Three's Company: The Odd Couples

Three's Company: The Odd Couples
ABC
December 6, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Marlen, Ryder, and Staretski, all presumably male (well, I suppose C.C. Ryder could be either and, yes, it sounds like a pen name), wrote the story and Guylas and Zellman, both female, wrote the teleplay to this episode that has some delightful farce and some unfortunate consent issues.  Terri is up for a promotion but she doesn't like the way Dr. Malcolm Kenderson looks at her.  Jack suggests she tell the doctor that she's married, but this snowballs into a lie where she's married to Jack and they have two houseguests who don't speak English.  Malcolm and his wife Gail come over for dinner, and things get pretty crazy, especially since she can speak French and "Pierre and Fifi" (Larry and Janet) can't.  And of course Jack's date shows up, too.

Both Kendersons feel like they're out of a soap-opera parody, and indeed John Reilly would be the similarly unreal Mitchell on Who's the Boss? the next Fall, while Judith-Marie Bergan memorably played Marilyn McCallam, the alcoholic wife of Eunice's Congressman lover on Soap.  Here, they bring out the best in the regular cast.

However, in a story about Terri fearing sexual harassment, with justification it turns out, it feels really off to have Larry happily going into Jack's bedroom with Janet, despite her faux-French protests, and even worse is Jack forcing kisses on not only his "love-depriving wife" Terri but Janet.  It's played for laughs and isn't as creepy as it sounds, but, yeah, it's a little creepy.