Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House.

The story revolves around three single roommates: Janet Wood, Chrissy Snow and Jack Tripper who all platonically share Apartment 201 in a Santa Monica, California^[2] apartment building owned by Mr. and Mrs. Roper. Later, following Suzanne Somers's departure, Jenilee Harrison joined the cast as Cindy Snow (Chrissy's cousin), who was later replaced by Priscilla Barnes as Terri Alden. After the Ropers were spun-off into their own sitcom, Don Knotts joined the cast as Ralph Furley, brother of the new building owner.

The show, a comedy of errors, chronicles the escapades and hijinks of the trio's constant misunderstandings, social lives, and struggle to keep up with rent.

Plot[link]

1977 series premiere photo

After crashing a wedding reception and finding himself passed out in the bathtub, cooking school student Jack Tripper meets Janet Wood, a florist, and Chrissy Snow, a secretary, in need of a new roommate. Having only been able to afford living at the YMCA, Jack quickly accepts the offer to move in.

However, due to overbearing landlord Stanley Roper's intolerance for co-ed living situations, even in a multi-bedroom apartment, Jack is allowed to move in only after Janet tells Mr. Roper that Jack is gay. Although Helen Roper figures out Jack's true sexuality in the second episode, she does not tell her husband. Frequently siding with the three roommates instead of her husband, Mrs. Roper's bond with the roommates grows until the eventual spinoff The Ropers.

Jack continues the charade when new landlord Ralph Furley takes over the apartment complex because Mr. Furley insists that his hard-nosed brother Bart (the building's new owner) would also never tolerate such living situations.

The show was set minutes from the beach in Santa Monica, California, and was primarily filmed using three main sets: the trio's apartment, their landlord's apartment and the neighborhood pub called The Regal Beagle. In later seasons more sets were used, frequently depicting Larry's apartment, Angelino's restaurant, Jack's Bistro, the hospital where Terri worked, and Janet's flower shop.

Humor in the show was based on farce, often relying on innuendo, misunderstanding, as well as physical comedy to punctuate the hair-brained schemes the characters would invariably conjure up to get themselves out of situations and dilemmas. Running jokes were frequently based on Jack's (supposed) sexuality, Mr. Roper's lack of sexual prowess, and Chrissy's blonde moments. Conflict in the show came from the dysfunctional marriage of the Ropers, Janet's intolerance for a roommate romance, and later on, Larry's and Jack's friendship and Larry's abuse thereof.

The theme song was composed by Joe Raposo (known for his composing for the children's television show Sesame Street), and sung by Ray Charles (not to be confused with the late rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles) and Julia Rinker.

Characters and cast[link]

Primary characters[link]

The original landlords and cast, 1977.

Secondary characters[link]

Recurring characters[link]

Cast changes[link]

Three's Company had many cast changes over its run. The first of these changes took place in the spring of 1979 with the relocation of the Ropers to their own television series (The Ropers), which revolved around Helen and Stanley, and their neighbors in a townhouse community after Stanley had sold the apartment building. Man About The House had similarly spun the Ropers off for the series George and Mildred.

Two changes took place in the fall of 1979, at the beginning of the fourth season. The first was the addition of Lana, an older woman who chased Jack around. She liked to pursue him but he did not appreciate her advances. Since Ann Wedgeworth did not appreciate her diminishing role in the series, Lana was dropped from the show without any explanation before the season was half over. The other new addition that fall was the new building manager, Ralph Furley (played by Don Knotts, who wore a toupee for the role), whose brother Bart bought the building from the Ropers. Mr. Furley pursued Lana unsuccessfully, as she unsuccessfully pursued Jack. Unlike Lana, he appeared until the end of the series.

Season five (1980–1981) marked the beginning of contract re-negotiations and sparked friction on the set. When Somers' demands for a heavily increased salary (from $30,000 to $150,000 per episode, plus 10% of the show's profits^[3]) were not met, Somers went on a strike of sorts. Executives believed that a complete loss of Somers could damage the program's popularity so a compromise was reached. Somers, who was still under contract, continued to appear in the series, but only in the one-minute tag scene of a handful of episodes. Somers' scenes were taped on separate days from the show's regular taping; she did not appear on set with any of the show's other cast members. According to the story, her character had returned to her hometown of Fresno to care for her ailing mother, and was only seen when she telephoned her former roommates, and they recounted that week's adventures to her. This arrangement continued for one season. Somers' contract was not renewed and Chrissy's place in the apartment was taken by her clumsy cousin Cindy Snow (Jenilee Harrison).

Another replacement, Terri Alden (played by Priscilla Barnes), a clever, sometimes sassy nurse, joined the cast in the sixth season (1981–1982). In the script, Cindy was to move to college to fulfill her dream of becoming a veterinarian, and would continue to visit throughout the sixth season.

The show ended with the departure of all cast members except Ritter, who moved on to the spin-off Three's a Crowd, itself based upon Man About the House’s spin-off Robin's Nest.

