The Ugly Reality of 1970s Television.
Three’s Company was a surprise hit for ABC, and both John Ritter and Suzanne Somers were top stars in the American media market. Sommers and her husband Allan Hamill saw this and decided (quite rightly) that she deserved a raise that was equal to or even higher than Ritter’s because she was the main reason viewers watched the show. They decided to take a hard line in the upcoming contract negotiations.
Unfortunately for the Hamills, ABC was greedy and short-sighted. The network assumed (incorrectly) that they could hire “any blonde” and viewers would be happy with that. Things got worse when the network began pitting different actors against each other, and then relegated Sommers to an off-screen role while they attempted to “negotiate” her salary demands. Ultimately, no deal could be reached and Sommers left the show.
At the time, ABC wasn’t too worried, as they had once again misjudged Sommers’ popularity with viewers and the weakness of the rest of the cast without her. They found a new blonde, then another when she didn’t fit. They gave Ritter a fiancée, they added veteran comedian Robert Mandan to the cast, and they tried to do more with co-star Joyce DeWitt. All to no avail as the show’s ratings began to decline. The series was eventually canceled after being spun off from what they believed was a sequel (Three’s A Crowd), where Ritter proved he couldn’t carry the load on his own, as it was canceled after a single season.
Ritter and DeWitt let their egos get the better of their common sense, and they became angry with Sommers instead of sticking together and salvaging what turned out to be their most successful acting venture. While Ritter was able to carve out a small feature film career, direct a few TV shows, and later star in Eight Simple Rules (a series he worked on until his untimely death), DeWitt’s career after Three’s Company took a nosedive and never recovered. Had they taken a tougher stance, they could all have gone on to have successful careers whenever the show went off the air.
Sommers’ career also suffered, although with her comedies Step by Step, She’s the Sheriff, her video and fitness equipment business, and her talk show, she was able to build an even more successful career than she had while still on Three’s Company. While she and DeWitt made a big deal out of their reconciliation, the reality was that Sommers never had to, as the general public had largely forgotten who Joyce DeWitt was. ABC got greedy and thought they could replace Suzanne Sommers with any blonde girl off the street. They pitted the show’s performers against each other, and the result was a valuable property that declined and was canceled after two casting changes for Sommers’ role. In hindsight, a partial pay raise for Sommers might have allowed the show to continue, and that would have made it worth a lot more on the air than if it had gone haywire and changed cast members.
