Researching this answer made me kind of sad all the way around. I consider Don Knotts one of our national comedy treasures. I remember the Andy Griffith show from my childhood. Later when he left Andy Griffith and started doing movies I loved his movies like The Shakiest Gun in the West, The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and my favorite The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
Three’s Company was on from 1977–1984. Knotts was on the show from 1979–1984 after the Roper’s left for their spinoff. Keep in mind salaries in TV at the time were not the super salaries we see today for shows like Friends and The BIg Bang Theory where key players are making up to a million+ an episode.
Knotts himself said he struggled to find work in the late 1970’s, so he was very surprised to be sought out and offered the role in Three’s Company. He felt he was a little out of his depth as the shows he had previously worked on were one camera shows and Three’s Company was a 3 camera setup. He received a standing ovation from the studio audience on his first day of filming, so he needn’t have worried!
After wading through a ton of old material it appears these were the salaries at the 4th season mark:
John Ritter $50,000 an episode
Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt $30,000 per episode*
Don Knotts $1,250 per episode**
*Somers and DeWitt started at $3,500 per episode for the first year of their contract. That rate was increased to $30,000 over the first four years. When Somers made her pay demands, her husband/manager’s opening negotiation was for $150,000 per episode and a 10% share of the show. The show countered with a $5000 per episode increase to $35,000 per episode. Talks broke down before they got much further. The studio accused Somers of doing a sick out for three weeks. Somers claimed she had broken ribs. The studio in retaliation locked her out of the studio and parred her role down to a 1 minute monologue each week. Somers went on the talk show circuit to air her grievances, shortly thereafter she was fired and replaced.
**I find it unbelievable that Knotts only pulled down $1,250 per episode. That would be only $32,000 a year. Shows at that time shot approximately half of the year creating 24–26 shows for the season. Half hour shows typically shot one show a week, rehearsing and blocking for 4 days and shooting with a live audience the 5th day. More digging and I found phrasing that indicated the $1,250 per episode was only for the first season. After the first season, he was signed for an additional 5 season contract, that indicated there would be regular pay raises each season. The ladies pay increased by about 8.6X from their first year to the 4th year. Assuming Knotts had a similar rate of reward, that would be $10,750 by the 4th year. That sounds like a more reasonable difference between the pay rates of the principal actors.
My research shows that all the websites and Google searches that say Ritter earned $150,000 per episode to Somers $30,000 are incorrect. Ritter NEVER pulled that down. That number was thrown out by Somer’s manager as an opening negotiation bid. Because Somer’s and her manager (husband Alan Hamel) always talked about the salary in terms of pay parity with Ritter people assumed that was what he was making.
The original contracts for the principals caused some of the long-term issues that forced Somers out. Ritter, by contract had to ALWAYS receive the most pay of anyone on the show because he was the designated “star” (even though he only had a recurring role on The Waltons on his resume). Somers and DeWitt had “pairing clauses” in their contracts. Whatever one got the other got for the life of the show. No one had a percentage of the show, even RItter.
One nugget I found in my research was that when the rest of the cast and crew iced out Somers for her salary demands he made sure he always spoke to her and ate lunch with her. He made it clear to everyone he sided with her on the salary dispute. He had a soft heart for her attempt as he had tried unsuccessfully to renegotiate his salary for the entire 5 years he was on the Andy Griffith Show. He never did get an increase which still pained him as he thought he was a key component to the show’s success.
