JediJones Has Takes

Laraine Newman started a live chat on her Instagram last week and coincidentally enough I asked her what it was like to work with John Ritter (which she did in Problem Child 2). Of course she said he was amazing, funny, nice, can't say enough good things about him.

I had a college professor who showed a Three's Company clip in class and said it was a perfect example of burlesque comedy.

I think physical comedies were often looked down on and considered low-class, not sophisticated or for children...Three Stooges, Gilligan's Island, Three's Company, Perfect Strangers. But, ironically, these are some of the comedies that have stayed the most timeless, been the most well-remembered and kept the biggest fan bases. The "issue-oriented" comedies of the 1970s have become dated and the family values comedies of the '80s have become too bland. There's clearly an art behind the type of comedy in the "sillier" shows that they excelled at, which others tried to replicate and failed to do at the same level. You can't watch Three's Company without seeing that they raised the level of comedic misunderstanding to an artform like no other show ever had. Kramer on Seinfeld and Jim Carrey seemed to rehabilitate the idea of physical comedy to some degree in the mind of critics, or at least made it so they're not so willing to fight against the public sentiment that loves it anymore.

The issue people had with "Three's Company" wasn't Ritter's pratfalls: it was the smirking, adolescent view of sex and the way it played on sexual topics.

"Three's Company" seems intensely dated now in a number of ways. It's not aged well at all!

I don't think the issue was the sexually themed humor per se. I think intellectually minded critics just considered the show beneath them, based on everything about it, including the double entendres, the physical comedy, the "airhead" characters, the plots based on misunderstandings, the lack of any meaningful themes. But the comedy in the show is not dated at all. The premise is obviously dated because "living in sin" is not an issue any more, but if you watch it as a period piece for the era it's in, the comedy still works as well as it ever did. Of course, if you didn't like it then, you won't like it now either. And the fact that it was completely non-issue oriented was ahead of its time. Seinfeld proved that people wanted to watch a show about nothing. Jerry bragged that his show was not out to teach any lessons or even have much of a plot. Three's Company was another show like that, and that's why it had a more successful and longer life in reruns than shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family. The premise of young adults living as roommates has also become even more popular over the years, especially relative to family-based sitcoms. And of course, as already mentioned, John Ritter has become a comedic legend, and it's still largely based on Three's Company. People also still think very highly of Norman Fell and Don Knotts, and Suzanne Somers is still almost unparalleled as a sexy starlet. And although Hollywood may be less inclined to cast that kind of sex symbol these days, audiences still want to see that kind of woman as much as ever. The show has had one of the most successful afterlifes of any 1970s sitcom. Burlesque comedy material has always been looked down upon by the elites. But raunchy comedy with sexy ladies on the stage appeals to the mass audience at a very basic level that will probably never go out of style. Three's Company married that sensibility to the sitcom format in a particularly brilliant way.

I would not describe Three's Company as "ahead of its time." It was more of a throwback to the wacky style of TV comedy in the 60s predicated on slapstick and silly misunderstandings, and characters behaving like idiots. What made it seem modern were the sex jokes, but other than that it would have fit right into 1966. It was a textbook low comedy, really nothing new.

I think one reason it's been more popular in syndication than some other shows is that it was more popular when it first ran, also. Mary Tyler Moore for example never got higher than #7 overall in the ratings (in season 3), whereas Three's Company had several years where it was a top five show. Low comedy is always popular and never really goes out of style. And shows that are not topical have always had a place on TV, even when topical shows were at their peak in the 70s.

It's a shame they don't have the Real World sketch from the Shannen Doherty episode in circulation. It's stayed very relevant. With reality shows so prevalent (is Real World the most influential TV show of all time?), the way that sketch underlines the vapidness of their content and the way the people are manipulated to create drama is still so true. And the way every character is constantly calling the other characters racist was WAY ahead of its time. That's become normal, mainstream behavior now among far too many people.

The whole Shannen Doherty episode is a real gem. They also have the "date rape" game show where they highlight the absurdity of the "speech codes" that colleges were putting out in terms of how people are supposed to consent to sex. Again, that's only become more relevant as that kind of insanity has spread into state law in some places now. This one also has The Denise Show sketch where Shannen shows up. That was a weird sketch in the sense that it kept being about Shannen even on later episodes that she wasn't on. It's got the all too prophetic "Relapse Guy" sketch starring Chris Farley. And a great self-skewering monologue by Shannen poking fun at her "bad girl" image. Also a good Operaman open and the great Crystal Gravy commercial.

I still have tons of episodes to catch up on but as I jump around I think the early '90s is still my favorite era of the show. It's hard to go wrong when you had Carvey, Hartman, Myers and Farley on at the same time. And 1992 showed it in the ratings by getting the highest numbers since the 1970s, and reaching a peak the show would never hit again.

The series was intensely "70s" and now seems badly out of date in its attitudes.

All that smirky humor about Jack supposedly being gay and other stuff that's socially awkward - at best - now.

The notion that "3C" was "ahead of its time" because it wasn't "issue oriented" perplexes me. Until the 70s, most - all? - TV comedies weren't "issue oriented"!

It was a novelty when shows like "All in the Family" started to push that way.

Unless you think "Bewitched" and "Gilligan's Island" were hard-hitting and socially relevant?

You clearly really like "3C", but don't make it out to be more than what it was: a very 70s mix of low-brow humor and slapstick that seems extremely "of its era"...

I think evaluating Three's Company is less about my personal opinion than it is about recognizing that it's stayed just about the most popular 1970s sitcom and trying to explain why. Go to the Sitcoms Online forums, and it is the most discussed show in their 1970s section:

1970s Sitcoms - Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums

That's only one measure, but it's also got more votes on IMDB than some other shows people mentioned (Taxi, Barney Miller, MTM, etc.). It does have less votes than Happy Days and All in the Family, but probably not too many others. Its rating is lower than many of those shows, but I'm just using vote totals as a measure of awareness/popularity of the show. The show, like Gilligan's Island, has always had a tough time with critics. But both have improved their position with critics over the years.

I would argue that Happy Days is a much more dated show than Three's Company. It's still popular for nostalgia and the fact that Fonz is still an iconic character. But its style of acting and comedy is much more "of its era" than Three's Company's is. Three's has more naturalistic and believable characterization, while Happy Days is more campy. Also, 1950s nostalgia has fallen out of fashion.

Yes, shows were non-issue-oriented and sillier before the 1970s, but Three's Company combined that with the "swinging singles" situation and sexual innuendo the 1960s shows never dreamed about. And after the family values shows of the '80s faded out, shows about singles in the dating world have dominated since the '90s. So the type of characters Three's Company portrayed are still relevant to modern audiences.

It's never been competing with highbrow shows, but like Stooges and Gilligan's, I think the show still works very well for the same lowbrow audience it was
always going for.

I give up.

If you wanna believe "3C" is timeless classic that's not aged since the 70s and that blazed trails we still feel today... rock on, rock star!