After more than 30 years of not talking to each other, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt finally made up and reunited for Suzanne's web series Breaking Through which aired on Feb. 2, 2012. ^[4]

Broadcast history[link]

Episodes[link]

• March 1977 – September 1977, Thursday 9:30 p.m.
• September 1977 – May 1984, Tuesday 9:00 p.m.
• May 1984 – September 1984, Tuesday 8:30 p.m.

Nielsen ratings[link]

Three's Company premiered in the spring, in the middle of the season. Usually in the 1960s and 1970s, midseason television programs were cancelled after their original six-episode run in the spring. Network observers did not believe that Three's Company would go anywhere after its first six shows. They were proved wrong when it racked in record ratings, breaking barriers at the time as the highest-rated midseason show ever broadcast on network television. ABC gladly renewed the show for a formal television season, giving it a permanent primetime spot during the 1977-1978 year. Ratings continued to climb throughout the years. The very first episode, "A Man About the House", hit #28 overall. The first time a Company episode hit the #1 spot was the airing of "Will the Real Jack Tripper...", which aired February 14, 1978. The most watched Company episode aired on March 13, 1979, immediately preceding the series premiere of its spinoff, The Ropers. The episode, entitled "An Anniversary Surprise", centered around Stanley selling the apartment, and the Ropers moving out.

1. Spring 1977: #11^[5]
2. 1977–1978: #3^[6]
3. 1978–1979: #2^[7]
4. 1979–1980: #2^[8]
5. 1980–1981: #8 (tie)^[9]
6. 1981–1982: #4^[10]
7. 1982–1983: #6^[11]
8. 1983–1984: #35

Development and pilots[link]

Three's Company went through a lengthy development process. Two different sets of writers attempted to Americanize the British Man About the House. Three pilot episodes were shot for Three's Company, a rarity for American television (although All In The Family had shot three pilots between 1968 and 1970). The show was recast several times at the instruction of ABC's Fred Silverman.

The show was first penned by famed Broadway writer Peter Stone who set the series in New York. Stone envisioned the Jack Tripper character as a successful, yet underpaid, chef in a fancy French restaurant while the characters who were to become Janet and Chrissy were to be a secretary for a CEO, and a high style fashion model respectively. Silverman felt that the treatment would not play to middle America and thus passed on the script. Silverman then enlisted the services of famed television writer Larry Gelbart, best known for his Emmy-award winning work on CBS's M*A*S*H. Gelbart initially wanted nothing to do with the show, feeling that its relatively simple premise made it substandard in comparison to M*A*S*H. Nonetheless as a favor to Silverman, Gelbart went ahead and developed a pilot episode with his son in law who named the series Three's Company. Gelbart's adaptation closely followed the British series. He envisioned Ritter as "David Bell", an aspiring film maker looking for a place to live who just happened to be a great cook. Ritter's better halves were portrayed by Valerie Curtin who played "Jenny" an employee of the DMV, and Suzanne Zenor as an aspiring actress named "Samantha". Gelbart reset the Ropers' apartment building, which he called the Hacienda Palms, from New York to North Hollywood, California. This plot of this pilot looked much like that of the first episode of the actual show. Liked by Silverman, a pilot was ordered by ABC which taped in early 1976. This format of the show just barely made it on to the fall 1976 ABC lineup but was ousted by what ABC felt were more promising series. Of all the new sitcoms that premiered on ABC for the 1976-77 television season, only Three's Company and the summer premiere of What's Happening!! went on to a second season. While ABC was in negotiations to re-shoot the pilot, CBS became interested in the show, and made a firm commitment to TTC productions (producers Don Taffner and Ted Bergman's New York based company) to air the show as a mid season replacement in February 1977 with the Gelbart cast. However, at the last minute ABC decided that they wanted the show and made a firm commitment to air the show at midseason with a new cast.

The second pilot was penned by writers Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, and Bernie West, better known as NRW, who had gained fame in adapting another British series, Till Death Us Do Part, into All in the Family. The second pilot followed the British series even more closely, with the filmmaker character David Bell becoming cooking student Jack Tripp like his English counterpart, chef Robin Tripp, and one of the women being renamed Chrissy. Jack's female roommates were portrayed by Joyce DeWitt as florist Janet Wood, and Susan Lanier as secretary Chrissy Snow (actress Denise Galik had originally been given the role but was dismissed a couple of days before the pilot taped). The setting of the show was also moved from North Hollywood to the beachside in Santa Monica. NRW went on to conceive the show as an all out farce, building the show's plot line heavily on the many misunderstandings encountered by each of the characters. This pilot was actually a remake of the British series episode And Mother Makes Four which was the second episode of the show. The new concept was well liked, with the exception of Lanier's portrayal of Chrissy.

