One complaint that a lot of people seem to have about this sereis is the fact that so many of the plots have been recycled over and over. One good example of this is the situation in which the landlord almost finds out that the character of Jack is not really gay. The trio have to keep coming up with new lies to cover their old ones! Well I would say that another good example of a case in which they used the same theme in different situations is that of inter-generational dating. In any early episode, Jack was dating Mrs. Roper's cousin who was somehere in her forties or fifties and that Janet and Chrissy thought that he was dating her aunt who was in her seventies or eighties. The rest of the episode was pure slapstick! We will now fast-forward to the years with Terri and we have an almost identical plot! Mr. Furly's teenage nephew is studying to be an electrical engineer. Janet recrutes him to fix her second-hand stereo. Jack and Terri think that they are romantically involved! Meanwhile a teenage female volunteer at the hospital where Terri works comes to the door. Janet thinks that she is sexually involved with Jack! Almost the same exact plot brought into a new decade!

They also recycled the plot of in the 1st season when the roomates hid a puppy from Mr. roper in "No Children, No Pets." and in the 8th season hid a kitten from Mr. Furley in "Look What I found". :wave:

I remember reading an interview with John Ritter in the last season, and he was saying they decided to end it when they realized that they were starting to do that too much, and he mentioned those 2 episodes as examples.

I didn't mind the recycled plots, the two mentioned had different landlords so I don't consider it recycled.

I would like to return for a second to the issue of Jack not really being gay. In the innitial episode in which the girls first invite him to live there, Janet infoms he and Chrissy that that is what she told Mr. Roper so he would let him live there. This was almost like comic releif to the episode. It seemed that, whenever they would run out of plots, they would come up with one more set of circumstances in which the landlord would find circumstantial evidene that he was being hookwinked! In a very slapstick style manner, the roommates would try to invent new lies to cover their old ones. They would always end up weaseling their way out of the situation by the skin of their teeth! This would happen time and again!

They also recycled the plot of in the 1st season when the roomates hid a puppy from Mr. roper in "No Children, No Pets." and in the 8th season hid a kitten from Mr. Furley in "Look What I found". :wave:


If my memory is correct the first season episode that this poster mentioned is the first episode of the whole sereis in which the character of Larry was seen. In this episode, he was referred to as Honest Larry. This was an ironic nickname being that he was a used car salesman. It was not for a while after that he became a regular character. Also, in this episode, the main thing about him was that he had a soft spot for animals. I remember him being very enthusistic about the puppy being taken care of properly. However, once he became a regular, I do not ever remember his love for animals being mentioned again. Even in the eighth season episode, there was a case in which Mr. Furley asked him to look after his cat. Larry was willing to do it, but he did not seem to have to much enthusiasm about the chore. Oh how the times had changed!

They also recycled the one with the sisters...in one episode Jack is "fooling around" with Janet's sister and in another one with Larry's.

That is a very good point!

They also did an episode in the 2nd season called "The Rivals" when Janet liked this one fellow but he liked Chrissy instead. In the 6th season they did an episode called "Dates of Wrath" when Janet liked the bartender but he thought it was Terri who liked him and he went out with Terri instead of Janet. :wave:

Another plot that was used over and over again was the hassels of living in California without owning a car. As most people know, unlike cities like New York and Chicago that are build up, cities out west are built out. At one point, I heard that they were building a subway system in Los Angeles and I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who knows if it every materialized! In any event, I have heard a lot about how the bus service in those cities leaves a lot to be desired! However, being that the roommates were always strapped for cash, they simply had to bite the bullet! I believe that it was in the first season when desperation caused them to offer to by the Roper's old car. In later season there were cases in which they were bargaining with Larry to get him to them them use his car. Now let us fast-forward to the final season! In one episode Jack was willing to masquarate as a female in order to enter a baking contest! The main motive here was to raise the money to buy a car. Later in that season, Jack needed a way to transport a side of beef before the butchers went on strike. After the secretary at the taxi service hung up on him, he found himself bargaining with Mr. Furley. Finally, we have a case where Janet scrapes together enough pennies to buy a used car from the lot where Larry works. Here we go again!

I don't think this is a recycled plot, but I remember one episode when Mrs. Roper said "If I had a son I'd want him to be just like Jack". Then in the season 8 episode "Baby It's Cold Inside", Mr. Furley said to Jack, "If I had a son, I'd want him to be just like you".

One of the recurring themes that -never- got old for me, was when one of the girls had to scramble and use Jack as their spouse or the other way around. I loved those episodes, hah.

One of the recurring themes that -never- got old for me, was when one of the girls had to scramble and use Jack as their spouse or the other way around. I loved those episodes, hah.
:rofl: Yeah, those were always good for a few laughs.