The Ropers
| The Ropers | |
|---|---|
| File:Ropers.jpg The Ropers opening logo | |
| Starring | Norman Fell Audra Lindley Jeffrey Tambor Patricia McCormack Louise Vallance |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 28 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 Minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | March 13, 1979 – May 22, 1980 |
The Ropers was an American sitcom that ran from March 13, 1979 to May 22, 1980. It was a spinoff of Three's Company and based on the popular British sitcom George and Mildred. The series focused on middle-aged couple Stanley and Helen Roper (played by Norman Fell and Audra Lindley) who had been the landlords to Jack, Janet, Chrissy, and Larry on Three's Company.
Setting
In this spinoff, the Ropers moved from their apartment in Three's Company to live in the upmarket community of Cheviot Hills, where the social-climbing Helen struggled to fit in with her neighbors. Stanley made little attempt to fit in with the standards of the community, thereby causing Helen much embarrassment.
Success and failure
The show premiered directly after Three's Company in the spring of 1979. In its first season, ratings were very high (the show finished #8 for the 1978-79 season) and Company and The Ropers broke records at the time as the most popular hour-block of programming in television history [citation needed]. At the beginning of the 1979-1980 season, it was moved to the weekends where it experienced a moderate ratings drop. Being placed on Saturday nights, rather than on the lucrative Tuesday night lineup, caused the ratings slip. The move upset Fell to the point that he actually went to ABC headquarters in New York to plead with the network to move the show to a better time slot. His effort was in vain, however, and the show continued to pull in mediocre ratings. The drop in ratings and the fact that the show wasn't pulling in the key young demographic audience, led to the show's cancellation that year by ABC.
Contract controversy
Despite the fact that moving from Three's Company to The Ropers meant that Fell and Lindley moved from supporting roles to becoming primary stars of their own series, Fell claimed that he had never wanted to assume the risk of leaving an established, successful series for one that was unproven and obviously might fail. He said that he would only agree to it after securing a guarantee that if The Ropers was canceled after less than a year, he and Lindley would be allowed to return to Three's Company.
During the time that The Ropers was on the air, the characters had been replaced on Three's Company by Don Knotts. The addition had worked well and Three's Company had retained its popularity. The idea of returning Fell and Lindley to their original Three's Company roles was undesirable to producers. The cancellation of The Ropers came just one month after the one-year contractual deadline passed. Fell would later state that he always believed the decision to pull the plug on the show had been made much earlier, but that the network deliberately postponed making the cancellation official until after the one-year mark specifically to be relieved of the obligation to allow Fell and Lindley to return to Three's Company
Despite the hard feelings, both Fell and Lindley made one final guest appearance on Three's Company several months after the end of their own series. For audiences, it was a chance to see all three landlords — Fell, Lindley, and Knotts — on the same stage.
As was the case during their time on Three's Company openings for this show exist with both Audra Lindley and Norman Fell credited first.
Syndication
The Ropers is rarely in syndication these days. It was seen on local channels in the 1980s and early 1990s, but has not been seen recently. Two episodes of the series, however, play in the syndication package of Three's Company. When initially offered in syndication, the series ran under the title Three's Company's Friends, The Ropers. That version used an instrumental version of the original series' theme song. Six episodes of the series were aired on TV Land in September 2006.
The Ropers will air in Canada beginning September 15, 2007 on CanWest Global's digital specialty channel, DejaView. It will air weekends at 6:00pm and 3:00am