Jack Tripper: Cooking With Heat

[Lisin]

Your Jack Tripper topic.

[VCRTracking]

One of my favorite Jack Tripper moments:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ5YMvKccnw

[FozzyBear]

I'm just going to start this off my saying I think JR is a genius. His physicality as an actor blows me away every time.

Ok so bringing this over from the Janet thread. There was a discussion about how the original concept for Three's a Crowd was about Jack and Janet getting together but hiding it from Janet's dad, but the network didn't like it so they brought in the new girlfriend character. So it's been about 10 years since I caught an episode of TAC, but what I remeber was thinking that JR had no chemistry with the actress playing his gf. Odd to me because I think of JR as a chemistry factory. He could generate sparks with a coatrack, but nothing with his gf. However he had chemistry to spare with Janet. I wonder if there was a story behind this, like maybe JR didn't like the retooled concept or was upset to loose JDW? Because there is nothing going on with those two.

[Crs97]

I seem to recall in the E! True Hollywood Story about Three's Company (a bastion of truth, I know), John Ritter was involved early on in the development of TAC, they decided quickly to bring in a new girl, using the excuse that Janet's parents wouldn't have cared since they already knew him, and they kept it all hidden from Joyce.  The actors of TAC were interviewed and they talked about how tense the last show of TC was because they were clearly interlopers and the original cast wasn't particularly kind to them with the exception of Joyce.  They said she came over to apologize for the tension and explained the situation and told them not to take anything personally.  Joyce was interviewed about TAC's only lasting one season and said "I love you, John, but when you build your house on sand . . ."  The actress who played Terri was interviewed and said she felt especially bad for Joyce because Joyce was clearly betrayed while she was used to crappy treatment from TPTB.  It was an interesting episode.

[VCRTracking]

That's sad to hear, but it makes me feel better that it got cancelled after one season. Interestingly they tried doing the American version of "Robin's Nest"(the spinoff of the British "Man About the House" and the basis for TAC) earlier:

 

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Executive producers Ted Bergmann and Don Taffner attempted to adapt the Robin's Nest series without John Ritter. A pilot for a series called Byrd's Nest was written, involving a young man living with his older girlfriend much to the chagrin of her father, who owned the building they lived in. The series was planned to be a spin-off from Three's Company and possibly a vehicle for Richard Kline, who played Larry Dallas on Three's Company, but ABC passed on the idea. However, as Three's Company entered its eighth season in 1983, ratings took a dive due to stiff competition from the new NBC series The A-Team. Realizing they had an aging show ABC okayed the development of a new series which was to be called Three's a Crowd.

 

 

I have to say I remember TAC being very boring except for one episode where Vicki(who is a stewardess) is shooting a commercial for her airline and Jack got a part as a passenger. Jack keeps driving the director crazy and they get into fights. The director is played by the great comic actor Stuart Pankin(Not Necessarily the News and the voice of Earl Sinclair on Dinosaurs) and the animosity between his character and Jack is some of the funniest moments ever. It turned out to be the last episode. If more of the show had been like this it probably would have lasted longer: