Three's Company was obviously coming to an end with its eighth season in 1984. A few of the episodes had plots that were repetitive or reminiscent of earlier episodes in the series and the writing was getting dry and unsurprising.
Then came Three's a Crowd. The spin-off featured Jack living with his girlfriend Vicki in the apartment above his restaurant. Her father James takes over as landlord and owner of the building so as to keep a careful watch over his daughter and her boyfriend. James and Jack maintain a love-hate relationship that becomes pretty much the central conflict of the series.
While John Ritter is certainly a king of comedy, he cannot make the series a success alone and this spin-off is proof of that. Three's Company built its success off of the misunderstandings and relationships between the characters. But because there are essentially only four main characters - Jack, Vicki, James, and E. Z. - it was hard for Three's a Crowd to take off. Every episode seemed to entail some form of the fact that Jack and James do not see eye-to-eye. Vicki was not given enough of a role in the series either and seemed more like a side character (almost like the role Larry played in Three's Co.) than anything. The writing was just really low quality, almost as though the writers knew the series wasn't going to be successful. Three's a Crowd does alright for what it has available but the Ropers was by far the better spin-off.
Then came Three's a Crowd. The spin-off featured Jack living with his girlfriend Vicki in the apartment above his restaurant. Her father James takes over as landlord and owner of the building so as to keep a careful watch over his daughter and her boyfriend. James and Jack maintain a love-hate relationship that becomes pretty much the central conflict of the series.
While John Ritter is certainly a king of comedy, he cannot make the series a success alone and this spin-off is proof of that. Three's Company built its success off of the misunderstandings and relationships between the characters. But because there are essentially only four main characters - Jack, Vicki, James, and E. Z. - it was hard for Three's a Crowd to take off. Every episode seemed to entail some form of the fact that Jack and James do not see eye-to-eye. Vicki was not given enough of a role in the series either and seemed more like a side character (almost like the role Larry played in Three's Co.) than anything. The writing was just really low quality, almost as though the writers knew the series wasn't going to be successful. Three's a Crowd does alright for what it has available but the Ropers was by far the better spin-off.