My friend David has a subscription to a series of plays put on at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California, and had often remarked to me how he would regularly see an actress who he knew from a couple of Three’s Company episodes. One of them entitled Strangers in the Night from 1982 was a particularly funny and memorable episode, in which Jack Tripper serenades his girlfriend and ends up sending a message to a plump neighbor of hers named Bernice, who then shows up for a date with Jack. In short, Jack ends up making it right and stands up for this woman Bernice, when his actual girlfriend shows up and mocks her. The episode comes to a close when Bernice says the following heartfelt line to Jack: “Thank you for that wonderful lie.”
So as you may have guessed, it was the actress who played Bernice whom David was seeing, and although David is as much as a sitcom fan as I am, he sometimes doesn’t have the drive to approach celebrities out in public. That’s where I come in. We figured out that the actress’s name was Jacque Lynn Colton, and in addition to starring in that plus one more episode of Three’s Company as a different character, she also many other credits including CPO Sharkey, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hart to Hart, Trapper John M.D., Silver Spoons, Life with Lucy, Charles in Charge, in addition to some film credits including Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Toys, Moving, and Iron Eagle. Overall a pretty impressive list of work.
Over the last couple of years, we had remarked about her presence and always punctuated with an exaggerated quoting of “thank you for that wonderful lie,” which permeated into a mutated catch phrase, sometimes slurring into other people’s voices. I guess you had to be there.
But on the evening of Sunday, February 12, 2018, it all came to a head. This time I was accompanying David to the show at the Alex, High Society. We got there a little early and for a while David was afraid she wasn’t going to show up, but then she made her appearance, wearing her traditional derby hat, and sitting in her normal assigned seat not far from David’s.
We didn’t bother her before the show, but when it came intermission time, we went outside where she was chatting with film critic Myron Meisel. I approached her and asked if she was Jacque Lynn Colton, knowing full well that she was. She couldn’t have been friendlier and more happy to be recognized. We all chatted for a while and among her stories was that her Russian husband had learned English from watching episodes of Three’s Clompnay. She then happily posed for photos with us, requesting that I send her a copy via Facebook, which I did.
And of course, I had to get the line in one way or another, so after she told us how nice it had been to meet us, I responded, “thank you for that wonderful lie.”
Return to the February 2018 California trip here… (under construction)
“thank you for that wonderful lie.” luv it !
clark billy
December 6th, 2021