Pop-Culture-Corn Magazine continues this week its groundbreaking expose of the life of one of Hollywood's most overneglected and underappreciated stars, Mr. Norman Fell. Last week we examined the early years of Fell's career, ending in 1975 with Feller's Academy Award nomination for his performance in the action-comedy classic, Cleopatra Jones and the City of Gold. It was this nomination that was directly responsible for Fell winning the coveted role of Stanley Roper in the seventies' television classic Three's Company.

BITING FORTUNE'S APPLE

It was a cold and rainy day in Burbank, CA when Fell arrived at the studios of Paramount Television to audition for the role that would make him a millionaire and cement his place in television and pop culture history. On his way into the audition, Fell ran into two old friends, Charlton Heston and Don Knotts. According to Kitty Kelley's unpublished manuscript of her biography of Norman Fell, Feller, the conversation was short, but eerily prophetic:

"Hey guys," said Norman, ambling into the studio offices with an ease and charm that he often used to hide his intense nervousness going into auditions. "What's up in your world? Is it all groovy? Don, I thought you were still on that show with Andy Griffith."

"No, Norm," replied Knotts, his fragile ego becoming slightly ruffled already at the insult of ignorance offered by Fell's comment. "That show was cancelled some time ago. I need the work."

"Me too," added Heston, forcing his way into the collision of two entertainment giants. "I haven't seen a part this sweet since George Taylor! It's fantastic!"

"Okay, well, it's time for me to go do my schtick," said Fell, sensing tension and ending the conversation. "Good luck to you two."

"Yeah," replied Knots, leaping forward with the agility and speed of a wildcat and seizing Fell's hand in a vice-like grip. "One of us is getting this part. I pity the other."

However, pity would be the last thing on Knotts' mind, as Fell easily snatched up the role with finesse and left Knotts waiting in the dust for his turn to come around. In an interview done with Fell in the late eighties for Ken Burns' documentary on Three's Company, California Babylon, he commented on the sad, tragic turn of events brought about by his winning the role.

"If I had known the hate that would stem from my winning this part between myself and Don, if I had known the dark road I would have to travel in my own life, and if I had known the love I would lose, I would probably still have done it for the money," said Fell, turning toward the camera with his trademark comic look.

THREE'S COMPANY: THE EARLY DAYS

Nervous hearts pounded hard against heaving, luscious chests in Studio 3A on the Paramount Television Studios lot on January 8, 1978, as Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt began production on the first 13 episodes of Three's Company and awaited the arrival of showbiz legend Fell.

"I had heard lots of stories, legends really," recalls DeWitt, "but nothing prepared me for that first moment when he came to me and shook my hand. It was electric. The talent in the man was almost a pure erotic force."

It would prove to be especaially erotic for DeWitt, whose torrid affair with the aging Fell would dominate tabloid gossip sheets for years to come and lead to Fell's first suicide attempt just before his leaving Three's Company to take the leading role on his spinoff show, Three's Company's Friends--The Ropers! But on that first January day, few hints of the turmoil and torment that would rapidly surround the set of the classic TV series and Fell's life in particular could be sensed. Rather, the premonition that all assembled were working on something that would make entertainment history could be sensed, touched, and smelt in the cheap cologne of Norman Fell and his comedic genius. Richard Klein, who portrayed Larry Dallas on the show, tells a poignant tale in his autobiography, My Life in Television:

"It was the first day, you know; everyone's nervous as hell, no one's really talking to each other much, all the egos are either crawling into holes or flashing about as actors will. Then Norman Fell walked onto that set. Immediately one could feel the easing of a tension--like a special magic salve--embrace the cast and crew. An hour later he was on the set taping the first scene of the show's run. It was a throwaway, some lame joke he and Helen Thomas [who portrayed Fell's wife Helen Roper on the show and on the subsequent spinoff] had to get out of the way. No one expected much, a few warmups maybe, nothing at all.

"But Fell strode from the makeup trailer and hit that mark on the first take. He gave his first mug to the camera that day. When he finished the punch line of the joke and the director called "Cut," this gathered nervous bunch of cast and crew, amateurs all, stood and applauded the genius of this true consumate professional. I've never seen anything like it, especially on the first day of a new series, and I've seen plenty of those, for sure. It was hands-down the most impressive display of pure comic acting ability I've ever seen. And he did it on a daily basis. What could you do but sit back and try to learn from a Jedi Master of comedy?"

The "Jedi Master of comedy" soon found himself a favorite cast member of the top-rated show on television, as thanks largely to his comedic acting and vision Three's Company catapaulted to first place in the ratings within a month of its premiere on ABC. Those early days of production are fondly remembered by all cast members.

"Feller was just amazing," comments Company leading man John Ritter, calling from the set of Problem Child 5. "He'd show up every few days with donuts for everyone at 6 a.m. We had the earliest call in series television and he remembered the donuts. What a prince."

"I remember this one time, it was Helen's birthday," remembers Suzanne Sommers, speaking from the set of her new show, God Loves Aerobics, "and we had decided...well, actually, I don't quite remember what happened. But he sure was a nice man."

RADAR LOVE

It was during these early days of work on the set that Feller began wooing the woman who would become his first wife, the young and nubile Joyce DeWitt, who portrayed Janet Wood on the television series. DeWitt looks back fondly on those early days of budding romance and unbridled passion.

"Oh, we were crazy back then," DeWitt recalls, in a telephone interview from her latest role as Eliza Doolittle in a Tempe, Arizona dinner theater production of My Fair Lady. "Feller would break into my dressing room and pin me up against a table...I'd find the most adorable little gifts hidden in my costume pockets...it was all so pure and fun and easy, until the dark side started to show."

It would be this dark side that would lead to the end of the DeWitt/Feller romance, and ironically to the spinoff series, Three's Company's Friends--The Ropers!

"I don't know...he changed," speculates Klein from prison. "He started to drink, I know that, and he did some cocaine too. He just got so sloppy. So much talent and joy just wasted...even now it makes me sad."

Next week: the agony and ecstasy of Feller's ultimate triumph, as the starring role in television he had waited his entire career for is drowned in a pool of vodka and stale vomit; a look at the explosion of the Fell/Knotts feud; and romance strikes again for our little Feller.