Three's Company: Who Replaced Suzanne Somers?
The showbiz industry suffered a major loss on October 15 when TV icon Suzanne Somers died at 76. After nine years of work in the film and television industry that only yielded minor film roles and guest turns on such TV series as "The Love Boat," "One Day at a Time" and "The Six Million Dollar Man," Somers finally landed her breakthrough in 1976 on the ABC sitcom "Three's Company."
The hit series starred Somers and Joyce DeWitt as Chrissy Snow and Janet Wood, respectively, who convince their landlords, Stanley and Helen Roper (Norman Fell and Audra Lindley) to let their new roommate, Jack Tripper (John Ritter), move in with them under the false pretense he was gay. Although the series was bona fide hit for the network, Sommers was fired from "Three's Company" for demanding equal pay to Ritter, which would have boosted her take from $30,000 to $150,000 per episode.
There were actually two actors who tried to fill Somers' shoes after she was fired from the sitcom. Jenilee Harrison was first, as she joined "Three's Company" in 1980 the seventh episode of the fifth season of the series aptly titled "Chrissy's Cousin." With Somers' character remaining in the series' storyline largely in credit only, Harrison effectively replaced the actor for the rest of Season 5 as Chrissy Snow's cousin, Cindy Snow.
Priscilla Barnes effectively became Somers' permanent replacement in Season 6
Jenilee Harrison's run on "Three's Company" came to an end at the end of Season 6, where she only appeared on screen in 13 of the season's 26 episodes from 1981 to 1982. In the other 13 episodes, Harrison's name appeared in the credits only. Altogether, Harrison was credited in 42 episodes of the series in the fifth and six seasons.
As Harrison was on her way out of the show in Season 6, her replacement, effectively, was already being ushered in. Priscilla Barnes joined "Three's Company" Season 6 and appeared in all of the 26 episodes, and continued to star in the show in Seasons 7 and 8, with her run coming to an end in 1984 after 70 episodes. Barnes played a nurse named Terri Alden, who became the third and final person to room with John Ritter's Jack Tripper and Joyce DeWitt's Janet Wood.
Despite all the tumult surrounding her unceremonious departure from "Three's Company," Suzanne Somers reunited with DeWitt in 2012, 30 years after they last spoke. Both actors shared their memories of Ritter as well as their last conversations with their former co-star, who died at age 54 of an undiagnosed aortic dissection on September 11, 2003.