What would have happen if Suzanne Somers have gotten what she wanted (more money)? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Mr.PPV! · 09-01-2003, 04:13 PM

Which meant that Chrissy would still have been on Threes Company.What would you think would change?Would there be more or less episodes?

beckyc · 09-01-2003, 08:22 PM

I think there would be less episodes. I like Cindy better than Chrissy now, I wish she stayed...oh well...

Mr. Television · 09-01-2003, 08:25 PM

I don't think there would have been anymore episodes. They were running out of ideas. The ratings may have stayed higher though, especially the 1980-81 season.

Céline · 09-01-2003, 11:05 PM

I think that the show would been cancelled because John &
Joyce would ask for more money too.I think the networks
couldn't keep up with that.It would been the end of that great show

Austin Tripper · 09-02-2003, 03:44 AM

I think chrissy left at the perfect time.. suzanne/producers were making "chrissy" almost ******** at the end.. suzanne started to think she was an actress and started to over act..

the show was great.. it's best when she left! that year with cindy & terri combined was their best year!! they had soooo many great episodes..

it all comes down to Dave Powers hitting his stride.. and really everyone on the new cast .. kicking butt, because they didn't want this #1 show to fail

teensangat · 09-03-2003, 11:46 AM

I think since the show was raking in the moolah, the least they could have done was pass some of it on to the stars. Let's face it, even though the storylines and plot were extremely well-written and woven, it was the actors who carried it off to such perfection in the end. They deserved more.

I think the show would never have run out of ideas, the subject matter being so malleable. The only time the show may have run out of ideas was when the three roommates started to show their age!

I think Chrissie's leaving sounded the death knell for the show. The replacements just couldn't carry the show, unlike in the case of Mr. Furly, who seemed to add rather than take away from it! :-)

I am Roboto · 09-03-2003, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by teensangat
I think since the show was raking in the moolah, the least they could have done was pass some of it on to the stars. Let's face it, even though the storylines and plot were extremely well-written and woven, it was the actors who carried it off to such perfection in the end. They deserved more.

I think the show would never have run out of ideas, the subject matter being so malleable. The only time the show may have run out of ideas was when the three roommates started to show their age!

I think Chrissie's leaving sounded the death knell for the show. The replacements just couldn't carry the show, unlike in the case of Mr. Furly, who seemed to add rather than take away from it! :-)

The show may have been making money, but none of the actors deserved the kind of pay hike that Suzanne Somers demanded- She thought she was the star and she got greedy. Suzanne not only wanted a pay hike, she also wanted part ownership of the show. Thus she was fired.

In truth, however, John Ritter was the true star. Without him, the show was dead. As to Suzanne's replacements, I thought Terri did an exellent job, and I enjoy the Terri years as much or more as the Chrissy years.

Sean Snow · 09-03-2003, 08:01 PM

I think the show could've lasted just as long or maybe even longer if it had Chrissy. Even though many people don't like her character that much in season 4, she was still very popular and got many laughs.

As for the salary, the entire cast was not paid what you would expect them to be paid with such a huge show. Three's Company was huge in it's ABC run and it was huge in syndication. TC has made like $900,000,000 (I know that it's made at least $800,000,000) in it's first/syndicated runs. The actors have made a few million over the last 21 years from the reruns and then there's what they earned when they were first doing the show. While yes, that is a lot, it is still not as much as what people today have been getting. After all, in 1992 Three's Company was beating reruns of The Golden Girls & The Cosby Show in LA - a key market. That is definately an accomplishment. And yes, while some of that money should of course go to the people behind it and to the writers/directors, the actors should get a fair share of that. If they had put horrible actors on the show, would it have lasted as long as it did?

I'm not saying Suzanne deserved $150,000. That was a lot back then. However, she has stated in several places that she and Alan intended that as a beginning place - they wanted to end up somewhere between $30,000 and $150,000. Suzanne wanted to come back to the show after a few weeks, but by then it had become about ego. [Some sources have even stated that there was talk that they WANTED her off the show as early as season 4.]

