Review of Three's Company

Back in the late 70's this ground breaking sitcom was one of the steamiest shows on TV, and most kids were not allowed to watch it, and yet by today's standards it is fairly wholesome. The program ended shortly before I was born, but I am nostalgic and I have watched it for many years. This apartment life crack up revolves around farce, such as its theme of frantic misunderstandings and slapstick, and the lowbrow series paints a cheerful and happy picture of the L.A. area in the Disco era and the 80's. Chrissy wasn't truly a dumb blonde, because she wasn't that focused on her appearance or her hair, she an airhead and her scatterbrained, somewhat child-like personality and expressions made her as funny as anyone on the show. yet her and Cindy received criticism and some controversy about the characterizations of the blonde women in the show, and that is where Nurse Terri Alden came in. In reality all the main cast members in the apartment were rather ditzy, e.g. they NEVER learned to close doors so noisy neighbors like Larry, the Ropers, Mr. Furley and Lana don't drop in and have a frantic misunderstanding, and after all the chaos and slapstick they NEVER learn to be half decent at communicating and state WHAT they "know" the other person is up to or what happened to them. it doesn't take many examples to show they wasn't a really sharp, straight man in the apartment: Mr. Roper hearing about Chrissy's Wart through a busted sink and frantically thinking she's having a baby! Then there was where Chrissy injured her head by slipping and hitting her head on the bathtub and Jack and Janet saw her in the Hospital the next day and she was acting perky and bubbly as ever, but because the doctor laughed so hard at her jokes the her was crying the two thought she was about to pass through the veil. How about the time after Jack, Janet and Terri argue over an article about an older woman marrying a younger man and then Janet hired Furley's shy, wholesome 18-year old nephew to fix a stereo as a surprise, and after Jack spots them at a restaurant for lunch he and Terri panicked, thinking they were having an affair. I heard i said, "there wouldn't be a comedy show" without that lack of common sense regarding communication and insuring privacy. The slapstick often involved food, beverages and paint and other materials being dumped on people, falling of things like ladders, and guys getting punched in the face or other parts of the body. Another one of the pratfalls was a ladies man like Jack trying to date when he shared an apartment with two women in a platonic relationship, and hiding them or trying to get them to buy that they were just friends or relatives et cetra. Another central aspect of the show that made it really silly was a ladies man pretending to be gay to the landlords, except for Mrs. Roper. Add it all up and it was one of the funniest lowbrow sitcoms. The racy humor is mostly suggestive, I don't think it was naughty farce, but it was known for its innuendos. I found Mr. Roper at least as funny as Furley. Jack seemed less rigid about his pretend homosexuality with Roper, he felt free to hug women and kiss them on the cheeks, but seemed more rigid around Furley to the point of acting revolted when trying to kiss a woman and afraid to touch them affectionately when Furley was gullible enough to be convinced that Jack's date who looked plenty like a women was a man! In another knee-slapping episode Jack convinced Furley that he had a twin brother, Austin, from Texas, and was able to pretend they were in the same place at once by talking to him while shifting from his left to his right ! However, the show's biggest weakness was the bad stereotypes. The highly air headed Chrissy, although, like I said, she wasn't wrapped up in her appearence, so she was just an airhead, and she was rather innocent and sweet, like Cindy, plus the blondes in the show often seemed to be airheads and Terri was talented as a Nurse, but seemed rather scatterbrained and naive away from work, but not dumb. Then there was Jack strutting around trying to be a macho man, often being overly assertive about being a "man", and his weakness for dimwitted, skinny women, often blondes with loose morals, then there was Larry, the deceitful womanizer who frequently lies and cons his way into things ,and worked as a used car salesman ,and often brought home naive, skinny, gullible women. I don't know why Jack chose the depraved player as his best friend, but he also has a good, caring side. Mr, Furley also tried to assertively act like a real macho man, but much of the time he openly acted in the opposite fashion a la Don Knotts. He sacrificed his usual wholesome image in the show as a wannabe ladies man, but he was as funny as ever. Then back to the women, Chrissy had a real weakness for a certain desert in a battle of the sexes episode, Janet and Chrissy went on fighting like silly kids, loudly mocking and imitating each others annoying habits (albeit in a pretty amusing bit) over the idea that Jack was having an affair with one of them, Mrs. Roper was terrified to sleep in her apartment alone, and her and Janet would say they were brave and together or it was nothing and the next instant they passed out on different occasions. Then there was the Women's taste in men as another example of the stereotypes, the men they dated and were sweet on all seemed to be classic hunks with nice hair, no beards, and were mostly tall or on the tall side. Then there were the stereotypes made by Mr. Roper and Mr. Furley about gay men. But on the other hand Jack did most of the cooking as he was a cooking student who later got his own restaurant with the hard-nosed Mr. Angelino. Good viewing that usually makes me feel better.