Who’s your favorite member of the main Three’s Company cast? Who would you say was the star of the show between John Ritter, Suzanne Summers, and Joyce DeWitt?
▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Early Experiences on the Show
01:31 - Joyce and Suzanne’s Feud
03:09 - Reunited and It Feels So Good
07:10 - Joyce Acknowledges Her Friend’s Death
07:41 - Joyce’s Life and Career After Three’s Company
09:19 - Outro
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It was their dynamic together that made the show work. They had a chemistry that made them believable as not just roommates but friends. Arguments over who was the true star, or at least who was getting paid like one, unfortunately tore them apart. It left a rift between them for decades.
Suzanne saw acting as a business. She was a struggling single mother who needed a job; any job. When she starting acting on Three’s Company and realized she wasn’t getting paid nearly as much as the men, she felt she had to speak up.
That got her immediately fired. She had to film her final scenes over the phone. She was isolated from everyone else until she was replaced twice. It almost seemed like the cast would never speak again. The girls each got a call from John before his death. Then came the time for them to bury the hatchet. Suzanne appeared on Joyce’s talk show. What could have devolved into a shouting match was a reunion between friends.
They explained everything to each other. They were two different women, and their differences are part of what caused the rift in the first place. Suzanne saw acting as a business. Joyce saw it as a craft. Suzanne loved being famous. Joyce hated it. Their talk show appearance finally brought an end to the thirty-year feud. They may not have become best friends, but they were on positive terms before Suzanne’s tragic death.
Like and subscribe to FactsVerse for more on the angry feuds behind some of your favoirte comedies. Watch our video for Joyce DeWitt's heartbreaking confession about Suzanne Somers.
Joyce DeWitt's HEARTBREAKING Confession About Suzanne Somers
▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Early Experiences on the Show
01:31 - Joyce and Suzanne’s Feud
03:09 - Reunited and It Feels So Good
07:10 - Joyce Acknowledges Her Friend’s Death
07:41 - Joyce’s Life and Career After Three’s Company
09:19 - Outro
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It was their dynamic together that made the show work. They had a chemistry that made them believable as not just roommates but friends. Arguments over who was the true star, or at least who was getting paid like one, unfortunately tore them apart. It left a rift between them for decades.
Suzanne saw acting as a business. She was a struggling single mother who needed a job; any job. When she starting acting on Three’s Company and realized she wasn’t getting paid nearly as much as the men, she felt she had to speak up.
That got her immediately fired. She had to film her final scenes over the phone. She was isolated from everyone else until she was replaced twice. It almost seemed like the cast would never speak again. The girls each got a call from John before his death. Then came the time for them to bury the hatchet. Suzanne appeared on Joyce’s talk show. What could have devolved into a shouting match was a reunion between friends.
They explained everything to each other. They were two different women, and their differences are part of what caused the rift in the first place. Suzanne saw acting as a business. Joyce saw it as a craft. Suzanne loved being famous. Joyce hated it. Their talk show appearance finally brought an end to the thirty-year feud. They may not have become best friends, but they were on positive terms before Suzanne’s tragic death.
Like and subscribe to FactsVerse for more on the angry feuds behind some of your favoirte comedies. Watch our video for Joyce DeWitt's heartbreaking confession about Suzanne Somers.
Joyce DeWitt's HEARTBREAKING Confession About Suzanne Somers
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NewsTranscript
00:00The only reason Three's Company is worth remembering is that it gave us a chance to celebrate joy
00:03together, to open our hearts together, to share in such a healing, beautiful thing as laughter.
00:08Laughter is a contagious and beautiful thing. There's a reason why so many of the most popular
00:13and long-lasting shows of all time are comedies. But that doesn't mean that the atmosphere behind
00:18the scenes on these shows is always upbeat. Long-standing feuds can threaten to tear the
00:23cast apart forever. Joyce DeWitt, Suzanne Somers, and John Ritter led the classic comedy Three's
00:28Company. They were close off-camera until a feud tore the girls apart. They refused to speak to
00:34each other until a well-timed final opportunity for redemption came. Keep watching to hear Joyce
00:40DeWitt's heartbreaking confession about Suzanne Somers. Early Experiences On The Show
00:46Joyce appeared on the show for 171 episodes from 1976 to 1984 and called the experience a gift.