One of the key things wrong with the situation was that Suzanne asked a little too late in the summer for the raise. There had been a strike which had prevented them from taping earlier, and that also hindered that - they needed to crank out as many episodes as possible in order to be ready for the fall schedule.

Werm. I got off topic. Oh well.

Mr.PPV! · 09-05-2003, 05:09 PM

Who Knows.

USATVFAN · 02-06-2008, 11:37 PM

I Know this is an old Thread.
I Think It Still Would Have Cause Problems Between John,Joyce And Suzanne If The Producers Went with Her Wishes
John Ritter Would Have Been Angry With The Network And The Producers If They Went With Her Wishes And Payed Her 150,000 And Episode Because He Had Top Billing So omly hecould be payed The Most And He Would Be Mad Suzanne Becuse she is getting more Then Him When He Should Be Getting The Most Money.
Joyce Would have be Angry Also If the Network Gave Suzanne The Most Payed Money Then John And Joyce Would Want A Raise And Suanne Would Want To Get More Then them It Still Would Have Been a Miss.

Mr. Television · 02-06-2008, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by George&weezyforever

I Know this is an old Thread.
I Think It Still Would Have Cause Problems Between John,Joyce And Suzanne If The Producers Went with Her Wishes
John Ritter Would Have Been Angry With The Network And The Producers If They Went With Her Wishes And Payed Her 150,000 And Episode Because He Had Top Billing So omly hecould be payed The Most And He Would Be Mad Suzanne Becuse she is getting more Then Him When He Should Be Getting The Most Money.
Joyce Would have be Angry Also If the Network Gave Suzanne The Most Payed Money Then John And Joyce Would Want A Raise And Suanne Would Want To Get More Then them It Still Would Have Been a Miss.

It was in all their contracts that John got paid the most and Suzanne and Joyce got paid the same so if she won they all would have gotten pay increases. I think what Sean Snow said was pretty good. She did ask for too much but ABC already planned to make an example of the next star that acted up after what had happened with Farrah. I think Suzanne just walked into it. And then it did become about egos. The producers forced Suzanne to honor her contract by filming those tag scenes which was really about punishing her and Suzanne retaliated by going on talk shows and dissing the show. When that happened she had to go.

vtunie · 02-07-2008, 12:29 AM

Although I really like Chrissy as she was in the first two seasons, the character became progressively more irritating from late 1978 onwards. I've always thought that the last full episode with Somers was the very weakest one of the run.

I have no idea how long the show would have lasted had Somers and the producers resolved their differences, but since most of my favorite episodes are from the last four seasons, I think the show benefitted a great deal from her replacements.

All this is no doubt because, so far as I remember, I began to watch TC mid-1982. CBC carried the original episodes in Canada one for one with ABC, 9 pm Tuesdays, and they had a rerun package that I watched after school weekdays at 5:30. I'm pretty sure it was the reruns that hooked me, right about the time they were cycling through the first Furley episodes. Even then I preferred Terri to Chrissy, and it was very strange to see the Roper series at last, in early '83, I guess. (One good thing was that the Canadian restrictions on commercial time back then were even tighter than the old American prime-time standards, so all the episodes were ALWAYS aired uncut, and they had time to run a quick news summary besides!)

bluthree · 02-08-2008, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Tripper

I think chrissy left at the perfect time.. suzanne/producers were making "chrissy" almost ******** at the end.. suzanne started to think she was an actress and started to over act..

the show was great.. it's best when she left! that year with cindy & terri combined was their best year!! they had soooo many great episodes..

it all comes down to Dave Powers hitting his stride.. and really everyone on the new cast .. kicking butt, because they didn't want this #1 show to fail

