Three's Company: Furley vs. Furley

Three's Company: Furley vs. Furley
ABC
February 17, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

We get to meet Ralph Furley's often spoken of brother Bart (Hamilton Camp) in this Baser & Weiskopf story and he turns out to be just as awful as Ralph said.  When the trio call him to ask him to give his brother more money for repairs, he instead fires Ralph.  When Jack tries to get Ralph's job back, Bart instead gives it to Jack.  Meanwhile, the kids reluctantly take Ralph in, since he regards them as his best and only friends.  (Plus he doesn't have any money.)

Biographical notes on the Furley family:

• Their mother is still alive and Bart is rude to her, too.
• It's unclear who's older, although Knotts was a decade older than Camp and looks it.
• As kids, Bart stole Ralph's Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, implying among other things that the age difference would be much less than ten years.
• Here and in the episode with Jack's brother, it's implied that Ralph and Bart don't have any other brothers, but I don't know if they have sisters.
• In an early episode, Ralph told Bart off on the phone, including insults of his wife, kids, and "mangy dog," none of whom are mentioned here, although if I recall correctly we'll meet Ralph's niece and nephew in future episodes.
• Bart used to be claustrophobic, till he bought a building with an elevator in it.
• Ralph knows all sorts of health and safety codes that Bart has violated, but he won't tell the authorities if Bart cooperates.

Also note that despite all they do for him, Ralph doesn't seem to mind that Bart will be raising the rent on the trio.