Suzanne Somers

I understood something way back when I was on 'Three's Company.' When I got the part, I was flat broke. I was so happy to get the part, but I kept thinking, 'Ugh - dumb blondes are so irritating; how do I make her likable?' I think that I achieved that. It took a while for people to realize I was acting.

-Suzanne Somers

Suzanne Marie Somers
born Suzanne Marie Mahoney
October 16, 1946 – October 15, 2023

Somers began acting in small roles during the late 1960s and early 1970s, including on various talk shows promoting her book of poetry, and bit parts in movies, such as the "Blonde in the white Thunderbird" in American Graffiti, and an episode of the American version of the sitcom Lotsa Luck (as the femme fatale) in the early 1970s. She also appeared in The Rockford Files in 1974 and had an uncredited role as a topless "pool girl" in Magnum Force in 1973. She also had a guest-starring role on The Six Million Dollar Man, in the 1977 episode "Cheshire Project,” she played a passenger on the first episode of The Love Boat as well as a guest appearance in a 1976 episode of One Day at a Time. She later landed her most famous role of the ditzy blonde "Chrissy Snow" on the ABC sitcom Three's Company in 1977. Also that year, she was a celebrity panelist on Match Game, and appeared with husband Alan Hamel on Tattletales.

Somers was cast in the ABC sitcom Three's Company in January 1977. After actresses Suzanne Zenor and Susan Lanier did not impress producers during the first two pilots, Somers was suggested by ABC president Fred Silverman, who had seen her on the Tonight Show program at which she was auditioned and hired the day before the taping of the third and final pilot officially commenced. She portrayed Chrissy Snow, a stereotypical dumb blonde, who was employed as an office secretary.

The series co-starred John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in a comedy of errors about two single women living with a single man who pretended to be gay in order to bypass the landlord's policy of prohibiting single men sharing an apartment with single women. The program was an instant success in the ratings, eventually spawning a short-lived spin-off series The Ropers (starring Norman Fell and Audra Lindley).

When Three's Company began its fifth season in late 1980, Somers demanded a hefty salary increase from $30,000 to $150,000 an episode as well as a 10 percent ownership of the show's profits. Those close to the situation suggested Somers' rebellion was largely due to her husband Alan Hamel's influences. After ABC denied her a raise in salary, Somers refused to appear in the second and fourth episodes of the season, due to excuses such as a broken rib. She finished the remaining season on her contract, however her role was decreased to just 60 seconds per episode, with her character only appearing in the episode's closing tag in which Chrissy calls the trio's apartment from her parents' home. After ABC fired her from the program and terminated her contract, Somers sued the network for $2 million, saying her credibility in show business had been damaged. The lawsuit was settled by an arbitrator who decided Somers was owed $30,000, due to a single missed episode for which she had not been paid. Future rulings also favored the network and producers. Somers says she was fired for asking to be paid as much as popular male television stars of the day such as Alan Alda and Carroll O'Connor.

In 1983, Suzanne Somers through her Hamel/Somers Productions signed a deal with Columbia Pictures Television.

Somers and her Three's Company co-star John Ritter reconciled their friendship after 20 years of not speaking to each other, shortly before Ritter's death in 2003.

During the 1980s, Somers became a Las Vegas entertainer.

In the early 1990s, she was the spokeswoman in a series of infomercials for the Thighmaster, a piece of exercise equipment which is squeezed between one's thighs above the knees.

During this period of her career, she also performed for U.S. servicemen overseas.

Calling her a legend in the industry, on May 2, 2014, Direct Marketing Response inducted Somers into the Infomercial Hall of Fame.

At the height of her exposure as official spokesperson for Thighmaster infomercials, Somers made her first return to a series, although not on network television. In 1987, she starred in the sitcom She's the Sheriff, which ran in first-run syndication. Somers portrayed a widow with two young kids who decided to fill the shoes of her late husband, a sheriff of a Nevada town. The show ran for two seasons.

In 1990, Somers returned to network TV, appearing in numerous guest roles and made-for-TV movies, mostly for ABC. Her roles in these, including the movie Rich Men, Single Women, attracted the attention of Lorimar Television and Miller-Boyett Productions, who were developing a new sitcom. Somers had starred in the film with Heather Locklear, who inadvertently directed the focus of both production companies to Somers due to Locklear's starring role on Going Places (from Lorimar and Miller/Boyett). For Lorimar, this was asking Somers back, since they alone had produced She's the Sheriff.

In September 1991, Somers returned to series TV in the sitcom Step By Step (with Patrick Duffy), which became a success on ABC's youth-oriented TGIF lineup. A week after the premiere of Step By Step, a two-hour biopic of Somers starring the actress herself, entitled Keeping Secrets (based on her first autobiography of the same title), was broadcast on ABC. The movie chronicled Somers' troubled family life and upbringing, along with her subsequent rise to fame. Playing off her rejuvenated career, Somers also launched a daytime talk show in 1994, aptly titled Suzanne Somers, which lasted one season. Step By Step continued on ABC until the end of its sixth season in 1997, whereupon the series moved to CBS that fall for what turned out to be its final season. With her sitcom now airing on CBS, Somers was chosen to co-host the network's revival of Candid Camera with Peter Funt, which began airing later that season.

Good Night Ms. Somers

Stay Tuned 

Tony Figueroa