Yesterday morning it wasn’t a name, exactly; it was a theme song, from the tv sitcom Three’s Company, that was stuck in my head. And remained stuck, as a dreadful earworm, all day long.
Here it is, if you’re willing to expose yourself to it:
Now to the show and its star, John Ritter.
From Wikipedia:
Three’s Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977 to September 18, 1984 on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom Man About the House.
The story revolves around three single roommates: Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt), Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers), and Jack Tripper (John Ritter), who all platonically live together in a Santa Monica, California apartment building owned by Stanley and Helen Roper [Norman Fell and Audra Lindley]. Following Somers’ departure, Jenilee Harrison joined the cast as Cindy Snow (Chrissy’s cousin), who was later replaced by Priscilla Barnes as Terri Alden, a registered nurse. After the Ropers left the series for their own sitcom, Don Knotts joined the cast as the roommates’ new landlord Ralph Furley.
The show, a comedy of errors, chronicles the escapades and hijinks of the trio’s constant misunderstandings, social lives, and financial struggles, such as keeping the rent current.
The characters in the original cast:
The Ropers flanking the main characters; from top to bottom: Janet (relatively level-headed, for this crew, anyway), Jack (perpetually dithering), and Chrissy (air-headed sexpot).
The show was pure fluff, but good-hearted: all the characters were foolish, and none were actually nasty. I remember it as having a very obtrusive laugh track.
On the dependable character actor Ritter, from Wikipedia:
Jonathan Southworth “John” Ritter (September 17, 1948 – September 11, 2003) was an American actor, comedian, and voice-over artist. Ritter was best known for playing Jack Tripper on the hit ABC sitcom Three’s Company, for which he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award in 1984. He was the son of famous country/western star Tex Ritter, and the father of actors Jason Ritter and Tyler Ritter.
Ritter appeared in hundreds of films and television shows/episodes
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