Three's a Crowd

Just finished a Three's Company marathon, complete with spin-offs (I also wrote a review for The Ropers).

TAC is not as bad as some other reviewers have stated, but it's certainly a letdown after Three's Company. It doesn't help that by the time Season 8 of Three's Company came around, the show had grown a bit stale: still enjoyable but running out of steam. That does not make for a great hand-off to the new show.

And the new show is in a lot of ways the same as the old show, only much more tepid. Mary Cordette as Vicki Bradford, Jack's girlfriend, is perfectly fine, but comedy is not her metier. Robert Mandan as Mr. Bradford is a pro. His presence is stabilizing, as is the reoccurring role of Jessica Walter as Claudia, Vicki's mother. Alan Campbell as Jack's surfer-dude sous-chef is a bit grating.

But tepidity is the issue. The show doesn't know what it wants to be. The first five or six episodes are sluggish because they mostly continue the new-couple-in-love storyline that, quite frankly, dragged down the final episodes of Three's Company. In fact, this rom-com-lite feel permeates the entire single season of TAC. Other times, the show tries to go for the tried-and-true formulae of TC: the physical pratfalls of Ritter, the double-entendres, the overheard conversations, the misunderstood conversations. Occasionally, they are hilarious, and one is briefly reminded of the pure farce of TC.

Farce. That's what I and so many viewers loved about TC. The original show did not try to be serious. It did not try to lecture or pander. It refused to turn mawkish or maudlin (NOTE: The show's final hour-long episode is an exception, awkwardly going for gush instead of gut-busting laughs). TAC, thus, is in an awkward position. If it tries to rehash TC's blueprint, it risks being lambasted as unoriginal. If it tries to go in a different direction--lukewarm and fuzzy romance with dashes of humor added in--the show is also painted into a corner.

Nonetheless, the show is far from awful. In fact, it finds its semi-stride for a number of mid-season episodes. TAC is harmless and nostalgic, especially for anyone, like me, who misses Ritter, Three's Company, and 80s neon fashion!

Three's a Crowd is boring, direction-less, and painfully unfunny. The producers made no attempt to create a new and exciting vehicle for John Ritter's brilliant physical comedy, they were simply coasting on the laurels of Three's Company's success.

Three's a Crowd obviously couldn't have featured any of the dynamics that made Three's Company so hilarious like the sexual tensions and misunderstandings that come as a result of a man living with two women; not to mention Jack's charade of pretending that he was gay around Mr. Roper, and later Mr. Furley, so he could go on living in the apartment. So what did they do to make up for those missing attributes on this spin-off?

Nothing. The Jack Tripper of this show is barely the same character from Three's Company. The overzealous, yet lovable klutz is rarely seen here. Instead, Jack is a boring husband and business owner nearing middle-age. His wife, Vicki, played by Mary Cadorette, is equally as uncharismatic. We get to see glimpses of the old Jack in the episodes, "Jack Gets Trashed" and "A Star Is Born" but these sightings are too few and far between. In fact, Jack is even used as a straight man to wackier characters like his chef, E.Z. Taylor.

E.Z., a Spicoli-like surf bum is more annoying than funny. Why didn't they use Felipe Gomez, the reoccurring character from seasons 5 to 7 of Three's Company, for the chef? Not only was that character hilarious but he shared an awesome chemistry with Jack. I guess that pairing would have worked too well.

Jack's antagonistic relationship with his father-in-law, Mr. Bradford, played by Robert Mandan of Soap, would have been more entertaining if we hadn't seen it done before. They share the exact same discord that Jack had with Mr. Angelino, only not near as amusing.

Jack's mother-in-law, Claudia, played by Jessica Walter, is on this show for the sole purpose of exchanging clichéd ex-spouse jokes with Mr. Bradford. Henny Youngman should have sued the show just on the basis of these two characters stealing his material.

It's no shock that this show only lasted a single season. The only great thing about Three's a Crowd is that it gives us much more of an appreciation for Three's Company.

The finale of Three's Company has Janet having her wedding in the apartment. Jack Tripper (John Ritter) and flight attendant girlfriend Vicky Bradford (Mary Cadorette) get into a fight caused by her disapproving father James (Robert Mandan). She turns down Jack's marriage proposal due to her parents' troubled divorce. Jack agrees to live together with her in an apartment above the restaurant. The couple is surprised by her dad who bought the building along with the restaurant from Mr. Angelino. Jack hires surfer dude EZ Taylor as his assistant chef. A recurring role is Vicky's mother Claudia (Jessica Walter).

Three's Company presents itself as a young, sexy sitcom but at its core, it's a standard conservative show. The problem with the sequel is that it starts with Jack being the conservative partner. Vicky is doubly a dud. They're like an old married couple despite their living-in-sin situation. That's fine but nothing else is funny. Mandan is a standard sitcom comedic heavy. EZ contributes nothing. No matter how hard John Ritter tries, few of this works. The basic premise is flawed and it gets tired trying to live up to its predecessor's success. The title probably came first and then the premise got assembled after that. I would have put a young teen girl as the third wheel in the apartment. That would be a more direct symmetry to the first show. It would also allow Jack and Vicky be the old couple trying to corral a rebellious teen who would essentially be the new Chrissy. In that case, the dad James would become the Ropers and Mr. Furley and Mr. Angelino combined into one. It's an easier group than this one. The continuing conflict between Jack and Vicky about marriage gets tiresome. Even the theme song sounds tired. Despite being a new show, this is actually running on fumes from its predecessor. As for Janet and Jack doing the new show together, Janet would definitely have more chemistry than Vicky. It's still no guarantee that it would work much better. It's not like the show had a great track record of good spinoffs.

I don't understand why this show wasn't a hit, It only lasted one season, In my opinion it was slightly funnier than Three's Company. I taped many episodes about three years ago when a local channel aired it in syndication. Oh well...

A mostly harmless spin-off (which I haven't seen in syndication in almost 10 years), this followed Jack Tripper to his new home - with a new cantankerous landlord who also happens to be the father of his live-in girlfriend. The jokes had grown old, and John Ritter started to look trapped in the Tripper persona. Not a show to be well remembered.

While Mary Cordette did an adequate job as Jack's love interest, I think it would have been much better for the show had, at the end of Three's Company, Jack and Janet realized there were deeper feelings for each other than had previously been recognized. The spin-off following them would have likely been more successful (and popular; I seem to recall that fans of the original show often clamored for a romance between the two characters who lasted the entire run of the show).