How (un) realistic was Three's Company?

[TMC]

First and foremost, why would Jack have to pretend to be gay? I don't think that Southern California back in the late '70s-early '80s was as conservative as many other parts of the nation at the time. So would a man living with two single women (who aren't relatives) have really been a major issue, unless he couldn’t pay the rent?

This goes into the next point, it seems like a major double-standard for Mr. Roper and later, Mr. Furley to object to Jack living with two single women yet they don't seem to mind the notion of him being gay. Don't get me wrong, both men were prone to ridicule Jack's presumed sexual preference, but if they were really as conservative as they were made out to be, then wouldn't they have more of problem with Jack being gay (and therefore, be a bigger stopping point) than him being straight, yet living with two single women?

Meanwhile, we're made to believe that the roommates don't have enough money so they have to share a small apartment together. And yet, they are still relatively “wealthy” enough that they could afford a car (although Jack did not have one in the earlier episodes), multiple changes of clothes, and frequent trips to their neighborhood watering hole, the Regal Beagle. Keep in mind that it's relatively expensive to live in Southern California, especially know when compared to when Three's Company was originally on. The point is if Jack, Janet, and Chrissy/Cindy/Terri could afford a vehicle, then wouldn't it be easy to assume that they could afford to live alone?

[RetroGuy2000]

I think the least realistic part is how Chrissy went from just slightly naive to becoming a walking lobotomy patient.

[JackJanetChrissy]

Good questions. Here are my thoughts. The act of sex, not sexual orientation, was the major problem with the landlords, especially Roper. Much of the time Roper seemed to have a morbid fascination with Jack being "gay," but he was less morally opposed to homosexuality than sex out of marriage. Or any kind of sex, for that matter!

I think Furley did not care whether Jack was gay or straight. He blamed his brother Bart (the owner of the building) as the one who had a problem with two girls living with a straight guy.

To an older, more conservative generation like Roper and Furley, secrecy was everything when it came to sex, gay or straight. They did not like anything that announced itself. Opposite sex (heterosexual) people living together was too strong of a statement, because other people could see the living arrangement and assume things about the roommates and the landlords who allowed it.

But as the series progressed, the premise became less and less realistic because homosexuality and having opposite-sex roommates had become less and less taboo in society.

In Season 2's "Roper's Car" the trio buys Mr. Roper's junker after discussing how they couldn't afford it, but he buys back the car by the end of the episode. After that, nobody owns a car until the end of Season 8, when Janet buys a used car from Larry, so who knows how good it was. But you're right...the money thing is questionable. After all, Larry has a full-time job (and a car) and lives by himself! But his apartment is smaller.

From what we know of the characters, Janet and Chrissy came to LA with nothing so they needed roommates to afford living there, and then just continued with it because it was convenient. Larry may have come from another living situation and had the funds to set himself up in his own place.