The Ropers leave Three’s Company for their own self-titled spinoff, Dick Loudon fills in for “Pirate Pete” and chilling late-night calls arrive from the Twilight Zone.
Three’s Company: “An Anniversary Surprise” & “Moving On” (The Ropers)
Antenna TV, 7pm & 7:30pm
The Three’s Company episode “An Anniversary Surprise” first aired on ABC March 13, 1979, during the classic sitcom’s third season, and it marked the departure of popular characters Stanley and Helen Roper (Norman Fell and Audra Lindley), who were Jack (John Ritter), Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy’s (Suzanne Somers) landlords.
In one of the series’ many hilarious cases of misunderstanding, the episode finds Helen and the three roommates mistakenly believing that Stanley is having an affair.
But the supposed “other woman” is actually a real estate agent (Ruta Lee) who has been working with Stanley to sell the building and help find a new home for himself and his wife in another part of L.A.
The episode sets up the Ropers’ departure into their own sitcom, The Ropers, which originally also debuted on ABC March 13, 1979, following the Three’s Company “An Anniversary Surprise” installment. The first episode of The Ropers, called “Moving On,” often appears in syndication — as it does in this Antenna TV airing — as an extra Three’s Company episode.
“Moving On” finds Stanley and Helen settling into the upscale Cheviot Hills area, and while the social-climbing Helen tried to fit in with their new neighbors (including the particularly snobbish realtor Jeffrey P.
Brookes III, played by Jeffrey Tambor, who lived right next door), Stanley being Stanley could not have cared less about impressing them.
The Ropers ended up not being nearly as successful as its parent series, lasting only two seasons. Stanley and Helen returned to Three’s Company once more, in a Season 5 guest spot, and, of course, by then, the trio’s new landlord — Ralph Furley (Don Knotts) — had settled in as a popular addition after arriving early in Season 4.
There was a little talk in the late 1980s of bringing the Ropers back in yet another spinoff called Three Apartments, but that never progressed.