Despite the doubts about Lanier's portrayal as Chrissy, Silverman put the show on the network lineup, to air in March 1977, yet ordered a search for a new Chrissy. In an interview with The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, Silverman said that Suzanne Somers barely made it as a member of the cast. "I was very involved in the casting of Suzanne Somers. We did three pilots", he recalls, "and the Chrissy character still wasn't right. We got to the day before we're starting the production of the series and we didn't have a Chrissy. I was so desperate, I took all the audition tapes and just kind of fast forward them. All of a sudden, they went by Suzanne Somers who I hadn't seen, but I recognized her from her appearance on The Tonight Show, I said 'back that up' and she was great. She's been passed on! And I said 'I don't understand. This girl could play that part, why was she been passed on?' and I couldn't get a straight answer. Anyway, we got her in that day and she was on the set tomorrow and she was terrific in that part. And that was an accident because she never should have gotten the part.".^[12] With Somers set in the role the third pilot hastly went into production in January 1977. NRW had initially thought about recasting Ritter at the last minute before the pilot taped. Although liked by test audiences, the producers felt Ritter's foolish and clumsy portrayal of Jack made his character seem somewhat effeminate; Barry Van Dyke, and future television director Michael Lembeck, who had originally auditioned for the now renamed Jack Tripper, were initially considered to take the role. Nonetheless Silverman championed for Ritter to stay on the show. The third pilot was accepted by ABC, and was followed by five additional episodes for the show's spring tryout.

Syndication[link]

The show has been in local syndication since 1982 (ABC aired back-to-back repeats during daytime in the summer of 1981) on local stations such as WNEW-TV in New York City and the sales on the project realized more than $150,000,000 of which Thames took 12.5% ($19,000,000).^[13] It debuted on cable in 1992 on TBS and ran through 1999. Then Nick at Nite bought the show in 2000 and have a seven-year term with other Viacom networks such as TV Land and TNN. In 2007, Viacom renewed their contract for reruns of the show for another six years.

In March 2001, after being notified by a viewer, Nick at Nite quickly edited an episode ("The Charming Stranger") where John Ritter's scrotum skin was briefly visible through the bottom of a pair of blue boxer shorts. The most famous quip about this issue was uttered by John Ritter, who told the New York Observer when they asked him about the controversy: "I've requested that Nickelodeon air both versions, edited and unedited, because sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you don't."^[14]

The show currently airs on TV Land, Antenna TV, TVtropolis and DejaView (the latter two, both Shaw Media properties). In French Canada, it currently airs on Prise 2 (Take 2), and the series was dubbed in Montreal.

Technical aspects[link]

Three's Company was recorded at two locations: the first, seventh, and eighth seasons were taped at Metromedia Square while the second through sixth season were taped in Studio 31 at CBS Television City. The cast would get the script on Monday, rehearse from Tuesday to Thursday, and shoot on Friday. Each episode was shot twice in a row using two different audiences. Three cameras were used.

The taping was done in sequence and there were rarely any retakes because the producers were strict. Priscilla Barnes once said, "Our bosses were very, very controlling. If my hair was too blond, I'd get called up in the office."^[15] The opening credits where the trio are frolicking on a boardwalk and riding bumper-cars was shot at the Santa Monica Pier, prior to the building of a larger amusement park adjacent to the pier.^[16]

A later opening sequence that was shot when Priscilla Barnes joined the show featured the new threesome and the other cast members riding a zoo tram and looking at various animals around the zoo. Those sequences were filmed at the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park.^[16]

TV movie[link]

In May 2003 NBC aired a two hour television movie entitled Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company, a docudrama featuring actors portraying Ritter, Dewitt, Somers and other actors on the series. The movie covered the entire run of the series from the pilots to the final episode but the contract negotiations and subsequent departure of Suzanne Somers provided much of the drama. Joyce Dewitt co-produced and narrated the movie; Ritter and Somers both had some input but neither appeared in the project.

DVD releases[link]

Anchor Bay Entertainment has released all eight seasons of Three's Company on DVD in Region 1.

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Three's Company at the Internet Movie Database
• Three's Company at TV.com
• The Official Site of Three's Company
• Three's Company on TVLand.com
• Three's Company on Antennatv.tv

v t e Three's Company Characters Jack Tripper · Janet Wood · Chrissy Snow · Cindy Snow · Terri Alden · Stanley Roper · Helen Roper · Ralph Furley · Larry Dallas · Lana Shields See also List of episodes · Behind the Camera · Man About the House · George and Mildred · Robin's Nest · The Ropers · Three's a Crowd · En fyra för tre The Complete Guide to Three's Company

Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Somers, May 2006
Born	Suzanne Marie Mahoney (1946-10-16) October 16, 1946 (age 65) San Bruno, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, author, businesswoman, singer
Years active	1963–present
Spouse	Bruce Somers (1965–1968) Alan Hamel (1977–present)
Website
http://www.suzannesomers.com/

Suzanne Somers (born as Suzanne Marie Mahoney on October 16, 1946) is an American actress, author, singer and businesswoman, known for her television roles as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Lambert on Step by Step.

Somers later became the author of a series of best-selling self-help books, including Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (2006), a book about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.^[1] She has also released two autobiographies, four diet books, and a book of poetry entitled "Touch Me" (1980). She currently features items of her design on ShopNBC.^{[citation needed]}

She is criticized for her views on some medical subjects and her advocacy of the Wiley Protocol, which has been labelled as "scientifically unproven and dangerous".^[2][3] Her promotion of alternative cancer treatments has received criticism from the American Cancer Society.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Born Suzanne Marie Mahoney in San Bruno, California, Somers was the third of four children in an Irish Catholic family.^[5][6][7] Her mother, Marion Elizabeth (née Turner), was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis Mahoney, was a laborer (loading beer into boxcars) and gardener.^[8] Her family attended church at St. Robert's Catholic Church in San Bruno.

