Original subtitles

It's an American comedy classic.

When two girls move in with one guy...

There's bound to be some surprises.

It was vaudeville.

I would come to the door, "bing bong".

Eh, it's Larry.

Its stars became television legends.

People forget what a talented physical actor John Ritter was.

Suzanne Somers became the breakout star of the show.

Joyce Dewitt as Janet is a comedic genius.

Norman Fell was perfect as Stanley Roper.

Then we got Don Knotts, that's comedy gold right there.

Three's Company pushed boundaries,

even in the age of jiggle TV.

You didn't really talk about gay or gay issues.

So it was one area where Three's Company

was a little bit edgy.

The landlord didn't actually care that Jack was gay.

He just didn't want a gentleman in the house

having pre-marital sex.

But on-screen comedy gave way

to some off-screen drama.

Suzanne Somers was as famous as the male lead

on the show, John Ritter.

She went in and she asked for a huge increase in salary.

She wanted to be earning exactly the same

as her male co star.

ABC told her to go take a hike.

They had the idea to create Three's a Crowd

and they didn't really tell anybody

other than John Ritter.

I think Joyce felt that the producers betrayed her.

We'll explore why Three's Company

stands the test of time.

I don't think my shrink has asked these kinds of questions.

The chemistry on Three's Company was unmatched,

unparalleled. I's just magic.

This did not fit in with anything else on television.

Suddenly we had these three young beautiful people

changing the rules. It was revolutionary.

If any American sitcom seemed to reflect

the late 1970's and early 1980's,

it was Three's Company.

That whole show, you know what my favorite episode

of Three's Company was?

The one with the misunderstanding.

I've only got one thing worth selling

and I was hoping to save that till I got married.

It's based on the most simple element of comedy.

I don't want to give a treatise on, you know,

the history of comedy, but it was, it was farce

pure and simple.

Three's Company had some of the rhythms

and some of the wordplay of a naughty French stage drama.

They were sophomoric.

They would always mistake something,

someone who didn't see what was going on,

would mistake it for something highly sexual

and it would turn out to be something else.

And that was basically the algebra of Three's Company.

There was some sort of silly misunderstanding,

plus wacky hijinks would ensue, plus physical comedy,

plus Chrissy Snow in short shorts bouncing up and down,

equals ratings gold.

In the 1970's on Three's Company,

you had to talk about sex without saying sex.

And that's what the show became known for.

The difference between Three's Company

and other shows is Three's Company made it charming.

There's just no way anyone can be threatened

by Mr. Furly, Mr. Roper, or Jack Tripper.

No matter how sexist they are,

no matter how homophobic they are,

they are so non-threatening

that you end up laughing alongside them.

The audience immediately liked Three's Company

because there were three really good-looking people

living together by the beach.

Then underneath: the really incredible timing,

the slapstick comedy.

And then underneath that is this tiny little bit of energy

about like Jack proceeding to be gay.

The concept is actually so incredibly high-concept,

it boggles the mind today.

But the success of any comedic ensemble

hinges on finding the perfect on-screen chemistry.

As Three's Company began casting back in 1976,

that chemistry was hard to find.

The Three's Company that we know today

is not how this show started.

It took two different pilots before they figure out

exactly what this show should be.

Fred Silverman was already a legendary

TV executive.

He's the mastermind behind All In The Family, MASH,

and The Jeffersons at CBS.

In 1975 he moves to ABC, where he greenlights

hit after hit.

Including Soap, Laverne and Shirley and Donny and Marie.

But he's always looking for his next success.

Like a lot of great shows, we have stolen them

from Great Britain, right?

And so Three's Company is no, is no different.

So, there was a show on the air in London

that was called Man About The House

and it was the same exact set up.

Silverman asks MASH creator Larry Gelbart

to take a pass at Americanizing the concept.

And likes the script enough to film a first pilot

but it doesn't seem to work.

Silverman then brings in the writers who adapted

the British version of All In The Family

and shoots a second pilot with a different

Chrissy and Janet.

The pilot that did ultimately become

Three's Company, after several tries

by several writers,

did hue pretty closely to the British format

of Man About The House.

Even to the extent of the older landlords downstairs

who are conservative and don't want a man

living with women.

A young John Ritter is cast as the lead,

Jack Tripper.

Originally it was going to be Billy Crystal,

he auditioned for the lead.

John Ritter was the son of a western star, Tex Ritter,

so he was kind of known to the American audience

because he had done a lot of guest spots.

