Handcuffed

Comedy hijinks don't get much more hysterical than with this classic 'Three's Company' episode. Jay Garfield (Daniel Trent, "My Blue Heaven") is an absent-minded cop who comes to the apartment to investigate a complaint, and he ends up leaving his handcuffs behind. Jack & Chrissy horse around a little, ending up handcuffed to each other, and this causes no end of ridiculous, hilarious situations.

A definite highlight is the "cake eating" scene, wherein Jack & Chrissy try to pull the wool over the eyes of a suspicious cop (Alan Manson, "Let's Scare Jessica to Death"), but a runner-up would be the scene where Jack still tries to keep a date with "Brenda, the human blender" (the gorgeous Heather Lowe, "American Hot Wax") at the Regal Beagle.

Not to be left out of all the fun, Don Knotts adds to the hilarity as a fumbling Furley thinks he can get the cuffs off using a blowtorch!

John & Suzanne both get to exercise some serious physical comedy chops here, and the episode sees both Jack & Janet get doors slammed in their faces. Even the beginning is priceless, with the roommates getting their groove on to some decidedly goofy music. And, as it turns out, Jay & Chrissy may be distant cousins, but they still have that snorting laughter in common!

Nine out of 10.

I think this might be my favorite Three's Company episode!

I'm watching TV Land and this came on. I may have watched this at least 10x+ and never gets old. The jokes and hi jinx and physical comedy between John Ritter and Suzanne Somers makes this episode so damn hilarious. It's too bad this was Suzanne's Somer's last season before she was let go. The show was never the sane after that. It was OK, but Chrissy was just as hilarious as Jack. Also, the Ropers are gone Don Knotts/or Mr. Furley is on this episode. The Ropers are also another missing link to the best years / episodes of Three's Company.

Kim Weiskopf wrote this episode over the Christmas Break when he and his wife Jody spent the Holidays with her family in southern Illinois. There had been some kind of contest to suggest a pretext for an episode, and the winner suggested a situation where Chrissie and Jack somehow are handcuffed together. Kim was not happy about being assigned to do the script, but he persevered and wrote it while at his sister-in-law's house. The references in the script to Uncle Bud and Aunt Vi are the names of two of Jody's favorite relatives. I still remember Kim reading the script to Jody while they were seated at the kitchen table. That was then I realized that writing situation comedy was much more difficult than I realized. I never saw the episode until many years later, long after the series had ended.