Throwback Thursday: "Three's Company" Star Suzanne Somers Remembers Being Fired After Asking for a Raise
by Bill Higgins
5/28/15


On May 21, the ACLU urged the entertainment industry to sign a petition calling for the end of gender bias in its hiring practices, a move lauded by such Hollywood directors as Kathryn Bigelow.

Thirty-five years earlier, Suzanne Somers was an unlikely standard bearer for the cause of equal pay for women. The comic actress, then 34, was starring on ABC's "Three's Company", television's No. 2 show with an average of 20 million weekly viewers. She played the well-endowed, dumb blonde whose job was to jiggle.



But when it came time for fifth-season negotiations in 1980, Somers asked for a pay hike from $30,000 an episode to $150,000, equal to what her "Three's Company" co-star John Ritter was receiving and comparable to salaries "M*A*S*H*'s" Alan Alda and "All in the Family's" Carroll O'Connor were being paid on lower-rated shows.

ABC offered a $5,000 hike.







The battle flared into the public eye when Somers missed the taping of that season's third and fourth episodes with what THR said was "the recurrence of an old back injury."

Push came to shove and the network fired her. "The night before we went in to renegotiate, I got a call from a friend who had connections high up at ABC and he said, 'They're going to hang a nun in the marketplace and the nun is Suzanne,'" recalls Somers' husband and manager, Alan Hamel.

"The network was willing to do this because earlier that year the women on 'Laverne & Shirley' had gotten what they asked for and they wanted to put a stop to it. They'd destroy the chemistry on 'Company' to make a point."



Somers' career went into a nosedive. A 1982 CBS sitcom where she'd play a stewardess never got off the ground. She did a Playboy spread to stay visible.

Then came the Home Shopping Network, the ThighMaster with its amazing effect on the hip abductor muscles, plus a slew of books, jewelry and skin-care products.

"Life isn't fair," Somers tells THR. "Getting fired for asking for a raise wasn't fair, but I landed on my feet and I've done OK."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/throwback-thursday-threes-company-star-797645

Thanks for posting! There are some errors, though---John Ritter was getting paid about $50,000 per episode, not $150,000.

I'm all for getting rid of gender bias in Hollywood, but I think she asked for too much for the show at the time. I would be completely on her side if she had asked to have been paid as much as John Ritter, but asking for $150,000 was just kind of ridiculous.

Hard to feel too sorry for her with the amount of raise she was asking for. That being said, the show was much better when she was on. Wish they had been able to compromise.

Hard to feel too sorry for her with the amount of raise she was asking for. That being said, the show was much better when she was on. Wish they had been able to compromise.

I agree with you. I like Terri, but the writing was better with Chrissy. The chemistry was perfect in the first four seasons, especially the first three.

I've always heard that it was scheming husband Alan Hamel who was the one that was pulling the strings therefore making Suzanne look bad to the public.

Hard to feel too sorry for her with the amount of raise she was asking for. That being said, the show was much better when she was on. Wish they had been able to compromise.
I have a feeling near the end there Suzanne would have gave in and come back with no raise, but the producers weren't going to have it. They wanted to make an example out of her.

I have a feeling near the end there Suzanne would have gave in and come back with no raise, but the producers weren't going to have it. They wanted to make an example out of her.

I agree with both JSP and Mace Dolex---I think left to her own devices Suzanne would have compromised. I think she let her husband really louse things up for her. He was the one throwing the tantrums with the producers and executives, and she followed his lead. I know he had been in showbiz for a while, but he was no manager.

I sometimes wonder if she hadn't hired him as her manager if the show would have run its course with the original trio. I wonder if there would have been a huge blowout over money at all. If she had stuck with Jay Bernstein (her original manager), she probably would have still pushed for a raise but much more diplomatically since Bernstein knew how the system worked.

Suzanne wanted to be paid more than the designated star (John Ritter) AND wanted a piece of ownership in the show. She wanted to be one of the top moneymakers in television, period. Simply put, Suzanne thought she was more valuable than her co stars.

Something like that wouldn't fly even today. Think about it this way, casts from more modern sitcoms like Friends and The Big Bang Theory got their hefty paychecks because they banded together as a team and negotiated. Maybe Suzanne's chances would've been better had she tried to re-negotiate so that she was making the same amount as John Ritter was making, but not more.

Of course, Suzanne Somers didn't help her cause when she went on all of the talk shows and to not only talk about it but badmouthed the network and producers in the process. She also breached her contract by failing to show up for work. And she also sued ABC for $2 million but only collected 30 grand for one episode she wasn't paid for. Suzanne quite frankly, deserved to be fired.

Suzanne wanted to be paid more than the designated star (John Ritter) AND wanted a piece of ownership in the show. She wanted to be one of the top moneymakers in television, period. Simply put, Suzanne thought she was more valuable than her co stars.

Something like that wouldn't fly even today. Think about it this way, casts from more modern sitcoms like Friends and The Big Bang Theory got their hefty paychecks because they banded together as a team and negotiated. Maybe Suzanne's chances would've been better had she tried to re-negotiate so that she was making the same amount as John Ritter was making, but not more.

Of course, Suzanne Somers didn't help her cause when she went on all of the talk shows and to not only talk about it but badmouthed the network and producers in the process. She also breached her contract by failing to show up for work. And she also sued ABC for $2 million but only collected 30 grand for one episode she wasn't paid for. Suzanne quite frankly, deserved to be fired.


That article got a few things wrong.

John Ritter made $50,000 per episode, not $150,000. Suzanne wanted her salary to be upped from $30,000 per episode to $150,000 per episode. She often says in interviews that she wanted to be paid "as much as the men," but she's not referring to John—she means she wanted a salary comparable to other male stars of the time like Alan Alda and Carrol O'Connor.

She could not have been paid more than John. He got top billing, so in their contracts it was stipulated that his salary would always be more than hers and Joyce's. Joyce DeWitt had parity, which meant she would get paid as much as Suzanne.

So when Suzanne asked for $150K, that meant Joyce would also get paid 150K and John's salary would be even more than that, which is why it was such a ridiculous request.

I agree that she was her own worst enemy with the press blitz. But all that came after she had been "punished" with doing the tag scenes. She deserved to be fired because she held up production and missed tapings, which was totally unprofessional. That's what turned the cast and crew against her in the beginning.