00:54She said that all they were ever trying to do was make people laugh, and the show was like a
00:59contemporary version of a 16th-century farce. John Ritter used to say that he wanted viewers
01:04not only to laugh but to fall off their chairs because they were laughing so hard.
01:09Joyce feels that it wasn't just the comedy but the connections between the characters
01:13that drew in audiences. She also said that the most dear, precious, tender, and utterly
01:18unexpected experiences that have come from working in Three's Company are the many,
01:23adults who have told me that Three's Company was a safe haven that they could count on
01:27during their teen years – for some, the only safe haven.
01:31Joyce and Suzanne's Feud Unedited photos from the Three's Company set
01:36show Joyce and Suzanne as friends and collaborators. Tensions were boiling beneath their smiles.
01:42Suzanne was just as much a part of the show's success as any of the male actors,
01:46and she wanted her pay to reflect that. She wanted a 500 percent increase in her salary,
01:51bumping it up from $30,000 to $150,000. That began to strain her relationship with Joyce and
01:57her other co-stars. It wasn't just a moment of greed. She was a single mother with a child to
02:01support. Joyce was alone but fully focused on acting for acting's sake. The amount of money
02:06you got for it didn't matter for her. She knew that John was the show's star, but she felt that
02:11her position was secure. One of the girls might go, but they couldn't remove both of them without
02:15losing what made the show so great in the first place. Suzanne was fired from the show but also
02:20contractually obligated to finish the fifth season. Her husband, Alan Hamill, who represented
02:26her in the negotiations, said that the studio denied her request as a way to discourage other
02:31actresses from asking for more money as well. The camaraderie on set was gone. She filmed her
02:36scenes via phone conversations. She was isolated from the rest of the cast and escorted out by
02:41security. The show's core dynamic was torn apart. Suzanne's character, Chrissy, was first replaced
02:47by her cousin, Cindy Snow, played by Jenny Lee Harrison. She was then replaced by nurse Terry
02:52Alden from 1981 until the show ended in 1984. The rift in the cast seemed permanent. Suzanne
02:58and Joyce didn't speak to each other again for 30 years. In fact, she said,
03:03They painted me as trying to ruin the show, so I never talked to anybody on that show ever again.
03:09Reunited And It Feels So Good
03:12The members of Three's Company, fortunately, didn't have to stay away from each other forever.
03:16The whole cast got a chance to reunite on Suzanne's talk show Breaking Through.
03:21Suzanne thought about passing the opportunity up. She said,
03:25One of my producers came up to me and she said, I took the liberty of calling Joyce DeWitt,
03:29and she said that she'd be amenable to coming on the show. And I said, who gave you authorization
03:34to go to Joyce DeWitt? I don't want to talk to Joyce DeWitt. We haven't talked in 30 years. I
03:37don't want to talk to Joyce DeWitt. So I'm in New York. I go back to my hotel room that night,
03:40and I'm lying there thinking, well, that is stupid, Suzanne. I mean, it's been 30 years,
03:45and she's open, and why don't you have the largesse to accept this? So the next day I came
03:49in and I said, let's do this. So when she came around the bend, I felt, I hugged her, and it was
03:55a genuine hug. I hugged this woman, and I just held it. And I thought, how stupid we are. How
04:01long it takes to grow up. And that's what it was. It gave them a chance to break through any
04:06animosity they may have still had, saying, It's time. It's, um, wow. It's been over 30 years
04:12since Joyce and I have seen each other, so I have to admit, I'm a little nervous.
04:16That helped clear the air. Then, they addressed the salary disputes that tore them apart.
04:21Suzanne said, When I came to Three's Company, I had come from being, you know, a single mother.
04:27I needed money. I really needed money. I was so happy to get this job because I was finally
04:30going to make some money. I walked in, and all I could think of was, oh my God,
04:34if this just goes 13 weeks, I was counting up the money I could make. But you came from UCLA.
04:39You were in the theater department, probably on scholarship, knowing you. You were plucked
04:43out by a talent scout. John, um, had studied acting, been on the Waltons. So everybody's
04:49theater, and I'm there going, I'm so happy to make some money. They also acknowledged
04:54their differing approaches to seeking fame. I really never wanted any attention, which is
04:59why becoming famous, I just tried to hide as much as possible. You had a hard time with being famous.
