SLASHDOT SALUTS JOHN RITTER
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In the great tradition of farce, Three's Company is the comedy that pushed the envelope by matching two attractive young women and one handsome, but clumsy, willing and able young male chef living under one roof. Jack, Janet, Chrissy, Cindy, and Terri all resided in apartment 201. And their presence made American audiences gladly want to knock on their door each week.
Copyright 2000 ABC,Inc.
The laughs began when American producer Donald L. Taffner saw the success in adapting and "Americanizing " British television comedies for the U.S. Acquiring the Changed Format Rights for the Thames Television hit Britcom, Man About The House, Taffner partnered with former TV DuMont television executive Ted Bergmann and they flew to Los Angeles to pitch the networks CBS, NBC, and ABC with the idea. In the fall of 1975, all three networks balked at the risque premise of two single women living with one single man. Three's Company was a novel and shocking first-timer for an American sitcom.
Copyright 2000 ABC,Inc.
While each of the big three networks originally passed on the idea, newly appointed ABC Programming Chief Fred Silverman (a fan of the concept from his days at CBS) surprised everyone and contacted Taffner and Bergmann. Dennis Doty, Bridget Potter, and Tom Werner had been developing the program at ABC when Silverman gave them the green light to produce a pilot. Larry Gelbart, who penned the first four years of MASH and his stepson, Gary Markowitz, who coined the show's title, "Three's Company", were the first writers hired. At this point, no one involved knew that it would take three pilots and one year until the show would go to air. At the time, John Ritter was best known for his role as Rev. Matthew Fordwick on The Waltons. Although his role on the popular drama The Waltons was a completely different character type, Fred Silverman saw something in Ritter and convinced the actor to audition for the role of David Bell (the name was later changed to Jack Tripper) in January 1976. Everyone including Larry Gelbart knew he was right for the part. One down, two more to go.
More than 250 female actresses auditioned for the roles of the roommates. Valerie Curtin won the role of Jenny (the name was later changed to Janet) and Suzanne Zenor was cast as Samantha (which later became the role of Chrissy). Michael Eisner, then an ABC Programming Executive, inspired the casting of Norman Fell and Audra Lindley as the nosy landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Roper. The casting was complete, but unfortunately, ABC executives didn't feel this first pilot was strong enough to air. Back to the drawing board... ABC enlisted the help of the Emmy-winning writers and producers of All in the Family and The Jeffersons, Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, and Bernie West.
Michael Eisner stepped in again and suggested that two new actresses be found to play the female roommates. Nicholl, Ross and West knew Joyce DeWitt was perfect for the smart, wise-cracking roommate known as Janet, but they were still short a blonde. Susan Lanier, who was then famous for her role as Bambi on Welcome Back Kotter, was given a shot.
The second pilot was taped, yet producers still felt something was missing. They needed to find another Chrissy. Fred Silverman remembered Suzanne Somers from her guest appearances on The Tonight Show and knew she was just what they wanted. The clock was ticking and a third pilot had to be created that would convince the network the show was good enough to air. Somers read for the part early January 1977 and the producers made their decision -- Somers was the Chrissy they had been looking for. The third and final pilot was filmed Friday, January 28, 1977 and soon after the first five episodes followed.
Three's Company first appeared on television Tuesday, March 15th at 9:30 p.m. and was ranked 28th in the Nielsen ratings on its premiere night. The remaining five episodes of the first season aired Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m.-never falling out of the Nielsen's Top Ten. The show was a hit with audiences though the critics were
The most controversial issue in the information technology industry today is the ongoing battle over software copyrights and intellectual property. This battle is being fought largely between vendors who create and sell proprietary software, and the Open Source community. My company, the SCO Group, became a focus of this controversy when we filed a lawsuit against IBM alleging that SCO's proprietary Unix code has been illegally copied into the free Linux operating system. In doing this we angered some in the Open Source community by pointing out obvious intellectual property problems that exist in the current Linux software development model.
This debate about Open Source software is healthy and beneficial. It offers long-term benefits to the industry by addressing a new business model in advance of wide-scale adoption by customers. But in the last week of August two developments occurred that adversely affect the long-term credibility of the Open Source community, with the general public and with customers.
The first development followed another series of Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on SCO, which took place two weeks ago. These were the second and third such attacks in four months and have prevented Web users from accessing our web site and doing business with SCO. There is no question about the affiliation of the attacker - Open Source leader Eric Raymond was quoted as saying that he was contacted by the perpetrator and that "he's one of us." To Mr Raymond's partial credit, he asked the attacker to stop. However, he has yet to disclose the identity of the perpetrator so that justice can be done.
No one can tolerate DDoS attacks and other kinds of attacks in this Information Age economy that relies so heavily on the Internet. Mr Raymond and the entire Open Source community need to aggressively help the industry police these types of crimes. If they fail to do so it casts a shadow over the entire Open Source movement and raises questions about whether Open Source is ready to take a central role in business computing. We cannot have a situation in which companies fear they may be next to suffer computer attacks if they take a business or legal position that angers the Open Source community. Until these illegal attacks are brought under control, enterprise customers and mainstream society will become increasingly alienated from anyone associated with this type of behavior.
The second development was an admission by Open Source leader Bruce Perens that UNIX System V code (owned by SCO) is, in fact, in Linux, and it shouldn't be there. Mr Perens stated that there is "an error in the Linux developer's process" which allowed Unix System V code that "didn't belong in Linux" to end up in the Linux kernel (source: ComputerWire, August 25, 2003). Mr Perens continued with a string of arguments to justify the "error in the Linux developer's process." However, nothing can change the fact that a Linux developer on the payroll of Silicon Graphics stripped copyright attributions from copyrighted System V code that was licensed to Silicon Graphics under strict conditions of use, and then contributed that source code to Linux as though it was clean code owned and controlled by SGI. This is a clear violation of SGI's contract and copyright obligations to SCO. We are currently working to try and resolve these issues with SGI.
This improper contribution of Unix code by SGI into Linux is one small example that reveals fundamental structural flaws in the Linux development process. In fact, this issue goes to the very heart of whether Open Source can be trusted as a development model for enterprise computing software. The intellectual property roots of Linux are obviously flawed at a systemic level under the current model. To date, we claim that more than one million lines of Unix System V protected code have been contributed to Linux through this model. The flaws inherent in the Linux process must be openly addressed and fixed.
At a minimum, IP sources should be checked to assure that copyright contributors have the authority to tra
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In the great tradition of farce, Three's Company is the comedy that pushed the envelope by matching two attractive young women and one handsome, but clumsy, willing and able young male chef living under one roof. Jack, Janet, Chrissy, Cindy, and Terri all resided in apartment 201. And their presence made American audiences gladly want to knock on their door each week. Copyright 2000 ABC,Inc. The laughs began when American producer Donald L. Taffner saw the success in adapting and "Americanizing " British television comedies for the U.S. Acquiring the Changed Format Rights for the Thames Television hit Britcom, Man About The House, Taffner partnered with former TV DuMont television executive Ted Bergmann and they flew to Los Angeles to pitch the networks CBS, NBC, and ABC with the idea. In the fall of 1975, all three networks balked at the risque premise of two single women living with one single man. Three's Company was a novel and shocking first-timer for an American sitcom. Copyright 2000 ABC,Inc. While each of the big three networks originally passed on the idea, newly appointed ABC Programming Chief Fred Silverman (a fan of the concept from his days at CBS) surprised everyone and contacted Taffner and Bergmann. Dennis Doty, Bridget Potter, and Tom Werner had been developing the program at ABC when Silverman gave them the green light to produce a pilot. Larry Gelbart, who penned the first four years of MASH and his stepson, Gary Markowitz, who coined the show's title, "Three's Company", were the first writers hired. At this point, no one involved knew that it would take three pilots and one year until the show would go to air. At the time, John Ritter was best known for his role as Rev. Matthew Fordwick on The Waltons. Although his role on the popular drama The Waltons was a completely different character type, Fred Silverman saw something in Ritter and convinced the actor to audition for the role of David Bell (the name was later changed to Jack Tripper) in January 1976. Everyone including Larry Gelbart knew he was right for the part. One down, two more to go. More than 250 female actresses auditioned for the roles of the roommates. Valerie Curtin won the role of Jenny (the name was later changed to Janet) and Suzanne Zenor was cast as Samantha (which later became the role of Chrissy). Michael Eisner, then an ABC Programming Executive, inspired the casting of Norman Fell and Audra Lindley as the nosy landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Roper. The casting was complete, but unfortunately, ABC executives didn't feel this first pilot was strong enough to air. Back to the drawing board ... ABC enlisted the help of the Emmy-winning writers and producers of All in the Family and The Jeffersons, Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, and Bernie West.
