Three's Company: Urban Plowboy

Three's Company: Urban Plowboy
ABC
February 9, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Staretski & Rips story is one of the highlights of the sixth season, and indeed of the Terri era.  Yes, it's a little predictable, e.g. Larry using Jack's name with a girl again, but it's fun to see it all play out.  Larry dates the aforementioned girl and pisses off her fiance, Wally (Herman Poppe, who would be an MP on M*A*S*H later in the year).  So Jack agrees to visit the farm of Cindy's Aunt Becky (45-year-old Sue Ann Langdon, who has a lot of other credits but none on my TV shows, although she did make memorable appearances as Miss Burnhart in both Zapped movies).  Becky ends up having chemistry with Ralph (in another of his classic outfits), despite his inability to kill a chicken.  (Knotts trying to hypnotize the chicken is unforgettable.)  They're later discovered in the hay together.  As a young teen, I always wished they'd bring Becky back as a regular girlfriend for Ralph, but it was not to be.

Meanwhile, there's one of the more impressive sets of the series, a barn, both exterior and interior, with a hay loft and pens and various nooks and crannies.  There are live animals (not just the chickens, but a piglet and cattle).  And there's the ensemble doing fine work together, including Jack and Larry bungling the pattycake game from the Road to... movies.  Note that Jack seems particularly interested in Janet's butt this episode, I mean more than usual.  (I'm not being prurient.  It will actually be a plot point in an episode later this season.)