Movie shows less-friendly side of 'Three's Company'
By Beth Harris
Associated Press
The 1977 debut season of the bawdy comedy "Three's Company" was all hugs, kisses and cheering studio audiences.
Stars John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt each got raises for the second season. Critics and moralists hated the double-entendres and sexual hijinks, but viewers loved the two single women sharing an apartment with a man who intimated that he was gay.
Then Somers, who played ditsy blond Chrissy Snow, got ambitious. According to the movie, she drove by a famous swimsuit poster of Farrah Fawcett and proclaimed: "I want that."
Those three little words launched a torrent of backstage turmoil shown in the NBC movie "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Three's Company,' " airing at 8 tonight.
Unknown actors play the stars; Brian Dennehy chews the scenery as blustery former ABC network president Fred Silverman.
DeWitt, 54, is the only one of the trio who participated in the gossipy movie that depicts Somers in a less-than-flattering light.
Ritter, also 54, currently stars in the ABC comedy "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." He declined to comment.
"I know John is thrilled about it, because he told me," DeWitt said. "He's very comfortable with it. I think he saw what I saw — really, really intensely, sensitive, personal things that were very public are going to be public once again."
Somers, 56, wasn't consulted about the movie.
DeWitt was conflicted about signing on. Powerless to stop the project, she wanted at least to make it accurate.
The movie focuses on Somers' diva-like behavior after she acquired Fawcett's manager Jay Bernstein and told him she wanted superstardom. Soon Somers' face was plastered on lunch boxes and fake $1 bills.
By 1979, Somers replaced Bernstein as manager with husband Alan Hamel. He demanded that Somers be paid six figures per episode and have 10 percent ownership of the show. At the time, she was making $30,000 per episode.
While network executives and producers seethed, Somers, Ritter and DeWitt parted ranks.
Somers was on one side; Ritter and DeWitt stuck together.
