Three's a Crowd

The finale of Three's Company has Janet having her wedding in the apartment. Jack Tripper (John Ritter) and flight attendant girlfriend Vicky Bradford (Mary Cadorette) get into a fight caused by her disapproving father James (Robert Mandan). She turns down Jack's marriage proposal due to her parents' troubled divorce. Jack agrees to live together with her in an apartment above the restaurant. The couple is surprised by her dad who bought the building along with the restaurant from Mr. Angelino. Jack hires surfer dude EZ Taylor as his assistant chef. A recurring role is Vicky's mother Claudia (Jessica Walter).

Three's Company presents itself as a young, sexy sitcom but at its core, it's a standard conservative show. The problem with the sequel is that it starts with Jack being the conservative partner. Vicky is doubly a dud. They're like an old married couple despite their living-in-sin situation. That's fine but nothing else is funny. Mandan is a standard sitcom comedic heavy. EZ contributes nothing. No matter how hard John Ritter tries, few of this works. The basic premise is flawed and it gets tired trying to live up to its predecessor's success. The title probably came first and then the premise got assembled after that. I would have put a young teen girl as the third wheel in the apartment. That would be a more direct symmetry to the first show. It would also allow Jack and Vicky be the old couple trying to corral a rebellious teen who would essentially be the new Chrissy. In that case, the dad James would become the Ropers and Mr. Furley and Mr. Angelino combined into one. It's an easier group than this one. The continuing conflict between Jack and Vicky about marriage gets tiresome. Even the theme song sounds tired. Despite being a new show, this is actually running on fumes from its predecessor. As for Janet and Jack doing the new show together, Janet would definitely have more chemistry than Vicky. It's still no guarantee that it would work much better. It's not like the show had a great track record of good spinoffs.

After fantastic 8 seasons of "Three's company" I was left disappointed with how the things wrapped up for the gang - the creators basically crumpled Terri & Janet's character's exits from the show instead focusing the last episodes on Jack and his new relationship with Vicky almost completely. Suffice it to say that Three's a crowd felt out of place and none of the cast members (except Richard Klein's Larry) ever appeared on the show or were even mentioned by name once: after so much time together the creators could have at least acknowledged their own characters with a line or two. Besides this fact the series was flat, tired and uninspiring and there are only 3-4 episodes out of the whole season of 22 that really stand out - all the rest is filler leading the characters nowhere; multiple episodes ended without proper resolution of the story arcs - so what was the point of this whole show? Beats me. Though there was a nice addition to the cast in the face of E.Z. character played marvellously by Alan Campbell and John Ritter and Mary Cadorette were a great on-screen couple, they sadly got their chemistry wasted on this mess of a TV spin-off of a far superior original.

Just finished a Three's Company marathon, complete with spin-offs (I also wrote a review for The Ropers).

TAC is not as bad as some other reviewers have stated, but it's certainly a letdown after Three's Company. It doesn't help that by the time Season 8 of Three's Company came around, the show had grown a bit stale: still enjoyable but running out of steam. That does not make for a great hand-off to the new show.

And the new show is in a lot of ways the same as the old show, only much more tepid. Mary Cordette as Vicki Bradford, Jack's girlfriend, is perfectly fine, but comedy is not her metier. Robert Mandan as Mr. Bradford is a pro. His presence is stabilizing, as is the reoccurring role of Jessica Walter as Claudia, Vicki's mother. Alan Campbell as Jack's surfer-dude sous-chef is a bit grating.

But tepidity is the issue. The show doesn't know what it wants to be. The first five or six episodes are sluggish because they mostly continue the new-couple-in-love storyline that, quite frankly, dragged down the final episodes of Three's Company. In fact, this rom-com-lite feel permeates the entire single season of TAC. Other times, the show tries to go for the tried-and-true formulae of TC: the physical pratfalls of Ritter, the double-entendres, the overheard conversations, the misunderstood conversations. Occasionally, they are hilarious, and one is briefly reminded of the pure farce of TC.

Farce. That's what I and so many viewers loved about TC. The original show did not try to be serious. It did not try to lecture or pander. It refused to turn mawkish or maudlin (NOTE: The show's final hour-long episode is an exception, awkwardly going for gush instead of gut-busting laughs). TAC, thus, is in an awkward position. If it tries to rehash TC's blueprint, it risks being lambasted as unoriginal. If it tries to go in a different direction--lukewarm and fuzzy romance with dashes of humor added in--the show is also painted into a corner.

Nonetheless, the show is far from awful. In fact, it finds its semi-stride for a number of mid-season episodes. TAC is harmless and nostalgic, especially for anyone, like me, who misses Ritter, Three's Company, and 80s neon fashion!

While I was lucky to get hold of all 22 episodes of Three's a Crowd on DVD, I'm not surprised it lasted just one season. They were running out of ideas and some of the jokes were getting a bit stale. Another well known fact was that Three's a Crowd was a spin off to Three's Company, yet while watching the former, its almost as there never was a latter. How many times in TC we heard Janet, Jack, Chrissy, Cindy, Terri etc say how they were the best friends they ever had, but in TAC, its as if Janet, Chrissy, Cindy and Terri never existed. I mean if you have best friends, then it is expected that you will keep in touch with them and meet up with them from time to time. With the exception of the appearance of Larry in one episode of TAC, there is not a word mentioned of Janet, Chrissy, Cindy, Terri, the Ropers and Furley. One would expect Jack to occasionally talk about living with Janet, Chrissy, Terri, Cindy, Lana or the Ropers and Furley and tell Vicky about some of the outrageous situations they found themselves in. After all he spent so many years with them. Its as if he's forgotten all about them. To add a touch of reality or authenticity to the show, they could have shown Janet and her husband come by to Jack's Bistro for a meal in a few episodes (married couples do eat out, especially if their best friend owns a restaurant!) or for Jack to receive an occasional phone call from Terri or Cindy or have Furley (or even the Ropers) drop by the Bistro to see how Jack was doing in his new life or as I mentioned before, tell Vicky about those amusing situations he and the girls got themselves into when they shared that apartment. That is what I missed the most. I actually missed the past characters and I think that was one of the essential ingredients missing from TAC. It might have fared better if they would have occasionally pulled in some of the old cast members as guest stars, but its all water under the bridge now and long gone. Either way, we shall never see comedy like that again and I'm glad we now have them all immortalized on DVD.

When i look back at three's Company, I see one of the greatest comedys of all time. Every episode was a classic. With or without Somers (who was by far not the star of the show) the show was great. But when i stop and think about what would of been one of the greatest ideas for any show, was to have JAck and Janet realize there feelings for one another and fall in love. The show would of been REborn or it quiet possibly would of Started a very Succsessful spinoff. and what is funny is how i look at other peoples comments and think the same exact thing. Why didnt the Producers think about this. John and Joyce's chemestry was one of the best TV has ever seen....(Way better then with Somers was with Ritter). I could guarentee that the show or the spinoff would of Lasted alot longer and people would be very intrested in New jokes about MArriage..Parents and even Kids eventually. If you think about it.....the show lasted 7 years with just Dating....it could quiet easily lasted another 7 in the marriage state. John Ritters new show (which is quite good) could of had him and Joyce being the PArents of there daughters. If the actors and producers wanted to commit themselves...Three's Company could of lasted twice as long as it did...or its spinoff being just as classic as the original show.

Just think on what might it could of been! Its makes me sad.