As a small child who probably had NO business watching shows like this,I found myself coming away from most episodes(particularly anything from the Ropes/Crissy era,better known as the first two to three seasons)feeling two things:a strange,inexplicable(again,I was small lad of grade school age)attraction to one Suzanne Somers,and an unimpeachable belief that John Ritter was(next to maybe only Steve Martin)the funniest guy on TV. While I feel like my tastes about both of those elements may've changed to greater or lesser degrees over the years,I can still watch a rerun of these shows now and feel some sense of the old affinity I had for it before.
JAck Tripper(Ritter,for whom I still miss),a happily single chef's attempts to continue living under the same roof with two lady friends--modestly attractive florist JAnet(JOyce DeWitt)and buxom,blonde actress/model(?)Chrissy(Somers,who would walk out of the show in a contract dispute,believing that SHE was the true star of the show,which she was only half-right IMO)--in a sunny,beach-side residence in San Diego by pretending he's gay(a plot point that steadily was diluted as the show rolled along) was the lynch pin of this highly successful ABC sitcom that ran through the swinging,Disco-and sex-crazed 70s right to the synth-pop,big hair,yuppie sex-craving '80s. All the while,a number of major cast changes--most notably,the switch from the bickering,snarky lard-lord couple of the Ropers(played deftly by Audra LIndley and Norman Fell)to the lovably creepy and intrusive Ralph Furley(Don Knotts,better than one might've expected at the time),not to mention the buxom blonde replacements to Crissy,played by Jenilee Harrison and Priscilla Barnes--continued to filter through the show's dynamic,which might've already wrecked the already tenuous premise of the show even further,but it never completely sank its appeal. The formula mentioned in my summary denotes that the show's true heft and value rode on that general premise,as when it finally went off the air after seven seasons,the producers tried valiantly(but in vain)to continue to trek JAck and his attempts at love on the short-lived "Two's Company".
HArdly what you'd call the best TV had to offer of its period(or really any other),the light,sexy mix of talent and slapstick makes it a good way to pass the time channel-flipping. Stop on by TVLand(unintentional plug)and take a look.
