Three's Company: Alias Jack Tripper

Three's Company: Alias Jack Tripper
ABC
November 1, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Although I'm bothered by one aspect here, there are definitely some funny moments in this Mark Tuttle story where Janet wants to fix Jack up with another of her old friends, this time Agnes Platt (Rita Wilson).  Jack doesn't want to break his date with Sharon (Lana Clarkson, who'd be Nanette on Who's the Boss? the next Fall), whom he has asked out 19 times in two weeks.  So he convinces Larry to pretend to be him.  (It's not like Larry hasn't before.)  Larry and Agnes hit it off, but of course Janet and Terri want to see the happy couple together.

The early part, where Jack and Larry are convinced Agnes is a "dog," bugged me then and bugs me now, with these two men in their 30s acting about as maturely as Greg Brady's friends did in the Phil Packer episode.  Once we get past that though, we get Larry adopting Jack's wardrobe, mannerisms, and catchphrases.  (Kline has since said he loved playing Ritter.)  We also get the scene at the end, where things come to a farcical head and everyone, including a couple of customers, wants to slap Jack.

Note that Janet tells Larry that "the phone routine" hasn't worked in five years.  As with Jack's reply to Janet's "Jack, how could you be so stupid?" on the ATM episode-- "Janet, you've known me for seven years"-- there's definitely a sense of history with these characters here in the final season.