Three's Company: Coffee, Tea, or Jack

Three's Company: Coffee, Tea, or Jack
ABC
May 16, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B

This was written by Kathy Donell and Madeline DiMaggio, who co-wrote a Bob Newhart Show episode.  Guest star Loni Anderson plays Jack's ex-girlfriend Susan Walters, who he still isn't over a year after their last break-up.  (Anderson was considered for the part of Chrissy but she had too savvy a persona for it to be plausible for her to have trouble coming up with the rent.)  Susan arrives while Jack's roommates and the Ropers are planning a surprise birthday party.  So Janet urges Chrissy to lure Jack away, hence one of the more famous stills of the series.

With the exception of "Jack's Navy Pal" and some other tasteless moments, the second season of Three's Company is pretty good.  The range is D to B+, with a B- average.  The cast is settling in, improving their chemistry and finding their individual roles.  Chrissy is at this point drifting towards her dumber incarnation, but is still roughly equivalent to Man About the House's Jo on the Gracie Allen scale.  Jack is doing more physical humor than he did in the first season, but still smart enough to reel off a line like "Your mind is brimming with meretricious fallacies."  Janet is the sensible one of course, but able to do some slapstick, as in this episode.  And the Ropers are the Ropers, doing the shtick that is never hilarious but is not yet stale.

The Bob Newhart Show: Carlin's New Suit

Anderson and Marcus reunited,
but this time he's Mr. Carlson's son.

The Bob Newhart Show: Carlin's New Suit
CBS
October 22, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
B

This, the first of three BNS scripts by Andrew Smith, is better than any lately.  The main plot is that Leslie Greely (32-year-old Loni Anderson, still almost a year away from hitting it big on WKRP) brings a paternity suit against Mr. Carlin.  Although he's of course attracted to her, the real appeal for him is playing dad to her son (but not his) Billy (9-year-old Sparky Marcus, playing younger than his age, as he did as Ape Face in Freaky Friday the previous year).  Not only does he teach the boy about real estate, but he takes him to see Star Wars, and they wear matching outfits.  Meanwhile, Howard brings Bob a beeper back from Japan.  A funny, kind of sweet episode, not a classic for the series, but I suspect one of the best entries of this last season.

Pat Cranshaw, who previously played the Old Gentleman on Carol's wedding day, here is the Bum with a beeper.