Did 80s fashion kill Three's Company?

[TMC]

Originally Posted by DEH55

80's hair was the worst. Guys with mullets and everyone with just big hair. I think the show that suffered the worst was The Facts Of Life. Nothing but shoulder pads and giant sprayed hair. Awful.

It really seemed like in the case of The Facts of Life, it went knee-deep into the '80s excess look around the time that Over Our Heads, George Clooney, and the updated, now up-tempo theme song (around 1985-86 or Season 7) rolled around. I mean, this is what Lisa Whelchel and Nancy McKeon looked like by that point:

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by TMC

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.

Ha ha. That is right. She was covered in fabric from neck to toe. Those oversized clothes were really big in the mid 80s. But I think they were trying to make her the serious one.

On another note, Jack was a skirt chaser on TC. Suddenly now he is loyal to Vicki which limited themes and scripts with Jack.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by ClarenceAlabama

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.

Regardless, I recently made a thread that argued that Cheers may have help make a show like Three's Company "out of style", "outdated", and/or no longer fashionable. Of course, the impact wasn't "immediate". But were there really a lot of broad, physical, innuendo-laden farces on American television like Three's Company post-1984?

[TMC]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

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.

I just found this observation on r/threescompany:

Even Janet's wardrobe in the later seasons got ABSURD. All shoulder pads and dumpy she might as well have been wearing a burka! How the hell is that representative of the avante garde styling of the 80s?

[TMC]

I was just watching the "Itching for Trouble" episode from Season 8 (1983-84) and Terri was in the apartment, sporting that off the shoulder look (a la Jennifer Beals in the movie, Flashdance), a pink bra, and what looked like black leg warmers to go along with her permed hairstyle. If that's not a distinctively "'80s look" on a woman that I don't know what else is or could be.

[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!!!

I just read a comment in r/threescompany that argued that what really "killed" the show was the fact that its universe was too small. Think about it this way, the show could've had more and more recurring characters or characters who deserved to be in more than just one episode. But the producers presumably being too cheap, wouldn't allow it or didn't have the vision or imagination to allow it.

[CJMD03]

The stupidest “parent” episode was when Janet told her parent’s she was married to Jack. Show was def starting to tank.

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by CJMD03

The stupidest “parent” episode was when Janet told her parent’s she was married to Jack. Show was def starting to tank.

I think it was when Jack's dad came to visit. At least when Janet's parents came there was some great slap shtick comedy.

[CJMD03]

Even as a kid I thought they were all a bit too old to have their parents telling them what to do.