Phoning It In- Chrissy Gets Phased Out Of Three's Company

Not sure how accurate this is...

The show became nothing without her. She really was worth what Ritter was getting. But I have to admit I'm not a Ritter fan. He was such a silly jerk you really wanted to punch him out.

I never cared for Ritter, I always got a sleazy vibe from him.

Joyce DeWitt is so hammy and over the top that she makes Bonnie Franklin seem restrained.

This was so hard to get through.

Chrissy became increasingly stupid throughout the series, and by the time the character was relegated to brief phone calls, she exhibited such a level of mental retardation that she belonged in a group home where she could get help with basic needs like eating and toileting.

I watched it twice.

All three should have been equally. It's been said that Ritter had a clause in his contract where he would always make X% more than his two costars, so if they got a raise, then so would he. This show was very sexist, in front of the cameras and behind the cameras.

R2 the ratings were still solid until the very last season. And John won a Emmy for it after it ended. I think they did the best they could casting Priscilla to replace Suzanne, but the dynamic wasn’t the same. But to say the show was nothing without her is just not true. It didn’t completely collapse without Suzanne. Suzanne regretted the way it was handled the rest of her life. They were never going to give her what she wanted. Not even close. But she ended up laughing all the way to the bank in her future endeavors. Something none of the rest of them could do.

That show was complete shit without her.

[quote]That show was complete shit...period.

Fixed it for you, r7.

Suzanne and Joyce reunited after 30 years on Suzanne's talk show.

It was her first series, no?

She signed the contract she signed

r10 We don't end sentences in this manner, no?

You're not fond of reading/watching/comprehending, are you?

When a door closes a window opens... If she'd stayed on the show she would've just aged-out of showbiz, and become another broke, faded sitcom actor.

It was the late70s/early 80s - no woman was worth a man!

[quote] she exhibited such a level of mental retardation that she belonged in a group home where she could get help with basic needs like eating and toileting.

That would have made for a great spinoff. (OK, maybe not, but it still would have been better than "The Ropers.")

R11, I'm not?

Are you?

Who is?

I don't think the firing affected her career at all, other than maybe the embarrassment that comes with being publicly fired.

Her next sitcom after Three's Company was "She's the Sheriff". Though it didn't last very long, a few years later, she was cast on the long running sitcom "Step by Step", which was popular with kids. She remained close with her co-star Patrick Duffy until her death.

In the late 80s, she wrote an autobiographical book, Keeping Secrets, and then played herself in a TV movie based on the book. She went on to write about 25 books, mostly about health tips, Many of them were bestsellers.

What made her rich was the Thigh master gig in the 90s and then getting the rights to the device. Who would have guessed it would become as huge at it did. By then, Three's Company was over (for all the actors).

I remember reading years ago, she was paid $300K for a single appearance related to one of her books. Who knows if it was true, but she sure made a huge load of money off of all those books.

I actually just watched the first several episodes. And I’m dumber for having done so.

[quote]It was her first series, no? She signed the contract she signed.

She did sign the contract she signed - and then it ended and it was time to renew another contract. So she was ready to negotiate a new contract (which is what one does) and she asked for more money, and if she got it - DeWitt would, too. ABC was not willing to negotiate. ABC wanted her to sign the contract they already had prepared for her. Ridiculous.

That plastic surgery she had done on her thighs 6 months before she did the commercial is what made her all that money. Forgot to tell the customers about that part.

Three's Company survived without Chrissy but its spin-off Three's a Crowd failed without Janet.

Ritter's first wife Nancy Morgan did that "Double Dirt" dance in a fraternity movie.

In the first shot of Chrissy 'phoning it in' from her bedroom, why does she have a miniature scarecrow on her night table ? Who was the set designer back then ?

Funny how if they made this today, straight woman would be freaking out call it gross and disgusting or gay.

Buford Wilson?

[quote]r10 She signed the contract she signed.

I know all about run-of-the-play contracts!

Somers sadly became a joke of a human being, desperately trying to make a buck on everything.

R27 And she laughed at those jokes all the way to her bank. She did fine in her life.

R23 Suzanne has said she filmed her phoning in scenes behind the main set for the show. She wasn’t allowed on the main set or anywhere near Jack and Joyce. I imagine it was something small they just threw up. Basically a phone, a backdrop, and some crappy trinkets like the scarecrow. They probably weren’t too invested in what it looked like. They definitely humiliated her and put her in her place (Suzanne’s words). If she would’ve just showed up, did her job like a professional for that season, and left the show with her head held high, she would have been better off. She had a deal with CBS for a pilot post TC, but with all the bad blood that occurred with ABC, CBS got cold feet and wouldn’t work with her. Obviously she rebounded, but it took years.

The breakout star of this thread.

Awwww, he sooo cute.

r31 *he's

R19, so it was a four year contract?

I thought contracts ran for seven years.

She asked for the raise for season 5.

R33 Suzanne said her contract was up the end of the 1980-1981 season, at the end of season 5. That’s why they were able to keep her doing her phone in scenes after the producers had had enough, feeling she was not going to show up for rehearsals and tapings. I’m unsure why this negotiation was done so far in advance of season 6. She could’ve done all the season 5 episodes completely, and left the show when she didn’t get what she wanted in early 1981. Again, Suzanne and her husband botched this entire thing from the start.

I get the money thing, truly.

But what was she making BEFORE three's company?

She had other shows, but none of them had the spark, fun, and energy of Three's Company.

She lost out on a great role and job. The show ultimately suffered after her departure.

R35 she was a struggling actress before TC, and was even arrested for passing bad checks before she met Hamel. She wanted her manager to put her on Farrah’s level of fame also, which is partly where asking for the exorbitant raise comes from. The show remained a decent hit even after she left ratings wise, but most people if asked probably prefer the Suzanne years.

I think in some tV movie about TC and the whole debacle of Suzanne leaving was either ABC or TC threatening to sue SS if she played a Chrissy like character on another sitcom.

not sure if that was based in reality or not.

R37 it’s true. She talked about it in the E True Hollywood Story of TC. She had a Vegas act at the time, along with a pilot at CBS, and they threatened to sue her if anything she did in any way, shape or form resembled Chrissie. She also said what soured ABC into not giving her even close to what she wanted was they felt they got stuck by giving Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams hefty raises, and L and S was even bigger than TC at the time.

well, maybe if the show were called Jack, Chrissy and Janet...you can't do L&S without Laverne and Shirley...well, except for the last season.

THhis is all you need to know about Suzanne Somers and her career choices. This is just one of the many delightfully brutal reviews that came out at the time.

Suzanne had the last laugh - she became wealthier than many A-Listers.

I saw a production of The Blonde in the Thunderbird starring Ilene Graff at a theater near Rancho Mirage about a decade ago. Graff was sensational, I wonder how much better the show would have been received if Graff had originated the role on Broadway.

I believe none other than Judi Dench was approached for a London production.

She admired the play so much she did a script-in-hand staged reading for the National Theater Co. board, trying to sell them on it…. though ultimately she felt the material was too physical to undertake at her age

[bold]: (

The real star of Somers' one woman show was the ever-present mooseknuckle thrust assaultingly at everyone in the first 11 rows...