Come and Knock on Their Door! Secrets of ‘Three’s Company’ Uncovered

Becoming a part of the popular conversation in the mid-1970s was the phrase “Jiggle Television,” which was designed by NBC to be an insult to ABC’s programming of the time. Instead, it became a short-hand, if you will, to describe shows like Lynda Carter‘s Wonder Woman, the Ladies of Charlie’s Angels, and, of course, Three’s Company. The latter focuses on Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers), Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt), and Jack Tripper (the late John Ritter), living together platonically and pretending that Jack is gay to keep their landlords, the Ropers (Norman Fell and Audra Lindley), at bay. The show would turn out to be a combination of slapstick humor and sexual innuendo usually arising from misunderstanding — and it was a huge hit.

“If you look back to ’70s sitcoms,” explains Chris Mann, author of 1998’s Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three’s Company (which is being readied for an updated edition coming next year) in an exclusive interview, “you had All in the Family, which was so huge, and political and raw and real. And the same people who did Three’s Company had been writers on that show and went on to create and produce The Jeffersons, which was a spinoff of All in the Family. But they put that show in a lighter, more whimsical manner, so the time was right for a show like Three’s Company. So I think that Three’s Company initially resonated because it titillated viewers with sexual innuendos, sight gags, and really provocative banter about sex that had not been traversed so much in sitcoms.

“At the same time,” he continues, “it became and stayed a Top 10 hit because it was a hysterical farce that made people laugh out loud. Once John Ritter’s physical comedy took over, and the show became more of a comedy misunderstanding — sexual and otherwise — it gave people a chance to feel liberated through laughter. The thing about Three’s Company is that people always assume the worse about others, and whether it was Mr. Roper fearing they were having orgies or whatever, it kind of showed us how we do jump to conclusions. Unless it’s a really sort of tragic situation, in general, there’s something innately funny about that.”

Not quite so funny was the behind-the-scenes drama that took place on the series, tearing relationships apart and threatening the longevity of Three’s Company as a whole.

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John Ritter handled fame in stride.

It wasn’t too long into the show — which was in the Top 10 ratings for much of its 1977-84 run — before it caught the attention of the audience and became something of a pop culture phenomenon. This, in turn, had a powerful impact on its trio of stars who were all fairly early in their careers.
“John had done The Waltons for four years,” Chris explains. “He was a face that was popping up on all the MTM shows like Rhoda, Newhart, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He also starred in The Barefoot Executive. So he was a face people were pretty familiar with, but because he grew up in showbiz with his dad [Tex Ritter] being this huge Western star, he was instilled with these sort of heartland values and took everything in stride. He had been around the block; he lived it. He saw how his dad handled it, so I think it excited him. It was a heady experience for all of them. I don’t see how it couldn’t be.”

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Suzanne Somers sought out being a celebrity.

Suzanne Somers, prior to the show, had appeared in a number of films, most notably as the mysterious blond who intrigues Richard Dreyfuss in George Lucas’ American Graffiti. On television, she appeared in shows like The Rockford Files and Starsky & Hutch. But she was someone, according to Chris, who was hungry for stardom.

“Suzanne wanted to be a celebrity,” he states. “And she was business savvy. She had been quite poor at times, as a single mom, and she was a few years older, so she really approached this as ‘Suzanne, Inc.’ That worked to her benefit for a while, but ultimately, contractually, John Ritter was the star and the show was designed around his acting experience and his comedic talents. He had also done improv classes with Robin Williams, so he had this undeniable talent. And the producers, of course, saw him as the star. Suzanne broke out as Chrissy as, again, a very ambitious and savvy media celebrity, but the show was always going to be about a guy and two girls. And that created some tension when the media started to portray it as more a vehicle for Suzanne Somers’ jiggling or whatever. She created a funny character in Chrissy, but two realities were happening with what the show was: how it was written and billed, and then how the narrative in the media was making the show seem like Suzanne was the star.”

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Joyce DeWitt was interested in acting, not stardom.

Joyce began acting on stage at the age of 13 and had appeared on an episode of Baretta prior to her being cast as Janet on Three’s Company.

“Joyce,” Chris says, “was a theater actor. She, I don’t think, was prepared for the machinations of Hollywood at all. I don’t think she was ready for the publicity machine either, and she pulled back when she decided to put herself out there. It was not an easy experience for her. So those were the three reactions. On one hand, you had John; on the other, you had Suzanne either cultivating celebrity or adjusting to it; and then you had Joyce in the middle having a lot of conflict about how to navigate.”

A prime example of what was happening took place during the show’s second season when Newsweek did a cover story. While initially, the trio of stars was thrilled with the attention, apparently Suzanne made a move that genuinely affected their relationship…

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Things kind of imploded thanks to a magazine cover.

As Chris details, “Joyce wanted to be known as an actor and not a celebrity, and a lot of that feeling grew out of a Newsweek cover story. Suzanne had her photo shoot before or after the shoot of the trio, which John and Joyce were very uncomfortable with, having Suzanne featured. She had other shots of her in front of the pink or blue screen in a nightie. One of those shots was super-imposed over the image that Newsweek had of the three of them, and that created a lot of tension behind the scenes. It also further conflicted Joyce about doing publicity, because she felt lied to.”

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