50 Fun Facts About Three's Company

Which British sitcom was Three's Company based on?

Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer's ITV show ran from 1973 to 1976, with Richard O'Sullivan as Robin Tripp.

Which actor played Jack Tripper?

He was the son of singing cowboy Tex Ritter and won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the role in 1984.

In which California city do Jack, Janet and Chrissy share their apartment?

The exteriors were shot at 2912 4th Street; the opening credits were filmed on the Santa Monica Pier.

What lie do the roommates tell the landlord so their new male roommate can stay?

Janet tells Mr. Roper without Jack knowing; Helen Roper works out the truth quickly and keeps the secret.

What is Janet Wood's job?

Joyce DeWitt played her for all eight seasons; Chrissy was the guileless secretary.

What is Chrissy Snow's real first name?

Suzanne Somers played her from season one to season five.

What is Jack studying when the series begins?

He is a Navy veteran on the G.I. Bill, specialising in French cuisine.

In which branch of the military had Jack Tripper served?

After cooking school he got a chef's job at Angelino's before opening his own place.

What did the show's chef eventually name the restaurant he opened?

The name came from Mr. Furley's plain description of the place.

Who played landlord Stanley Roper?

He was in the first three seasons, then came back once as a guest star in season five.

Which actress played Helen Roper?

Helen figures out early that Jack is straight and keeps it from Stanley.

Who took over as the building manager, Ralph Furley, in 1979?

He had already won five Emmys as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.

How many Emmys had the actor playing Mr. Furley won for playing Barney Fife before joining the show?

TV Guide later ranked him 27th on its list of the 50 greatest TV stars.

Which actor played Jack's womanising friend Larry Dallas?

He was recurring for three seasons and a main cast member for the last five.

Which three characters appeared in all eight seasons?

Chrissy left after season five, the Ropers after season three, and Mr. Furley only arrived in season four.

How much per episode did Suzanne Somers demand in her 1980 salary dispute?

She was on $30,000 and also wanted 10 per cent of the profits.

After the dispute, how did Chrissy appear in her final episodes?

Her scenes were taped on separate days, and she never appeared on set with the rest of the cast.

According to the show, why did Chrissy leave the apartment?

Her cousin Cindy Snow, played by Jenilee Harrison, took her place.

Who moved into the apartment as Chrissy's clumsy cousin?

Jenilee Harrison played her in seasons five and six.

What was the profession of Terri Alden, the roommate played by Priscilla Barnes from season six?

She stayed until the end of the run.

Which season-four character, played by Ann Wedgeworth, was an older woman who chased Jack?

She lasted a single season.

How many episodes of Three's Company were made?

Season one had only six episodes; season six had 28.

Which M*A*S*H creator was brought in to help develop the show after the first pilot failed?

His version set the show in a Hollywood building called the Hacienda Palms.

How many pilots were made before the series went into production in January 1977?

Producers initially worried that Ritter's clumsy portrayal made Jack seem effeminate.

Who composed the theme song, 'Come and Knock on Our Door'?

He also wrote for Sesame Street; session singer Ray Charles and Julia Rinker performed it.

Whose baby son appears in overalls in the later opening credits, approaching Janet at the zoo?

That is Jason Ritter, John Ritter's oldest son, who became an actor himself.

Where were the show's original opening credits shot?

Later credits moved to the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park with the cast on a zoo tram.

How many times was each episode performed and taped?

Cast got the script Monday, rehearsed Tuesday to Thursday and shot on Friday.

The Ropers' 1979 spin-off was loosely based on which British sitcom?

That show was itself a spin-off of Man About the House.

Which future Arrested Development star played the Ropers' snobbish neighbour, a realtor named Brookes?

The spin-off ran 28 episodes from March 1979 to May 1980.

What did Stanley Roper's actor's contract promise him when he left for The Ropers?

The Ropers lasted just past the year, so the promise expired and he never came back full-time.

In the 1984 sequel Three's a Crowd, Jack moves in with which girlfriend?

They live above his restaurant while her disapproving father buys the building.

Three's a Crowd was loosely based on which British sitcom?

It lasted a single season of 22 episodes and was later syndicated as Three's Company, Too.

How many seasons did Three's a Crowd run?

Jessica Walter played Vicky's mother.

How long did Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt go without speaking after the show?

They reconciled on Somers' web series Breaking Through; Somers had made peace with Ritter days before his death.

The show's leading man died on September 11, 2003 of what condition?

He was 54 and working on 8 Simple Rules; Don Knotts had cameoed with him on that show earlier in the year.

Which network aired the 2003 TV movie Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company?

It went out in May 2003, four months before Ritter's death.

Suzanne Somers had a bit part as 'the Blonde in the white Thunderbird' in which 1973 film?

She later became the face of the ThighMaster and starred in Step by Step with Patrick Duffy.

In the original British series, in which part of London do the flatmates live?

Hammer Films made a big-screen version in 1974, its last TV adaptation.

The show's leading man voiced the title character of which PBS children's series from 2000 to 2003?

It was among his final roles.

On which US network did Three's Company air for all eight seasons?

CBS had actually committed to airing the show first, before the original network changed its mind at the last minute and kept it with a new cast.

What does Chrissy Snow do for a living?

In the first, abandoned pilot her counterpart was an aspiring actress, and in Peter Stone's original draft she was a high-fashion model.

Suzanne Somers later became famous for advertising which exercise gadget?

In the 1980s she also headlined in Las Vegas for years, and critics there voted her Female Entertainer of the Year in 1986.

Where do Janet and Chrissy find Jack the morning after he crashes their roommate's party?

The departing roommate's going-away party left the women short of rent money and Jack short of a place to live.

In the finale, Terri Alden leaves the apartment to move where?

Janet gets married in the same finale, leaving Jack to move in with Vicky and carry on in Three's a Crowd.

Jack accepts the spare bedroom so he no longer has to live where?

He was attracted to Chrissy from the start, but all three agreed to keep the arrangement strictly platonic.

Cindy Snow leaves for campus housing at UCLA to chase what career?

Jenilee Harrison stayed on as a recurring character through the sixth season, visiting the apartment between classes.

The theme song was sung by Julia Rinker and which LA session musician?

He shared his name with the soul legend but was a longtime Los Angeles session singer; in the first pilot the tune was sung as 'doo doo doo' with no lyrics.

Mr. Furley's brother bought the building from the Ropers. What was his name?

Unlike Lana Shields, who arrived the same autumn and vanished by mid-season, the new building manager stayed right to the end of the series.

What was the name of the roommate whose going-away party Jack crashes in the pilot?

She was played by Marianne Black and moved out to get married, which is the only reason the second bedroom was ever free.