It's been years since I've seen a "Terri" episode of "Three's Company," but as a child, I didn't remember hating them, and thought Priscilla Barnes was pretty. Now I see why my father kept saying it had gone downhill after Suzanne Somers left.
In "Jack Be Quick," Jack (John Ritter) has a new girl named Cheryl (Joanna Kerns) who pops the big question to him, or rather, A big question: will he father her child without marrying her or having any other involvement. It seems she has a successful and fulfilling career, and just doesn't think she'll have time to meet and marry, but she wants a kid, and sees Jack as having all of the traits she wants in her son. Will Jack do it? That's the show.
The problem for me begins when it takes forever to get there, with misdirection shtick about Larry (Richard Kline) convincing Jack that she actually wants to marry him. That ends early, in their first meeting, so Jack refuses her offer for now, but goes home to think about it. As he does, Janet (Joyce DeWitt) overhears half of a conversation where he tells off Cheryl on the phone, giving us misdirection shtick #2. #3 comes in the finale(I won't spoil it for you), but landlord Mr. Furley gets misdirected as a running gag throughout the episode too. It's misdirection upon misdirection, but by this point it felt old and tired to me. I thought this episode never really seemed to develop or get going, just zipped from misdirection to misdirection because the writers seemed to have run out of ideas, and were just phoning in the formula. Classic "Three's Company" knew how to be serious when it needed to I thought, while reiterating the idea that these young characters genuinely cared for each other. While we get that here, nothing feels "genuine" about it. It just struck me as a bunch of actors rehashing what they'd been doing for years, only with less enthusiasm or outrageousness as they had in the past. Priscilla Barnes does her best, as she always did, but the magic just didn't seem to be there for me, and so, I can't recommend this episode. Seasons 1-3. In my opinion, that's where it's at. And now I'm old enough to see why.
