Three's Company For You

We went to the Huntington Theater last week to see Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes and knew immediately that one of the actors was extremely familiar. From then on, the drama on stage faded into obscurity as the actor's very face toyed with my memory.

With the turning on of the lights at intermission, we snapped up our program and rifled to the section containing the short bios of the performers. Our eyes roaming over lists of soap opera and TV ad credits, we finally hit gold and knew that we had found what we were looking for. It was the actor who had played Mr. Angolino, the frantic restaurant owner from Three's Company.

For the rest of the play, we could not suppress the images of Jack Tripper tripping over the back of a couch, Felipe the vegetable slicer shouting Spanish curses and Janet hopping around the apartment in nothing but a longish football jersey. In short, we had mentally replaced Lillian Hellman's drama with Three's Company.

So we began to wonder about ex-sit com stars and what happens to them when the show's run is over. Do they replace reality with fantasy and dreams of what used to be and what could have been? Or do they merely plod on in the acting profession, joining the legions of no-name stage actors all over the country? Of course, if at some point in their career they played a "Mr. Angolino," they're very recognizable, but not as themselves. We'll only know them as Mr. Angolino . . . or Felipe or Janet.

Anyway, back home, we have a friend who lives next door to Richard Klein, if that means anything to you.