john ritter

Three's Company pilot (1977)

I do enjoy a location challenge, so back in March 2015 when Chas of ItsFilmedThere.com asked  to help him and Owen from When Write Is Wrong to look for an elusive locale, I was up for it.   The missing location was the "Hacienda Palms" apartments from the pilot episode of Three's Company.  While John Ritter was firmly in place, but called David in this incarnation, the two female leads were played by Valerie Curtin and Suzanne Zenor.  Audra Lindley and Norman Fell were also in place as the Ropers.

As for finding the location, there is not much to go on except some shots from the opening titles.  My instinct was that it was likely near a cluster of bungalow apartments that I came across when looking for the location used in Autumn Leaves and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. Although my instinct was right, it still took me a while and a convoluted path to finally track it down.   The apartments are at 5154-5158-1/2 Fountain Avenue and remains relatively unchanged.  My buddy Rayen took the initial pics on my original blog, during a recent trip I decided to check out the location for myself.