She attended Capuchino High School,^[9][10] then she was accepted at San Francisco College for Women (commonly referred to as "Lone Mountain College") a Catholic school that is now a campus of the University of San Francisco.

She was a contestant on Anniversary Game (1969–70), where she met host Alan Hamel for the first time; they were married in 1977.

In 2001 Somers announced that she had breast cancer, having a lumpectomy to remove the cancer followed by radiation therapy. She decided to forego chemotherapy in favor of alternative treatment.^[11]

On January 9, 2007, the Associated Press reported that a wildfire in Southern California had destroyed Somers' Malibu home.^[12]

Career[link]

Early acting roles[link]

She began acting in small roles during the late 1960s and early 1970s (including on various talk shows promoting her book of poetry, and bit parts in movies such as the "Blonde in the T-Bird" in American Graffiti, and an episode of the American version of the sitcom Lotsa Luck as the femme fatale in the early 1970s). She appeared in The Rockford Files and had an uncredited role as a topless pool girl in Magnum Force, both in 1974. She next guest starred on the 1977 episode "Cheshire Project" on The Six Million Dollar Man. She later landed the role of the ditzy blonde "Chrissy Snow" on the ABC sitcom Three's Company in 1977. And also that year she was a celebrity panelist on Match Game.

[edit] Three's Company

Suzanne Somers on the USS Ranger (CV-61) in 1981, during the time she was cast off of Three's Company

At the beginning of the fifth season, Somers demanded a hefty raise from $30,000 to $150,000 an episode and 10% ownership of the show's profit. Those close to the situation suggested that Somers' rebellion was due to husband Hamel's influences. When ABC denied her request, Somers boycotted the second and fourth shows of the season, due to several excuses such as a broken rib (which was false). She finished the remaining season on her contract, but her role was decreased to 60 seconds per episode. After her contract was terminated, she sued ABC for $2 million, claiming that her credibility in show business had been damaged. It went to an arbitrator who decided that Somers was owed only $30,000 due to a single missed episode for which she had not been paid. Other rulings favored the producers. Somers has said she was fired because she asked to be paid as much as male actors like Alan Alda of M*A*S*H, and Carroll O'Connor of Archie Bunker's Place.^[13]

Before the feud with Three's Company producers and ABC ended, rival network CBS knew that Somers was ultimately going to be available. They signed her to a contract and a development deal for her own sitcom, which was going to be called The Suzanne Somers Show, in which she was to play an "over-the-top" airline stewardess. Once she was indeed available (after her firing from Three's Company), CBS gave Somers – and the public – a timeframe in which to expect the show to hit the air, but due to a change in administration at CBS' entertainment division in early 1982, the brass ended up passing on the project. Also, Somers claimed in her book After the Fall (1998), that the producers of Three's Company kept sending cease and desist forms to CBS stating that Somers could not use any of her Chrissy Snow characterization, and that chilled the creative process.

[edit] Playboy pictorials

Somers appeared in two Playboy cover-feature nude pictorials: in 1980 and 1984. The first set of photos was taken by Stan Malinowski in February 1970 when Somers was a struggling model and actress and did a test photoshoot for the magazine. She was accepted as a Playmate candidate in 1971, but declined to pose nude before the actual shoot. During a Tonight Show appearance, she denied ever posing nude (except for a High Society topless photo), which prompted Playboy into publishing the photos from the 1970 Malinowski shoot in February 1980.^[14] The second nude pictorial by Richard Fegley appeared in December 1984 in an attempt by Somers to regain her popularity after being terminated by Three's Company in 1982.

Spokeswoman for the Thighmaster[link]

During the 1980s, Somers became a Las Vegas entertainer. She was the spokeswoman for the Thighmaster, a piece of exercise equipment that is squeezed between one's thighs. Thighmaster was one of the first products responsible for launching the infomercial concept.^{[citation needed]} During this period of her career, she also performed for US servicemen overseas.^[15][16]

[edit] She's the Sheriff

At the height of her exposure as official spokesperson for Thighmaster infomercials, Somers made her first return to a series, although not on network television. In 1987, she starred in the sitcom She's the Sheriff, which ran in first-run syndication. Somers portrayed a widow with two young kids who decided to fill the shoes of her late husband, a sheriff of a southern town. The show ran for two seasons.

[edit] Step by Step

In 1990, Somers returned to network TV, appearing in numerous guest roles and made-for-TV movies, mostly for ABC. Her roles in these, including the movie Rich Men, Single Women, attracted the attention of Lorimar Television and Miller-Boyett Productions, who were developing a new sitcom. Somers had starred in the film with Heather Locklear, who inadvertently directed the focus of both production companies to Somers due to Locklear's starring role on Going Places (from Lorimar and Miller/Boyett). For Lorimar, this was asking Somers back, since they alone had produced She's the Sheriff.

