I always enjoyed the TV series "Three's Company" and was familiar with some of the behind the scenes controversy about it and decided that I had to watch this TV movie when I heard it was coming out. Overall, I was not disappointed.
I don't think anyone could watch this movie without being astonished by the performances of Bret Anthony, Melanie Deanne Moore and Judy Tyler as John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers. They were completely convincing and believable in these parts. You could almost reshoot the series with these three and it would take a while to realize that it wasn't Ritter, DeWitt and Somers. Even the supporting cast (Gregg Brinkley, Barbara Gordon and Terence Kelly as Don Knotts, Audra Lindley and Norman Fell) slipped perfectly into their roles. The account of how the show fell apart as Somers and particularly her husband Alan Hamel decided to push the rest of the cast aside to make way for her stardom felt real, and there were even moments of sympathy for Somers as the definite impression is given that she never intended things to go this far - it was "her people" and her husband and not her. It's very entertaining.
Not perfect, mind you. I thought the whole thing had too much of a pro-Joyce DeWitt feel to it. She was always the innocent one getting hurt - first by Somers, then by Ritter as he hides the fact that the show is about to be cancelled and his character spun off. It would be interesting to see the story from Suzanne Somers' point of view. I also thought the movie jumped far too quickly through the first few years of the show for the sake of concentrating on the Somers controversy. Joyce DeWitt's (the real one) narrative was also completely unnecessary and added nothing of value, in my view.
But even with those criticisms I thought this was great entertainment for a Monday night couchfest. 8/10
I don't think anyone could watch this movie without being astonished by the performances of Bret Anthony, Melanie Deanne Moore and Judy Tyler as John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers. They were completely convincing and believable in these parts. You could almost reshoot the series with these three and it would take a while to realize that it wasn't Ritter, DeWitt and Somers. Even the supporting cast (Gregg Brinkley, Barbara Gordon and Terence Kelly as Don Knotts, Audra Lindley and Norman Fell) slipped perfectly into their roles. The account of how the show fell apart as Somers and particularly her husband Alan Hamel decided to push the rest of the cast aside to make way for her stardom felt real, and there were even moments of sympathy for Somers as the definite impression is given that she never intended things to go this far - it was "her people" and her husband and not her. It's very entertaining.
Not perfect, mind you. I thought the whole thing had too much of a pro-Joyce DeWitt feel to it. She was always the innocent one getting hurt - first by Somers, then by Ritter as he hides the fact that the show is about to be cancelled and his character spun off. It would be interesting to see the story from Suzanne Somers' point of view. I also thought the movie jumped far too quickly through the first few years of the show for the sake of concentrating on the Somers controversy. Joyce DeWitt's (the real one) narrative was also completely unnecessary and added nothing of value, in my view.
But even with those criticisms I thought this was great entertainment for a Monday night couchfest. 8/10