The Suzanne Somers contract dispute now makes sense after reading this 1978 article

[TVFactFan]

She signed a 5 year deal with CBS in 1979 with the promise of her own comedy show once Three's company was over. So no wonder she was demanding such a high increase because she had something to fall back on lol

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116849234/

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

She signed a 5 year deal with CBS in 1979 with the promise of her own comedy show once Three's company was over. So no wonder she was demanding such a high increase because she had something to fall back on lol

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116849234/

Not really. ABC took her to court over this. The character was a Chrissy Snow character and ABC fought to say they owned the Chrissy Snow character. This was a bridge too far for ABC and is one of the reasons they pushed back as hard as they did. In their view she was selling the success of Chrissy to CBS.
No doubt she was underpaid for being a female on TV's biggest hit shows. Penny Marshal made ABC gun shy. Penny was successful at renegotiating her contract just as Laverne and Shirley was going to decline off the radar. They were reluctant to do it again even though Threes Company was still the hot show.
While her cause had great merit, she really went about it in all the wrong ways. I think her husband was to blame for that and irked the network too much.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

Not really. ABC took her to court over this. The character was a Chrissy Snow character and ABC fought to say they owned the Chrissy Snow character. This was a bridge too far for ABC and is one of the reasons they pushed back as hard as they did. In their view she was selling the success of Chrissy to CBS.
No doubt she was underpaid for being a female on TV's biggest hit shows. Penny Marshal made ABC gun shy. Penny was successful at renegotiating her contract just as Laverne and Shirley was going to decline off the radar. They were reluctant to do it again even though Threes Company was still the hot show.
While her cause had great merit, she really went about it in all the wrong ways. I think her husband was to blame for that and irked the network too much.

For years I couldnt understand why she was so aggressive after season and now I know why because he had another source of income. I never knew she signed before season 5

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

For years I couldnt understand why she was so aggressive after season and now I know why because he had another source of income. I never knew she signed before season 5

ABC was successful in blocking that CBS sitcom since it was loosely based on the Chrissy character. Suzanne made more money in her product line than she ever could have on TV. However she ruined her TV career pushing as hard as she did. She had valid points but should have waited until her contract was up. Then she could have scored big time because the show would have been still high in the ratings.
Farah Fawcett was probably worse in her decisions to break contract and ruin her career. She should have stayed at Charlie's Angels for 2 or 3 seasons and laughed her way to the bank.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

ABC was successful in blocking that CBS sitcom since it was loosely based on the Chrissy character. Suzanne made more money in her product line than she ever could have on TV. However she ruined her TV career pushing as hard as she did. She had valid points but should have waited until her contract was up. Then she could have scored big time because the show would have been still high in the ratings.
Farah Fawcett was probably worse in her decisions to break contract and ruin her career. She should have stayed at Charlie's Angels for 2 or 3 seasons and laughed her way to the bank.

Yeah but she had a contract already signed with CBS so she was able to ask for more. But it was weird she signed a contract with another network

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Yeah but she had a contract already signed with CBS so she was able to ask for more. But it was weird she signed a contract with another network

Yes its strange but is a window into how she was operating and negotiating with ABC. Then she was claiming she was injured and could not go to work while ABC executives saw her performing Vegas acts while claiming to be injured. The cast was given 2 scripts: 1 if she showed, the other if she did not. So much tension. She was not only fired but punished. She was banned from the set and still made her do appearances on the show alone.

[ClarenceAlabama]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

Farah Fawcett was probably worse in her decisions to break contract and ruin her career. She should have stayed at Charlie's Angels for 2 or 3 seasons and laughed her way to the bank.

I remember reading that Farrah Fawcett left the show because Lee Majors (her husband at the time) wanted her home at 6:30pm with his dinner on the table.

She sacrificed her career for her husband. Times were different back then.

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by ClarenceAlabama

I remember reading that Farrah Fawcett left the show because Lee Majors (her husband at the time) wanted her home at 6:30pm with his dinner on the table.