John brought the vulnerability,

the believability, you know, and the like, the likability.

I mean, he brought all of that

and the physical comedy aspect of it.

People forget what a talented physical actor

John Ritter was.

The man was a physical genius.

Talk about a confluence of the right elements

at the right time. John Ritter proved to be a

great physical comedian, which is just what the show

often called for.

There was a lot of hiding in closets and misunderstanding

and falling over things.

He really raised the game there.

That certainly wasn't written on the page

when he got the part, but he brought it to himself.

And that really helped define that show.

The producers bring in a relative unknown

to play Janet.

Before getting cast on Three's Company,

Joyce Dewitt was a, kind of a fairly serious theater actor.

She had a Masters in Fine Arts from UCLA in theater.

This was gonna be her big shot at network television.

Joyce Dewitt as Janet is a comedic genius

alongside John Ritter.

You have to have an incredible amount of talent

to keep up with John Ritter.

I think she had the toughest job on the show.

She was the classic setup character.

She would set John up, she would set me up,

she was the sane one.

Joyce, you know, she really was the through line

and she was a real balance for John's character, Jack.

Joyce Dewitt really brought a roundedness

to that character that helped the show work.

Because they couldn't all be idiots all the time.

Someone had to make it believable for the rest of us.

There were a lot of blondes, but there was only one

brunette and that was Janet.

There was the third part, it was Chrissy Snow,

that was really really hard to cast.

After two pilots with two different actresses

as Chrissy, a third pilot is ordered

as the network searches for that perfect fit.

All In The Family went through three pilots,

the Love Boat went through three pilots.

And in this case, Three's Company went through

three pilots.

ABC had faith that this show could be something

if they got that all-important casting just right.

Frank Silverman sat there for hours and hours

just going through tape after tape after tape.

And suddenly somebody popped,

that person was Suzanne Somers.

Suzanne Somers had that really memorable film role

in American Graffiti, driving the car.

And the ultimately American sex symbol,

a beautiful blonde. It's the fantasy that you're

on the road and you'll see Suzanne

Somers driving by like that.

Suzanne Somers was on the brink of quitting

show business and got a call from Fred Silverman's office

saying, "audition for Three's Company."

And soon after she is on set with Ritter

and Dewitt shooting the third Three's Company pilot.

Everybody loved her, you know?

She was goofy in an engaging way.

Suzanne Somers really brought another level

of believability to Chrissy.

Because that character was really a potential cartoon.

She was one-dimensionally blonde and dumb,

but she had that good heart to her.

The chemistry that those three had,

I mean, that was just lightning in a bottle.

It really was amazing.

A third pilot is picked up

and ABC sets Three's Company to premier

as a mid-season replacement.

Expectations for the show are minimum at best.

It can often be a precarious position in which to premier.

The network didn't know what they had,

in terms of having a hit.

THe show premiers March 15th, 1977.

When Three's Company finally aired,

after going through three pilots and really not being,

I think, on the network's radar as a potential mega-hit,

it really was, in terms of the ratings,

a hit from the start.

One thing is for sure,

the chemistry on Three's Company was unmatched,

unparalleled, it's a once in a lifetime thing.

It is the highest rated mid-season show

ever broadcast on television at the time.

The love from the audience was astounding.

Then it translated to, obviously, ratings.

'Cause ratings were, then, everything.

You know, now there's nine million things to watch

with streaming, whatever.

There was fierce competition between three networks.

And we were the top.

It was astounding to me that it caught,

that it caught on so fast.

It becomes the number three show

and is given a spot on ABC's fall lineup,

where it will remain for 8 seasons.

We were part of a comedy block that included

Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days,

so we were in golden company right there.

And when we got to the actual soundstage

and the audience was there, it just, you know,

elevated everyone's game even more.

The response, the live audience, the clapping

and the laughter.

John Ritter tells Johnny Carson in 1984

that filming in front of a live audience

keeps the cast on its toes.

It's like doing a one-act play every week.

So we have to answer to the audience, you know,

we have to learn our lines.

And it's always been an ensemble effort.

So we all, like, get together and it's the idea

of putting a play on as fast as we can.

And then getting out alive.

I do remember it was filmed before a live audience

at five o'clock and eight o'clock.

And I do remember the audience going nuts.

The atmosphere was kind of electric

and people were going nuts and laughing and applauding.

And we're like, "Wow, this is a great gig."

