Did 80s fashion kill Three's Company?

[CJMD03]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

True
I also think the network was already planning the spin off with Jack having a restaurant. The show outgrew its original premise of 2 girls so desperate to pay the rent they take a guy in to help with the bills. Jack in unemployed and they struggle with paying the rent. Fast forward 6 years later in the 1980s, they are all wearing designer clothes, Jack has his own restaurant and their new roommate is an emergency room nurse that works overtime. Each would have enough money to get their own apartment. Yet now in their 30s they are living like college kids. The premise no longer worked and lived past its expiration date.

Exactly!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

That hairstyle of Terri in the hospital was awful

I don't know for sure if this was a clear indicator of '80s fashion sensibilities fully taking over, but I find it odd that when we first see Terri in the 1981-82 season, she's wearing plain and simple white for her nurses uniform.



But by the end of the series in 1983-84, Terri is now wearing a pink colored uniform at the hospital. It seemed like '80s fashion when compared to '70s fashion (at least for women) became much more garish and loud.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by CJMD03

TC died only because of age. It reached eight season and most of those seasons had at least twenty episodes (barring Season 01). What was cutting edge in 1977 was rote by 1984. As I have said before, the obligatory episodes multiple times every season where they all have to lie to their parents about living together was dumb. This was 1977 and orgies, drugs, disco, Studio 54, et al, were at their apex. Who gave two sh-ts about three people in their late twenties and early thirties livening together. No one cares (and before anyone says it was a dif time then and they would have cared what their parents thought, it was pathetic to see a grown man - Jack - be bosses around by a parent at his age). A new series would have to flip the premise - three people living together and they have to pretend they’re STRAIGHT when they’re really gay.

And why was it that, in the beginning of the series they made it very clear that Janet and even Chrissy had love lives, yet they morphed into pristine virgins as the show progressed. I can see Cindy being a virgin, but NOT Terri. She was an erudite grown woman with a successful career. As I said, early Janet and Chrissy def weren’t pure!!!

As noted upon in this review of Season 8, by the time that Three's Company ended in 1984, there was already a growing schism between the easy going titillation of the late ’70s and the coming sleekness of Reagan’s ’80s. That was in itself, indicative of a show that was now past its prime.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

80s fashion ruined many 70's show. Threes Company had 3 struggling roommates in the 70s. Janet had patches on her jeans, etc. When the 80s hit, they kept this crummy apartment but suddenly had a big budget for fashion. Janet wore lots of make up too. Their wardrobe was all about flashy 80s fashion. I wonder how they would have made Mrs Roper dress in 1984 LOL

I don't know exactly how spot on this is, but I recently found these illustrations of men and women's fashion for each year of the 1980s. If you count the single season for Three's a Crowd (1984-85), then Three's Company was on television for the first six years of the '80s (1980-85). And likewise, Three's Company started during the last three years of the 1970s (1977-79).

[biffbronson]

Fashion has much more to do with greedy clothes manufacturers than it does political eras. That's why women's hemlines went up and down, they wanted them to believe their skirt/dress length hanging in their closet wasn't up-to-date. The same thing with eyeglasses, small lenses to big -- and back again, it was all about sales.

I see the previous point about the roommates' clothes budgets, but Janet's increased makeup would not apply as far as an outlandish expense.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by eleri

TC got its start as jiggle TV. Girls (plus Jack) in tight-fitting outfits engaged in various comedic high-jinks. Then along came the 80s: shoulder pads, flowing, oversized clothes. Gone was the jiggle.

TC dropped DRAMATICALLY in the ratings between the 7th season and the 8th. Could it be that oddly conservative, 80s fashions killed the show?

I don't necessarily think that '80s fashion killed the show so much that it felt like an anachronism for a lack of a better word by the time that it went off the air in 1984. Three's Company was a product of the "Jiggle Show" era, which come 1984, would've been a harder sell in a post-Moral Minority/Ronald Reagan America, which was decidedly more conservative.

Also, American sitcoms in the early '80s (at least pre-The Cosby Show), were not very popular. Three's Company in its final season went from being a top ten rated show to I believe, 33rd place in the Nielsens. Viewers by that point, seemed to gravitate more towards action and adventure shows (e.g. The A-Team, Magnum, P.I., Knight Rider, etc.), soap opera dramas (e.g. Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest), and grown-up sitcoms (e.g. Cheers).

