M*A*S*H's Co-Creator Developed Another Hit '80s Sitcom (Despite Not Wanting To)

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Creator Larry Gelbart left his hit show "M*A*S*H*" after four seasons, in part because he felt burnt out by television. "'M*A*S*H' is the only series I've ever done," he told the Atlanta Constitution in 1976, "and I have a feeling it's the only one I'll ever do." It was around that period of "severe brain fatigue," as he called it, that ABC tried to rope him into developing a whole new series. The show? "Three's Company" — a sitcom about two women and one man living in a Santa Monica apartment together, with the man pretending to be gay so the landlord doesn't kick him out. 

In Chris Mann's 1998 behind-the-scenes book diving into the history of "Three's Company," Gelbart recalled his reaction to ABC asking him to develop the show: "I said, 'No thanks,'" Gelbart explained. "I just came off four extremely intense years of 'M*A*S*H.'" He added, "However smug or superior it may sound, I didn't want to do a bedroom farce as my follow-up to 'M*A*S*H.' I didn't want to do naughty postcards."

"Three's Company" was an American reboot of the British sitcom "Man About the House," which, for Larry Gelbart, was not a point in its favor. "I lived in London all through the sixties, and I had seen an awful lot of British TV. And I knew how much more permissive it was," he said. "I thought it would be a shame to dilute the tone of the original."

Although Larry Gelbart made his reluctance clear, the then-head of ABC, Michael Eisner, insisted on having him aboard. The show's producer, Ted Bergmann, revealed to Chris Mann that Gelbart had named his price to develop the show's pilot at $50,000, the equivalent of over $300,000 in 2026. "I think it was the highest anyone ever had written a half-hour pilot for," Bergmann recalled. 

Bergmann was surprised when ABC gave him permission to hire Gelbart at that rate, and even more surprised when ABC did not air Gelbart's pilot at all. Although ABC filmed Gelbart's script and reportedly enjoyed it, they rewrote it twice and recast the actresses for Chrissy and Janet. The third, completely-reshot version of the TV pilot aired in March 1977, with little of Gelbart's writing left in the script. Gelbart didn't mind: He still got his money, he'd receive a royalty for every episode, and critics of the time seemed completely unaware he had any involvement with the series. 

Much of Gelbart's concerns for the project were seemingly validated by early reviews. Many critics found the pilot's premise to be handled in a juvenile andlazy way, with critic Noel Holston describing it as "stupid, sniggering, and generally tasteless." The viewers disagreed, however: The six-episode first season was one of the highest-viewed shows of spring 1977, and "Three's Company" quickly became one of the most beloved sitcoms of the entire '80s — even if it doesn't always hold up today.