Article on Joyce

[Janet Tripper]

I found this post in a Yahoo! Group for TC! and thought that you'll might enjoy it!

US Magazine September 5, 1978
Joyce DeWitt: The Blooming of TV’s Wallflower

Supposedly she’s the forgotten lady of prime time, the plain-as-toast “other woman” of ABCs “Three’s Company,” the dormant foil to volcanic Suzanne Somers. But if Joyce DeWitt has been overlooked, she doesn’t know it, and neither does the postman who pulls up to the little apartment house on the dirt road behind
Malibu Beach and stuffs her mailbox with fan letters - 500 of them a week.

For the former cheerleader from Indiana has a wholesome quality that shines through her characterization of Janet, the down-to-earth girl next door who has touched the hearts of the show’s vast audience. And from all indications, their love affair is growing stronger as DeWitt prepares to emerge from the shadows
of her zanier costars, Somers and John Ritter. But true to her personality, DeWitt will be fretting and hesitating on every
step to stardom. The understated self-assurance on screen disappears when the klieg lights dim.

In an industry where hype is an everyday staple, she still cringes at the thought of projecting “an Ego thing”. As for the de rigeur self-sacrifice to the tabloids that is a down payment for stardom, well, forget it. An accusation in the “National Inquirer” last season that she had swiped her girlfriend’s sweethearts back in high school had her “crying and screaming for days.” But after drying her eyes, she concluded, “If people out there are going to
read you’re some kind of weirdo, then it would be kinda nice to let them know what kind of a weirdo you truly are.”

To begin with, she could be a shrewd one. For all her self-effacement, she’s just hired publicist Stuart Ehrlich, who happens to bet the same pitchman who hyped Somers into orbit. Ron Samuels, her aggressive new manager, is dickering with ABC to land DeWitt an exclusive contract to star in TV movies, and is
trying to spin deals to get her on specials, talk shows – in short, anything with exposure.

DeWitt, who is 29, is also a singer, and these days she’s huddled with roommate and “Mr. Right”, Ray Buktenica, turning up for a possible soul or jazz album. And, noting what posters have done for women lately, DeWitt is eyeing one for herself – no doubt it will be modest. The fame has visited itself on (or been lured by) her co-stars does not trouble her. “I move forward very slowly,” she says. “Shirley MacLaine said once that she didn’t want to be a big star, just a long star. That’s what I want, too.

DeWitt has wanted to be a star for a long time. When she was 3 she leaned to switch on the family TV and saw her future there. In industrial Speedway, Ind., however, Hollywood seemed light years away. “We were poor, but we never knew it”, she says. Her strong-willed father, Paul, was a kind of Indiana Archie Bunker, whom DeWitt feared, respected, and adored. When she was young, he sweated long hours in front of a steel mill furnace, stoking coal. “When he came home he would undress in one spot so that he wouldn’t get the house dirty,” the actress recalls. Her father was hardly thrilled at his daughter’s ambition. Taking acting
lessons in high school, she persuaded him to let her major in the subject in college. He agreed, provided that she also get a teaching certificate “to fall back on.”

After graduation, she trod the boards in summer stock, repertory and dinner theater in Indiana and Illinois, and learned what being a trouper means. “Dancing in “The Boy-friend” once, I sprained my ankles, and they swelled to the size of my calf,” she remembers, “I got some cortisone shots, and I got through it.”
She decided she needed more training, told the family she was going to the UCLA graduate school in theater (the family, predictably, objected, but she prevailed), and drove West in a secondhand, $50 Rambler.

