[2] The three main characters are Margo Magee, a brunette who has variously held positions as a secretary, actors' agent, publicist and event planner; Abigail "Tommie" Thompson, a redheaded nurse; and Lu Ann Powers née Wright, a blonde art teacher.

Lu Ann, originally single, met and married a U.S. Air Force pilot named Garth Powers (renamed Gary in a 2011 story arc) in 1964, after which she moved out of the apartment.

Lu Ann's husband was later killed in Vietnam and she eventually moved back into the apartment, while Beth was written out after falling in love with young physician Lester Pride.

Newton Figg (1966, 1971, 1977, 1980, 1986), the handsome but childlike author of children's books, talked to his pet stuffed animals as though they were real.

Alex Kotzky received the 1968 National Cartoonists Society's Story Comic Strip Award for his work on Apartment 3-G.