In September 1991, Somers returned to TV starring in the sitcom Step By Step (with Patrick Duffy), which ran for seven seasons. Playing off her rejuvenated career, Somers also launched a daytime talk show in 1994, albeit briefly, titled Suzanne Somers. During Step By Step's final season, on CBS, she began co-hosting Candid Camera with Peter Funt.

[edit] Candid cohost

From 1997–99, Somers cohosted the revised Candid Camera show, when CBS chose to bring it back with Peter Funt. Somers stayed for two years before PAX TV renewed the series without her.

[edit] The Blonde in the Thunderbird

Somers receiving patriotic civilian service award for past USO tour performances after performing The Blonde in the Thunderbird for members of the US military and their families.

In summer 2005, Somers made her Broadway debut in a one-woman show, The Blonde in the Thunderbird, a collection of stories about her life and career. The show was supposed to run until September, but was cancelled in less than a week after poor reviews and disappointing ticket sales.^[17] Somers blamed the harsh reviews (The New York Times referred to it as "...a drab and embarrassing display of emotional exhibitionism masquerading as entertainment"^[18]) and told the New York Post: "These men [New York critics] are curmudgeons, and maybe I went too close to the bone for them. I was lying there naked, and they decided to kick me and step on me, just like these visions you see in Iraq."^[19]

[edit] Breaking Through

In 2012, Somers began an online talk show, Suzanne Somers Breaking Through, at CafeMom. Three of the episodes featured a reunion with Joyce DeWitt, the two speaking with each other for the first time in thirty years.^[20]

Views on medical subjects[link]

Somers supports bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Her book, Ageless,^[21] includes interviews with 16 practitioners of bioidentical hormone therapy, but gives extra discussion to one specific approach, the 'Wiley Protocol'. Somers and T. S. Wiley, the originator of the Wiley Protocol, have been criticized for their advocacy of the Wiley Protocol. A group of seven doctors, all of whom utilize bioidentical hormone therapies to address health issues in women, issued a public letter to Somers and her publisher, Crown, in which they state that the protocol is "scientifically unproven and dangerous" and cite Wiley's lack of medical and clinical qualifications.^[2] The use of bioidentical hormone therapies is a very controversial area of medicine;^[3] its efficacy has never been tested and numerous groups have expressed concern over its safety and the misleading claims made by practitioners.^[22]

Her promotion of them, and Oprah Winfrey's support of her, has been the subject of an Associated Press article:^[4]

The problem, for many doctors: These custom-compounded products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Somers, whose hormone regimen involves creams, injections and some 60 supplements daily, got a huge boost earlier this year from Oprah Winfrey. "Many people write Suzanne off as a quackadoo," Winfrey said when Somers appeared on her show. "But she just might be a pioneer."

Yet Winfrey's tacit support of Somers gave her some of the worst press of her career. "Crazy Talk," Newsweek headlined an article on the talk show host earlier this year. Another headline, on Salon.com: "Oprah's Bad Medicine."^[4]

In 2001, Somers was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy, and radiation, but declined to undergo chemotherapy.^[3] In November, 2008, Suzanne Somers announced she was diagnosed with inoperable cancer by six doctors, but Somers learned a week later that she was misdiagnosed. During this time, she interviewed doctors about cancer treatments and these interviews became the basis of her book, Knockout, about alternative treatments to chemotherapy.^[23] In her book Knockout, Somers promotes alternative cancer treatments, for which she has received criticism from the American Cancer Society:

The American Cancer Society is concerned.
"I am very afraid that people are going to listen to her message and follow what she says and be harmed by it," says Dr. Otis Brawley, the organization's chief medical officer. "We use current treatments because they've been proven to prolong life. They've gone through a logical, scientific method of evaluation. I don't know if Suzanne Somers even knows there IS a logical, scientific method."
More broadly, Brawley is concerned that in the United States, celebrities or sports stars feel they can use their fame to dispense medical advice. "There's a tendency to oversimplify medical messages," he says. "Well, oversimplification can kill."^[4]

She is also opposed to water fluoridation.^[24]

In the movie "Sex and the City 2" Samantha, one of the characters, advocates Suzanne Somers' book and method of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy ^[25]

Television work[link]

• Anniversary Game (1969–1970)
• Mantrap (1971–1973)
• Lotsa Luck (c1973)
• The Big Ripoff (The Rockford Files) (Aired Oct, 1974)
• Sky Heist (1975)
• Match Game ('77/PM) (1977)
• It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977)
• Three's Company (cast member from 1977–1981)
• Happily Ever After (1978)
• Zuma Beach (1978)
• Hollywood Wives (1985) (miniseries)
• Goodbye Charlie (1985)
• She's the Sheriff (1987–1989)
• Rich Men, Single Women (1990)
• Step by Step (1991–1998)
• Keeping Secrets (1991)
• Exclusive (1992) (also co-executive producer)
• The Suzanne Somers Show (1994–1995)
• Seduced by Evil (1994)
• 8-Track Flashback (1995-1998)
• Devil's Food (1996)
• Love-Struck (1997)
• No Laughing Matter (1998)
• Candid Camera (co-host from 1998–2000)
• The Darklings (1999)
• Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2009) (Guest appearance)
• ShopNBC