It was all down to a science, everything.

I mean, the flipping over the couches and the tripping,

the falling, the drinking the water and the fate, all that.

That was all rehearsed ahead of time

so when the audience came in,

they really saw a show.

They saw a performance.

Richard Kline appears as Jack's friend,

Larry Dallas, in the first season.

It is supposed to be a one time guest role.

Norman Fell came over to me and said,

"You know, they're gonna have you back

"because they love you, they love you and John,

"they love you."

I said, "Okay, well that's great."

You know, you don't believe everything you hear,

especially in Hollywood.

So he was only gonna be like a barely a guest bit

in the third or fourth episode of Three's Company,

but by season three he was a regular

because he really drove a lot of the plot lines.

You know, like Larry always had, like, a hairbrained scheme

for Jack. Or Larry had, like, the worst

ideas for Jack. It also gave them a really

good excuse to be at the Regal Beagle.

Next thing I know, they had me back

and I signed a five-year contract.

Larry was like, kind of like the devil on Jack's shoulder,

always like steering him in the complete and total

wrong direction.

I would come to the door, "bing bong", you know,

knock on the door or whatever.

"Eh, it's Larry."

And during rehearsal you can't imagine

what would happen, as far as what would John be doing

to crack me up. So he'd open, I'd open the door,

he'd have his pants down.

I'd open the door, he'd have a clown nose on.

He just stayed shtick.

It was hilarity non-stop.

The show was a hit, making its three leads stars.

But not everyone is comfortable with that.

After three pilots,

Three's Company premiers in 1977

as a mid-season replacement and is immediately a hit

with audiences who love the farce and physical comedy

in the show.

But it is still the era of 1970's jiggle TV

with its highly-sexualized portrayals of women.

This was the age of jiggle television.

You had two good looking women living with

one young good-looking guy.

They would go to a bar, the Regal Beagle,

with another good-looking guy, Larry.

And the gang all, it was a, you know...

The show oozed sex.

When you grow up and you come back to it

you realize just how much they objectified women,

how sexist it really was.

When our greatest storytelling medium,

television, is nothing but, as they called it back then,

jiggle TV, TNA by less polite publications.

And it is true, Three's Company was about

two young women and a young man living together

without benefit of marriage, they were young

and they were attractive.

But we do ourselves a disservice to write these shows

all off as being of no value whatsoever.

I think it was really actually quite a smart program.

But the objectification isn't limited

to the ladies of Three's Company.

Jack Tripper, John Ritter's character,

used to prance around in his underthings

every bit as much as the two women did.

There's an episode in which he comes out in a,

in speedo underwear.

Morning.

I'm not sure how to say this politely,

but has a package of sorts.

- How you doing. - Oh, gee!

Do you have to walk around the house in your underwear?

This is not underwear, it's my bathing suit.

I ran out of clean shorts.

Oh, well in that case it's alright.

And if that's not enough,

he's holding and eating a banana.

Loans. Yes, loans!

No, note loans. Yes, loans.

Yes, loans is the key! - He's really flipped out.

Should I call a doctor or get an answer?

Why didn't I think of that before?

I'm such an idiot! - Oh!

Jack Tripper's prat falls

and John Ritter's gift for physical comedy

keep viewers coming back for more.

He learned from the great comedian Milton Burlon

and Terry Lewis, and George Burns and all these people.

He mastered it. He could do whatever you

wanted him to do physically, he could do it.

He really brought a great sense of physical comedy,

which is hard to do. It takes athleticism.

John trying to get on to the hammock

is one of the classic bits of comedy ever filmed.

John has trouble getting on to the hammock.

Or John gets on the hammock, that was it.

And there was like three to five minutes of him

bunching up the hammock, putting it on the thing,

trying to get on.

Voo, falling over.

Behind its bouncy veneer,

Three's Company has something to say.

As much as there was jiggle TV

and women being objectified, there were also two women

who lived with Jack who would check him

on any kind of sexist comment he would make.

This did not fit in with anything else on television.

It was really traditional families

living traditional lives

and suddenly we had these three young beautiful people

changing the rules.

It was revolutionary.

Three's Company's open portrayal

of a gay man, or in the case of Jack Tripper,

a man pretending to be gay, pushes social boundaries.

You didn't really talk about gay or gay issues.

So it was one area where Three's Company

was a little bit edgy.

Jack Tripper has to pretend he's gay

because the landlord doesn't want a man living

with two women because...

