Gavin, Clu Gulager

Clu Gulager

Clu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney in the 1960–62 NBC TV series The Tall Man and for his role in the later NBC series The Virginian...

, Larry Hagman

Larry Hagman

Larry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life and career:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...

 (as Gordo Thurgate in the episode "Ride on a Red Balloon"), Martin Kove

Martin Kove

Martin Kove is an American actor who has appeared in feature films and television series.-Film appearances:His best-known roles may have been on the 1980s hit CBS television series Cagney & Lacey as Detective Victor Isbecki and in the 1984 hit film The Karate Kid as Cobra Kai Sensei John Kreese...

, Judy Lewis

Judy Lewis

Judy Lewis was an American actress, writer, producer, and therapist, and the secret biological daughter of actor Clark Gable and actress Loretta Young.-History:...

, Anne Lockhart, Gary Lockwood

Gary Lockwood

Gary Lockwood is an American actor probably best known for his iconic 1968 role as the astronaut Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey.-Early life:...

, Tim Matheson

Tim Matheson

Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...

, Dean Stockwell

Dean Stockwell

Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...

, Christopher Stone

Christopher Stone (actor)

Christopher Stone was an American actor.Stone appeared on film and television from the early 1970s and married actress Dee Wallace in 1980. Together, they appeared in a number of films including the classic horror films The Howling and Cujo...

, James Van Patten

Van Patten

The Van Patten family is a family of actors and directors.Members include:*Dick Van Patten*James Van Patten*Joyce Van Patten*Nels Van Patten*Timothy Van Patten*Vincent Van PattenOther people with the name Van Patten include*Sarah Van Patten...

, and Noble Willingham

Noble Willingham

Noble Henry Willingham, Jr. was an American television and film actor.-Career:Willingham had appeared in more than thirty feature films, including Harry's War , Up Close and Personal , City Slickers , The Last Boy Scout , City Slickers II , Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , Chinatown...

.

The series was filmed by Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...

's MTM Enterprises

MTM Enterprises

MTM Enterprises was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS...

, its first 60-minute offering, as well as its first dramatic one. MTM was later absorbed by Fox Television Studios

Fox Television Studios

Fox Television Studios, Inc. is the TV production arm of the News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group, as well as being the production arm of Fox and a production arm of 20th Century Fox Television, Inc., itself a division of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation...

. The CBS news magazine 60 Minutes

60 Minutes

60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

 moved into the time slot after Three for the Road folded.

Despite the low ratings of the series, Leif Garrett attracted enough attention to become a teen idol of the 1970s. He landed the thirteenth ranking on TV Guide

TV Guide

TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

s "25 Greatest Teen Idols" list. Garrett soon received so much fan mail that he was offered a recording contract despite his lack of musical training.