She sacrificed her career for her husband. Times were different back then.

That was part true. Although there is speculation if it was Lee or her that requested that part of the contract. Both were so busy with TV she alleged they had no time to spend together. Farah wanted to focus on movies. She was open to staying but wanted a huge payday. She was making $5k per episode. I think she wanted something huge around $25k per episode and 10% of proceeds of all Charlies Angels merchandise. They only went has high as offering her 8% of proceeds of merchandise and $10k per episode. Her replacement started immediately at $15k per episode. So knowing that, I think there could have been an agreement and it would have served her well. She got black listed and no one would hire her because of her breach of contract. ABC did let her go with the agreement she would appear in 5 more episodes over 2 years. Her career never took off. She never got good movie roles and even TV shows would not hire her.

[Yong Fang]

Originally Posted by ClarenceAlabama

I remember reading that Farrah Fawcett left the show because Lee Majors (her husband at the time) wanted her home at 6:30pm with his dinner on the table.

She sacrificed her career for her husband. Times were different back then.

Seriously? What a redneck POS. Not to mention arguably she was a much bigger star than he was. Also, they were millionaires, couldn't Majors just hire a domestic to do the cooking? I fully support my wife to go out and make money if that is what she wants to do. I can cook my own damn dinner, or again....I'm a millionaire, I'll eat out! But I enjoy being alone most of the time, other people can't stand being by themselves.

Farrah could sure pick bad husbands!

[TVShowAddict]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

ABC was successful in blocking that CBS sitcom since it was loosely based on the Chrissy character. Suzanne made more money in her product line than she ever could have on TV. However she ruined her TV career pushing as hard as she did. She had valid points but should have waited until her contract was up. Then she could have scored big time because the show would have been still high in the ratings.
Farah Fawcett was probably worse in her decisions to break contract and ruin her career. She should have stayed at Charlie's Angels for 2 or 3 seasons and laughed her way to the bank.

She had a big role on Step by Step so I would not say it ruined her TV career

[TVShowAddict]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

That was part true. Although there is speculation if it was Lee or her that requested that part of the contract. Both were so busy with TV she alleged they had no time to spend together. Farah wanted to focus on movies. She was open to staying but wanted a huge payday. She was making $5k per episode. I think she wanted something huge around $25k per episode and 10% of proceeds of all Charlies Angels merchandise. They only went has high as offering her 8% of proceeds of merchandise and $10k per episode. Her replacement started immediately at $15k per episode. So knowing that, I think there could have been an agreement and it would have served her well. She got black listed and no one would hire her because of her breach of contract. ABC did let her go with the agreement she would appear in 5 more episodes over 2 years. Her career never took off. She never got good movie roles and even TV shows would not hire her.

That is a false statement, TV shows did hire her for different roles until 2006

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by TVShowAddict

She had a big role on Step by Step so I would not say it ruined her TV career

With the network who fired her at that and lasted almost the same time as TC

[favoriteshow]

Originally Posted by TVShowAddict

She had a big role on Step by Step so I would not say it ruined her TV career

And Candid Camera.

And she was a frequest guest on Oprah.

But there was a long period between her Three's Company exit and the late 90s, where she wasn't around.

[opus]

Originally Posted by favoriteshow

But there was a long period between her Three's Company exit and the late 90s, where she wasn't around.

Looking at IMDb, she had nothing between ’81 and ‘85, at which point she began working pretty steadily again.

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by TVShowAddict

That is a false statement, TV shows did hire her for different roles until 2006

OMG Really
Ok let me rephrase. She was almost blacklisted from TV and movies which forced her to do Vegas acts and was the motivation to sell products. Yes she did show up on some D list TV shows and even hosted a late night talk show.
She was NOT the big TV star she was being on a HUGE network show. She was fired for breach of contract. She was not wanted by networks.

****sigh**** there is always one