After she got her master’s degree, DeWitt worked as a legal secretary while slogging from audition to audition. At one, she saw a tall, slender actor across the room. Their eyes met. “I said to myself, “Uh oh, here comes trouble,” DeWitt recalls. The same line was running through the head of Ray Buktenica as he laid eyes on her. With all the ease and grace of a sitcom, they
hit it of and eventually moved into his one-bedroom apartment on the beach at Malibu. The two have been living a version of “Two’s Company” ever since. But if romance flowered, her career was still only a seed. Finally she landed a 30-second part on the short-lived series “The Manhunter”, in which she was gunned down in a restaurant. Long months later, she got another role, this time
in “Barretta.” After an agonizing wait while ABC made up its mind, DeWitt was asked to sign a one-year holding contract to sit tight until the studio found her a show. Although she was earning less than $100 a week, she took six weeks to “think about it” before she agreed. Months passed. ABC finally offered her a choice of two comedy pilots but gave her only 24 hours to decide on which. She read scripts with a fury, and settled on the one about the guy who shares an apartment with two girls, one diligent,
the other dizzy. She chose well; the other show never sold.
From its beginnings as a spring replacement, “Three’s Company” caught nearly everyone off balance. The ratings sizzled. Somers was hurled into stardom, then so was Ritter. DeWitt chose not to follow, until now. “Here I had a steady job for the first time,” she says, “and it was wonderful. But I also had this other thing to deal with – a public life. I just hoped I could stay in my own private world and concentrate on my acting.”

She couldn’t, of course. The more she retreated (particularly from the press), the more it sparked rumors of rivalry between her and Somers – a rivalry that does not exist. “The simple truth,” DeWitt explains, “is that we’re good friends. We sit and talk, girl talk – the trauma of breaking a fingernail, that sort of thing. I’ve never been intimidated by Suzanne – we’ve never competed with each other.” Ironically, DeWitt and Somers were attracted to one another’s roles. “I could easily have played Suzanne’s part,” says DeWitt, “with more ease than I play my own.” Says Somers: “I have a lot of Janet [DeWitt’s character] in me. As a real-life mom, I can take care of things and people.” This year the producers are planing to let Janet get a little more frisky, giving DeWitt a higher profile on the series as her life elsewhere in show biz also fans out. In the first show of the season, Janet and the landlady
demonstrate on behalf of a nude beach – appropriately unattired, but modestly shielded by some foliage.

With DeWitt on the countdown to stardom, her life with Ray Buktenica seems remarkably untouched. Fortunately for their respective professional egos, he’s doing well in TV, too. He plays Benny Goodwin on “Rhoda”, and this fall the scripts tentatively call for him to wed Brenda, Rhoda’s sister- something that
can’t hurt his career. DeWitt and Buktenica share an approach to social life that decrees: Three’s a crowd. For all their togetherness, they have no plan to marry. Their apartment is stuffed to over-flowing with antiques and plants, as well as stereo equipment that they use to practice their lines. Unlike her Italian mother DeWitt admits total disinterest in things culinary. “We have what Raymond calls our Oops meals,” she explains. “He’ll be watching TV, while I’m in the kitchen, when all of a sudden he’ll hear “Oops”, followed by the sound of the garbage disposal. That’s the signal to leave for a pizza at La Barbera’s.” That doesn’t quite fit the image of Hollywood high life, but that’s DeWitt.

She devotes her off-camera hours to opening fan mail and reading scripts rather than frequenting the “in” bistros.
DeWitt has been called a recluse. But as she explains it: “Raymond and I are really happy to get work. If we don’t get to be the most famous people in town, that’s OK. I’m a big fan of “Rocky”. He didn’t ask to win the heavyweight title of the world. He just wanted to go the 15 rounds and still be standing. It’s about the joy of the human struggle.” DeWitt’s face grows pensive, then she adds: “I can relate to that.”

[Unwanted Angel]

That was cool, thanks for posting it

[Frischman_Fan]

I remember reading that article in the People magazine!!

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

That was a good article. Thanks for posting it.

[Janet Tripper]

I'm glad you'll enjoyed the article! my fav. part was reading about the "Oops meals"! b/c everytime I try to cook (almost never) I end up going out to get food!

[grade4]

She was a cheerleader? I don't know if I can picture that... I guess so...

[Frischman_Fan]

Me niether!!

[Janet Tripper]

me neither! She seem like she would of been more into tennis or volleyball or something like that!

[janet42]

That was a pretty cool article. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Mr. Television]

Wow This is an old thread but it's the first time I read that article. It was pretty good.

[Diggsy]

I recall reading in another profile that she once had waist-length hair,long before TC of course.What I'd give to see a picture from that time......she must have looked quite the hippie!

[Jude The Obscure]

I remember Joyce doing one TV movie while on TC, I think it was 1978 and it was called "With This Ring".