I love that the landlord didn't actually care

that Jack was pretending to be gay or gay,

he just didn't want a gentleman in the house

having pre-marital sex.

It demonstrates how messed up

and kind of confused American television was back then.

Meanwhile, the show gains viewers

and becomes a regular ratings winner.

As it does, members of the cast of Three's Company

revel in their new fame.

Well, some of them do.

When you're on a hit show like that,

there's a lot of publicity involved, doing interviews

for print and for TV.

Joyce kind of shunned publicity a little bit.

I don't know why.

There was a certain point where they were on

every magazine cover.

But were we all looking at John Ritter

or were we looking at Chrissy Snow?

Legendary ABC television executive

Fred Silverman, is thrilled about the show's success.

So thrilled he's already thinking about spin-offs.

All In The Family spun off Maude.

All In The Family spun off The Jeffersons.

ABC wanted to make the same money.

Like its British counterpart,

the show's producers turned to the landlords, the Ropers,

played by Norman Thell and Audra Linley.

When it came time, the powers that be

wanted to give Stanley and Ellen Roper their own show.

Where to look for the format?

Hey, they did that in England too.

Their marriage was always a hilarious coupling.

They had, like, a really dynamic chemistry.

The Ropers.

Hellen was constantly trying to get Stanley into the rack

and Stanley didn't want to have anything to do with it.

Here are these two older veteran character actors

who sometimes steal the show.

Apart from Suzanne Somers, the breakout stars

of Three's Company were the Ropers.

Mr. and Mrs. Roper were kind of the link

to the older generation, right?

And so Mr. Roper and Mrs. Roper, especially Mr. Roper,

would be the butt of the joke even though Mr. Roper

was making most of the jokes about homosexuality.

He was already the clown and the butt of the joke.

Norman Fell was perfect as Stanley Roper.

He had this way of breaking the fourth wall

and looking into the camera and giving this wide grin.

And it's not something that you can pull off easily

in a sitcom, to break the fourth wall and look at

the audience like that. But boy, he was great at it.

And in a way, it was Normal Fell and the show

saying, "Listen, I'm playing this character,

"he's this old stuffy guy, he's set in his ways,

"he's so close-minded, he's an idiot,

"I know that as well."

And that's when we would break the wall

and the show would allow him to break the wall

because the show would break the wall with him.

And say, "Look, we know this is stupid.

"You know, his Tinkerbell jokes, his homophobic jokes,

"we know this is stupid too."

And so that was a great way to communicate that

to the audience.

My favorite character in Three's Company, by far,

is Mrs. Roper.

She was the emotional conscience,

she was the Greek chorus, right?

Like telling us all really what was happening throughout.

She was actually, really, pulling all the strings.

Hellen Roper, his wife, was played by Audra Linley,

again a comic actress.

She was let in on the secret, on the second episode,

that Jack was not gay, and she figured it out.

But of course, rather than rat him out to Stanley,

she would much rather live his adventures vicariously.

Having Mrs. Roper in on that, uh,

also gave the older generation a chance to go,

"Hey, you know, not all of us

"are these close-minded people."

And I think Mrs. Roper was like a mother figure

who kind of understood that, you know, ideas

that Mr. Roper and people like Mr. Roper held on to

were ridiculous.

And the show revealed that with his homophobic slurs

and jabs and jokes and all that.

Just like his British counterpart,

Silverman thinks the Ropers are the perfect fit

for a spin off.

But there was one problem.

Norman Fell isn't interested.

It is 1978 and Three's Company

is in its third season.

The network decides to spin off the landlords,

giving the Ropers their own series.

But Norman Fell is hesitant to leave an established hit

for a new spin off with an uncertain future.

Norman Fell was made a promise,

they said, "If the show doesn't work out,

"you can come back to Three's Company."

They're like, "Just trust us, the Ropers are gonna be

"a hit, you can come back to Three's Company."

The network promises Fell

that if the spin off doesn't last one year,

the Ropers can return to Three's Company

and Fell finally agrees.

The Ropers leave Santa Monica for a plush condo

in Cheviot Hills, making way for Don Knotts to join the cast

as new building manager, Mr. Furley.

We got five-time emmy-award-winning

Don Knotts from the Andy Griffith Show.

I think I said to myself, "Well, we'll probably run

"for another five years because that's comedy gold

"right there."

That was another clear signal that Three's Company

was a big deal.

Because Don Knotts was already television royalty.

