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I think another problem was Vicky and Jack met at the very end of the show. I understand why things were done this way but they had so little history together that there was no time for fans to get vested in them, and this carried over into the spinoff. They literally just had that one episode together where they met on the plane before the show ended. Perhaps it was doomed to fail no matter who Jack ended up with considering the way it was done.
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My bigger problem with Jack + Janet is that it doesn't seem enough of a change to warrant a spin-off -- it's THREE'S COMPANY MINUS ONE.
I wonder if this could have worked: Terri moves out (since Priscilla was unhappy anyway) and Larry moves in. Premise stays the same, but now it's Janet with two male roommates. And no matter what, the Ropers should have moved back into the building even if they were only seen sporadically as guest stars.
I wonder if this could have worked: Terri moves out (since Priscilla was unhappy anyway) and Larry moves in. Premise stays the same, but now it's Janet with two male roommates. And no matter what, the Ropers should have moved back into the building even if they were only seen sporadically as guest stars.
I think that setup could have worked a few years earlier, like when they were looking to replace Suzanne. But by the time they got to season 8, that group of people was looking awfully old to still be living together. Originally the actors were in their late 20s playing seven or eight years younger. But now the actors were in their mid 30s (Richard Kline was actually 40 when the show ended). They were getting closer to middle age and what was funny for younger characters didn’t work as well anymore.
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I pondered that and don't disagree, although it doesn't seem like a creative hard stop to me. It worked fine for THE GOLDEN GIRLs and Lucy & Viv. I don't think a florist and a clumsy chef would ever have had such great earning power that splitting the expenses would be undesirable.
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I wouldn't mind rewatching THE ROPERS, even though I know it wasn't much of a show. Even with poor material, Norman Fell and Audra Lindley were fun to watch. However there's no chance of me buying the DVD collection since I already have all eight seasons of THREE'S COMPANY digitally.
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THE ROPERS and THREE'S A CROWD will eventually be available digitally, or I'd assume so. I thought one (or both) of them were once on Tubi.
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It wasn't very good, but I also do not give much credibility to these lists.
Shows like "She's the Sheriff" tend to make such list in part due to a high profile star, but there have been far worse
shows that last only a few episodes
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Same reason LIFE WITH LUCY gets such a bad rap. Had it not been Lucille Ball's highly-publicized return to network TV, it wouldn't be so badly remembered.
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Aaron Spelling, who admitted he didn't like sitcoms and had never produced one before, said, "Don't blame Lucy!" when LIFE WITH LUCY failed.
But the press were out to get The Queen.
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My dad seems to have decent memories of watching THE ROPERS. He thought Norman Fell was very funny back then. There aren't any episodes on YouTube that I saw.
Lucy and her husband produced the show, so they deserve the lion’s share of the blame for trying to put together as much of her old production team as possible and write the show as if it were being done in the 1950s.
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Was there anything better than Norman looking at the camera and giving us that grin after getting in yet another good dig on Mrs. Roper?
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Admittedly, you're right. It is well-documented that Lucy wanted her old writers, even though Aaron Spelling offered her newer ones for a modernized take on her classic bits. Spelling buckled to Lucy's wishes, commenting, "She knows more about comedy than I do."
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I watched about five minutes of Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon bumbling around, thought "I don't want to remember them like this" and switched the channel.
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I've heard a variation of this repeated quite often. Many worried that Lucy would get hurt at all the physical comedy she was doing into her 70s, but the studio audience laughed and applauded everything, giving Spelling a false sense of security that the show was working.
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I agree with @Jock Ewing Fan about lists and how shows that fail and have higher profile stars are going to get more criticism then they might deserve. There are shows that have lasted a few seasons that are worse than some of the ones on these lists.
Regarding Lucy, the press did seem to have something against her. She was criticized before the show aired for coming back at all. One review I recall of her at a press conference about the show was particularly cruel and made disparaging comments about her personally.
I wonder what engendered such ire against her. Did she piss a lot of people off with her outspoken attitude?
Another thing against her is that she, Desi, Vivian and William set the bar very highly with I Love Lucy Nothing was going to equal that.
Back to Suzanne Sommers, if I recall correctly, the general consensus of her demands on Three 's Company was a negative one. The press at the time would probably be slanted against her.
Regarding Lucy, the press did seem to have something against her. She was criticized before the show aired for coming back at all. One review I recall of her at a press conference about the show was particularly cruel and made disparaging comments about her personally.
I wonder what engendered such ire against her. Did she piss a lot of people off with her outspoken attitude?
Another thing against her is that she, Desi, Vivian and William set the bar very highly with I Love Lucy Nothing was going to equal that.
Back to Suzanne Sommers, if I recall correctly, the general consensus of her demands on Three 's Company was a negative one. The press at the time would probably be slanted against her.
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Somers lied incessantly for decades about the details -- which is why Ritter and deWitt stopped talking to her. I think they were right.
Lucille Ball had a "very tough" reputation. If she liked you (she liked Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore) she could be incredibly gracious -- especially if she thought you were talented and that you were genuinely nice (like Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore). But Ball suffered fools badly. And she was infamous with the service industry, she and her second husband, enabler Gary Morton. In restaurants and on airplanes -- they hated to see her coming. Nothing was ever right.
In the press, the story was planted that Morton approached her with the offer to do LIFE WITH LUCY and Lucy's face lighted up with enthusiasm. But others said Lucy's response was the precise opposite, with Miss Ball responding, "No way!"
But Morton had committed her, and Lucy reluctantly went along with it. That's the version I believe -- Lucy may have been a bitch on wheels (Elizabeth Taylor describes how Lucy kept screaming at her on the set when Taylor & Burton guest starred on HERE'S LUCY, Taylor adding snarkily about Ball, "But she's an icon...!") but Lucy was a smart woman, and knew LIFE WITH LUCY was not a good idea.
Interestingly, Lucille Ball hosted a THREE'S COMPANY retrospective -- she apparently respected the physical comedy of the show (presumably, John Ritter's).
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Even though LAVERNE & SHIRLEY were a '70s redo of Lucy & Ethel.