ABC and the show's producers were from my understanding, making a fortune off the success of Three's Company. Bare in mind that this was still at a time when actors were only compensated through the first few reruns of a show. While Suzanne's demands seemed outrageous then, today they're really not so far out there.
The bigger problem was that whatever Suzanne made, Joyce DeWitt was guaranteed the same amount and John Ritter was guaranteed a certain percent higher than the women. Therefore, it's possible that Suzanne might have been more successful had she and DeWitt gone in together as a united front (like the Friends cast) but maybe more likely, they would have just fired them both and spun Ritter off to the Three's A Crowd show earlier.
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