Season six of Three’s Company is, in my opinion, the best season of a show which was consistently good and very, very funny. Over its eight-season run, Three’s Company went through a number of disruptive cast changes, but the cast never let these changes keep them from achieving a high level of comedy. Still, the changes made before the sixth season ushered in what was the best era the show experienced.

Premiering in 1977, and based on a British series titled Man About the House, Three’s Company was a comedy about a cooking school student (and later a chef), Jack Tripper (the late John Ritter), living with two women, flower shop manager Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) and secretary Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers), in a small apartment near the Southern California beach. In the late ‘70s, it wasn’t as socially acceptable for a man to live with women out of wedlock so the roommates lied to their landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Roper (Norman Fell and Audra Lindley), saying that Jack was gay. Jack was anything but gay and this led to some terrifically funny comedic situations. This was important to the show, because the hallmarks of Three’s Company comedy were the constant misunderstandings and sexual innuendo.

Also around for fun was the gang’s upstairs neighbor, Larry Dallas (Richard Kline), a shady used-car salesman who thought of himself as something of a Lothario. Larry was generally a good guy, but he often caused his neighbors unwanted trouble.

After the third season, Mr. & Mrs. Roper were spun-off into their own show, The Ropers, and were replaced by Mr. Furley (Don Knotts). While I enjoyed the Ropers, Mr. Furley is one of the most endearingly funny dopes in the history of television and it’s entirely due to the comedic genius that was Don Knotts. Knotts created a one-of-a-kind character, a strange-looking loner and loser who fancied himself as a macho ladies man, something he obviously was not. The manner in which Knotts portrayed this character was simply brilliant. Every scene he appears in is funnier because of his presence. I think it’s safe to say no other actor could have played this character with as much conviction. Mr. Furley, much like the three major cast changes on M*A*S*H, is a rare example of character change where the new character is better than the one that was replaced.

Three’s Company was a solid hit, and this of course led Somers to demand more money, which the producers did not want to give. After a very public battle, Chrissy was written off the show in the fifth season. In order to fulfill her contractual requirements, Somers literally phoned in her performance in weekly calls back to the apartment at the end of each episode. Awkward would be an accurate way to describe this situation. So Chrissy was replaced by her cousin, the equally ditzy Cindy Snow (Jenilee Harrison).

Cindy was a nice character who contributed some great comic moments, but she wasn’t someone to build a show around. This led to yet another cast change before the sixth season as Cindy was replaced by Terri Alden (Priscilla Barnes), a nurse at a local hospital. Cindy remained in a supporting role this season as she would occasionally drop by the apartment after moving away to attend school at UCLA. The introduction of Terri is the primary reason I consider the sixth season to be the best of the whole series. I never disliked Chrissy or Cindy, but they weren’t bright, and humor grounded in stupidity gets old after a while. Terri, on the other hand, was a confident, bright young lady. That she was stunningly beautiful certainly didn’t hurt.

The writing on Three’s Company was consistently funny, but I wouldn’t consider it the strength of the show. The performances of DeWitt, Barnes, Knotts, Kline, and particularly Ritter, were off-the-charts. These people understood the importance of comic timing and it resulted in consistently hilarious episodes. This was as professional of a comic cast as you’ll ever find. And the willingness of Ritter to go to just about any length for physical comedy has rarely been matched. His skills as a physical comedian rival those of Buster Keaton and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say so.

Other ingredients in making Three’s Company one of history’s greatest sitcoms included solid direction and a live studio audience. Dave Powers directed every single episode of season six, which gave a consistent, solid feeling to each episode, something not seen in most shows, which usually have a different director each week. The live audience was also a great aid to the cast as they would gear up for this audience and really played well off of it.

Anchor Bay has released all 28 episodes of the sixth season on a solid four-disc set with seven episodes per disc. Some of the best episodes include:

Episode 3, Terri Makes her Move - Larry tells newly moved in Terri that Jack is suffering from problems in self-confidence so Terri sets about boosting him up. Janet misreads what’s going on and thinks that Terri is putting moves on Jack. It’s a typical Three’s Company misunderstanding, but it’s nice to see Terri exercising her charms on Jack. I love Terri.

Episode 7, Two Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Terri has a date with a psychologist at the hospital (the always brilliant Jeffrey Tambor, who played the Ropers neighbor on The Ropers, as well as three other characters in other episodes of Three’s Company), but Janet and Jack mistake this doctor for a mental patient. Hilarity naturally ensues, but the true high point of this episode is Tambor, who does an amazing job playing an extremely manic psychiatrist.