Yeah I have to agree with you about Chrissy.I did not understand why she got so dumb? The Chrissy in season 4 and 5 was totaly difrent to the Chrissy we met in season 1.She even look difrent.
I think out of all the blond roomates I liked Terri the best.She just seem so sweet and nice,and she could be funny too.

janet42 · 02-09-2008, 02:43 AM

I don't know if the show would have lasted 8 years. If Suzanne gotten the $250,000, then Joyce would have gotten 250,000 and Jack probably gotten around 500,000 the show would have cost 1,000,000 before even they started to shoot an episode. Producers like it or not, like to walk away from a show with a lot of profit. I think they would have ended up cancelling the show after the 5th season.

catlover79 · 01-04-2009, 09:08 PM

I think the show wouldn't have lasted as long. While Chrissy WAS an important part of the show, bringing in new characters (and roommates) helped keep the show fresh. I think the show would've lasted 6 seasons, tops, if Suzanne had stayed, instead of the 8 it eventually ended up running.

09-01-2003, 04:13 PM	#1
Mr.PPV! Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Aug 29, 2003 Posts: 32	What would have happen if Suzanne Somers have gotten what she wanted (more money)? Which meant that Chrissy would still have been on Threes Company.What would you think would change?Would there be more or less episodes?
	__________________ Come & Knock On Our Door!

09-01-2003, 08:25 PM	#3
Mr. Television 22 Years at Sitcoms Online Forum Icon Join Date: Jun 06, 2003 Location: Somewhere you're Not Posts: 62,127	I don't think there would have been anymore episodes. They were running out of ideas. The ratings may have stayed higher though, especially the 1980-81 season.
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09-03-2003, 11:46 AM	#6
teensangat Member Forum Hawk Join Date: Sep 02, 2003 Location: Mumbai, India Posts: 3	I think since the show was raking in the moolah, the least they could have done was pass some of it on to the stars. Let's face it, even though the storylines and plot were extremely well-written and woven, it was the actors who carried it off to such perfection in the end. They deserved more. I think the show would never have run out of ideas, the subject matter being so malleable. The only time the show may have run out of ideas was when the three roommates started to show their age! I think Chrissie's leaving sounded the death knell for the show. The replacements just couldn't carry the show, unlike in the case of Mr. Furly, who seemed to add rather than take away from it! :-)
	__________________ Teensangat

02-06-2008, 11:37 PM	#10
USATVFAN Member Senior Member Join Date: Jan 31, 2007 Location: Kalispell, USA Posts: 1,742	I Know this is an old Thread. I Think It Still Would Have Cause Problems Between John,Joyce And Suzanne If The Producers Went with Her Wishes John Ritter Would Have Been Angry With The Network And The Producers If They Went With Her Wishes And Payed Her 150,000 And Episode Because He Had Top Billing So omly hecould be payed The Most And He Would Be Mad Suzanne Becuse she is getting more Then Him When He Should Be Getting The Most Money. Joyce Would have be Angry Also If the Network Gave Suzanne The Most Payed Money Then John And Joyce Would Want A Raise And Suanne Would Want To Get More Then them It Still Would Have Been a Miss.
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01-04-2009, 09:08 PM	#15
catlover79 God Bless Val Forum Addict Join Date: May 29, 2006 Location: Bewitched in Ohio Posts: 70,376	I think the show wouldn't have lasted as long. While Chrissy WAS an important part of the show, bringing in new characters (and roommates) helped keep the show fresh. I think the show would've lasted 6 seasons, tops, if Suzanne had stayed, instead of the 8 it eventually ended up running.
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09-01-2003, 08:22 PM	#2
beckyc beckyc Frequent Poster Join Date: May 27, 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 257	I think there would be less episodes. I like Cindy better than Chrissy now, I wish she stayed...oh well...

