When Three’s Company star Suzanne Somers realized she was becoming more and more popular on the 1970s sitcom, she eventually asked for a pay raise once her contract on the show was up for renewal.
As a result of her daring request, her contract was not renewed, she was made to finish out her final episodes apart from her co-stars Joyce DeWitt and John Ritter, and neither spoke to her for decades.
Here’s how DeWitt and Somers made up for good after so many years of misunderstanding.
Somers asked for a raise
Three’s Company began airing on ABC in March of 1977. Only six episodes had been ordered for its first season but soon the network knew it had a hit on its hands. The chemistry between John Ritter as Jack Tripper, Joyce DeWitt as Janet Wood and Somers as Chrissy Snow was obvious to viewers and the show took off.
Somers asked for more money in 1980 when her contract was ready for renewal. The comedy was only gaining in popularity and the actor felt her pay should be equal to that of her male co-star Ritter. Unfortunately, ABC execs disagreed and refused to raise her pay.
The actor was being paid $30,000 an episode while Ritter received $150,000 for each show. As Somers said in 2020, the experience caused strife for her personally and with her cast mates.
“I probably would have never left network series,” she said. “I would have kept on going and probably been in every sitcom after that were it not to end the way it ended. But I was ostracized. So I went away.”
Somers ended up making her way in Las Vegas in the 1980s, headlining her own show.
The Chrissy Snow actor thought Ritter wouldn’t speak to her again
In her memoir Two’s Company, Somers revealed that Ritter called her a month before his 2003 death from an aortic dissection.
She said in her 2017 book that Ritter right away said, “‘I forgive you.’ I had a moment of, ‘Uh, you forgive me?’ And then I thought, ‘Be the grownup.’ And so I said, ‘Thanks.’”
Ritter then invited her to appear on his then-new comedy series.
“He said, ‘I’m doing a show called 8 Simple Rules and there’s a dream sequence and I want to have a nightmare, and in my nightmare, you… are in the dream.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to work with you again, but… This isn’t the way I want to come back, a nightmare. Really?’”
The two ended their call with sincere plans to collaborate on a project at some point but it wasn’t meant to be.
“We probably would’ve found a project, which would’ve worked,” she wrote. “I always thought Jack Tripper should’ve married Chrissy Snow anyway and that should be the spin off. I’m glad I had that resolution with him. Really glad.”
Somers and DeWitt’s reconciliation after decades of silence
After Somers left Three’s Company in 1980, over 30 years would pass before she and DeWitt would speak again. But speak they did.
The blonde actor invited her former co-star to appear in 2012 on her Breaking Through web show and made up for lost time.
Admitting she was feeling “a little nervous,” Somers invited DeWitt out and the two embraced, with the Janet Wood actor saying, “Thank you for creating this opportunity, babe.”
