A Three's Company Wardrobe Malfunction Went Unnoticed For Nearly Two Decades

In the "Three's Company" episode "The Charming Stranger" (December 20, 1983), Jack (John Ritter), Janet (Joyce DeWitt), and Terri (Priscilla Barnes) welcome a new neighbor into their Santa Monica apartment building. He is Leslie Bennington (Laurence Guittard), a charming, effete British gentleman who Janet and Terri find irresistible. He seems to be the perfect neighbor until Jack notices a mysterious woman's voice emanating from Leslie's apartment. The voice (Jerry Layne) seems to indicate that the woman is in distress, and that Leslie may be gearing up to harm or murder her. Jack begins to put together than Leslie may be an escaped British criminal on the lam.

Because this is "Three's Company," however, the entire plot hinges on a comedic misunderstanding. It's revealed that Leslie did not have a woman in his apartment, but is a professional ventriloquist who had been rehearsing an act with his female puppet character. Oh, the cutesy shenanigans that ensue. 

"The Charming Stranger," however, is one of the more notorious episodes of "Three's Company" — not because of its plot, but because of a noticeable wardrobe malfunction from Ritter. There was a scene wherein Ritter, wearing a pair of very short, light blue boxer shorts, sat down on his bed with his legs apart, and flashed his testicles to the camera. It wasn't deliberate, of course, but the take ended up making its way into the final cut of the episode ... and onto the air. And the weird thing is that no one noticed, or no one cared. Ritter's testicles were a visible part of "The Charming Stranger" for over a decade, being seen again and again in reruns ("Three's Company" had a pretty sweet syndication deal). 

According to an article in the Observer, the malfunction wasn't really noticed until March of 2001, when "Three's Company" reruns were airing on Nick at Nite. Only then did outraged viewers call in to complain.

According to the Observer article, Ritter was contacted about the scene in question, and he, in his inimitable fashion, merely made a gag about it. After all, it had been nearly 20 years since the sequence first aired, and he likely hadn't thought about it in a while. He was quoted as saying, "I've requested that [Nickelodeon] air both versions, edited and unedited, because sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you don't." What a joker. ("Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't," incidentally, was a popular ad slogan for Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars).

According to Snopes, Nickelodeon began getting angry letters in 2001, asking if that was really a glimpse of Ritter's genitals. Nickelodeon confirmed that, yes, that was indeed a legitimate wardrobe malfunction, and were startled to learn that no one had noticed it before then. They edited the shot out of any future reruns just to be cautious. 

Ritter was also asked about the scene in question on an episode of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in 2001, and he theorized as to why his testicles, while visible, somehow went unnoticed for 18 years. He felt that the shot in question was so quick that no one would have noticed it when it aired, but VHS and DVD technology allowed the shot to be lingered on. In his words: 

"It was a brief shot, and only lasted a second. No one back then noticed it, and when it went out over the air, there were no VHS recorders or DVD players around that could catch it. Then, very recently, some guy with a freeze-frame caught the image when pausing the recording. So he called Nick at Nite."

So, yes, it was there, but someone was looking very closely to see it.

Because the offending shot was edited out, finding it again is difficult. "Three's Company" wasn't released on DVD until 2013, and it remains unconfirmed that the malfunction was included. It's possible that no one initially noticed because the show aired on cathode ray tube TVs in the early 1980s, many of which still operated with rabbit-ear antennas. The low-quality picture would have blurred the split second of genitals, and made them unnoticeable. Even if someone had noticed that Ritter's legs were spread during filming, the production likely figured that no one would ever be able to see it. I guess they couldn't have predicted HD TVs. 

Also according to Snopes, FreeMantle media, who owns the rights to "Three's Company," also made a statement about Ritter's wardrobe malfunction. FreeMantle also didn't know about the flashing scene until viewers pointed it out, and they panicked, racing to the scene in question. It may not have been the most flattering thing to Ritter, but FreeMantle found that the scandal was incredibly minor. In their words: 

"We have viewed the episode in question in search of the aforementioned 'fall-out', and are disappointed to say that having viewed the scene in question, there is very little to write home about. There is a nano-second where certain flesh is flashed, but not so much that you would really notice, unless you were looking out for it specifically." 

"Three's Company" was one of the most popular sitcoms of its era, lasting for eight seasons and 172 episodes from 1977 to 1984. The series relied on the sexual misunderstandings and double entendres that arise from a confirmed bachelor living with two young single women, and the jokes were frequently bawdy. Perhaps fans noticed the wardrobe malfunction in 1983, and merely accepted it as another raunchy element to a typically raunchy series.