Filmography[link]

• Bullitt (1968)
• Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969)
• American Graffiti (1973)
• Magnum Force (1973) (uncredited)
• Ants (1977)
• Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)
• Yesterday's Hero (1979)
• Nothing Personal (1980)
• Totally Minnie (1987)
• Serial Mom (1994) (cameo)
• Rusty: A Dog's Tale (1998) (voice)
• Say It Isn't So (2001) (cameo)

Bibliography[link]

Suzanne Somers at the Ina Soltani

• Somers, S (1980). Touch Me: The Poems of Suzanne Somers. Workman Pub Co. ISBN 0-89480-141-4. 
• Somers, S (1987). Keeping Secrets. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-446-51395-1. 
• Somers, S (1992). Wednesday's Children: Adult Survivors of Abuse Speak Out. Putnam Adult. ISBN 0-399-13743-2. 
• Somers, S (1998). After the Fall: How I Picked Myself Up, Dusted Myself Off, and Started All Over Again. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-609-60312-4. 
• Somers, S (1999). Suzanne Somers' Get Skinny on Fabulous Food. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-609-60162-4. 
• Somers, S (1999). Suzanne Somers' 365 Ways to Change Your Life. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-609-60161-7. 
• Somers, S (2001). Suzanne Somers' Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-609-60722-0. 
• Somers, S (2001). Suzanne Somers' Eat Great, Lose Weight (Miniature Editions). Running Press. ISBN 978-0-7624-1160-3. 
• Somers, S (2001). Somersize Desserts. Clarkson Potter. ISBN 978-0-609-60977-4. 
• Somers, S (2002). Suzanne Somers' Fast and Easy: Lose Weight the Somersize Way with Quick, Delicious Meals for the Entire Family!. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4000-4643-0. 
• Somers, S (2004). The Sexy Years: Discover the Hormone Connection - The Secret to Fabulous Sex, Great Health, and Vitality, for Women and Men. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-609-60721-9. 
• Somers, S (2004). Somersize Chocolate. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4000-5329-2. 
• Somers, S (2005). Suzanne Somers' Slim and Sexy Forever: The Hormone Solution for Permanent Weight Loss and Optimal Living. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4000-5325-4. 
• Somers, S (2005). Somersize Cocktails: 30 Sexy Libations from Cool Classics to Unique Concoctions to Stir Up Any Occasion. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4000-5330-8. 
• Somers, S (2005). Somersize Appetizers: 30 Scintillating Starters to Tantalize Your Tastebuds at Every Occasion. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4000-5331-5. 
• Somers, S (2006). Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-307-23724-9. 
• Somers, S (2008). Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 1-4000-5327-7. 
• Somers, S (2009). Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer--And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-58746-6. 
• Somers, S (2009). Stay Young & Sexy with Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement: The Science Explained. Smart Publications. ISBN 978-1-890572-22-8. 
• Somers, S (2010). Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat after Forty. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-58851-7. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Suzanne Somers

• Official website
• Suzanne Somers at the Internet Movie Database
• Suzanne Somers at AllRovi

Joyce DeWitt
at the New York Comic Con (October 10, 2010)
Born	Joyce Anne DeWitt (1949-04-23) April 23, 1949 (age 63)[1] Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Joycey
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1972–present
Website
JoyceDeWitt.com

Joyce Anne DeWitt (born April 23, 1949) is an American actress most famous for playing Janet Wood on the ABC sitcom Three's Company.

Early life[link]

Joyce DeWitt, who is of no relation to actress Fay DeWitt,^[2] was born April 23, 1949 in Wheeling, West Virginia, and grew up in Speedway, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.^[1] She is of Italian descent.^[3] She competed in speech and debate through the Indiana High School Forensic Association. After she received a bachelor's degree in theater from Ball State University, she moved to California to earn her master's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).^[1]

Career[link]

DeWitt with John Ritter (center) and Suzanne Somer in the promotional photo of the series premiere of Three's Company, 1977.

DeWitt began appearing on stage at the age of 13.^[4] While attending university, she worked as a secretary until her debut on Baretta.^[1] Contrary to reports, she has never painted actor Abe Vigoda's garage doors, and has never met the man.^[2] While performing in summer stock in the year following her graduation, a director and UCLA Theater professor convinced her to go to California for the school's MFA program.^[4]

DeWitt is best known for her role as Janet Wood during the 1977–1984 run of the sitcom Three's Company, a job she obtained after being cast in the show's second pilot.^[4]

After Three's Company ended in 1984, DeWitt appeared in an episode of Finder of Lost Loves in 1984, after which she quit acting for several years. She resumed acting with a part in a production of Noises Off at Michigan's Cherry County Playhouse in June 1991.^[1] She later appeared in the 1995 TV comedy film Spring Fling!, and made appearances in "The Pinky Protocol", a 1997 episode of Pinky and the Brain, an episode of Cybill, and a cameo on the penultimate episode of Living Single.^[4] Her 2000s works includes TV shows such as Hope Island, 18, The Nick at Nite Holiday Special, and Call of the Wild.

