As this thread would certainly encourage, yours truly has gotten a renewed interest in Three's Company here recently. Because of this, I decided to re-watch the first season of the show that I've had on DVD for some time, but that I haven't watched in a couple of years.
Episodic Overview
Three's Company came onto the airways on March 15, 1977. Its first episode, "A Man About the House", is perhaps one of the best pilot episodes I've seen for a TV series in a long time. (Keep in mind, however, it's been a while since I've started watching a new series, and this itself wasn't technically new, but it some ways it kind of reads that way in my mind.) As we know, the episode follows this plot: roommates Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy (Suzanne Somers) awaken one morning after having a going away party for their fellow roommate Eleanor. Once they go into their bathroom, they find a man, by the name of Jack (John Ritter), asleep in their bathtub. To make a long story short, the two girls take a liking to Jack, and they decide to ask him to move in with them. The girls' landlords, however, Stanley (Norman Fell) and Helen Roper (Audra Lindley), aren't keen to the idea of two young women living with a man. Although the trio assures them the arrangement is strictly a platonic one, the landlords don't permit it until Janet sprinkles a fib that Jack is gay.
Thus starts one of the signature farcical comedies the television screen as ever known.
There are only five more episodes in this single disc set. Three's Company was a late-starting mid-season replacement (it's actually like an end-season replacement really), so there was only six episodes scheduled. In "And Mother Makes Four", the second episode, Jack is forced to hide the fact that he's living with Janet and Chrissy from Chrissy's mother, who turns out to be a preacher's wife. All is well, however, when it's learned at the end that Mr. Roper's told Chrissy's mother of Jack, and that nothing was indecent because Jack is said to be gay. (In this episode, Mrs. Roper learns of Jack's heterosexuality, but keeps it secret from her husband.) The next episode, "Roper's Niece", has Jack masquerading as a date for Roper's niece, an arrangement Roper only okays because he thinks Jack is gay, and therefore he won't make a pass at his attractive niece. (Do you see a recurring theme? A common tactic early on is Jack's faking homosexual tendencies.)
In "No Children, No Dogs" (Season 1, Episode 4), the trio of roommates have to head a cute puppy from their landlords given to them by Jack's womanizing car salesman buddy Larry (Richard Kline). Mr. Roper forbids them to keep the pup, but Chrissy devises a plan where the little dog is left on the Ropers' doorstep, and Mrs. Roper passes it off as an anniversary present from her husband. Jack's true masculinity, not a false one, is called into question in the next episode entitled "Jack the Giant Killer". A rude bar patron makes unwanted advances towards Janet and Chrissy, but Jack seemingly cowers from any confrontation. In the end, Janet again bails him out with a fake Vietnam war hero charade. In the season finale, "It's Only Money", the trio believes their apartment to be a victim of local robbery. Their rent money has disappeared, and they worry about how to explain their inability to pay for it to the Ropers. At he conclusion, Mr. Roper says that he took the money from their apartment while he was their fixing their doorbell.
Show Popularity & Overall Thoughts
After watching this abbreviated pilot season, I found myself particularly thrilled at the outcome. While the video quality wasn't necessarily the best (especially not on my 55" HD-TV), the shows themselves were very good. The writing here is more sedate than anything I've seen the show offer in the following seasons. The physical comedy isn't as broad, but that slapstick humor comes to full form in Season Two.
Three's Company was an immediate hit back in 1977, with its first episode finishing at #28 in the weekly ratings. Within a week or two, the show was placing in the Nielsen Top Ten, where it would stay until its final season started in 1983. The critical reviews, however, were nothing less of horrific. The series was critiqued for its plot, humor, acting, and not surprisingly, for being immoral and corrupting America's youth. Religious leaders and organizations took stances against the show, but ABC stood by their baby, feeding it to the top of the Nielsen's.
Overall, I can say that I really enjoyed this first season. I can understand how fans waited --- perhaps impatiently --- for the second season to come out a decade or so ago because this pilot year is show brief. The writing, from a fan's point of logic, is well done, as are the performances themselves.
Buy it. Watch it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
