MovieChat Forums > Three's Company (1977) Discussion > The Rent? Why did they split it three wa...

The Rent? Why did they split it three ways, when Jack had his own room?

posted 8 years ago by Solid_Gold
36 replies | jump to latest

It would only be fair if Jack were to pay HALF the rent, and Janet & Chrissy (and then Janet & Cindy, Janet & Terry) each paid one-third. Jack had his own room, where he could sleep nude, jerk-off, stay up late and read a book or some dirty magazines. Janet and Chrissy (followed by Cindy and Terry) had to share a bedroom, so unless they were super comfortable with one another, they couldn't sleep nude, or have some alone time. Why did Elenor also pay one-third? I would never tolerate that if it were my living situation.

Yes, I know that it's a sitcom but it never made sense to me.

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[–] kmj-35654 8 years ago

Yes! Not fair! And poor Janet had to share a bedroom with another woman for EIGHT years! LOL The writers should have written it as a THREE bedroom apartment. Then the female roommates could at least have some privacy and alone time!

[–] Solid_Gold 8 years ago

@kmj-35654, thanks for your reply! Why would anyone agree to pay the same amount of rent for less space then their roommate gets? Yeah, poor Janet, she was an adult! This wasn't some college dorm! She needed her privacy, and what if she or Chrissy, Cindy, Terry wanted to bring a man over to spend the night? That always bothered me, but what a great show otherwise!

If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten

[–] SmokyBrownEyes 8 years ago

Lol, a man spend the night with Janet? That's funny but yeah I did feel bad for Janet having to share a room with different women even before Jack moved in. The only time she had her own room was when they were between roommates Chrissy and Cindy for a couple of weeks.

[–] Catnip86 8 years ago

I thought the same thing. And what about utilities? Were they included in the rent?

[–] blakgard 8 years ago

Doesn't matter if you've got a room all to yourself. You're not using half the home. The only fair split would be three ways.

[–] slycomputerguy-65739 8 years ago

How come they never had rent money? Janet and Chrissy had jobs, so they should have had their half. It's Jack that didn't have a job. What were they doing with their money?

[–] radrobd 8 years ago

Jack was a student for the first four seasons, but he did get a monthly GI check for being in the Navy. I'm guessing the check wasn't enough to pay for his tuition, rent and expenses, so he had to do part-time jobs. Also, Jack dated a lot. As Mr. Roper explained in one episode, Janet and Chrissy didn't have to pay for dates (dinner, movies, etc.), their dates usually picked up the check, but because Jack was a man, he most likely picked up the check on his dates.

While Janet and Chrissy did have full-time jobs, there are plenty of episodes where they seem to spend their money on new clothes.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] KingTrump 8 years ago

Jack's room was small.

[–] analisa99 8 years ago

Jack and Eleanor as well also did the cooking for everyone because Janet and Chrissy didn't know how.
Not really sure why else Eleanor had her own room in the first place...maybe they drew straws or something and she won the room to herself. Or maybe it was originally her apartment. But then Jack came along needing a place to live. Wouldn't look right for him to share a room with one of the girls. Even living on the sofa he would have still needed a place to put his belongings and he needed to study for school as well. He did need the privacy. So he gets the room and in turn does the cooking for everyone.

[–] amystarr76 8 years ago

It's weird nobody knew how to cook but Jack. Eleanor was not on the but for one episode where she cooked and made Jack jealous ha.

The problem I have is Jack gets his own room because he does the breakfast lunch and dinner thing, but sometimes the girls tried to cook and girls were always "looking forward" to Jack's dinners, meaning he didn't do it all the time? Remember that episode 'upstairs downstairs' the girls acted like it was once in a life time Jack cooked lol

[–] Catnip86 8 years ago

I believe the first episode established that neither of the girls knew how to cook. They were eating breakfast one of them had cooked and it was horrible.

But then supposedly Cindy and Teri never cooked either?

[–] blakgard 8 years ago

It wasn't just because he cooked. It was the most logical set up. Neither of the girls would share a room with a strange guy.

[–] radrobd 8 years ago

The problem I have is Jack gets his own room because he does the breakfast lunch and dinner thing, but sometimes the girls tried to cook and girls were always "looking forward" to Jack's dinners, meaning he didn't do it all the time? Remember that episode 'upstairs downstairs' the girls acted like it was once in a life time Jack cooked lol

Yes, Jack cooked regularly. The episode you're referring to is one in which Jack was going to make a "special dinner," most likely an expensive dinner, not just a regular dinner.

In another episode, Janet chastised Jack for cooking expensive dinners because they couldn't afford to pay the rent, much less for expensive foods. But Jack was a gourmet and liked to experiment with cooking expensive foods.

[–] radrobd 8 years ago

Jack and Eleanor as well also did the cooking for everyone because Janet and Chrissy didn't know how.
Not really sure why else Eleanor had her own room in the first place..

Maybe if Eleanor shared a room, she wouldn't have gotten knocked up. I assume Eleanor had her boyfriend in her room.

[–] analisa99 8 years ago

I was thinking the exact same thing lol.

[–] tinkerbell_jonna 8 years ago

It's not like Jack had much of a choice about having his own room, NO WAY would one of the girls allowed jack to share a room with them while the other girl got her own room.

