Three's Company: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Three's Company: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
ABC
January 4, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
C

This Ellen Guylas episode has its moments, like when Janet dismisses her back being covered with grass with a quick "I fell," but the basic premise would only work with much darker comedy.  Terri has been having bad luck with men lately, so Janet and Jack fix him up with Janet's regular customer Ray Martin (Granville Van Dusen, who was Dr. Hill on Soap).  Unlike the early 3'sC episode where Jack resented having to cook for Chrissy and her food-snob date, he here happily volunteers to cook for Terri and Ray.  (A sign of maturity or of a lack of serious romantic interest in Terri?)  Things seem to be going OK, except for Ray being a little jealous of Jack.  But while Mr. Furley and Janet are having one of their Scrabble dates, Ralph realizes he saw Ray in a detective magazine, as a murderer!  Fluffy farce calls for this to be some mistake, like it's a fake story and Ray is a model or something.  But, no, he did the crime and the time, and everyone ends up apologizing to him.  I can understand wanting to recognize he's been punished, but it's not like their suspicions were wrong.  And, as with Tambor's portrayal of the man from "the loony ward," Van Dusen gives the role a sinister undertone that's hard to ignore.  (And he had it on Soap, too, something about his eyes.)