05:03I did. I ran. I've often said to friends, you know, when the press would come into the room,
05:08John would be hysterical. You would graciously hold court, and I would hide.
05:11I remember that. And that's so, it took me a very long time. And it's really only, um,
05:17I think in this calendar year, literally, I am finally finding my way with it. Isn't that bizarre?
05:23I couldn't figure it out. Like, why don't you want to be famous? It's so incredible to be famous.
05:28How many people get to be famous? I know.
05:30No one was really sure why the cast chose now to reunite. They decided to bring up that in
05:35their discussion as well. My question to you is, um, why did you say yes today? Why'd you come?
05:42It's time. Um, I think that you gave me the opportunity to make sure I walk my talk
05:46for the last 30 odd years. Um, whenever something about Three's Company comes up,
05:50I have relentlessly said that it is my opinion, uh, that the only reason Three's Company is worth
05:55remembering is that it created an opportunity for all of us to laugh together, to celebrate joy.
06:00It's a profound gift. If others have brought up to me, scuttlebutt or whatever might happen,
06:04and I would go, listen, the only reason Three's Company is worth remembering is it gave us a
06:07chance to celebrate joy together, to open our hearts together, to share in such a healing,
06:11beautiful thing as laughter.
06:12Suzanne was still business-minded, but used that to make a thriving career.
06:16She had a Las Vegas act, then became a talk show host, author, and health and beauty business.
06:22Any animosity over their differing approaches had left. Joyce said she respected what her
06:27co-star had been able to do in her career. She said, quote,
06:30You went up against ruthlessness, and it came down. But what you've gone on to do is immeasurable.
06:36They also paid their respects to co-star John Ritter, who died the same year. They reminisced
06:41about how he was the best physical comic of their age and how he brought out the best in them.
06:46They remained friends until Suzanne died in 2023,
06:49though she said in other interviews that they weren't as close as before.
06:53Even still, a lot of healing went on. They had gone from stars who couldn't be in the same room
07:03to ones who could talk, hug, and acknowledge what their work together had done for each other and
07:08the world at large. Joyce Acknowledges Her Friend's Death
07:13Suzanne had battled several types of cancer throughout her life.
07:16She thought of it as a formidable adversary that she had to continually defeat.
07:21She lost the battle to breast cancer on October 15, 2023.
07:24There was a private family burial and memorial. Joyce reached out to give her condolences.
07:30She said, quote, My heart goes out to Suzanne's family. They are a very close family,
07:34deeply connected and caring one to the other. I can only imagine how difficult this time is
07:39for all of them. Joyce's Life and Career Since Three's Company
07:44Joyce took a break from acting for over a decade after Three's Company ended. She'll always be
07:50connected to the show because of its comedy and characters. In 2023, she appeared in the music
07:56video for the Davison Brothers band's song Home. It includes an improvised performance where the
08:01camera pans to the three main Three's Company stars. She did manage to have a prolific theater
08:07career. She never wanted fame but always wanted to do what she loved. She went to the theater
08:11after leaving television. She did stage work on productions such as Olympus on My Mind,
08:16Leader of the Pack, and Noises Off. Joyce returned to television in the 1990s.
08:22She appeared in single episodes of shows like Sybil and Hope Island and the made-for-TV movie
08:27Spring Fling. She's also engaging in philanthropy, though she's careful about which causes she
08:33supports. She says, quote, You have to make very clear choices about where you're going to put your
08:38energy and your devotion in order to be a part of the solution and not the problem, to actually show
08:44up and be of value. Joyce chose to work to help end hunger. She appeared at events such as the
08:49Presidential End Hunger Awards and Kennedy Center's World Food Day Gala. She's also used
08:55her talents for St. Jude's Research Hospital. She sang at a nightclub show to help raise money
09:01for them. Joyce DeWitt's life and talent is inspiring, especially her reconciliation with
09:06Suzanne Somers. It shows that even in the cutthroat world of Hollywood, relationships
09:11can be healed and maintained. They may not be like they were before,
09:15but they don't have to remain broken forever. She said herself,
09:18Now it's time to hear from you. Who is your favorite member of the Main Threes company cast?
09:23Let us know in the comments section below.