Once and for all, should Jack and Janet have gotten married at the end

[TMC]

From Chris Mann's book Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three's Company:

George Sunga, who coproduced the spin-off with Joseph Staretski and Martin Rips, has his own theory. "The reason why Three's a Crowd failed was not because of the actors involved, because they were wonderful. Mary Cadorette was a beauty. Robert Mandan was a great character actor. And John Ritter, of course, was spectacular. The reason it failed was America wanted Jack and Janet to get together. If it's going to happen, these two should be the ones.

and

West says he knew there would be hurt feelings. "Joyce was very upset, as was Priscilla. And Joyce felt - and perhaps rightly so - that if Jack moved in with anybody it should have been with Janet. As it turns out, she might have been right.

With that being said, most Three's Company fans appear to agree that the finale was a bit underwhelming and rushed. Within the final four episodes, both Janet and Jack meet someone, and marriage is proposed. Janet accepts while Jack's proposal is rejected in favor of living together. The latter spins Three's Company off into Three's A Crowd (which ultimately flopped).

[Dude111]

Yes they def should have!!

[DORVID]

No

[Dude111]

Why not buddy??

[Mr. Television]

No

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by TMC

From Chris Mann's book Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three's Company:


and



With that being said, most Three's Company fans appear to agree that the finale was a bit underwhelming and rushed. Within the final four episodes, both Janet and Jack meet someone, and marriage is proposed. Janet accepts while Jack's proposal is rejected in favor of living together. The latter spins Three's Company off into Three's A Crowd (which ultimately flopped).

There's a lot to unpack here so let's have at it:

A good place to start would be leaving Three's a Crowd on the side and dealing with it at the end of the Three's Company discussion. The perfect ending to Three's Company would have been the marriage of Jack and Janet, it's what the audience wanted. It's the classic search for an answer that's right under your nose. Remember the old song, Save the Best for Last by Vanessa Williams or Why Not Me by The Judds, or The Search Is Over by Survivor, classic story telling, the audience would have eaten it up.

Now let's bring Three's a Crowd into the mix. The follow-up series has to be about something, has to have a hook. If the new series premise was Jack and Janet married we have the last season of I Dream of Jeannie problem, The Rhoda problem, "and they all lived happily ever after" has occurred. You can't have Robert Mandan running around being mad at his over 30 daughter finally getting married to someone she's known for 8 years, the premise wouldn't make any sense.

When Three's a Crowd was originally pitched it was to have featured the Larry character as the lead but the network passed. The key problem Three's a Crowd had was the poor casting of the female lead, Mary Cadorette. That role was going to be critical to the success of the series, a much more dynamic actress was needed, but like everything else in the Three's Company universe John got his way and that doomed the series.

[Smartboy]

Originally Posted by Duster76

There's a lot to unpack here so let's have at it:

A good place to start would be leaving Three's a Crowd on the side and dealing with it at the end of the Three's Company discussion. The perfect ending to Three's Company would have been the marriage of Jack and Janet, it's what the audience wanted. It's the classic search for an answer that's right under your nose. Remember the old song, Save the Best for Last by Vanessa Williams or Why Not Me by The Judds, or The Search Is Over by Survivor, classic story telling, the audience would have eaten it up.

Now let's bring Three's a Crowd into the mix. The follow-up series has to be about something, has to have a hook. If the new series premise was Jack and Janet married we have the last season of I Dream of Jeannie problem, The Rhoda problem, "and they all lived happily ever after" has occurred. You can't have Robert Mandan running around being mad at his over 30 daughter finally getting married to someone she's known for 8 years, the premise wouldn't make any sense.

When Three's a Crowd was originally pitched it was to have featured the Larry character as the lead but the network passed. The key problem Three's a Crowd had was the poor casting of the female lead, Mary Cadorette. That role was going to be critical to the success of the series, a much more dynamic actress was needed, but like everything else in the Three's Company universe John got his way and that doomed the series.

Back when Larry was going to be the main character, what was his situation going to be like? Who were the supporting characters going to be?

[TVFactFan]

They never acted like a couple on the show only in the opening credits from seasons 4 to 8. So it would have been hard for me to see them married

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by Smartboy

Back when Larry was going to be the main character, what was his situation going to be like? Who were the supporting characters going to be?

I don't think it ever got to the point where casting was discussed. The network was not interested in developing a series with Richard Kline as the lead actor.

[TheLittleFaerie]

It would almost be like seeing a brother and sister get married..... I can't explain why really

[Mace Dolex]

Originally Posted by TheLittleFaerie

It would almost be like seeing a brother and sister get married..... I can't explain why really

I voted NO, the chemistry with Jack and Janet was never viewed as romantic but a more brotherly sister relationship, even the season 6 episode when Jack and Janet try the computer date mix-up they never once notioned with the idea of hooking up because they respected each other.

Originally Posted by Duster76

Now let's bring Three's a Crowd into the mix. The follow-up series has to be about something, has to have a hook. If the new series premise was Jack and Janet married we have the last season of I Dream of Jeannie problem, The Rhoda problem, "and they all lived happily ever after" has occurred. You can't have Robert Mandan running around being mad at his over 30 daughter finally getting married to someone she's known for 8 years, the premise wouldn't make any sense.

John Ritter on THS even pointed that out that the father conflict wouldn't work with Janet's father because we'd already seen him twice in the series 'Janet's Secret' and 'Hearing Is Believing' and accepted Janet sharing the apartment with Jack.

[biffbronson]

It's odd that I have no memory of ever seeing the final episodes of Three's Company until later years. So while I remember Three's a Crowd replacing the series, I wasn't aware back then that Janet got married.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

It's odd that I have no memory of ever seeing the final episodes of Three's Company until later years. So while I remember Three's a Crowd replacing the series, I wasn't aware back then that Janet got married.

Probably because it was overshadowed by the transition to TAC

[Mace Dolex]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

It's odd that I have no memory of ever seeing the final episodes of Three's Company until later years. So while I remember Three's a Crowd replacing the series, I wasn't aware back then that Janet got married.

I was 8 years old but I remember it exactly because we recorded it that night all of us gathered to watch it in the living room and my dad had bought blank VHS tapes to record Three's A Crowd the following week.

The TV Guide for that week of TC's finale had a two-page spread what I remember vividly is the ridiculous copy and paste of a promotional shot of Janet's head atop a random woman wearing a wedding gown.

[biffbronson]

LOL - TV Guide must have been fighting a deadline to try to obtain a photo of Joyce DeWitt wearing Janet's actual wedding clothes... Or maybe they had a thought that showing her with a traditional gown got the point across better...?

Publishing a weekly magazine in the pre-Digital era had to be tough when the subject matter sometimes was very much what was happening that week.

I was having trouble in college when this stuff went down, so I'm a decade older than you.