Barry Van Dyke

  1. John Ritter, Three’s Company, TV, 1977-1984.   Wanted: A guy pretending to be gay in order to share an apartment with two babes.  Among those seen for Jack Tripper  in the US version of the UK‘s Man About ther House, 1973-1976, were future TV director Michael Lembeck and stand-up Billy Cyrstal, who immediately  won his next auditionn – the first comic gay character  in US TV history, in Soap.  It ended up as a battle of The Sons. Tex Ritter’s John versus Dick Van Dyke’s Bary. In  different drafts the hero  changed from an under-paid chef in a fancy French restaurant to an aspiring film-maker who was a better cook to a mere  culinary  student  – later running his  own restaurant.  That was the spin-off series in Britain, Robin’s Nest, 1977-1981. Robin was Robin Tripp, played by Richard O’Sullivan.   (Chrissy was Paula Wilcox).

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  1