Did "Three's Company" end at the right time (1984)?

[TMC]

I just thought about this while reading the comments section for this YouTube video:

You ever notice that this show got more & more conservative as it went along. The show ran from 1977-1984 and the 1977-81 shows are much more sexual. Jack used to practically make out with the girls. The show ended at a perfect time before Reagan's Conservative America took over!

[JSP]

Originally Posted by TMC

I just thought about this while reading the comments section for this YouTube video:

In retrospect it's easy to see that the nation as a whole was far more Conservative in the 80s than it was in the 70s. It's odd to me that Hollywood at the time was willing to be so Conservative. I think these days Hollywood isn't Conservative at all, but it's weird they were willing to get on the bandwagon for a while in the 80s. Then again, with all the electoral votes Reagan got in 1984 it must have been a large part of the electorate who were former liberals and are probably liberal today that voted for Reagan at the time.

Then again Richard Nixon dominated the 1972 election too. The 1972 and 1984 elections were odd one-sided affairs where Republicans enjoyed broad support that we will never see in Presidential elections again.

[JackJanetChrissy]

It's pretty sad that in the early years TC was fighting the censors and by the last season weren't doing anything to even remotely challenge them. I think the 1960s and 1970s were a time of social revolution, and if you weren't rebelling against some kind of norm, you weren't doing it right. By the 80s everyone had calmed down and grown up, and everyday Americans wanted to feel safe again, which correlates to conservatism.

Three's Company definitely ran its course and I think the actors aging with the rest of America influenced its demise. Jack wasn't a young buck anymore who could get away with cracking sex jokes constantly any more than Terri and Janet could get away with putting up with it as savvy career women who were no longer naive, carefree girls. Also, while middle America became more conservative, the culture of Hollywood and the music scene became way over-the-top and taboo-less with drug use, sex (until AIDS scare), challenges to gender norms. So the "groundbreaking" nature of TC sort of got lost in the shuffle because at that point the ground was breaking everywhere.

So yeah, I think TC ended at the right time. It probably could've even been a season shorter, as some of Season 8 is disappointing.

[TMC]

Not to change to subject but I find it extremely weird that Three's Company didn't have its series finale until September of '84 instead of May like other shows. It's the only long running, prime time broadcast TV show that I'm aware of to do such a thing. If you've ever seen Three's a Crowd (especially considering how big of a failure it turned out to be), then the final episode of Three's Company is kind of lost within the context of things. Half of it is a proper series finale and the other half is a backdoor pilot for Three's a Crowd. Had Three's a Crowd lasted longer than only one season, I wonder if the series finale of Three's Company would've still been used in the syndicated reruns?

[JSP]

Originally Posted by TMC

Not to change to subject but I find it extremely weird that Three's Company didn't have its series finale until September of '84 instead of May like other shows. It's the only long running, prime time broadcast TV show that I'm aware of to do such a thing.

Well SCTV on NBC was neither long running nor prime time but that's another case where they showed the last two episodes of Season 4 in October of 1982 just before they started the Season 5 episodes the following week.

But that's the only other time I saw something like that. The producers of Three's Company I guess were trying to make a smooth transition from TC to TAC. When you think about it, I can see why audiences might have been insulted by the disrespect and lack of care paid to the show's ending. But then again John Ritter was on record saying those were his favorite episodes of TC so go figure.