Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) and Christmas "Chrissy" Snow (Suzanne Somers) are cleaning up after throwing a going-away party for their roommate. They find party crasher Jack Tripper (John Ritter) sleeping in the bathtub and take the student chef as their new roommate. The only problem is that landlord Mr. Ropper (Norman Fell) objects to a guy moving in with the girls. That is until Janet comes up with the lie about Jack being gay. His sleazy used car salesman friend Larry joins the show. The Roppers sell the building after two seasons and is replaced by Ralph Furley (Don Knotts) who manages the building for his brother. The Roppers get their own show which only lasted two seasons. In the fifth season, Chrissy leaves and gets replaced by her accident prone cousin Cindy Snow (Jenilee Harrison). With Cindy going to school at the start of season six, they take in nurse Terri Alden (Priscilla Barnes) as the new roommate although Cindy keeps coming around during that season. Jack starts working for and then rents his own restaurant from Frank Angelino.
This is classic network sex romp sitcom. John Ritter is completely charming. Suzanne Somers is a great flighty sweetheart. Joyce DeWitt is the perfect down-to-earth best girl. This is at the top of the pile for iconic sitcoms of its era. The show gets a little bumpy after Somers' departure. Cindy Snow is a bumbling giraffe. She's not much of an actress and mostly plays in the physical slapstick realm. Priscilla Barnes is able to bring a lot more sass to the role while doing a lot of the slapstick.
The original three has great chemistry. While the fun never falters, it is stuck at a certain level. The main leads are never allowed to have relationships with each other. It's telling that Terri asks Janet if Jack ever hit on her in the last episode. In truth, any flirtations are fleeting. While it is a sexual sitcom, the morality is always rather conservative. Like Vicky says in the last episode, Jack is traditional. Any relationship between the main three would threaten the simple formula which mainly consists of misunderstanding leading to screwball pratfalls with a healthy dose of sexual innuendo. It almost never pushes the envelop into serious territory. The gay panic joke eventually wears out even if it is laughing at the gay panic. This is an iconic sitcom of its time. While recently rewatching it, I'm surprised how much of it has seared into my brain. I remember almost every episode. That is not nothing.
This is classic network sex romp sitcom. John Ritter is completely charming. Suzanne Somers is a great flighty sweetheart. Joyce DeWitt is the perfect down-to-earth best girl. This is at the top of the pile for iconic sitcoms of its era. The show gets a little bumpy after Somers' departure. Cindy Snow is a bumbling giraffe. She's not much of an actress and mostly plays in the physical slapstick realm. Priscilla Barnes is able to bring a lot more sass to the role while doing a lot of the slapstick.
The original three has great chemistry. While the fun never falters, it is stuck at a certain level. The main leads are never allowed to have relationships with each other. It's telling that Terri asks Janet if Jack ever hit on her in the last episode. In truth, any flirtations are fleeting. While it is a sexual sitcom, the morality is always rather conservative. Like Vicky says in the last episode, Jack is traditional. Any relationship between the main three would threaten the simple formula which mainly consists of misunderstanding leading to screwball pratfalls with a healthy dose of sexual innuendo. It almost never pushes the envelop into serious territory. The gay panic joke eventually wears out even if it is laughing at the gay panic. This is an iconic sitcom of its time. While recently rewatching it, I'm surprised how much of it has seared into my brain. I remember almost every episode. That is not nothing.