Episode 9, Boy Meets Dummy - Jack meets Francesca, his boss Mr. Angelino’s (Jordan Charney) daughter, and is immediately taken by her beauty. She comes on strong, but Jack realizes he must resist her for fear of losing his job, so he tells Francesca he’s married. This leads to an apartment scene where Jack must pretend that a CPR dummy is his wife. Yes, a CPR dummy. No this doesn’t make sense in print, and it’s more than little a outlandish on screen, but Ritter does an incredibly funny over-the-top act in trying to convince Francesca that the dummy is really his wife. It’s screwy comedy at its finest.

Episode 18, A Friend in Need - Jack, who had lost his job with Mr. Angelino, has an opportunity to go back to work as a substitute chef at his restaurant. Jack’s cooking impresses Mr. Canon, a mobster (Terry Kiser who brilliantly played a dead Bernie in Weekend at Bernie’s!) who insists that Jack be made the permanent chef. Jack has a tough time accepting this offer because he doesn’t want to take the job of his friend Felipe (Gino Conforti), but he does out of fear of Mr. Canon. So Jack conspires to put an inordinate amount of pepper in Canon’s linguine in hopes of being fired again. Mr. Canon loves it so Jack annoys Canon by telling him that he cheats on his wife. So Jack is fired again. The whole regular cast plus Kiser, Charney and Conforti are all terrific in this episode.

Episode 24, Janet Wigs Out - Janet becomes convinced that blondes have more fun so she gets herself a blonde wig. She finds that she does have more fun, but her personality changes for the worse which does not please Jack or Terri, and ultimately Janet. This episode wonderfully highlights the talents of DeWitt, who was really the glue of the show even though she never received much recognition for it. It’s very strange seeing Janet as a blonde.

Video?
The picture looks about as good as it ever has, better than I’ve ever seen these episodes (and I’ve seen them all many times), but that’s not to say they’re without imperfections. One cannot expect perfection from a show recorded on videotape nearly 25 years ago, but I was a little disappointed to see what appeared to be faint yellow bands which cause flesh tones to appear uneven at times. At first I thought it was a problem with my video projector, but I noticed the same thing when tested on a different display. Still, it’s a very minor complaint that most might not even notice and it’s hardly a detraction from what is an extremely enjoyable set.

Audio
It sounds fine. The mono soundtrack delivers crisp, clear and easy to understand dialogue, but don’t expect much else. Really, why would you? It’s an aged sitcom.

Extras
Audio Commentary by Dave Powers on Jack Bares All - This was on the first disc and it’s an excellent commentary on a two-part episode. If they were only going to include one commentary, I’m glad they chose this episode because its length gives Powers the time to impart interesting recollections as well as to explain a lot of what happened behind the scenes on Three’s Company. I was most interested to hear him say that his six years on this show were the best of his career, quite a statement from a man who won four Emmy awards in 10 seasons of directing The Carol Burnett Show.

Lucille Ball Presents The Best of Three’s Company (48:24) - This is billed as an extra feature, but was really a two-part episode which aired at the end of season six and is included in the 28 episode total listed on the packaging. Nevertheless, it’s a nice feature. It’s basically a clip show hosted by Ball recapping the first six seasons of the show. I’m never one to really appreciate clip shows because I’d much rather just watch the show, but this one includes some nice moments with Ball. It’s very evident that she was a great admirer of John Ritter’s many comedic talents.

Laughs Around the World Episode in Polish (8:29) – This was a feature unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Apparently Three’s Company is not only popular in other countries (no kidding), but the rights to the scripts have been purchased by television producers in other countries and episodes have been produced in their native languages. The example here is a Polish show called Lokatorzy, a show which was produced in 2000. We see clips from the episode Paradise Lost intercut with the corresponding clips from Three’s Company. No subtitles are necessary and I don’t know that this is all that interesting, but I was pleased to see that the Polish version of Janet was quite beautiful.

Packaging
The four discs are packaged like a book with four pages and with the book fitting inside a slip cover. It’s a nice package although I must say it’s fragile, as my copy was damaged in shipment.

Parting Words
Three’s Company is a classic sitcom and the humor never gets old. Despite having seen all of these episodes countless times before I sat down with this set, it never felt like a chore. Season six is the high point of the series and it’s a true pleasure to watch. With a suggested retail price under $30, this set is an amazing bargain and I cannot recommend it enough.