Three's Company: Honest Jack Tripper

Another classic Furley outfit.

Three's Company: Honest Jack Tripper
ABC
May 19, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This Mark Tuttle episode has a feeling of de ja vu about it.  For one thing, Jack's new girlfriend Lisa Page is played by Anne Schedeen, who previously was Jack's sort of steady girlfriend Linda.  For another, it's about Jack being caught in a lie and then deciding to be brutally honest, which if it hasn't yet happened on this series, certainly has happened on enough series.  Predictably, Jack reverts to lying when it's a matter of sparing Furley's feelings.  It's not a bad episode, but it's not much to end the season on.  (If we don't count the failed pilots, this is the 100th episode.  It is at least DeWitt's 100th, she having missed an episode with, ironically, Schedeen.)

Shell Kepler, who plays Luanne, would return at the beginning of the next season as a different girlfriend of Larry's, Didi.

Three's Company in Season Five ranges from D+ to B, although oddly with no C's.  Unlike its peers of '80-'81, there's no fence-sitting; it gets a clear B- average.  So the replacement of Somers with Harrison hasn't harmed the show.  Yes, occasionally the series is awful this year, but it's not Jenilee's fault.  Generally, things are pretty good.  Season Six would have another major cast change, the final one for the series.  At the time, Terri Alden was my least favorite of the three blonde roommates, but we'll see how I feel about her now.