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8 Things I Learned About ’70s L.A. from ‘Three’s Company’
It looked like a funny place to be, but did art represent reality?
Warning: TV’s current retro wave might require Dramamine. There’s hardly a an old hit series that hasn’t inspired reboot talk, and the highs and lows of the reprisal craze don’t make for smooth sailing in front of the TV.
This middle-aged nostalgia fan prefers to stick with the originals. That goes triple for Three’s Company, one of my Top 10 favorite sitcoms of all time (right up there with The Golden Girls, The Jeffersons, Maude, Sanford and Son, and Absolutely Fabulous).
Although an update has been rumored for a while, it’s hard to imagine the sitcom time-traveling gracefully. I can’t think of another show from my formative years that feels more like a relic from my formative years.
This is particularly curious because, in some ways, the 1977 to 1984 comedy series almost seems to have existed in a vacuum. There were few pop-cultural references (Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were among the infrequent A-list name-drops), and Mrs. Roper (Audra Lindley) and Mr. Furley (Don Knotts) aside, most of the clothing was fairly classic retro. Not a disco shirt, a pair of platform shoes, or a day-go new-wave ensemble in sight!
