Three's Company: The Apartment

Three's Company: The Apartment
ABC
March 22, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
B-

In this Shelley Zellman story, Mr. Angelino is about to cheat on his wife with Daphne Smith (Ilene Graff).  He's chosen the small apartment over Jack's restaurant for the tryst, unaware that Jack is planning to sleep there.  So when his wife shows up, he pretends that Daphne is Jack's girlfriend.  And then Terri and Janet show up after the Angelinos leave, bringing blankets and for some reason a potted plant.  They catch Jack sitting on the bed, sharing a drink with Daphne.  Then both Daphne and Mr. Angelino show up at Jack's apartment.  I believe the apartment of the title is meant to be a reference to the Billy Wilder movie, although it's not nearly as dark and Daphne does not attempt suicide.  Graff gives a nice performance in what could be an unsympathetic role, and a very different one from her fembot-like one on Mork & Mindy  the year before.  Note that Jack tells Terri that she's "the reasonable one," which certainly wouldn't have happened with the previous blonde roommates.

Mork & Mindy: Gotta Run, Part 1

Mork & Mindy: Gotta Run, Part 1
ABC
May 6, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B-

In this Begel & Kite story, Regalbuto and Graff (who'd previously played a Receptionist) are a couple who seem to be a Neptunian named Kalnik and an Earth woman named Tracy.  Mork meets "Kal" while trying to call Orson and the two men soon hit it off.  But Kal is just using Mork, while Tracy is actually a robot, and a literal blonde bombshell.  After she explodes, the McConnells have to go on the run.  Mindy is correct that they will never see their home again, although no one then knew that the series was going to be cancelled in a few weeks.  This is not just a two-parter but a three-parter, fairly unusual for a sitcom of that time.

Mork & Mindy: Mork's New Look

Mork & Mindy: Mork's New Look
ABC
January 1, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

April Kelly wrote this story where Fred considers plastic surgery, after watching 10 and feeling like he's too old and unattractive for his wife.  (The age difference between Fred and Cathy of fifteen years is indeed that between Janis and Fabares.)  Mork also wants to change his appearance, to Fred's!  It's a bit far-fetched the pace at which appointments are made and surgery planned in this episode (not unlike when Janet Wood considered a boob job), but otherwise it's a good episode, with Williams's ad libs sharper than they sometimes are this season.  Note that there's a reference to an urban cowboy bar with a mechanical bull; the Travolta movie (released the previous June) had more of an impact on ABC sitcoms than I'd realized.  The weird thing here is that 10 actually came out in October of '79, yet the McConnnells act like they're seeing it in first release.

There's a scene set at the Da Vincis' restaurant, but Remo appears without Jean.  Amy Tenowich and Stephanie Kayano return as Lola and Stephanie.  And, yes, that's 31-year-old Ilene Graff as the Receptionist; she'd return as Tracy in the last season.