Ernie Grows Up

Ernie, the youngest of “My Three Sons,” was always getting into the kind of mischief only kids can find themselves in. Barry Livingston should know--he played Ernie from 1964 until the show ended in 1972. And now, he is making trouble of a sort again, as the director of Michael Farkash’s scurrilously funny comedy, “Meat Dreams” (at the Century City Playhouse until Aug. 15).

Child stars can be dogged for life by the character that made them famous, and the 36-year-old Livingston says that Ernie can follow him around: “Parents will see me and say, ‘That’s Ernie,’ but their kids, who see the show in syndication, can’t put together that kid with this guy with a receding hairline.”

However, with his parents’ advice that “there are no free rides; you do it on your own,” Livingston has leaped about as far from television’s squeaky-clean world as anyone can.

“Meat Dreams” isn’t likely material for the networks. Farkash’s comedy follows the downhill slide of a verbose, mystical deli owner who becomes embroiled in a dizzying series of deceit and murder, with meat as a weapon.

“We had about $100 for a production budget, six lights and a 30-foot stage to fit four playing areas. Staging it was like putting a ballet on a postage stamp. But I don’t think the audience notices. The show’s weirdness keeps them off-balance, so they’re unsure whether to laugh out loud or just to themselves. Then, we get a rowdy crowd that laughs at everything. It’s unpredictable.”

Livingston couldn’t have predicted the course of his own career, which led, after “My Three Sons,” to landing a role in Jose Quintero’s staging of “The Skin of Our Teeth” just days after arriving in New York, then venturing through the L.A. small-theater scene.

He is now back at a studio, studying as a director’s apprentice during filming of “Murder, She Wrote.” “I love walking into a studio.” Livingston says. “They’re self-contained cities. Being in one reminds me of the days as a kid when I’d get on my bike and check out the sets for ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ ‘Mister Ed’ or ‘Hogan’s Heroes.’ There are a lot of ghosts there.”