From the TV screen to the exercise machine.
“Three’s Company” star Suzanne Somers passed away Sunday at the age of 76 after a battle with breast cancer.
During her long career in showbiz, she made her fortune starring on the hit ’70s sitcom, as well as being a spokeswoman for the contraption, the ThighMaster.
But as to how she got to be a part of the thigh-busting equipment empire, is a tale within itself.
Somers was best known for playing the ditzy blonde Chrissy Snow on “Three’s Company” from 1977 to 1981 alongside late star John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt.
Ritter was reportedly being paid $150,000 per episode — and Somers wanted to be on the same playing field.
She asked the network executives for equal pay and demanded a salary bump similar to the “8 Simple Rules” alum.
But they didn’t back down and only offered her a $5,000 increase.
After reportedly being pushed out, Somers had to find work to help pay her bills, including doing a spread for Playboy and even jetting off to Las Vegas to headline the casino hotel, the Horseshoe.
Then in 1990, an opportunity arose. Somers was asked to advertise the ThighMasters in a plethora of commercials. She went on to make millions.
She revealed on the “Hollywood Raw” podcast last year how much she actually made from the sweat-inducing machine.
“I grew up poor. And I live a good life,” she said, adding that she has made “$300 million” from the ThighMaster over the decades.
According to CNBC, once she passed the $10 million mark, she stopped counting how many devices she had sold.
She then told the outlet how much she loves her fans who purchased her product.
“Always tell the truth,” she explained at the time. “The public is smart, and they can smell BS.”
As for how she became an investor for the company, she told Entrepreneur in 2020: “I had bought this pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes that were at that time, 500 bucks. I was in my dressing room and thought, ‘Oh my husband is going to think this is so crazy spending this much money.’”
“But for me, they were perfect,” she went on. “So I walked out of my dressing room in my underwear and I said to my husband, ‘Like my new shoes?’ And he said, ‘Great legs!’ And I went, ‘Oh my God, that’s the commercial!’ That’s how we started the commercial if you recall.”
Amid her exercise success, she scored another major gig in her Hollywood career. In 1991, she won the role of Carole Foster-Lambert in the sitcom “Step by Step.”
Somers also added to her net worth by penning 27 books on health and wellness.
“I’ve written 27 books on health. I’ve done 16 or 18 years of series television, I’ve given lectures — and the thing I am best known for is the ThighMaster!” she said of her business endeavors to Entrepreneur.
“I think it was the tagline: ‘You just put it between your knees and squeeze.’ It was the right product, the right place, the right timing, the right spokesperson — the right everything,” she recalled. “It was a perfect storm.”
