I have been in love with Three's Company since my childhood, for almost twenty years.
I started watching the TV show in Italy when I was a kid. I enjoyed it, but I did not fall in love with it. At that time, it was one of the many TV shows that I liked, together with Magnum P.I., the A-Team, etc. If I remember correctly, I usually watched it at lunch time, right after school.
My love for the show completely blossomed some years later, when I caught some episodes on Sky satellite television. I believe that Sky was airing some old episodes during a special event called "School's out for summer". I still remember the jingle of this special event.
At that time, my knowledge of English was good but not perfect and I watching Three's Company contributed in the improvement of my language skills. I was so in love with the show, that I started avidly taping each episode on VHS. Unfortunately after few episodes, Sky stopped airing the show. When this happened, I had roughly 15 episodes on tape, mostly the ones with Mr. Furley as the landlord. But these episodes were not enough for a newly born fan of Three's Company. I needed more doses of the funny adventures of our beloved friends.
I was desperate.
Nor the Italian TV neither any other satellite TV were airing any episode. Youtube was not there yet and internet was in its early stages. No way to get episodes online. I remember buying the TV Guide every week and skimming through all the programs, hoping to see some episodes of Three's Company on Italian TV. I waited and waited and waited but nothing happened. I also sent several letters to local Italian TV shows, asking them to put the show back on air but they never replied to me. I also remember that I asked my dad, who at that time had some friends working for the major TV broadcasting company in Italy, to do whatever possible to convince these guys to go into their magic storage rooms and pick up some episodes of the TV shows for me. It did not happen and most likely my father never told his friends the crazy requests from his teenager son.
Then one day, while surfing on the internet I met a nice girl from Asia. She was passionate about Three's Company as well and she told me she had two or three VHS tapes full of episodes! WOW, my mind exploded! More episodes of Three's Company at my arm's length! I negotiated with this newly found friend and asked her to ship me a copy of the tapes. I don't remember why, but she wanted to try some Italian wine. We agreed on me shipping to her a couple of bottles of wine and she shipping back to me copies of the three tapes. I was so excited when I received the box with the tapes. I think I watched these episodes at least hundreds of times and I should still have these tapes at home back in Italy.
After this overdose of episodes, my passion for Three's Company did not stop and continued through the years. Internet was growing fast and I started watching some episodes on shady websites where you could download or stream Three's Company in super bad quality. As they say, better than nothing.
I also sent a letter to John Ritter, telling him how much I loved the show. I was not expecting a reply but I got one! One day the super of my apartment called me:
"You just received an envelope from the United States"
I went down to pick up the envelope, I opened it up and inside of it I found a fantastic, gorgeous, amazing black and white photo of John Ritter, signed by him and with a small personal message addressed to me! What a blast, what a fantastic and memorable day this was. My childhood hero, my favorite actor sent me, from all over the world, his photo with the autograph! Incredible!!!
John Ritter, what a great actor. I was so sad when he passed away. I was walking back to the firm where I was working at that time and my mom called me:
"Have you heard the news? The actor that you like just passed away!"
I remember crying for the following days. He was(is) my hero and I loved everything he did. With actors and heroes in general, you have the feeling that they are your friends, that one day you may meet them, hug them and tell them how much you love them, how much you respect them. This is why it is somehow natural that when this kind of things happen, you cry as if a friend of your just passed away.
Anyhow, this is not the place to be sad. John would not want this, he would love to be remembered for the laughs that he gave us.
Three's Company still is my favorite show as of today. I finally picked up all the DVD of the series and I watched each and every episode.
Three's Company to me is like home. Whenever I feel sad, I just turn on my DVD player, I watch one or two episodes and I feel happy. Jack, Janet, Chrissy, Terry, Larry, Mr. Roper, Mrs. Roper, Mighty Mr. Furley and the rest of the gang are like dear old friends to me and even if I almost remember each and every line of all the episodes of this fantastic series, I still enjoy watching these episodes all the time.
Please join me in celebrating this fantastic TV show with this website. I will post here videos, pictures, articles about the show and its actors. Feel free to comment on every post, send me your opinion, tell me what you like and what you don't like, suggest me how to make this website better and how to continue the legacy of Three's Company, the best TV show ever.
Thanks for reading!
