Three's Company (TV series)
- If you are looking for the website, that's Three's Company (website).
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| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Three's Company |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | |
| Date(s): | March 15, 1977 – September 18, 1984 |
| Medium: | Television |
| Country of Origin: | USA |
| External Links: | at IMDb at Wikipedia Official Site |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Three's Company is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom Man About the House.
The show told the story of roommates Jack, Janet and Chrissy, with a running gag centering around Jack pretending to be gay so that the landlords would let him stay.
Two spin-offs are made: Ropers and Three's a Crowd, based upon the characters George and Mildred and Robin's Nest, respectively.
Canon
After Fell and Lindley left the series in 1979 for their own sitcom, Don Knotts joined the cast as the roommates' new building manager, Ralph Furley. Following Somers's departure in late 1980, Jenilee Harrison joined the cast as Chrissy's first cousin Cindy Snow, who was soon replaced by Priscilla Barnes as Terri Alden.
Plot
Florist Janet Wood and secretary Chrissy Snow live in Santa Monica, California,[1] sharing a multi-bedroom apartment with their roommate Eleanor. When Eleanor decides to move out, culinary school student Jack Tripper crashes her going-away party at the apartment and is found by Janet and Chrissy the next morning, passed out in the bathtub. Needing someone to cover Eleanor's share of the rent, the women offer to let Jack move in with them; he quickly accepts so that he can have a place to stay other than the local YMCA.[note 1]
However, overbearing landlord Stanley Roper refuses to allow mixed-gender groups of unmarried people to live together. He grants Jack permission to move in only after Janet tells him that Jack is gay. Although Stanley's wife Helen quickly figures out that Jack is straight, she trusts him with the girls and keeps the secret from Stanley, who tolerates Jack but mocks him. Frequently siding with the three roommates instead of her husband, Helen's bond with them grows through the couple's departure, leading into the spin-off The Ropers.
Jack continues the charade when new building manager Ralph Furley takes over the apartment complex because Mr. Furley insists that his hard-nosed brother Bart (the building's new owner) would also never tolerate such living situations. Jack eventually meets a love interest, Vicky Bradford, which leads into Three's a Crowd.
Fandom
Shipping
The canon pairings were:
However, Jack/Janet is by far the most popular het ship in the fandom due to the chemistry the characters and their actors shared onscreen. The show teased the pairing here and there, but nothing ever came of it due to the roommates' agreement to stay platonic. Fanfic pairing Jack and Janet tends to either ignore the series finale or do away with Philip and Vicky through either killing them off or having Janet and Jack break up with them.
The OT3 of Janet/Jack/Chrissy became kind of popular in early 2020 on AO3. Another addition is fanfiction with Jack actually having a boyfriend tearing down the show's main trope, the lie about his sexuality. In some cases his suitor is an original character, or another male character from the series such as Stanley Roper.
Femslash pairing Helen Roper with one of the female roommates is fairly common; while Helen is married, she and Stanley are shown to be quite unhappy with one another most of the time. Chrissy Snow is usually the most popular choice for a Helen ship.
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfiction
Fanart
Fanvids
Archives, Communities & Resources
Websites
Notes and References
Notes
- ^ YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by the philanthropist Sir George Williams in London, originally as the Young Men's Christian Association, and aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit."
References
- ^ "Official Three's Company website". Threescompany.com. 2005-10-01. Archived from the original on 2017-03-21. Retrieved 2011-02-03.