The Ropers premiers

as a mid-season replacement on March 13th, 1979.

The Ropers followed Three's Company

for its premier show.

The premier show of The Ropers pulled in a 56 share.

A 56 share is like Superbowl numbers then.

The show lasts a season and a half.

Its success is short lived but because it aired

more than that one year, Fell and Linley

would not return to Three's Company.

The show lasted a season and a half,

it never really caught on.

The writing was already on the wall

and that was just too bad.

I think there was a misunderstanding

that they were so popular they could carry

their own show, but they really couldn't.

And The Ropers episodes, if you watch the show,

they're not as strong, there's no physical comedian

like a John Ritter on the show.

The Ropers did not work out and he did not come back

to Three's Company and he's really heartbroken by that.

He loved the show but he did not come back.

Don Knotts, of course, came on as Mr. Furley

and he never left.

It didn't really make sense for the producers to bring

the Ropers back.

I felt bad for, you know, you know for them.

And the poor Ropers got ushered out

of Three's Company land, but what we got in return

was just as good and some might say even better,

in Mr. Furley.

It was legend time.

Thanks to Don Knotts as Mr. Furley,

Three's Company doesn't miss a beat.

When you bring up Three's Company with somebody,

the first question they ask, if they're a fan of this show

talking to another fan is, "Are you a Ropers guy

"or are you a Furley guy?"

And I always say I'm a Furley guy.

I loved when Don Knotts entered the show

as Ralph Furley, the new landlord.

And the hijinks just went up a notch.

It was like Barney Fife grown up and grown grey

and maybe gotten a little bit more with it

with a 70's wide-collared shirt and Playboy attitude.

He was a swinging bachelor himself,

although not a very successful one.

And the roommates were able to put one over on him.

Mr. Furley was the 1970's swinger.

He was a party man hitting on younger women.

His outfits were flying with 70's colors.

And he was homophobic like Mr. Roper,

so Jack Tripper had to pretend he was gay

for Mr. Furley.

And his spit takes on homosexuality

make me laugh and they also make me cry,

they really do.

He's a really hysterical hysterical character.

And he, of course, had an immense problem

with Jack being gay.

You know, he did not understand it.

And so all of that was just, like, you know,

boiled into this incredible new character.

I think the episode of "Snow Job" is one of his

greatest moments and it's so minute you have to catch it.

When Chrissy's trying to sell her cosmetic products

in the middle of a strip poker game

and Mr. Furley buys all her stuff.

For crying out loud, I'll take it all.

I'll take everything you got.

And it's Don Knotts' reaction when Don Knotts

just starts going, "Mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm."

Just to shut her up.

Mr. Furley, thank you so much!

Oh, you've made me so happy!

Thank you, thank you so much!

That is one of the greatest comedic moments.

Don Knotts as Mr. Furley, to this day, I think,

has the most interesting face that has ever been

on television.

And there is nobody like him, nobody who could contort

his expression in the way that Mr. Furley could.

With Jack Tripper, and Janet Wood,

and Chrissy Snow, there is something about

that chemistry that no matter who came into that sphere,

they would be lifted up as well.

By 1980, five seasons into its run,

Three's Company is one of the most popular

and profitable shows on television.

It started to take off.

It was half about the physical comedy of John Ritter

and then it was about the sex appeal of Chrissy Snow,

played by Suzanne Somers.

This is gonna be the John Ritter vehicle.

He was gonna be the star of Three's Company,

this was his show, it was built around him.

He was Jack Tripper, he was the guy.

Subsequently, that became part of the problem

because the breakout star for Three's Company

became, of course, Suzanne Somers.

God, I mean, listen, everybody was talking

about Suzanne Somers.

To the point where it led to a lot of drama.

John Ritter was paid substantially more

than Suzanne Somers.

Who was the star?

Was it John Ritter and his wacky slapstick comedy

or was it Suzanne Somers who was starting

to grace the covers of all these magazines?

Suzanne was very much in demand.

She was constantly doing interviews,

magazine covers.

She was quote-un-quote the next blonde after Farah.

Behind the scenes,

tensions over Somers growing fame have been brewing

since the show became a hit.

There was this big Newsweek story with the three stars.

And what happened, unfortunately,

is that Newsweek decided to shoot Suzanne Somers

also on her own and then insert her in front of

her two co stars.

And this just set up an entire, like, you know,

palace intrigue and backstage drama

for who was the bigger star.

