Wednesday, October 28, 1998
‘Three’s Company’ cast confides conflicts
BOOKS: After 20 years, former trio reveals tense relations with
producers, politics behind popular five-year show
By Laura Noguera
Daily Bruin Contributor
One’s blonde, one’s smart and the other’s male. Now, one
promotes Butt Masters, one does theater productions and the other
still makes television appearances. They are the cast of "Three’s
Company" – Suzanne Somers, Joyce DeWitt and John Ritter, and they
are back to tell the tales behind their smash hit.
"Come and Knock On Our Door, A Hers and Hers and His Guide to
Three’s Company" by Chris Mann, reveals all the gritty details of
"Three’s Company’s" five-year run.
"It’s part fan guide," said Mann. "But it’s more a
behind-the-scenes tell-all of the show and what happened with John
Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers as they became famous."
The cast as well as the "Three’s Company" producers and crew
share their perspective on those five years of sensitive and
surprising issues. Many unpredictable and wild things emerge from
the three roommates’ past as they became overnight sensations on
the daring sitcom.
"Looking at ("Three’s Company") 20 years later, this show was
really controversial for its time," Mann said. "It was on the cover
of ‘Newsweek’ for ‘Sex on TV.’"
Although Krissy wore those sexy side ponytails and Jack’s
wardrobe included those tight bell bottoms, nothing near sex ever
aired. However, the characters did have sex on their minds and
mouths, sparking "Three’s Company’s" sensual reputation.
"But kids watch it, and I grew up with it. There was nothing on
the show a kid couldn’t watch," Mann said. "It was totally
innocent; it was all just innuendo."
Behind the scenes, relationships were not so innocent, and
conversations were brash, as Somers made desperate attempts to
convince producers to offer her a more profitable contract.
"They had a really good time until that fifth year," Mann said.
"And there were a few incidents prior to that where Suzanne was
concerned that brought all the laughter to a screeching halt."
Somers’s new book, "After the Fall," tells her own "Three’s
Company" story, in which she finds the most faults in the
producer’s unwillingness to negotiate. Somers also finds pages to
accuse the other cast members of jealousy and resentment.
"Those kinds of things are delicate, and there are matters of
the heart that get mooshed into business behavior," actress Joyce
DeWitt, "Three’s Company’s" Janet, said. "That can be a very
challenging thing to live through."
Somers, as well as DeWitt, interviewed for Mann’s book, and the
discrepancy between the two women’s accounts joggled interest from
the cable TV station E!, which plans to do a "True Hollywood Story"
feature on "Three’s Company," focusing on Somers’ unsuccessful
negotiations.
"Everything that happened with Suzanne Somers, her becoming
famous and overestimating her value on the show …," Mann said,
"It applies to a lot of other stories in Hollywood where fame gets
in the way of success."
Somers and DeWitt, however, agreed on one issue. "Three’s
Company" producers did not acknowledge the importance the women
held on the show.
Mann points out that there were no television shows centralized
around women, such as present day "Roseanne" and "Ellen."
DeWitt and Somers said that producers were controlling and
showed no regard for their ideas.
"At the time that we were working, if you’d looked in the
dictionary under chauvinist, you would probably see these three
little heads, and they would be the heads of our producers," DeWitt
said.
DeWitt and Somers were both discouraged with the treatment they
were receiving, but they each found different battles to fight.
Now, 20 years later, their versions of the events do not
coincide.
"(In "After the Fall,") Somers told a very different version of
what happened, the events which led to her getting fired," Mann
said. "My book tells it from all angles and I think also includes a
lot more detailed and factual support."
It is Mann’s responsible and thorough investigative reporting
that impressed Joyce DeWitt and prompted her agreement to help
promote the book, appearing at book signings.
"(Mann) created a book which was very fair and very balanced so
I thought he deserved the support," DeWitt said. "I think he’s a
talented young writer with a sense of personal integrity."
BOOK: Mann and DeWitt will sign "Come and Knock On Our Door" at
Bookstar, west of Laurel Canyon Road on Ventura Boulevard, on Oct.
29 at 7 p.m.
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