Three's Company - Playboy lifestyle glorified in 1980's TV!

[Teal Lantern]

Cheers (Sam Malone was a playboy)

Note the subtext of such shows, though ...
There was usually ONE guy getting plenty of attention & variety, while most of the rest of the male cast was getting little to none.

Coach - half-senile widower / Woody (Coach's replacement) - Had a rarely seen girlfriend
Norm - always in the bar, more or less hiding from his wife
Cliff - single (for the entire run, I think)
Frasier - Lilith. Lilith.

So there you are, 1 guy in 5 (20%) getting 80%+ of the attention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheers#Ori ... characters

[cdnFA]

4 had women, one off camera still counts, Lillith was a lot like Frasier and considering what Norm brought to the table he was punching above his substantial weight.
Of the 2 who didn't, one was as you said old and a widower, he gets the pass and he had a woman in his prime, the other was a complete weirdo freak.

5 out of 6 getting women, the other two deeply flawed. Doesn't really fit in with the 20 80 narrative does it.
One more example why I don't trust individual observation too much.

[Winston]

Adama,
I can't imagine you enjoying a show like "Three's Company". You are too serious and judgmental to enjoy a good funny show like that. The "landlord thinking Jack was gay" thing wasn't necessarily an agenda. It was more like a plot device to create more comedy, jokes and misunderstandings. It added a lot of content for sure. A lot of episodes were based on misunderstandings, so that just brought more misunderstandings for the script writers to work with. At least the characters were nice people and looked good natured. Nothing like the characters on TV today. The acting was far better too.

I know you like to glorify the 70s and 80s but from what I read, one of the blonds (Suzanne Somers) was such an entitled bitch that in later episodes that she was on, they had to film her separately from her co-stars cus she couldn't get along with any of them. Perhaps those who ran Hollywood made people appear more wholesome on screen back then then they do today, but behind the scenes, I think they're all the same. People are people and when they get that kind of money, power, and fame, a high percentage become very corrupted one way or another.

That's true. Suzanne Sommers may appear nice on camera, but off camera she may be different. However that doesn't mean her on camera personality is fake. It's just not the complete picture of her. Any good acting teacher will tell you that great actors don't really act. They identify with their character so well that they BECOME their character. A real part of themselves becomes their character. That's why their acting looks so genuine, because in a way, it is. That's why when you see Tom Hanks act in his movies, for instance, he doesn't look like he's acting. He just looks like he's being himself. Same with Tom Cruise or any other great actor. They act like they are being themselves when they are "acting" in their movies.

It's true that people in the 70's and 80's were not as wholesome in real life as on TV. I remember that too. I was around during the 80's and don't remember people being wholesome. Do you? I remember people being rude, mean and straightforward. However, that doesn't mean people were the same. They were not. They were still more genuine and down to earth than today. It was easier to make friends back then, and stats show that people DID have more friends back then too in fact. Neighbors talked to each other more too. And dating was more straightforward as well. People were also not as paranoid back then too. Kids went trick or treating on Halloween without paranoia, and kids sold lemonade outside in the neighborhood without any problems. Also, people were not as politically correct back then either.

If you ask anyone who grew up in the 70's or 80's, they will confirm all that too.

[Winston]

I never understood why Suzanne Summers was hot, her face was kinda meh once you looked past the blond hair. Joyce Dewit, I am partial to short hair but not her. The other two were better but not exactly 10s.

I watched the show when it came out. Yes Jack was always on the tear but what I remember from the show, and it has been decades is that his female roommates would slut shame him over it. His efforts were also played more as comical than anything.

About the only difference between Jack and Herb Tarlic hitting on Jennifer Marlow was that Jack was successful. Neither of them really came across well in the process.

Now Sam Malone was a different story, but that was also a bit latter.

She was hot because of her body, legs and ass. If you watch her walking with Jack and Janet in the TV intro above, you will see that. She has a nice ass and legs, especially from behind. She was also funny too. She played the dumb blonde stereotype well and acted like a dumb blonde in extreme ways that was funny. Joyce Dewitt has nice legs too, but her hair was too short. She was down to earth and resonsible, but kind of feminists, especially with short hair.

Yes playboys were shamed on TV, but at least it was portrayed as normal. Larry, Jack's best friend, was a playboy too. And so was Sam Malone on Cheers. Even Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica was a playboy and that was portrayed in a funny positive light.