[Denying Three's Company (1976) producers' assertion that she wanted her character Janet to be Jack(John Ritter)'s love interest in the spin-off Three's a Crowd (1984), which was canceled after one season] Well, then they should have asked me if I wanted to be one. Perhaps my diplomatic side would have dropped for once, and I would have been frank about what a nightmare the idea of doing another project with them would be. I think they made two big mistakes when they did the spin-off. First and foremost, they utterly underestimated the importance of the affection and intimacy of the relationship of the audience with the other characters. Secondly, they grossly underestimated the relationship between Jack and Janet. She was the burr under his saddle-the voice of his conscience, if you will. Without that element of consistent friction, a lot of comedy is lost. It didn't have to be Janet, and the role didn't have to played by me. Nor can I imagine I would have agreed to work with these producers again. But some version of that relationship needed to be in the new show.
2
[2009: on Three's Company (1976) and Hollywood] I really felt that Three's Company was a gift. When it ended, I had money in the bank and had the luxury to pursue a life that meant something, to learn and discover. Hollywood can be brutal, inhuman, the opposite of what the theater is and I had little desire to be part of it. But now, I'm excited to work again and to, at my age, be able to keep working.
3
[on Farrah Fawcett] She had a beautiful heart. She was a lovely human being and such a brave woman, right up to her final moments. She chose to share her circumstances, her illness, with the world in order that those who had similar circumstances would be enlightened and inspired, and I have a great deal of respect for the way she left this life.
4
[2009: on rumors that she spent her pre-Hollywood years as a contractor who, after painting the garage of Barney Miller (1974) co-star Abe Vigoda, became a sort of surrogate daughter to the actor] It's totally untrue. I've never even met Abe Vigoda. I never painted his house, his garage or any other thing he has. I often wonder if he thinks I'm this crazy person who made all of this up.
5
[on Suzanne Somers (2009)] I rarely talk about this, but we never actually had an argument. After her fight with the producers, as part of her publicity tour to make herself seem innocent, she made John [Ritter] and I the enemy. Several times over the past 20 years I've left messages, notes, letters, and have given her the phone number for the phone that rings right beside my bed, but she has never chosen to reach me, and, yet, publicly and in the press, she still tells people that I don't speak to her.
6
[on her stardom] Shirley MacLaine once said that she didn't want to be a big star, just a long star. That's what I want too.
7
[on the politics of Hollywood] If that's the way the game is played, I don't want to play anymore.
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Fact
1
Currently lives in California and New Mexico. [August 2003]
2
Is slowly starting to get back in show business (2003).
3
In 1979, Joyce missed one episode of Three's Company (1976) titled "Stanley's Hotline", when the network tried to take back a raise that was promised, so she called in sick, because she was "sick at heart, sick in the soul". She had a meeting with the network president, who reinstated her raise. When she told her producers she was ready to go back to work, they felt there was not enough preparation time and were already working with a reworked script with guest star Anne Schedeen getting Joyce's lines.
4
Best remembered by the public for her role as Janet Wood on Three's Company (1976).
5
DeWitt, reunited with former Three's Company (1976) co-star Suzanne Somers on her online talk show "Breaking Through". It was the first time, that the former friends spoke to each other, since Somers' termination from the sitcom in 1981 after a salary dispute.
6
(May 25, 2010) Pled no contest to misdemeanor DUI.
7
On July 4, 2009, she was arrested in El Segundo, California for DUI. According to reports, police pulled her over after she drove past a barricade near a park. An officer arrested DeWitt after he became suspicious that she had been drinking and administered a field sobriety test. She was booked at the police station, cited, and released on her own recognizance.
8
Is a member of Chi Omega women's fraternity.
9
Former high school cheerleader.
10
Is one of four children of Paul and Norma DeWitt.
11
Has Irish, Italian and Swedish ancestry.
12
Is a part of the LIFE (Love Is Feeding Everyone) organization where she, and other famous actors, are helping fight world hunger and homelessness.
13
Auditioned as Fonzie's girlfriend on Happy Days (1974) in the late 1970s, although she did not get chosen for the role (explaining she was too short and young), she was cast as Janet Wood on Three's Company (1976) just several weeks later.
14
Very active in theater since the age of 13 and prefers stage work to television.
15
When shooting Three's Company (1976), she always wore either pantyhose or tights, and refused to work bare-legged. Though this caused conflict between her and the show's producers, it endeared her to hosiery manufacturers, and she became the spokeswoman for L'eggs pantyhose in the late 1970s.
16
Received her Master's degree in Acting from the University of California, Los Angeles.
17
Received her Bachelor's degree in Acting from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
18
After Three's Company (1976) ended, she traveled the world before settling in New Mexico. She is slowly returning to acting. She and Suzanne Somers did not speak to each other for 30 years after Suzanne left the show in 1981. Finally, in February 2012, they reunited after Suzanne invited Joyce to be a guest on her web series "Suzanne Somers: Breaking Through".