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Parents' Guide to

Three's Company

By Emily Ashby, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Classic comedy of errors is still swingin'.

TV TV Land Comedy 1977
Three's Company Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 6 parent reviews

age 14+

Emily Ashby?

Not sure how this CS reviewer thinks this show is appropriate for kids 10+. Considering all the parental reviews suggest it's for older kids, shouldn't she reconsider this review. I don't really care about this show in particular but it just happens to be one that I've seen many times. But it does concern me thinking about other shows I haven't seen on this site. My question is: at what point do CS reviewers consider changing their reviews.
age 10+

A really positive family viewing experience

Starting from when I was 8 or 9, three's Company was my favorite TV show. Since becoming a parent, I've often wondered why my parents were okay with me watching this show and when I saw CSM's 10+ raiting, I was a little surprised. I expected it to be older. But a few weeks ago, when we had exausted a lot of other movie night options, we decided to pop in the DVDs and see how it went. It proved to be a really positive family viewing experience. My 10 year old really enjoied it and laughed and laughed and Mr Roper's antiquated views on homosexuality provided really good discussion points about how our society has evolved and become more enlightened and accepting in regards to the LGBTQ community. And, as always, it was just a lot of fun to share a childhood memory with my son.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6 ):
Kids say (12 ):

As you can imagine, a premise based on one major misunderstanding just begs for more to follow -- and they certainly do. The name of the game here is comedy of misheard comments, misinterpreted situations, slapstick clumsiness, and drawn-out double entendres. Over the course of the show's eight-year run, Jack & co. weathered many personnel changes (including the memorable addition of Don Knotts as new landlord Mr. Furley), but their onscreen chemistry held strong.

Although plenty of Three's Company's humor has sexual tones, the mood is so light and silly that it's really pretty harmless. Kids old enough to pick up on the flirting and longing gazes likely will understand their place in the overall comedy, and younger tweens will miss most of it amid the clumsy physical humor that's so prevalent. The only thing to really watch out for is the mild teasing that surrounds Mr. Roper's belief in Jack's homosexuality. While even that's kept very light, it's pretty frequent (he often refers to Jack as "one of the girls") and may raise questions from kids.

TV Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

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