09-01-2003, 11:05 PM	#4
Céline Member Senior Member Join Date: Jan 29, 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 1,606	I think that the show would been cancelled because John & Joyce would ask for more money too.I think the networks couldn't keep up with that.It would been the end of that great show

09-02-2003, 03:44 AM	#5
Austin Tripper Jack Tripper is GOD! Forum Regular Join Date: Jul 17, 2001 Location: United States Posts: 614	I think chrissy left at the perfect time.. suzanne/producers were making "chrissy" almost ******** at the end.. suzanne started to think she was an actress and started to over act.. the show was great.. it's best when she left! that year with cindy & terri combined was their best year!! they had soooo many great episodes.. it all comes down to Dave Powers hitting his stride.. and really everyone on the new cast .. kicking butt, because they didn't want this #1 show to fail

09-03-2003, 08:01 PM	#8
Sean Snow moo Forum Fanatic Join Date: May 06, 2001 Location: Georgia Posts: 10,407	I think the show could've lasted just as long or maybe even longer if it had Chrissy. Even though many people don't like her character that much in season 4, she was still very popular and got many laughs. As for the salary, the entire cast was not paid what you would expect them to be paid with such a huge show. Three's Company was huge in it's ABC run and it was huge in syndication. TC has made like $900,000,000 (I know that it's made at least $800,000,000) in it's first/syndicated runs. The actors have made a few million over the last 21 years from the reruns and then there's what they earned when they were first doing the show. While yes, that is a lot, it is still not as much as what people today have been getting. After all, in 1992 Three's Company was beating reruns of The Golden Girls & The Cosby Show in LA - a key market. That is definately an accomplishment. And yes, while some of that money should of course go to the people behind it and to the writers/directors, the actors should get a fair share of that. If they had put horrible actors on the show, would it have lasted as long as it did? I'm not saying Suzanne deserved $150,000. That was a lot back then. However, she has stated in several places that she and Alan intended that as a beginning place - they wanted to end up somewhere between $30,000 and $150,000. Suzanne wanted to come back to the show after a few weeks, but by then it had become about ego. [Some sources have even stated that there was talk that they WANTED her off the show as early as season 4.] One of the key things wrong with the situation was that Suzanne asked a little too late in the summer for the raise. There had been a strike which had prevented them from taping earlier, and that also hindered that - they needed to crank out as many episodes as possible in order to be ready for the fall schedule. Werm. I got off topic. Oh well.

09-05-2003, 05:09 PM	#9
Mr.PPV! Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Aug 29, 2003 Posts: 32	Who Knows.

02-07-2008, 12:29 AM	#12
vtunie Member Forum Regular Join Date: Oct 23, 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 592	Although I really like Chrissy as she was in the first two seasons, the character became progressively more irritating from late 1978 onwards. I've always thought that the last full episode with Somers was the very weakest one of the run. I have no idea how long the show would have lasted had Somers and the producers resolved their differences, but since most of my favorite episodes are from the last four seasons, I think the show benefitted a great deal from her replacements. All this is no doubt because, so far as I remember, I began to watch TC mid-1982. CBC carried the original episodes in Canada one for one with ABC, 9 pm Tuesdays, and they had a rerun package that I watched after school weekdays at 5:30. I'm pretty sure it was the reruns that hooked me, right about the time they were cycling through the first Furley episodes. Even then I preferred Terri to Chrissy, and it was very strange to see the Roper series at last, in early '83, I guess. (One good thing was that the Canadian restrictions on commercial time back then were even tighter than the old American prime-time standards, so all the episodes were ALWAYS aired uncut, and they had time to run a quick news summary besides!)

02-09-2008, 02:43 AM	#14
janet42 Three's Company Fan! Senior Member Join Date: Feb 22, 2007 Location: Indiana Posts: 1,757	I don't know if the show would have lasted 8 years. If Suzanne gotten the $250,000, then Joyce would have gotten 250,000 and Jack probably gotten around 500,000 the show would have cost 1,000,000 before even they started to shoot an episode. Producers like it or not, like to walk away from a show with a lot of profit. I think they would have ended up cancelling the show after the 5th season.