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In 1977, the sitcom Three’s Company upended social convention with hilarious results and became an instant hit for ABC. But by 1981, amid behind-the-scenes footage from its fifth season, cast member Suzanne Somers, who played Chrissy Snow, had fallen out. She and co-star Joyce DeWitt, who played Janet Wood, hadn’t spoken to each other in more than 30 years. So what happened?
Failed contract negotiations, not personal disputes within the cast, were at the root of the problem. In 1980, Somers demanded equal pay with co-star John Ritter, who played Jack Tripper, and other male TV stars of the time. According to People, that meant asking for $150,000 an episode, up from $30,000 an episode.
Instead of coming to an agreement, the producers fired Somers from the show. Her husband, Alan Hamel, a former TV producer who represented his wife in negotiations, told People that the move was intended to discourage other women from following Somers’ example.
Adding to the tension, Somers still had to complete Season 5, but she was not allowed to interact with the rest of the cast. Instead, her scenes were limited to awkward phone conversations filmed on a backlot, where the actress was escorted to and from by a police officer.
Eventually, the character of Chrissy was replaced—first by cousin Cindy Snow (Jenilee Harrison) and then by nurse Terri Alden (Priscilla Barnes) from 1981 until the show ended in 1984.
More than three decades after the controversy, Somers and DeWitt finally reunited in February 2012. On Somers’ talk show Breaking Through, the pair shared an emotional hug and talked about their differing perspectives and divergent paths.
For Somers, who parlayed her Three’s Company fame into a Las Vegas act and later became a talk show host, author, and health and wellness entrepreneur, it was always about business. She explained that when she took on the role of Chrissy, she was a single mother in need of money (she married her second husband, Hamel, after taking over the show). This is in stark contrast to the craft-focused DeWitt, who studied theater in college and earned a master’s in fine arts from UCLA.
“I always thought of this as a business venture… in a group of serious actors. Maybe I made you angry,” Somers said.
DeWitt, who went on to have a successful theater career after the comedy ended, thanked Somers for the opportunity to “walk the talk,” explaining that whenever asked about the hype surrounding the show, “I’ve always said that the only reason Three’s Company is worth remembering is because it gave us all an opportunity to laugh together, to celebrate joy. That was a profound gift.”
She also made clear another major difference between the two: DeWitt never sought fame and has deliberately avoided it over the years. Still, she expressed the deepest respect for Somers’ accomplishments. “You fought back against cruelty, and it fell apart,” she said, but “what you did was monumental.”
In the second half of the segment, the two continued to reminisce about Ritter, who died in 2003. Somers described him as “the greatest real-life comedian of our time.”
While Somers and DeWitt had their differences, it’s safe to say that the so-called battleaxe has been laid to rest. In fact, in 2023, when DeWitt appeared in a country music video for the Davisson Brothers Band’s single “Home,” we caught a sweet tribute to her Three’s Company co-stars: In one scene, the camera lingered on a framed photo of the three together, Chrissy, Jack, and Janet.
