Still In Good Company
Former Three's Company star Joyce DeWitt finds inner peace.
Written by Chris Mann
Photography by Cory Sorensen
After making a name on “Three’s Company,” Joyce DeWitt made an outer journey to find inner peace.
Decades after she shot to stardom as one of TV’s most famous roommates, Joyce DeWitt’s expressive brown eyes and buoyant energy conjure the fun-loving farce that she, John Ritter and Suzanne Somers made an instant prime-time hit in 1977. But while the eternally rerun “Three’s Company” never left TV land, the actress who played the pratfall-prone Ritter’s ever-reliable straight man gave Hollywood a rest when her series ended in 1984.
Instead, the classically trained actress turned inward and traveled abroad in a 12-year spiritual odyssey that led her to embrace a studied mix of Western and Eastern philosophy and medicine. Resurfacing in TV guest-starring gigs in recent years (she also co-produced NBC’s “Three’s Company” behind-the-scenes telefilm in 2003, just months before Ritter’s death), she’s emerged, too, with a blend of practical wisdom and the youthful zest of a woman half her age.
In fact, DeWitt seems as surprised as anyone that she turned 60 in April. With roles in two upcoming independent features under her belt, the down-to-earth brunette keeps busy shuttling between her peaceful abode in Santa Fe, N.M., and her ranch home in Santa Barbara, Calif. She recently called Kansas City home when she returned to her musical theater roots for a three-month starring run in “Hats,” a fast-paced musical comedy about the age 50+ women who started the Red Hat Society. Great Health caught up with DeWitt in Santa Barbara, where she shared her admiration for horses, her appreciation of life’s simpler things and her deep love for her “family of friends.”
GH: You adopted many Eastern philosophies during your years of world travels, right?
JDW: Lucky me. “Three’s Company” gave me the money to take off 12 years and travel and study. I studied with some amazing teachers around the world. I studied all of the great religions of the world, and the alternative concepts of relief. And I absolutely believe that a mixture of Eastern and Western medicine and alternative medicine is perfect. I tend to, if I get a cold or a flu, try to herb it to death, and if that’s not working, then I will deal with Western medicine. If I were cut and bleeding, I would be in the emergency ward immediately. And if they wanted to give me a painkiller, they can give that to me. (Laughs) A combination of approaches is great, but gentler things first.
GH: What types of physical exercise have kept you limber and lively?
JDW: I practice tai chi, yoga, meditation. Those kinds of profound centering exercises are good for mind, body and spirit, and to keep them in tune and working together. Energy seems to be available. I think part of it is because my mother is Italian, so I think I was born with a genetic kind of effervescence, but at times I’m a real couch potato. I’m not about, “Get up every morning at six and do my yoga.” If I get it in a couple of times a week, that’s good. My presence, my clarity and my ability to think straight and problem solve—those kinds of Eastern practices bring you to this very centered, gentle place within yourself.
Also, if you never did anything else but walk and stretch, your body would be in excellent condition. Yoga is marvelous in terms of stretching, which is a terribly important exercise for the body. And it doesn’t get any better than walking. You can walk and let your arms swing and bring everything back to balance.
GH: The breakneck physical comedy of “Three’s Company” required tons of energy. How much fun did you and John have falling over each other and that apartment sofa?
JDW: John used to say, “We’re not trying to make somebody laugh; we’re trying to make someone laugh so hard they’ll fall off their couch laughing.” And that was really our commitment—to be as funny as humanly possible as performers so we could deliver that to the audience. They could have a safe place to play for a half-hour so that no matter what happened, you knew by the end of that half-hour everything would be OK. And we were trying to do a contemporary version of a classical farce with specific ingredients: a great deal of door slamming, falling, and comedy based on misunderstanding and sexual innuendo. The key ingredient is that it moves at the speed of light. It’s like being shot out of a cannon when the curtain goes up, and you don’t come down until the curtain comes down. To do it well, it required that we were younger when we did it.
GH: What has fan reaction to “Three’s Company” taught you about the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine”?
