Began watching this a few days ago, expecting unfunny crap. The writing isn't actually bad, and the "father" character plays it well. No reason for this not to be on DVD. Besides the awful opening montage and song, that is.
i actually think the opening vudeo and theme song are very cute
The Dude: Jesus.
Jesus Quintana: You said it, man. Nobody *beep* with the Jesus.
I liked everything about this show. Mary Cadorette was hot as hell too (at the time). It makes me laugh that some people can contemplate Jack and Janet getting together instead of Jack and Vicki. It's clear to me that Vicki was finally the right girl for Jack.
"We have guided missiles and misguided men."
I'm about 14 episodes into the show and I find myself laughing more than I usually did with Three's Company. The writing is better, although the physical comedy of Ritter is more restrained. It would have been interesting to see cast members from the original show turn up occasionally.
^true. I think only larry showed up one time on the show. It would have been better if the original cast furley,janet,terry all stopped by once in a while
The Dude: Jesus.
Jesus Quintana: You said it, man. Nobody *beep* with the Jesus.
Yes, only Larry showed up! Having completed the season, I wish there was another. The show certainly had the goods to survive another season, though I'm not sure what the ratings were back in 1985. It ends with no fanfare whatsoever, so I'm guessing they were leaving the possibility open.
The producers asked Richard Kline to be a semi-regular and appear in about half the episodes. But he had a chance to play the lead in a new sitcom pilot, so he declined. Later, when his pilot wasn't picked up, he guest starred in the new show. My guess is that if the show had gone on for another season, we would have seen more Larry. It really didn't make sense for him not to be around - Jack only moved down the street a couple of miles, so why would he suddenly stop seeing his best friend?
shareLarry can't walk that far.
shareThe series wasn't that bad, but the change to the plot and cast members did not help with the episode plots. This sequel reminded me of another long running TV series that just ended and got a sequel during that same time period, M*A*S*H and After M*A*S*H. After M*A*S*H lasted just over a year and also went out with a whimper. Sequels rarely match the popularity of the original series. I have seen many sequels that tried to continue with a character from the original series and fail (most recent one that comes to mind is Friends and Joey).
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They are showing the Three's Company, The Ropers, and Three's a Crowd series on Antenna TV now. Seeing them again after about 30 years ago, this series seems to end many of the episodes with Jack and Vicky "going to bed". The previous series never went that far for Jack and his dates. I guess that wasn't a big thing for the 80's, but it took away the funnier storylines that involved the trio in the earlier series. I suppose the rainbow shot that is shown at the end of each episode reinforces the new theme that Jack has finally "hit the jackpot".
I suppose the term sequel was not correctly used in my previous comment since that term is often used for movies and not TV shows.
There was, of course, Mrs. Columbo which spun off from Columbo and the many versions of Star Trek.
Mrs.Columbo?? WTF??
Who the hell played that??
Kate Mulgrew who also played the captain in Star Trek: Voyager. The character of Mrs. Columbo got so much attention from the Columbo series and that resulted in the creation of the TV series. It barely last one year, however. She also played a sleuth character, but was not a police officer. This series was broadcast around the same time that another series made its debut from the huge popularity of "Star Wars" - Battlestar Galactica. That also barely lasted one year and supposedly cost $1 million per episode.
shareThis is a quote from Wikipedia as to the reason for the TAC's cancelation. However, there are no sources for it:
"Three's a Crowd garnered only modest ratings, still competing with The A-Team. When the 1984-85 television season finished the show placed 38th in the Nielsen ratings; this put the show on the fence with ABC, since the show had enough of an audience to warrant renewal. However, when compared to Three's Company's ratings and The A-Team, which finished sixth for the season, ABC was tepid in committing to another season of Three's a Crowd. John Ritter was told that ABC would commit to a half-season of thirteen episodes to see how the series would place, although Ritter was reported as saying that he would not return to the show unless a full season was ordered. Finally, ABC decided instead to pick up Diff'rent Strokes for another season, which had just been cancelled by NBC."
In my opinion, audiences were also growing tired of "Jack Tripper". I think Ritter's career suffered from playing the character for so long. He didn't have another successful series until Heart's Afire.
Some spin-offs have done well. Frasier (11 seasons) was just as big a hit as Cheers (11 seasons) was, or very close to it.
The Jeffersons (11 seasons) was a spin-off of All in the Family (9 seasons).
Mork and Mindy (4 seasons) was a spin-off of Happy Days (11 seasons).
There are the spin-offs from Law & Order - L&O: Special Victims Unit (17 seasons and running) and L&O: Criminal Intent (10 seasons).
CSI has had successful spin-offs - CSI: Miami, 10 seasons; CSI: NY, 9 seasons; CSI: Cyber (ongoing).
Is it me or doesn't the father's character remind you of Ted Knight's character in Too Close For Comfort?
shareFunny that you should mention that. The producers who made Three's A Crowd (and Three's Company) also produced Too Close for Comfort which aired during the same time period as Three's A Crowd. The producers appeared to be focused on TV sitcoms that involved a group of people living near each other and the friction resulting from that kind of living arrangement.
shareIs it me or doesn't the father's character remind you of Ted Knight's character in Too Close For Comfort?