Three's Company: The Not-So-Great Imposter

Three's Company: The Not-So-Great Imposter
ABC
January 13, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Baser & Weiskopf episode is mostly notable for introducing two significant recurring characters, although it's also entertaining as a stand-alone.  Jordan Charney, who earlier was the beardless Mr. Layton, makes his first of eleven appearances as Frank Angelino.  I think he's a more interesting and (relatively) complex character than Dean Travers, since you can to some degree sympathize with him trying to deal with "crazy chefs."  Gino Conforti, who had repeatedly played a restaurant owner or at least manager on That Girl, here makes his debut as assistant chef Felipe Gomez.  He would annoy me sometimes in his five later episodes, but here we can see the anger behind his smiling surface.

Jack poses as acclaimed chef David Miller.  Janet, as audience surrogate, says he'll never get away with it, but Jack tells her to just go with it.  Angelino places an ad saying that his restaurant has Miller, which brings all sorts of people looking for him.  I like how it's structured, including that one person we don't see reading the ad is the sister of some girl Miller took advantage of.  This allows for her to surprise Jack and us by tossing Jack around the room, to Felipe's delight.  Note that Harrison's overacting (she was very inexperienced her first season) actually serves a purpose, when she steps forward and proclaims, "He's David Miller," at just the wrong moment.  And her eyes are as wide as Mr. Furley's would be when she walks in and sees Jack trying to get something from Janet lying down on the couch (his cookbook).

Britt Leach, who had played Davy Jones's manager on The Brady Bunch, has his first of three 3'sC roles here, as the Husband.  Jillian Kesner, who's the Sister, would be Judi Marino on Mork & Mindy.