Charles & Rinker -- Come and Knock on Our Door

 

The anime "Grand Blue"（グランドブルー）has been one of the most hilarious anime I've ever seen, and from time to time, I like to watch it through again. Even within the show, Episode 11 will go down as one of the all-time classics in sexual innuendo and double entendres.

But how did I find out about those terms? Well for us in Canada and the United States, it was probably ABC's "Three's Company" which had its run from 1977 to 1984. The above scene was from one of the earliest episodes and I gather that it was the beginning for all of the double entendres that became part and parcel of the humour.

The theme song has also been one that has stayed in my head all these decades as John Ritter's accident-prone Jack Tripper fell off his bike in Santa Monica every week. Unlike some other catchy theme songs, I don't think "Come and Knock on Our Door" ever got a single release, although I recall that the opening credits did get an extended version of the theme playing over some of the funny scenes. "Come and Knock on Our Door" was sung by Ray Charles (and no, not the Ray Charles of "Hit the Road, Jack" and "Georgia on My Mind" fame) and Julia Rinker with the song being composed by Joe Raposo who earlier had created the iconic themes for "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company". 

One of the running gags that we enjoyed on the series along with the misunderstandings is whenever landlord Stanley Roper made a joke at the expense of his long-suffering wife Helen and he'd actually break the fourth wall as he looked into the camera. Sadly, almost forty years following the finale of "Three's Company", a majority of the cast have passed away including Ritter twenty years ago, and of course, I'm writing this ROY article due to the fact that Suzanne Somers who had played one of the original roomies died a few days at the age of 76. My condolences to her family, friends and fans.

Three singles came out when "Three's Company" made its debut that month, the last of which hit the record stores on the same day as the first broadcast: March 15th 1977.

Candies -- Yasashii Akuma（やさしい悪魔）

Pink Lady -- Carmen '77 （カルメン '77）

Hideki Saijo -- Boomerang Street （ブーメランストリート）