JDW: I’ve had ER doctors and nurses tell me that they’d come home from the end of a shift, would watch the show and forget everything that happened that day because they were in a place of sheer fun. And just last week I met a young woman in a grocery store who, along with her husband, is a major fan of the show. She did natural childbirth and had, like, 22 hours of labor, and they played “Three’s Company” the whole time. She said, “I was laughing and screaming at the same time.” There are a number of documented situations where people had very life-threatening circumstances, and they watched comedic videos—The Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin—over and over in their hospital room and got better. When you’re happy, when you smile and you’re feeling OK with yourself, your brain is actually putting out different juice.
GH: As the show’s “straight man,” Janet Wood was the touchstone of reality in a very unreal sitcom world—and the character many young women related to.
JDW: Many wonderful young women in their 30s have stopped me on the streets of New York telling me things like, “You’re the reason I became a lawyer. I learned that women should be brave and independent and stand up for themselves by watching Janet.” Another woman told me, “Just because I wasn’t the most popular girl in high school with all the boys chasing me, because of you I knew I was a valuable person and it didn’t matter.” I was, like, “Wow, thank you.” What a wonderful gift that was.
GH: How important is positive thinking in your life?
JDW: Whatever you think about is what you’re going to get more of, so put out the intention of what you want. When you lie in bed at night, during the last few minutes of breathing quietly and speaking to yourself or to a great spirit, say what it is you want for yourself in that restful time. And in the morning, do the same thing. And remind yourself during the day, “My intention is to have a day of peace, to move through all of this activity and do well, and be happy within myself and sensitive to other human beings along the way.”
GH: You have a role in the upcoming family film “Call of the Wild.” As a horse lover, are you an advocate of animal therapy?
JDW: Any time you can spend time around animals that you love, especially a large, beautiful animal such as a horse, you sort of give yourself over to their energy and share their space. They’re really dependable, good friends, and it’s wonderful to spend time with them. It’s a very healing thing. I’m not an expert horse person, but I have the gift of wonderful people in my life who are brilliant horse people. And they’ve allowed me to share in that world in a way that I couldn’t have on my own.
GH: How does it feel turning 60?
JDW: I don’t really think about age. It’s something I never really put any energy around. I just kind of live my life. People talk about how life gets better in your 40s and 50s. The truth is, there is a profound, beautiful shift—you drop into a version of yourself as if there is more of you than when you were younger. It’s a very interesting journey. But it was my dad who told me I was turning 60 —I didn’t even know it!
GH: People also say you are what you eat, but do you occasionally indulge yourself?
JDW: I think moderation is the key to good health, to happiness—to everything. I tend to eat multiple small meals, like four or five meals a day as opposed to a big lunch or a big dinner. But if I go out to dinner I get whatever I want, including pasta and dessert—though I often share portions with my friends. I love Coca-Cola, I just don’t keep it or junk food in my house. I know two or three places that make a really fabulous fountain Coke, because that’s how I like it. If I want a Coca-Cola, I get it my car and I have an incredible fountain Coke and I am so happy. Then I don’t have to have one for a while.
GH: You have a role in the upcoming family film “Call of the Wild.” As a horse lover, are you an advocate of animal therapy?
JDW: Any time you can spend time around animals that you love, especially a large, beautiful animal such as a horse, you sort of give yourself over to their energy and share their space. It’s a great blessing. That’s why people are attracted to dogs: It’s that feeling that you have a place to give love and feel love. With horses, it’s so hard to understand how this large body supported by these tiny, frail legs can go straight up the side of a mountain. They’re really dependable, good friends, and it’s wonderful to spend time with them. It’s a very healing thing. I’m not an expert horse person, but I have the gift of wonderful people in my life who are brilliant horse people. And they’ve allowed me to share in that world in a way that I couldn’t have on my own in trying to navigate how to handle these beautiful animals.
GH: It’s hard to believe that John Ritter, who died just days shy of his 55th birthday, would also have turned 60 this year.
JDW: John and I were great friends in the last years of his life. That someone so amazing and precious and dear would go so unexpectedly and so young caused everybody to take a moment and reflect and decide that every moment is precious. That’s part of the gift he gave to the world. There was such love expressed from that man. Any opportunity you have to appreciate another human being, show your love for them. It’s not just a gift to them, it’s a gift to you. Every moment counts. Always tell your family and your “family of friends” that you love them.
Chris Mann is a writer and editor of the pop culture webzine Retroality.TV.