I actively, I've said this many times,

sought the publicity.

It wasn't important in terms of ego,

it was important of, "Ah, that's good for this business."

This is my business.

That visibility then allows me to go to point B.

At her core, Suzanne Somers is a business woman.

And she knew that she was really valuable

to the franchise, that the show was thriving

very largely in part to her being there.

She is one of the hottest stars on television.

But Somers is earning less than her male co star,

John Ritter.

It was not at all uncommon for men and women

to make this dramatic difference of money.

Not only does she want to make as much

as Ritter, she wants to earn as much as the male stars

of other hit shows.

On MASH, ranked 10th in the ratings,

Alan Alda is making $200,000 an episode.

Somers is making $30,000 and episode as the star

of Three's Company which is rated number one.

Long before this was a topic we talked about,

Suzanne Somers was one of the first women in TV

to march into the boss' office and demand equal pay

for equal work.

I applaud her for wanting to be paid as much

as a male co star.

But unfortunately, and maybe even more so

for women, the audiences can turn on you

if they think that they have built you to who you are,

they have loved you in your show,

they have made you and now you're gonna turn around

and get greedy on them and wanna make more

per week than they'll make in a year.

The object was more money.

The main object was profit participation.

I own nothing of the show and it, um...

I've been working for 15 years.

So even though I'm called a flash in the pan,

I may be a flash in the pan in terms of recent exposure,

but I have worked long and hard to get where I am.

And my feeling was, the show is called Three's Company,

and I am one of Three's Company then it's only right

that I should share in the ownership.

A very small part, one or two points

was all I was asking for.

Because the show will be on for the next 25 years

and I will not receive a penny.

When they dared to say, "I'm the star of this show now,

"I'd like to be compensated accordingly."

The message that was always sent to them,

which is, "You, as a beautiful young woman,

"are interchangeable."

Five seasons into Three's Company,

it is time for the cast to renegotiate their contracts.

Suzanne Somers is arguably a breakout star of the series

but is being paid less than her male co star.

She demands equal pay and a share of the show's profits.

I feel that I am definitely in part responsible

for the success of Three's Company.

And I feel that when the benefits at the end

are in such enormous figures that it is not too much to ask

if they want me to continue to, to give 100%

as I do to the show and to support the show

and publicize the show, it is not too much to ask

to have a very very very small part

of the profit participation.

But when Somers tries to negotiate

for more money, the network balks at her demands.

It was framed in a way that she left

because she was demanding more money

and she was being difficult,

she was mad she wasn't getting her way.

And they framed her as the villain.

All she wanted was equal pay.

Kind of taints the show's legacy.

The woman cast as the beautiful objectified,

usually blonde person, in that 70's jiggle TV,

many of them met with that same fate.

The network won't budge and the show

is impacted.

My preference is to stay with the show,

that is what I said from the very beginning.

I never wanted to go.

I love Three's Company, I love the show,

I love my character.

Suzanne was punished for asking for more money.

They really really wanted to make a point

telling everybody at that show to shut up

and be happy and be grateful.

Suzanne fought back.

I remember we had to do one show

where she did not show up to the taping,

claiming a cracked rib, and so they distributed her lines

between me and Don Knotts.

Somers is still under contract

so ABC doesn't fire her outright.

Instead, Chrissy is given a sick relative to care for

off camera.

I have been relegated to 60 seconds a week

on the show and sometimes being written out completely.

Even though she was under contract,

viewers didn't get to see her act with her counterparts.

Instead we got Chrissy Snow in a room on a telephone

and literally phoning it in.

Suzanne was the reason people were tuning in.

Suzanne was being chased by paparazzi

while the other two were not.

She knew that and she knew her worth.

Actors often do get, if not ruined reputations,

they become infamous.

When you say an actor's name like Suzanne Somers,

that's one of the first things people think of, the money.

Those issues can follow an actor

and really do harm to their career.

The effect for Suzanne Somers, unfortunately,

at the time was that she was beginning to be labeled

difficult.

She was eventually written off the show

and her contract was not renewed.

I don't know if the show fell apart

without Suzanne Somers, but it definitely changed.

There is an impact emotionally and career-wise.

You're going, "is the show going to survive?"

I think what the producers did to Suzanne

was pretty awful.

You know, having her fulfill her contract

by doing remote phone calls on a separate soundstage.

That was uncomfortable for us.

I was told, they said, "We can't have Suzanne

"back on the show because John and Joyce

"have refused to go on the set with her."

