In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the introduction of solid-state,signal-generating detectors and absorption cells to impose wavelength fiducialsdirectly on the starlight, the errors in stellar radial velocity (RV)measurements were reduced to the point where Doppler searches for planetsbecame feasible. In 1980 we began to use a hydrogen fluoride gas cell with theCFHT coud\'{e} spectrograph and, for 12 years, monitored RVs of some 29solar-type stars. Since extra-solar planets were expected to resemble Jupiterin both mass and orbit, we were awarded only three or four two-night observingruns each year. In 1988 we highlighted a potential planetary companion to$\gamma$ Cep (K1 IV), in 1993 one to $\beta$ Gem (K0 III), and another to$\epsilon$ Eri (K2 V) in 1992. The putative planets all resembled Joviansystems with periods and masses of 2.5 yr and 1.4 $M_{J}$, 1.6 yr and 2.6$M_{J}$, and 6.9 yr and 0.9 $M_{J}$, respectively. All three were subsequentlyconfirmed from more extensive data by the Texas group led by Cochran and Hatzeswho derived the currently accepted orbital elements. None of the systems issimple and some still question $\epsilon$ Eri b.
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