Developed by Don Nicholl, Michael Ross and Bernie West, it is based on the British sitcom Man About the House created by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer.

The story revolves around three single roommates: Jack Tripper, Janet Wood, and Chrissy Snow, who all platonically live together in a Santa Monica, California,[1] apartment complex owned by Stanley and Helen Roper.

The show, a farce, chronicles the escapades and hijinks of the trio's constant misunderstandings, social lives, and financial struggles.

The show also spawned similar spin-offs to those that Man About the House had: The Ropers and Three's a Crowd, based upon George and Mildred and Robin's Nest, respectively.

Florist Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) and secretary Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers) live in Santa Monica, sharing a multi-bedroom apartment with their roommate Eleanor (Marianne Black).

When Eleanor decides to move out, culinary school student Jack Tripper (John Ritter) crashes her going-away party at the apartment and is found by Janet and Chrissy the next morning, passed out in the bathtub.

Needing someone to cover Eleanor's share of the rent, the women offer to let Jack move in with them and he quickly accepts so that he can have a place to stay other than the local YMCA.

However, overbearing landlord Stanley Roper (Norman Fell) refuses to allow unmarried men and women to live together in his apartment.

Frequently siding with the three roommates instead of her husband, Helen's bond with them grows through the couple's departure, leading into the spin-off The Ropers.

After Norman Fell and Audra Lindley left the series in 1979 for their own sitcom, The Ropers, Don Knotts joined the cast as the roommates' new building manager, Ralph Furley.

Following Suzanne Somers' departure in 1980, Jenilee Harrison joined the cast as Chrissy's first cousin, Cindy Snow, who was soon replaced by Priscilla Barnes as Terri Alden.

Gelbart named the male roommate David Bell, an aspiring filmmaker looking for a place to live and who just happened to be a great cook.

CBS made a firm commitment to producers Taffner and Bergmann to air the show with the Gelbart cast as a mid-season replacement in February 1977.

For help in remolding the show, producers hired Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, and Bernie West, the writers who adapted the British series Till Death Us Do Part into All in the Family.

Despite the doubts about Lanier's portrayal as Chrissy, Silverman put the show on the network lineup, scheduled to air in March 1977.

Earlier in the casting process, actors such as Barry Van Dyke and future television director Michael Lembeck were considered for the role.

"[4] The scenes in the opening credits with the trio frolicking on a boardwalk and riding bumper-cars were shot at the Santa Monica Pier, prior to the construction of the adjacent larger amusement park.

[5] Producers shot a new opening sequence when Priscilla Barnes joined the show, featuring the new threesome and the other cast members riding a zoo tram and observing various animals around the park.

Since Ann Wedgeworth disliked her diminishing role in the series, producers dropped Lana from the show with no explanation before mid-season.

According to Somers, an off-hiatus contract with CBS as well as tension between her and producer Michael Ross led to her being fired, and her dismissal was on the personal level as she states that Ted Harbert confirms this.

[9][clarification needed] According to the story within the show, her character had returned to her hometown of Fresno to care for her ailing mother, and was only seen when she telephoned her former roommates and they recounted that week's adventures to her.

Another replacement, Terri Alden (played by Priscilla Barnes), a clever, sometimes sassy nurse, joined the cast in the sixth season (1981–82).

Humor in the show was based on farce, often relying on innuendo and misunderstanding, as well as physical comedy to punctuate the hare-brained schemes the characters would invariably conjure up to get themselves out of situations and dilemmas.

[16] On December 22, 2023, Visual Entertainment Inc. released the Official 40th Anniversary Collection of the series that also includes spin-offs The Ropers and Three's a Crowd.

In March 2001, after being notified by a viewer, Nick at Nite quickly edited an episode ("The Charming Stranger") where John Ritter's scrotum skin was briefly visible through the bottom of a pair of blue boxer shorts.

The most famous quip about this issue was uttered by Ritter himself, who told the New York Observer when they asked him about the controversy: "I've requested that Nickelodeon air both versions, edited and unedited, because sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you don't"[19] (quoting an advertising jingle for Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars).

They were proven wrong when it raked in record ratings, breaking barriers at the time as the highest-rated midseason show ever broadcast on network television.

The movie covered the entire run of the series, from the pilots to the final episode, but the contract negotiations and subsequent departure of Somers provided much of the drama.

In 2016, New Line Cinema began negotiations to obtain the film rights to Three's Company with Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein penning the screenplay.