It ’s standard practice session in television system to buck a pilot instalment of a proposed show in order for a internet to get it greenlit and picked up , as they say in the biz . Sometimes the pilot needs to be fine - tuned and recast , so a second one is take . But in the case ofThree ’s Company , it took three unlike pilots before ABC finally added it to their agenda .
This is the very first pilot , and buff of the sitcom can have a field twenty-four hours play “ spot the differences . ” John Ritter ’s character is name David Bell ( or else of Jack Tripper ) and he ’s an aspiring filmmaker who learned his mad cooking skills from a two - week stint at the Pup & Knish . The two womanhood roomy were name Jenny and Samantha and were spiel by Valerie Curtin ( Jane ’s full cousin ) and Suzanne Zenor . Samantha was blonde and squeaky - voiced , but lacked the endearing naiveté of the character that eventually became Chrissy . Mr. Roper ( named George here ) was still a bomb in the boudoir , but his wife seemed to be pretty insouciant about her husband ’s deficiency of libido .
Watch for yourself :
ABC liked the book , and web honcho Fred Silverman in picky was enthusiastic aboutThree ’s Company ; the British version , Man about the House , had been a enceinte hit in the U.K. and he was looking for some “ racier ” programing to shake up the prime sentence line - up . He enlisted the help of Don Nicholl , Michael Ross , and Bernie West , who ’d had nifty succeeder in adaptingAll in the Familyfrom the BBC’sTill Death do Us Part , and their first suggestion was to re - project the use of the female roommates . They charter Joyce DeWitt to flirt the wise - crack dark - haired roommate ( now name Janet ) , and shoot a second original with Susan Lanier as Chrissy . tight , but still not quite right , ABC say . You need a unlike Chrissy . Auditions were hold and Suzanne Somers was chosen in person by Fred Silverman just days before the series went into production .
Thanks toAdam Feldmanfor putting this out there on Twitter , andAlan Sepinwallfor retweeting it so we could see it .