I did not...

I can't believe that John and Joyce feel that way.

Part of the success of this show had been the chemistry

and suddenly everything fell apart.

Three's Company is marked by the departure

of Suzanne Somers, and of course Chrissy.

They were never able to recapture what they had.

The magic ended when Suzanne

really put her foot down and said,

"I deserve more money."

The chemistry changed and I think the viewers

really really felt it.

This is when the parade of blondes

start coming in. It's where, some say, the

show started jumping the shark.

When Suzanne Somers was fired,

everybody in Hollywood wanted this part.

Little fun fact, Heather Lockleer auditioned

to replace Suzanne Somers.

It was kind of unknown how the show would fair.

I know they were going after another blonde-haired

actress and they temporarily brought in Jenilee Harrison.

When Three's Company returns

for season six in 1981, Somers is gone.

Ritter and Dewitt stay on as Jack and Janet

as new roommates step in to fill Chrissy's shoes.

But the show never quite reclaims its magic.

Harrison, a former NFL cheerleader

for the Los Angeles Rams joins the cast as Cindy Snow,

Chrissy's cousin.

Cindy just didn't have the magic of Chrissy.

I felt bad for any actor who was replacing

Suzanne Somers at that moment.

It's very hard to fill those shoes.

The audience has spent five years falling in love

with Chrissy Snow.

And I think the producers were like,

"Oh, all we need to do is recast a perky, bouncy,

"hot blonde from California and we don't need

"Suzanne Somers."

And I think they were really wrong.

Where Chrissy was supposed to be dumb,

or slow, the twist on Cindy was she was a klutz.

There wasn't that much of a change to the show

and I found it to be redundant.

And it was kind of stagnating for me as a viewer.

She was a real trooper.

I think she knew, you know, coming in there wasn't really

sure where her role would go.

And then I think that's when they came up

with the idea about bringing Priscilla's role in

as a nurse to become the new roommate.

It's too bad for Jeniliee Harrison

that they couldn't continue on with her,

but as a fan of the show it was great

when Priscilla Barnes came in with Terry.

Harrison is replaced by Priscilla Barnes,

another blonde who plays a nurse named Terry Auldin.

Terry was a smart blonde, she was a nurse.

And she was kind of the antithesis of Chrissy Snow.

I was glad that they didn't just try to do a copycat

of Chrissy.

Priscilla Barnes was a great actress,

but she's definitely a way different actress

than Suzanne Somers.

In the 70's and even in the 80's,

you could be one of two types

if you were a woman on television.

You could either be the homemaker

or the secretary getting her boss coffee

or a superhero like Wonder Woman.

You couldn't just be a normal professional.

It was great to have characters like Terry.

Terry was just on the show as a professional nurse,

there was no hoopla given to her.

Just accepted.

And that, in itself, is groundbreaking.

People say that the character of Terry Auldin,

"Oh, wow, that's different."

"Now they got it right 'cause they did something

"so different because she's a nurse and she's smart."

Is she smart?

No one on that show is smart.

I think it's giving the show a little bit too much credit.

And by the 8th season,

the show's ratings are falling after nearly 7 seasons

as a top-10 show.

John Ritter would say this later in his life,

"Without a doubt, Suzanne Somers leaving the show,

"you know, it ultimately, you know, began its downfall."

There's no replacing Suzanne Somers,

with all due respect to Priscilla Barnes.

And she's even talked about that too,

that she had a really hard time, you know,

fulfilling that role, fulfilling the needs of the producers

at the time.

Barnes would later call her time

on Three's Company, the worst years of her life.

The show's 8th season will be its last.

It was actually the show's most critically-acclaimed

season. John Ritter won an Emmy

and a Golden Globe and the show won the

People's Choice award.

John getting an Emmy, I was there that night

at the theater when he got it. It was a great moment.

I mean, it really was a great moment.

As Three's Company comes to an end,

the network makes plans to hold on to Jack Tripper.

Unfortunately, no one tells the rest of the cast.

As Three's Company finishes

its 8th and final season, ABC and Ritter

develop a plan to hold on to Jack Tripper.

The ratings in the last year of the show

did decline.

And it was John's desire to stop production

because he didn't wanna go out at the bottom

of the ratings and I don't blame him.

The show was sort of losing its thunder

but John Ritter was an acting powerhouse.

And they spun the show off into Three's A Crowd

and everybody else on Three's Company

got pretty angry that John Ritter did this.