[ClarenceAlabama]

Originally Posted by TMC

I don't necessarily think that '80s fashioned killed the show so much that it felt like an anachronism for a lack of a better word by the time that it went off the air in 1984. Three's Company was a product of the "Jiggle Show" era, which come 1984, would've been a harder sell in a post-Moral Minority/Ronald Reagan America, which was decidedly more conservative.

Also, American sitcoms in the early '80s (at least pre-The Cosby Show), were not very popular. Three's Company in its final season went from being a top ten rated show I believe, 33rd place in the Nielsens. Viewers by that point, seemed to gravitate more towards action and adventure shows (e.g. The A-Team, Magnum, P.I., Knight Rider, etc.), soap opera dramas (e.g. Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest), and grown-up sitcoms (e.g. Cheers).

Cheers ranked 74th in it's first season. The show didn't become popular until The Cosby Show made sitcoms popular again. The Cosby Show debuted in 1984.

I went to a few tapings of The Cosby Show in the 80's and it was an amazing time. I regret not going when John Ritter was a guest star. There was no way of knowing who the guest stars would be before the tapings.

[BuffaloBill]

This question obviously makes no sense. I never for one moment ever thought clothes they wore effected ratings. They adhered to what ever fashion was at the time. Mainstream show, they were all middle class folks wore fashions that identified to their times. Now I’m sure if Jack broke out his 2024 Josh Allen red jersey, with his $300 Air Jordan’s that would have caused record ratings. Maybe pop in a Taylor Swift appearance, now we ‘re talking enough money to pay Suzanne her $150 k an episode she was looking for.
Yes I’m being facetious!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

In the series finale in 1984, Priscilla Barnes sported what I suppose in retrospect, was something close to a "fem-mullet":


Lisa Whelchel sported something similar to that around the sixth season of The Facts of Life from roughly around that same time. Somebody on YouTube said that Priscilla totally sported "Vanna White hair".

Ilene Graff, who incidentally, was in an episode of Three's Company (the one from the seventh season where Jack catches Mr. Angelino on a rendezvous with a woman who isn't his wife), also had that type of hairstyle when she was working on Mr. Belvedere.

[BuffaloBill]

I've always though Ilene Graff would have made an excellent co-star with John Ritter on Three's A Crowd. Just thought both characters along with the acting interacted well.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by JackJanetChrissy

Janet started dressing differently starting in Season 4, and Chrissy got her 80's heavy-makeup/bleached doll makeover, too. I preferred the more natural looks at the beginning of the show.

It's an interesting question. Terri was a lot less provocative with her outfits (and I'm sorry, the culottes are not attractive in any era), but when she first came on she sometimes went braless and had a more natural, carefree look. By the end of the series she had those awful bangs and a lot of frosted lipstick. Perhaps the 80s was just an unattractive fashion era, and everyone suffered, lol.

When I think about it, the more natural look of earlier seasons inspires a kind of nostalgia and affection for the 70s, whereas the hard look of the 80s seems more recent and therefore more drab to me. Weird, I know.

Somebody on r/threescompany said that around Season 6 (the first "Terri season"), Janet always looked over-dressed. She was often seen in shoulder-padded dresses, pearls, heels, and extra makeup.

[Dude111]

I think the crappiness of the world ruined this show

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by TMC

Somebody on r/threescompany said that around Season 6 (the first "Terri season"), Janet always looked over-dressed. She was often seen in shoulder-padded dresses, pearls, heels, and extra makeup.

Very true. The 80's excessiveness was in full swing. 3 working professionals needed to share an apartment and Janet always had designer clothes but no car either. The brilliance of the early years was there were patches on jeans and you really felt them struggling to pay the rent. Its been said before this sitcom is no different than other sitcoms that started in the 70s and ended in the 80s.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

Mary Cadorette (Vicky Bradford) probably got hit with this the worst come Three's a Crowd.

Somebody on r/80s added that Mary Cadorette was basically covered neck to toe in terrible fabric patterns literally every single episode of Three's a Crowd. They made her as unsexy as possible, and it made little sense that Jack was even attracted to her.

[Fallon97]

Odd question. If the 70s fashion didn't kill the show, then the 80s fashion didn't kil the show.