Three's Company: Janet Shapes Up

Three's Company: Janet Shapes Up
ABC
January 3, 1984
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Staretski & Rips wrote this story where Janet gets a part-time job as an aerobics instructor.  (That exercise craze was still relatively new enough that Mr. Furley hadn't heard of it before.)  Her attractive new boss, Tina (Victoria Carroll, who was Mel's regular girlfriend Marie on Alice), hits on Jack and even, as she admits to Janet later, blackmails him into dating her so that Janet can keep her job.  (It's implied pretty strongly that she's having sex with Jack, while the show is usually vaguer about Jack's sex life.)  I can sort of see Jack going along with this, even though he's not that interested in Tina, but I do have issues with Janet's behavior in this episode.

• Janet not only takes this part-time job when she's been manager at the flower shop for so long but quits the flower shop when they refuse to give her another raise, after three years.
• Not only that, she quits before she goes and tells Tina, who offers her a full-time job.  (Tina is already seeing Jack at this point.)
• She does not quit when she finds out Tina has blackmailed Jack, but just threatens to quit if Tina doesn't stop seeing Jack, which Tina has already decided to do anyway because her beefcake boyfriend is back in town.

I could see Janet earlier getting swept up in the excitement of a possible dance career and maybe quitting the flower shop over that, but come on?  An aerobics instructor?  That can't pay as much as a shop manager.  Also, she should've been appalled at her boss doing something so unethical.  Fourth-season or earlier Janet wouldn't have acted the way she does in this episode.

Doug Shanklin, who's Ron, would be Fireman #2 on Who's the Boss?  Jacque Lynn Colton, who was Bernice before, is the Plump Lady here.