The idea, midway through what became

the last season of Three's Company,

to create Three's A Crowd.

And they didn't really tell anybody other than

John Ritter.

And they held auditions in secret for the role

that went to Mary Cadorette.

And so all these other actors on Three's Company

didn't necessarily know that their show was ending

and they were gonna be out of a job.

Dewitt, one of the last to hear,

feels betrayed.

To say that she wasn't happy is an understatement.

I think Joyce felt that the producers betrayed her,

'cause it's the same producers.

She was very upset about how it played out.

Three's A Crowd launches

in September, 1984, one week after the final episode

of Three's Company.

It was a really great show title,

it was a really bad show.

So, the idea was that they would take this huge audience

with Three's Company and move it over to

Three's A Crowd, but no Chrissy, no Janet, no Terry,

just Jack. Did not work out.

The show only lasts one season.

I think it was a combination of a thin premise

and audience disappointment, having loved Three's Company,

that kind of doomed it.

Dewitt and Ritter's friendship

ultimately recovers and she goes on to do guest roles

on other shows.

But Three's Company remains her most famous role.

Despite the failure of Three's A Crowd,

Ritter goes on to have a prolific career.

John Ritter now was comedy gold.

He would do other TV series.

It really made him a bonafide household name.

Ritter's acting career

takes a serious turn with a supporting role

in the Oscar-winning Sling Blade

before he headlines another ABC hit comedy,

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.

He got sick on the set and was transported

to a hospital that happened to be across the street

from the Disney lot, when he was feeling ill.

John Ritter dies suddenly

of an aortic dissection at age 54.

His death was a loss for the acting community

and the Hollywood community, not only because

he was a great talent and a great physical actor,

but he was a nice guy.

Everybody I know who has met John Ritter

has nothing but nice things to say about the guy.

This was a TV icon for sure,

who worked steadily throughout his entire career

from The Waltons to 8 Simple Rules.

He had reconciled with Suzanne Somers,

and only recently.

It's really interesting how fate does that.

The career of Suzanne Somers

takes years to recover after her exit

from Three's Company.

She did have a lull in her career.

It did hurt her for a while and she did lesser shows,

like infamously she's the sheriff.

And eventually ABC would rehire her in the 90's

for a show called Step By Step.

She became a singer, she had, like, her own,

like, you know, tour.

She had did a couple of TV movies.

And then, most notably, she got into infomercials

and launched her own product.

And this is where, you know, her brain and her savvy

really came into play.

Because the woman is like a mega-zillionaire

because of products.

I know Suzanne Somers, I've spent time with her.

She might have portrayed a ditzy blonde on the show,

but in real life she's the smartest person

I've ever met.

You don't get to still be in the TV business,

still making a ton of money, still looking fantastic,

if you're not the boss.

Suzanne got the last laugh.

I do think history's gonna be very kind to her.

Three's Company was an icon

of 70's television but it has a new generation

laughing today with its timeless approach to comedy.

Physical comedy is timeless.

Whether Mrs. Roper is at a flower arranging course.

Shhh.

Whether Jack Tripper takes some pills.

These kinds of physical comedy episodes

and moments, will always entertain an audience

of any generation.

It's being rediscovered by different generations.

You'll have people in their 70's,

"I remember back in the day when I watched..."

And then you'll have like 20 year olds going,

"Oh, I love that show." I go, "What, seriously?"

It brings us back to a time when we were all

a little bit more innocent, where we could fall

for silly slapstick humor and silly misunderstandings.

It was vaudeville.

You think about what's going on in the world

in the late 70's, there's a lot of turmoil,

there's a lot of indecision and uncertainty

in America and so we were looking for complete levity,

absurdity, and just laughter.

And that's what Three's Company really gave America.

The problems were never all that serious.

I think it just made people feel better.

The impact of Three's Company

and its legacy, there are Three's Company shows

everywhere and they're still going on today.

Nowadays, when we see the Friends' reunion

and we see six young adults living together

and working together and being friends together,

a lot of people don't realize Three's Company

was there before any Friends ever happened.

And that was the proto Friends of their generation.

It was Jack and Chrissy and Janet.

And mixing the sexes up like that

really opened up an entire new world.

The show was such a hit, I think everybody in America

looked at relationships in a very different way.

We looked at friendships, we looked at love,

we looked at passion.

This show portrayed many different forms of love.

It was a new way of looking at a very new world.