8 Simple Rules Almost Reunited John Ritter With Suzanne Somers & Joyce DeWitt

Long before he was known as the loveable sitcom dad Paul Hennessy on ABC's "8 Simple Rules," the late John Ritter portrayed a kind-hearted ladies' man on "Three's Company." The latter series, which co-stars Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt, sees their respective characters — Jack Tripper, Chrissy Snow, and Janet Wood — share an apartment and get into all kinds of misadventures. An episode of "8 Simple Rules" pays homage to Ritter's old sitcom too, and his former colleagues were invited to star only to turn down the opportunity.

"8 Simple Rules" Season 1's "Come and Knock on Our Door" episode — whose title is a line from "Three's Company's" iconic theme song — has a dream sequence that's reminiscent of the '70s sitcom. The scene involves Paul learning that his daughters, Bridget (Kaley Cuoco) and Kerry (Amy Davidson), are sharing a house with a boy he vehemently disapproves of. However, the original plan was to have Somers and DeWitt show up instead of Cuoco and Davidson, presumably in roles that were similar to their "Three's Company" characters.

Ultimately, that idea never materialized. While speaking to CafeMom Studios in 2012, DeWitt said that she wasn't a fan of the episode's initial writing and sent the creative team back to the drawing board. "When they first sent me that script, I called, I said, 'Jonathan this is not a good script. Can they go back to the table?'" DeWitt explained. 

Somers had her own reasons for turning it down and seemed to believe a dream sequence lacked a proper impact. With that in mind, let's dive into what else the "Three's Company" stalwarts had to say about the matter.

While Joyce DeWitt wasn't a fan of the original script for "Come and Knock on Our Door," she enjoyed the finished product. While discussing the episode with her former co-star, she praised the writers' decision to ultimately have Kaley Cuoco and Amy Davidson dress up as Chrissy Snow and Janet Wood from "Three's Company" instead of bringing back the original stars. "When you have talented writers like that, and you just kind of go, 'Oh, golly, can you rethink that,' what they came out with was golden," she told Suzanne Somers. 

Somers, on the other hand, responded by saying that they just weren't ready as the timing wasn't right when they were initially approached about the project. What's more, she wanted her, DeWitt, and John Ritter to share more screen time together.

Of course, there are many sitcom enthusiasts who'd have loved to have seen the core "Three's Company" cast reunite on "8 Simple Rules." At the same time, the episode turned out very well, and the rest is history.