‘Three’s Company’ Star Suzanne Somers Dies At 76

Suzanne Somers, who shot to fame as ditzy blond “Chrissy Snow” on the 1970s hit TV sitcom Three’s Company, has died at the age of 76 (one day short of her 77th birthday) after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1713652034543464881 From Variety:

Somers finally hit the Hollywood jackpot in 1977 when, after a torturous development period in which the producers couldn’t settle on a fresh female lead, she was cast as one of the two female leads in the third, successful pilot for a suggestive new ABC comedy based (as were the earlier hits “All in the Family” and “Sanford & Son”) on a successful British show, “Man About the House.”

“Three’s Company” featured Somers as quintessential “dumb blonde” Chrissy Snow, roommate of the smarter and more level-headed Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) in an inexpensive Santa Monica apartment. John Ritter, the most familiar of the three stars, was top-billed as Jack Tripper, a culinary school student who jumps at the cheap housing, but he is forced to pose as a gay man to placate the girls’ landlord, who is opposed to opposite-sex tenants.

https://youtu.be/9rS7in7OdWQ?si=MHGjSxR62xpDSrP3 The series was a huge success. But at the beginning of season five, Somers reportedly asked for a huge increase in her salary. The creative team began to write her out of episodes, or she would be reduced to a cameo appearance shot separate from her co-stars. The next season she was replaced. She never hit that same kind of vaunted success again, although she did appear in two seasons of the sitcom She’s The Sheriff. And in 1991, she teamed with Patrick Duffy (Dallas) in a blended family sitcom similar to The Brady Bunch titled Step By Step. The show ran for 8 seasons. Around the same time, Somers launched a wildly successful fitness company that included such products as the “Thigh Master.” According to some reports, she made in the neighborhood of $300 million from her fitness line. She was reportedly surrounded by family at the time of her death including husband Alan, and son Bruce. Rest in peace, Suzanne Somers. https://twitter.com/mmpadellan/status/1713647760732205547 https://twitter.com/landofthe80s/status/1713661225823780959 https://twitter.com/DannyDeraney/status/1713652140173045875 https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1713656914662285383 https://twitter.com/dwtsstats/status/1713642839966437738 (lead image via Depositphotos/Jean Nelson)