[–] SmokyBrownEyes 8 years ago

It's not like Jack had much of a choice about having his own room, NO WAY would one of the girls allowed jack to share a room with them while the other girl got her own room.

Yes, Janet made that very clear from day 1. 'That is your room, this is our room. One false move from you and we send you back to the pound.' Jack had no other choice with bedrooms but he probably jerked-off a lot anyway.

[–] amystarr76 8 years ago

The point of the op is that if Jack had the room all to himself he should pay more. It's like having the master bedroom. Not in the episode of Diamond Jack though, you could see Jack and Janet playing with the blue sheet through Janet and Terri's bedroom ha like there was no wall lol...

[–] tinkerbell_jonna 8 years ago

My point is though, if I moved in with someone and they tell me, "This is YOUR bedroom, you have NO CHOICE about it, YOU are sleeping in here!, It also happens to be the best room in the house so for that reason you have to play MORE than the rest of us!" To me, that would put in an unfair debt, or like someone imposing a debt on me that I didn't ask for.

ALSO Jack did all the cooking and he was expected to be the PROTECTION around the place, so I feel it all equaled out. Sometimes I wanted to tell Janet and Chrissy to grow a pair and remove the spider or mouse themselves or close the friggen window themselves instead of always expecting Jack to do it.

As far as Jack.."jacking off" I'm sure Janet and Chrissy did too, it's a pretty natural part of life that everyone does :/

[–] blakgard 8 years ago

Yeah. I wouldn't consider it the best room in the house, either.

[–] Catnip86 8 years ago

Maybe they thought Jack would be protection, but that wasn't how it worked out. A gerbil would have been better protection than he was.

[–] tinkerbell_jonna 8 years ago

They ~Janet and Chrissy~ acted like helpless handicaps sometimes, telling Jack to "close the window". Like they couldn't close a friggen window! It reminded me of an aunt of mine who thought she needed a man to CHANGE A LIGHT BULB for her.

[–] radrobd 8 years ago

Well, in the girls' defense, in early episodes, the window would often get stuck and would require man power to close. There were several episodes in which Roper was seeing trying to fix the window (basically, an excuse to have him in the apartment for the episode, but he was fixing that window in several episodes).

[–] Catnip86 8 years ago

And then there was the time Furley broke the window he was trying to fix.

[–] KingTrump 8 years ago

I'm sure Janet and Chrissy didn't mind sharing a room. They were both too chicken to have their own room.

[–] Katiedidd 8 years ago

I agree. I never understand how someone clearly gets the better space in an apartment, but they pay the same. I had a "friend" who shared a two bedroom, two bath apartment in Seattle, but her bedroom was the bigger with the bathroom inside it. The other roommate (who I ended up liking much better) got the smaller bedroom with the bathroom being in the hall (that of course guests used when her roommate got her bathroom all to herself). They paid 50/50!

Worse yet, I moved a few blocks down from there (total coincidence with the location), and my roommate, who had the place first, kept the bedroom... of a one bedroom apartment! I slept in the living room. Hell, hell, hell! She was a finnicky foreign student, so I shut my mouth and waited for a few months until she left for the summer. To not lose her spot on the lease, she paid half of everything while halfway across the world. Ha ha.

Roommates with better space should never pay the same... Jack Tripper! Utilities are also really tricky. It can become clear who uses more. With my nightmare roommate, I'd pay half the utilities even though I'd be gone Friday through Sunday (and sometimes more). Plus she cooked up a storm... seven feet from my sleeping space! And no, she did not have Jack Tripper's skills!

[–] blakgard 8 years ago

Jack's room was no better than the girls' room.

[–] Katiedidd 8 years ago

Jack's got a room to himself. That automatically makes it better. I don't think he should have paid as much as half the rent, but he should have paid more than 1/3. Unless someone's in a relationship, who wants to bunk with a roomie or have their space shared while the other gets a room to himself/herself (like my situation with a previous roommate)? Jack had the more ideal space, bottom line. (Unless, Janet and Chrissy, Cindy, or Terri liked sharing a bedroom. Most grown women would not!)

[–] Solid_Gold 8 years ago

😂😂😂😂

Some of the comments here are hilarious! Well, yes, it is a great point that Jack did the cooking, since the girls' cooking skills could be best compared to one of the Kardashians attending a MENSA meeting! Useless! With that aside, the girls also did the housework, and they put up with Jack's constant groping and other sexual harassment. To be honest though, if I had been Jack's roommate, I wouldn't have been able to resist him. He is so sweet and funny. I wonder if he was clumsy in the bedroom as he was elsewhere. I am sure that I could have handled him. Okay, so I digress....

@Katiedidd OMG guuurrrl do I ever have some roommate from hell stories myself. At least once person ends up getting ripped off, and it was usually me. I could write a book about the *beep* roommies that I had. Of course, I am not perfect. I sing loudly in the shower, I like loud music, I prefer to walk around nude lol, but when it comes to cleaning and other chores, and paying the rent and bills on time, I always did that. Jack's room was small, but so was the girls' bedroom. He should have at least paid more, since they all lived on a measly salary. I always wondered why Jack didn't take up with Lana though, she would have been his sugar mama, and he could have afforded more.

Anyway, so many sitcoms about roommates are unrealistic. "Friends" tops it all. I lived in NYC, and there is no way that all of them could have afforded that gorgeous apartment, especially when Rachel was working at a café.

If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten