M4cong
11-23-2003, 03:18 AM
Here is an interesting article on Joyce Dewitt that I came across. Notice that it is pretty recent......May 2003
DeWitt recalls odyssey after 'Three's Company'
By LUAINE LEE
Scripps Howard News Service
May 06, 2003
- She may have been the sensible girl on one of TV's most popular sitcoms, but Joyce DeWitt was at heart a rebel searching for a cause. For now she's happy to lend her good name and influence to NBC's "Behind the Camera: the Unauthorized Story of 'Three's Company," airing May 12.
DeWitt didn't want to risk the show-runners depicting only the "challenging" times on ABC's "Three's Company," which ran from 1977-84. So she reluctantly agreed to help set the record straight about the wrangling that went on behind the scenes between the producers, co-stars and the network.
Passing on lunch in favor of black tea in the NBC executive dining room, a still-upbeat DeWitt says, "I realized my job here was to be the voice for all the people that I loved here, loved dearly, all the people who put that show together, to represent their voices so that in the end the film would reflect - would at least have resonance with - what they remembered as their experience."
What they did or did not remember is not nearly as interesting as what happened to DeWitt, 54, after the show faltered. She says her passion for acting - a force that propelled her from the time she was 4 - deserted her. That's when she began a 12-year exploration of different countries, religions, cultures, philosophies - and of herself.
"I had an extraordinary time in my life where doors were open to me, indeed because of the notoriety 'Three's Company' had placed in my life," she says, her tiny hands cupping her chin. "So when I wanted a particular philosophy or genre of thought, people at the top were as curious about me as I was about them. So it opened doors very quickly. . ."
What had happened had soured her on her profession. "I had encountered behavior in the professional arena that I found really disappointing, and it didn't fit with the way that I'd been brought up. If you're a fair and honest person then you'll be treated fair and honestly. If you speak the truth, the truth will be spoken to you. I found that to be not necessarily true in Hollywood."
When she was a kid she constantly mutinied against the conservative restrictions of her father who thought she'd get over her idea of performing.
"My roommate from college and I came home shortly before we graduated and my father - who I've only known to cry twice in my life - cried when he talked to her because he couldn't believe I didn't grow out of it.
"It's only because my dad, his thing is safety and security for his children and particularly for his daughters. They are to be cared for, protected - in prison, quite frankly - but in his terms protected."
When she first ventured to Hollywood she wasn't prepared.
"I ran out of gas every week when I first moved out here because I never had to put gas in the car. Every Friday my father would take the cars, each one he would check the oil, fill them with gas, paid the insurance. All I did was turn it on. My mother hasn't been in a grocery store in her life, my father does all the grocery shopping. My dad is an amazing human being. He's this very simple man who is a real pillar."
Her intent was to go to New York and become a stage actor. But what she found in Los Angeles proved intoxicating
"When I got here life unfolded. I was a girl from the mid-West, a very protected upbringing. I was in trouble all my life because I was a true rebel who was suddenly in L.A. in the early '70s. And L.A. in the early '70s was an amazing place to be. It was a land of personal freedom. Nobody cared what you were choosing to be as long as it wasn't infringing on their freedom. You could be who you were, and you could live your life wide open and it was a great coming-out party for me."
DeWitt, who lives in Santa Fe, is single.
"I've been divorced twice but never married. I spent my 20s with one man assuming we would live and die together; my 30s with a different man, half of my 40s separating from that one because we were still in love. In both cases I thought we would be together all our lives.
"I'm attached to the concept of marriage so when I partner with someone it's the same for me, and it was for them. . . For me I've never been attached to the concept of marriage but I am a one-man girl. Burned my bra when I was 2. I was a rebel when I was born."
DeWitt recalls odyssey after 'Three's Company'
By LUAINE LEE
Scripps Howard News Service
May 06, 2003
- She may have been the sensible girl on one of TV's most popular sitcoms, but Joyce DeWitt was at heart a rebel searching for a cause. For now she's happy to lend her good name and influence to NBC's "Behind the Camera: the Unauthorized Story of 'Three's Company," airing May 12.
DeWitt didn't want to risk the show-runners depicting only the "challenging" times on ABC's "Three's Company," which ran from 1977-84. So she reluctantly agreed to help set the record straight about the wrangling that went on behind the scenes between the producers, co-stars and the network.
Passing on lunch in favor of black tea in the NBC executive dining room, a still-upbeat DeWitt says, "I realized my job here was to be the voice for all the people that I loved here, loved dearly, all the people who put that show together, to represent their voices so that in the end the film would reflect - would at least have resonance with - what they remembered as their experience."
What they did or did not remember is not nearly as interesting as what happened to DeWitt, 54, after the show faltered. She says her passion for acting - a force that propelled her from the time she was 4 - deserted her. That's when she began a 12-year exploration of different countries, religions, cultures, philosophies - and of herself.
"I had an extraordinary time in my life where doors were open to me, indeed because of the notoriety 'Three's Company' had placed in my life," she says, her tiny hands cupping her chin. "So when I wanted a particular philosophy or genre of thought, people at the top were as curious about me as I was about them. So it opened doors very quickly. . ."
What had happened had soured her on her profession. "I had encountered behavior in the professional arena that I found really disappointing, and it didn't fit with the way that I'd been brought up. If you're a fair and honest person then you'll be treated fair and honestly. If you speak the truth, the truth will be spoken to you. I found that to be not necessarily true in Hollywood."
When she was a kid she constantly mutinied against the conservative restrictions of her father who thought she'd get over her idea of performing.
"My roommate from college and I came home shortly before we graduated and my father - who I've only known to cry twice in my life - cried when he talked to her because he couldn't believe I didn't grow out of it.
"It's only because my dad, his thing is safety and security for his children and particularly for his daughters. They are to be cared for, protected - in prison, quite frankly - but in his terms protected."
When she first ventured to Hollywood she wasn't prepared.
"I ran out of gas every week when I first moved out here because I never had to put gas in the car. Every Friday my father would take the cars, each one he would check the oil, fill them with gas, paid the insurance. All I did was turn it on. My mother hasn't been in a grocery store in her life, my father does all the grocery shopping. My dad is an amazing human being. He's this very simple man who is a real pillar."
Her intent was to go to New York and become a stage actor. But what she found in Los Angeles proved intoxicating
"When I got here life unfolded. I was a girl from the mid-West, a very protected upbringing. I was in trouble all my life because I was a true rebel who was suddenly in L.A. in the early '70s. And L.A. in the early '70s was an amazing place to be. It was a land of personal freedom. Nobody cared what you were choosing to be as long as it wasn't infringing on their freedom. You could be who you were, and you could live your life wide open and it was a great coming-out party for me."
DeWitt, who lives in Santa Fe, is single.
"I've been divorced twice but never married. I spent my 20s with one man assuming we would live and die together; my 30s with a different man, half of my 40s separating from that one because we were still in love. In both cases I thought we would be together all our lives.
"I'm attached to the concept of marriage so when I partner with someone it's the same for me, and it was for them. . . For me I've never been attached to the concept of marriage but I am a one-man girl. Burned my bra when I was 2. I was a rebel when I was born."