DeWitt would go on to co-produce and host the 2003 NBC-TV television film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company, with actress Melanie Deanne Moore portraying her during her time on Three's Company. In late 2008, she also earned a part in an independent film called Failing Better Now.

As of 2011, DeWitt was starring in the play Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating & Marriage on in New York.^[4][5]

Charity work[link]

Joyce DeWitt signs autographs in 2010

DeWitt participated with members of the House and Senate at the Capitol Hill Forum on Hunger and Homelessness, and has hosted presentations for the Family Assistance Program of Hollywood. She hosted the International Awards Ceremony at the White House for the Presidential End Hunger Awards, and co-hosted, with Jeff Bridges, the World Food Day Gala at the Kennedy Center.^[4]

Legal issues[link]

On July 4, 2009, DeWitt was arrested in El Segundo, California, and cited for drunken driving. According to press reports, police pulled her over after she drove past a barricade near a park. An officer arrested the actress after he observed signs she had been drinking and administered a field sobriety test. She was booked at the police station, cited, and released on her own recognizance.^[6] On May 27, 2010, she pleaded no contest to one count misdemeanor and was placed on three years' probation and ordered to undergo a nine-month alcohol program. She was also ordered to pay a $510 fine, plus penalty assessments. In exchange for her plea, a second misdemeanor count was dismissed.^[7]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

• Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) - Juror

Television[link]

• Baretta (1975) - Jill
• Most Wanted (1976)
• Three's Company (1977–1984) - Janet Wood/Dawson
• With This Ring (1978) - Jilly Weston
• Supertrain (1979) - Natalie Smithburne
• The Ropers (1979) - Janet Wood
• The Love Boat (1979) - Jackie Landers
• The B.B. Beegle Show (1980) - Herself
• Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty (1980) - Love God's Date
• Finder of Lost Loves (1984) - Lynn Powell
• The Berenstain Bears (1985–1987) - voices
• Spring Fling! (1995) - Linda Hayden
• Living Single (1998) - Herself
• Hope Island (2000) - Laetitia Barton, Laverne Cranston
• The Nick at Nite Holiday Special (2003) - Miss DeWitt, The Housekeeper
• The 3rd Annual TV Land Awards (2005) - Susan Mayer

As producer[link]

• Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company (2003)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joyce DeWitt

• Official website
• Joyce DeWitt at the Internet Movie Database
• Joyce DeWitt at AllRovi

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Gene Rayburn (December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the popular American television game show Match Game for over two decades.

Born Eugene P. Rubessa ( /ruːˈbeɪʃə/) in Christopher, Illinois, he was the only child of Croatian immigrants and graduated from Lindblom Technical High School and later from Knox College. While a student at Lindblom, he was senior class president and acted in the plays Robert of Sicily, and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.^[1]

Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October 1996. They had one child, a daughter, Lynn. After Lynn's birth, Rayburn enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force and served in World War II. Public Service: He became the President of the organization "Patient's for the Preservation of Lens Implantation" in 1975 at the time the US government was attempting to stop intraocular lens (IOL) implantation for the treatment of cataracts. The organization worked closely with the American Intra-Ocular Implant Society (of surgeons) today called the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). He was pivotal in preventing the government from banning IOLs. Today it the standard of care throughout the world.

Radio career[link]

Rayburn (left) and Dee Finch in 1951.

Before appearing in television, Rayburn was a very successful actor and radio performer. He had a popular morning drive time radio show in New York, first with Jack Lescoulie (Anything Goes) and later with Dee Finch (Rayburn & Finch) on WNEW (now WBBR). Radio history pegs Rayburn's pairings with Lescoulie and Finch as the first two-man teams in morning radio.^{[citation needed]} When Rayburn left WNEW, Dee Finch continued the format with Gene Klavan.

Rayburn later landed the lead in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie when Dick Van Dyke left the production to star in his eponymous classic sitcom.

Television career[link]

Breaking into television as the original announcer on Steve Allen's Tonight, Gene Rayburn began a long association with game-show producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in 1953. He first appeared on Robert Q. Lewis's The Name's the Same; Rayburn frequently sat in for regular panelist Carl Reiner, lending a comic touch to the panel. In 1955, he took over as host of the summer replacement game show, Make the Connection, from original host, Jim McKay. From there he hosted shows such as Choose Up Sides, Dough Re Mi, and the daytime version of Tic Tac Dough. On radio, Rayburn became one of the many hosts of the NBC program Monitor in 1961 and remained with the show until 1973.

In an uncredited role (he reportedly did not want his name to appear), Rayburn played a TV interviewer in the 1959 movie, It Happened to Jane starring Doris Day.

Rayburn was also a frequent panelist in the 1960s and '70s on What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth, where the interviewing skills he had burnished on Monitor made him a popular questioner.

[edit] The Match Game

From 1962 to 1969 Rayburn hosted The Match Game. In the original version, which aired from New York on NBC, Rayburn read questions to two panels, each consisting of a celebrity and two audience members. The questions in the original game were ordinary, like "Name a kind of muffin," or "John loves his ____________."  Rayburn usually played it straight, though he would make jokes as the situation warranted. Because it was a live show, very few episodes were recorded for posterity; only four are known to exist. The show was cancelled in 1969 to make room for the topical, short-lived game show Letters to Laugh-In.

Goodson-Todman revived The Match Game in 1973 for CBS. Gene Rayburn returned as host, and introduced a new format in which two contestants tried to match the responses of six celebrities. Writer Dick DeBartolo, a veteran of the original show, created funnier and often risqué questions ("After being hit by a steamroller, Norman had to slide his ____________ under the door.") Rayburn reveled in this freewheeling new approach, and often indulged in funny voices, banter with the celebrities, and mock arguments with the technical crew. Millions tuned in, and it soon became the highest-rated show in daytime television history.^{[citation needed]}

From 1973 to 1977, The Match Game was #1 among all daytime network game shows — three of those years it was the highest rated in all of daytime shows.

The daytime revival of The Match Game, which featured regular panelists Richard Dawson, 1973 to 1978, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly, ran until 1979 on CBS and another three years in first-run syndication. A concurrent night-time version, Match Game PM, aired from 1975 to 1980. Rayburn was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show.

During the years when The Match Game was taped in Los Angeles, Rayburn lived in Osterville, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and would commute to California every two weeks and tape 12 shows over the course of a weekend (five daytime shows and one nighttime show per taping day).^{[citation needed]}

In 1983, a year after the syndicated Match Game disappeared, the show was revived as part of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, with Rayburn hosting the Match Game segment and sitting on the panel of the Hollywood Squares segment. The show lasted nine months on NBC.

Rayburn knitted socks as a publicity stunt during his time on Rayburn and Finch and later became avid in needlepoint, and filled the long plane rides from New York to Hollywood with his hobby. In 1974, Goodson made a surprise on-air appearance to congratulate the host on making the show #1 among daytime television programs and gave Rayburn a needlepoint bag as a gift.

During his time in the Air Force, Rayburn was trained in meteorology and occasionally demonstrated his knowledge of the weather on Match Game.

Other game shows/television appearances[link]

During and between his Match Game years, Rayburn served as guest panelist on two other Goodson-Todman shows, What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth. Also during the run of the 1970s Match Game, Gene and wife Helen appeared on the game show Tattletales, hosted by Bert Convy. Three years after the original Match Game was cancelled, Rayburn hosted the short-lived Heatter-Quigley Productions show, The Amateur's Guide to Love. In 1983 he hosted a pilot for Reg Grundy Productions called Party Line, which later became Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak.

Rayburn appeared as a contestant during a tournament of game show hosts on the original version of Card Sharks in 1980 and was a celebrity guest on Password Plus several times between 1980 and 1982.

Rayburn appeared on Fantasy Island as a game-show host — he and another host were game show rivals who vied to win the woman they both loved by creating the ultimate game show, with life-or-death consequences.

Rayburn once hosted a local New York City-based show on WNEW-TV (now WNYW), Helluva Town, and between game show stints in 1982-83 he returned to WNEW as host of a weekly local talk/lifestyles show called Saturday Morning Live. He ended his brief tenure to return as co-host of The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour.

Rayburn's last game show hosting duties were on 1985's Break the Bank (he was replaced by Joe Farago after 13 weeks), and The Movie Masters, an American Movie Classics cable game show that ran from 1989 to 1990.

Just before production was to begin on a new Rayburn-emceed Match Game revival in 1985, an Entertainment Tonight reporter publicly disclosed that Rayburn was much older than many believed. Rayburn had trouble finding jobs after that, blaming the reporter for revealing his age and subjecting him to age discrimination.

Rayburn portrayed himself on a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990, which featured Susan Lucci (as her character from All My Children, Erica Kane). He returned as one of Kane's many previous husbands, to stop another marriage (officiated by his old Choose Up Sides co-star Don Pardo) with the host of a game show portrayed by Phil Hartman. He also continued to make appearances on talk shows throughout the late 1980s and 90s, usually to discuss classic game shows, including appearances on Vicki! and The Maury Povich Show and The Late Show with Ross Shafer. Coincidentally, Shafer would host the 1990 Match Game revival.

Death[link]

Rayburn's last TV appearance was a 1998 interview with Access Hollywood intended to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the CBS Match Game. Portions of the interview have been rebroadcast on the Game Show Network, which in 2001 showed portions of another previously unaired interview during the first airing of its Match Game Blankathon.

Though in poor health, Rayburn appeared in person to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A month later, he died at his daughter Lynne Rayburn's Beverly, Massachusetts home of congestive heart failure on November 29, 1999. He was cremated and his ashes spread in the garden of his daughter's home.

References[link]

1. ^ Lindblom Technical High School, Class yearbook January 1936

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Gene Rayburn at the Internet Movie Database
• Gene Rayburn at the Internet Broadway Database
• Gene Rayburn at Find a Grave
• Rayburn hosts NBC Monitor radio program (audio files)
• WNEW, The World's Greatest Radio Station

1. REDIRECT John Ritter