Suzanne Somers and the death of innocence: “Three’s Company” is at once a charmingly naïve show compared to what was to come and a harbinger of where the left wanted to go.

Suzanne Somers, best remembered for her starring role in the iconic 1970s sitcom Three’s Company, has passed away at age 76. Somers leaves behind a husband and a son, and I send both of them my condolences. Her passing reminded me of the fact that Three’s Company was both a show from a much more innocent time as well as a show that paved the way for the cultural dissolution that characterizes 2023.

If you’re younger than I am, here’s the premise of Three’s Company, which debuted in 1976 and ran until 1984: Jack (John Ritter) needed a place to live. His friends, Chrissy (Somers), a ditzy, busty blonde, and Janet (Joyce DeWitt), the sensible brunette, needed a roommate.

And that was the show, week after week, even after Suzanne Somers, believing she was destined for better things (she wasn’t), left the show to be replaced by Priscilla Barnes. And even after Norman Fell (a WWII Army veteran) left the show to be replaced by Don Knotts (another WWII Army veteran). I mention their veteran status because they were the last of their generation to be a major part of pop culture.

Image: Suzanne Somers. YouTube screen grab.

The show was remarkably silly. My parents despised it, although I think my dad enjoyed the female jiggle factor. There was a remarkable amount of jiggling from Sommers, DeWitt, and Barnes. The actors were competent, and John Ritter periodically broke free from sitcoms’ limits,

I get the angle of this story (don’t necessarily agree with all of it), but couldn’t it wait for a few months?

This remarkable woman just died. Maybe actually talk about her life. Her upbringing. Talk about her roles in American Graffiti or Step By Step w/ Patrick Duffy.

Talk about how she became worth over $100 million.

Instead, a day after her death we get “jiggly”.

The problem was that, in those more conservative times, having a man living with women was unacceptable to the strait-laced, tightfisted landlord, Mr. Roper (Norman Fell), married to the sex-starved Mrs. Roper (Audra Lindley). The solution: Have Jack pretend to be gay. In fact, Jack was a red-blooded American male living platonically with two beautiful women.

So Three's Company set the precedent for men to pretend to be transsexual so they can get in women's locker rooms and bathrooms for cheap thrills! Who could have predicted this!

Of course as is so often the case the commentary people look at a symptom and ignore what was going on. Reality is that sex has always sold and while the entertainment industry in America had been forced to pretend that wasn’t the case the clothes were already in the process of coming off.

10 years before Three’s Company they Hays Code had been discarded in favor of a ratings system that really did nothing more than let people know which movies were smutty.

5 years before Deep Throat was a cross over sensation that made millions.

So it was left to TV executives to figure out how they could sell sex in a way that would get past the FCC. And Jiggle TV was what they figured out. Just enough sex to sell, but not enough to get fined. If it wasn’t Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman and Three’s Company it would have been some other show. Like the Battle of the Network Stars. As beautifully by SNL (with actual clips):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0f1Ywnjq0A

Another thing about Three’s Company - ALL the characters (other than Larry and Mr. Roper w/ binoculars) were pretty virtuous. Chrissy and Janet wanted Jack as a roommate because he was a great cook and he would help keep them safe. Chrissy’s Father was a Father!

There is not ONE real reference to any of the characters ever having sex - though about 3 dozen false assumptions of such, of course.

As to Jack’s pretend gayness, all Roper and Furley DID was make constant fun of him w/ tinkerbell jokes, etc. I’m surprised the lgpq people don’t support a boycott of the show’s re-runs just for that.

Writers that want to dump on the sitcom for its depravity didn’t seem to pay attention to any of the episodes - just the boobs and leotards.

“The problem was that, in those more conservative times, having a man living with women was unacceptable to the strait-laced, tightfisted landlord,..”.

Back in the 70s I worked with a lady from Alabama who lived near Harper Lee growing up. Truman Capote, a childhood friend of Lee, would come and stay overnight with Lee on occasion. This set tongues awagging and Lee was viewed as something of hussy for letting a man spend the night in her house.

Argue about this all we want we to but the question is did we watch it back then did we watch the girls jiggle on television and get a hit off of it?

In some cases I did I preferred “Fantasy Island” or “Charlie’s Angels” but I was so crazy as a teenager I could get a hit off of Barbara Walters on ABC and she didn’t even wear jiggle clothes.

Needless to say folks it’s time to stop getting hits off of people’s bodies at least that’s what I’ve figured out since then.

RIP Suzanne Somers and may her family find some peace and serenity, sanity and sobriety in their lives.

The main point of this article can be just as well made against all of the music the baby boomers grew up with.

All of it was made from the standpoint of conventional, heterosexual romance.

Listen to the words of Deon Jackson's Love Makes The World Go Round. All the couples named at the end of the song are obviously male-female. I suppose that makes the song homophobic, by the standards of today.

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