Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Three's A Crowd:

Robert Mandan, Mary Cadorette, John Ritter, and Alan Campbell

Three's A Crowd aired from September 1984 until September 1985 on ABC.

For more on Three's A Crowd go to the SO page right here at Sitcom Online.

A Review from The New York Times

TV REVIEW; RITTER AND A NEW CAST ON 'THREE'S A CROWD'

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 17, 1984

Last night, the new comedy series called ''E/R'' edged its way onto the CBS schedule disguised as an episode of ''The Jeffersons.'' Tomorrow at 8, ''Three's a Crowd'' is being launched on ABC as a ''special one-hour'' episode of ''Three's Company.'' Scheduling maneuvers are a serious business in television, comedies or not.

Actually, ''Three's a Crowd'' is merely an extension of the eight-year- old series ''Three's Company,'' which was based on a British show called ''Man About the House.'' From the very beginning, ''Three's Company'' was as simple-minded as it was popular. Looking for an affordable place to live, a young man studying to be a professional cook ends up sharing an apartment with two very attractive young women, something that still wasn't very commonplace eight years ago.

One of the ploys used to allay the suspicions of the landlord and other curious bystanders was the winking intimation that the young man was homosexual. Actually, although he was thoroughly heterosexual, the young man never posed a seduction threat to his roommates. Their relationships remained strictly virginal, but the double entendres kept the one- joke situation bubbling merrily enough to please the fans.

For a while, the series even managed to generate headlines when Suzanne Somers, the blonde roommate, began to take her publicity seriously and decided that she deserved a lot more money than she was receiving for her assorted talents. But ABC simply dropped Miss Somers, replaced her with another blonde and the show went on. Miss Somers had miscalculated badly. The indispensable member of the cast was really John Ritter, playing the part of the young man Jack Tripper. Son of the cowboy star Tex Ritter, he was the one holding the production's comedy center together. And, not surprisingly, he is the one going as the same character but with an entirely different supporting cast in the new series ''Three's a Crowd.''

Mr. Ritter is a superbly gifted comic actor, something that may not have been readily apparent in watching any single episode of ''Three's Company.'' For this writer, he became something of a revelation several years ago in a Home Box Office special starring Robin Williams in a nightclub performance. Mr. Williams is a wild, unpredictable performer and not especially easy to work with when in his more manic phases. But spotting Mr. Ritter in the audience, Mr. Williams brought him up to the stage for what looked like spontaneous improvisations. Mr. Ritter not only held his own, he put Mr. Williams alertly on his own twinkle toes.

On ''Three's Company,'' Mr. Ritter's timing over the years has been impeccable. His double takes, his tripping over furniture and walking into doors, his willingness to make fun of himself and, more than anything else, his sunny disposition have made Jack Tripper and the show remarkably disarming, even in their most inane moments. At the same time, Mr. Ritter has just about completely drained the character of Jack of all its conceivable possiblities. He has made a number of movies, TV and theatrical-release, over the years, but the parts haven't strayed very far from the essential Jack persona. It would be nice to see him broadening himself in other directions. He has the potential, certainly, for whipping up the kind of sophisticated humor that Cary Grant patented in the 1930's.

From the initial looks of it, ''Three's a Crowd'' will not provide a vehicle for expansion. Jack, who now is the proprietor of his own bistro, is moving in with a stewardess named Vicky (Mary Cadorette). This time it's true love and he wants to get married but she, scarred by her parents' unhappy marriage, insists on just living together. With this contrived premise, the network promises: ''This series will explore, in depth, the problems that beset a young couple living together, compounded by the fact that Vicky is strong and independent while Jack tends to more conventional.'' Students of the TV sitcom will relish the ''in depth'' note.

Jack and Vicky are living in an apartment over his restaurant, and when the entire building is bought by her father, who is not terribly fond of Jack, the tenant-landlord routine developed in ''Three's Company'' shows every sign of continuing unabated. The father is played by Robert Mandan, a fine comic actor (''Soap'') who works nicely with Mr. Ritter (watch the little bit in which, while crossing their legs during a tense conversation, their feet become entangled). But it's time for Mr. Ritter to get beyond Jack Ripper. The actor was born in 1948 and today happens to be his birthday. He is getting just a touch too old for the eternal boyishness of Jack. The comic turns are becoming too automatic. The material rewards are certainly substantial - Mr. Ritter is one of the highest-paid sitcom performers in the business - the spectre of fatal staleness is beginning to enter the picture. It would seem the perfect time to move on. In any event, happy birthday Mr. Ritter. Here's to an even bigger and better future.

An Article from Hollywood Headlines
Published on November 13, 1984

'Crowd' moves to a new time

By Ian Harmer

HOLLYWOOD-"Not everybody watches the A-Team, John" were the comforting words ABC had for John Ritter when the network announced a Tuesday night time slot for his new sitcom, Three's A Crowd.

Ritter's answer: "Name four people who don't!" Nevertheless, while NBC's bloodless boomfest has proved to be tough competition, Ritter's spin-off from Three's Company remains ABC's strongest half-hour entry this season.

At the end of last month, ABC ditched a dying blooper show, moved Ritter and company up to an 8 o'clock slot, and switched Tony Danza's Who's the Boss? to 8:30 in the hope that a solid hour of situation comedy would muffle the explosive ratings performance of the A-Team.

It's a little early to measure the long-term impact of the reshuffle, but Ritter is justifiably proud of his neat segue into his new series: It is funny.

Off-screen Ritter is as energetically hilarious as he is in front of his weekly live audience, putting on an unrehearsed performance which turns an interview into an almost continuous mugging session.

His explanation for that is that despite his status as one of TV's most consistent comedic talents-confirmed by the Emmy he just nabbed for Three's Company-he does not take his popularity for granted.

" The idea of moving into a new series after seven or so seasons of Three's Company first came up several years ago, but I told the producers I'd be an international star by then and I wouldn't be able to do it," says Ritter.

"Unfortunately, Fellini didn't return any of my calls."

Ritter was kidding of course. Three minutes in his company is long enough to confirm that if he has an overblown ego, he's brilliant at hiding it.

" The fact is that after seven years of Three's Company, we were beginning to repeat ourselves," says Ritter. " We were running out of ideas. For most of the time we were on the air, we were the happiest family in television, but it was getting harder and harder to keep up the momentum."

"Now we're off in a new direction with all kinds of new situations to explore, and I am as excited as I ever was," he says. "I'm also as worried as I ever was. It's not good to assume that people will watch you just because you have been around a long time-you have to win your audience over every week."

For more on Three's A Crowd go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three's_a_Crowd