Michael Eisner stepped in again and suggested that two new actresses be found to play the female roommates. Nicholl, Ross and West knew Joyce DeWitt was perfect for the smart, wise-cracking roommate known as Janet, but they were still short a blonde. Susan Lanier, who was then famous for her role as Bambi on Welcome Back Kotter, was given a shot.
The second pilot was taped, yet producers still felt something was missing. They needed to find another Chrissy. Fred Silverman remembered Suzanne Somers from her guest appearances on The Tonight Show and knew she was just what they wanted. The clock was ticking and a third pilot had to be created that would convince the network the show was good enough to air. Somers read for the part early January 1977 and the producers made their decision -- Somers was the Chrissy they had been looking for. The third and final pilot was filmed Friday, January 28, 1977 and soon after the first five episodes followed.
Three's Company first appeared on television Tuesday, March 15th at 9:30 p.m. and was ranked 28th in the Nielsen ratings on its premiere night. The remaining five episodes of the first season aired Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m.-never falling out of the Nielsen's Top Ten. The show was a hit with audiences though the critics were
The most controversial issue in the information technology industry today is the ongoing battle over software copyrights and intellectual property. This battle is being fought largely between vendors who create and sell proprietary software, and the Open Source community. My company, the SCO Group, became a focus of this controversy when we filed a lawsuit against IBM alleging that SCO's proprietary Unix code has been illegally copied into the free Linux operating system. In doing this we angered some in the Open Source community by pointing out obvious intellectual property problems that exist in the current Linux software development model. This debate about Open Source software is healthy and beneficial. It offers long-term benefits to the industry by addressing a new business model in advance of wide-scale adoption by customers. But in the last week of August two developments occurred that adversely affect the long-term credibility of the Open Source community, with the general public and with customers. The first development followed another series of Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on SCO, which took place two weeks ago. These were the second and third such attacks in four months and have prevented Web users from accessing our web site and doing business with SCO. There is no question about the affiliation of the attacker - Open Source leader Eric Raymond was quoted as saying that he was contacted by the perpetrator and that "he's one of us." To Mr Raymond's partial credit, he asked the attacker to stop. However, he has yet to disclose the identity of the perpetrator so that justice can be done. No one can tolerate DDoS attacks and other kinds of attacks in this Information Age economy that relies so heavily on the Internet. Mr Raymond and the entire Open Source community need to aggressively help the industry police these types of crimes. If they fail to do so it casts a shadow over the entire Open Source movement and raises questions about whether Open Source is ready to take a central role in business computing. We cannot have a situation in which companies fear they may be next to suffer computer attacks if they take a business or legal position that angers the Open Source community. Until these illegal attacks are brought under control, enterprise customers and mainstream society will become increasingly alienated from anyone associated with this type of behavior. The second development was an admission by Open Source leader Bruce Perens that UNIX System V code (owned by SCO) is, in fact, in Linux, and it shouldn't be there. Mr Perens stated that there is "an error in the Linux developer's process" which allowed Unix System V code that "didn't belong in Linux" to end up in the Linux kernel (source: ComputerWire, August 25, 2003). Mr Perens continued with a string of arguments to justify the "error in the Linux developer's process." However, nothing can change the fact that a Linux developer on the payroll of Silicon Graphics stripped copyright attributions from copyrighted System V code that was licensed to Silicon Graphics under strict conditions of use, and then contributed that source code to Linux as though it was clean code owned and controlled by SGI. This is a clear violation of SGI's contract and copyright obligations to SCO. We are currently working to try and resolve these issues with SGI. This improper contribution of Unix code by SGI into Linux is one small example that reveals fundamental structural flaws in the Linux development process. In fact, this issue goes to the very heart of whether Open Source can be trusted as a development model for enterprise computing software. The intellectual property roots of Linux are obviously flawed at a systemic level under the current model. To date, we claim that more than one million lines of Unix System V protected code have been contributed to Linux through this model. The flaws inherent in the Linux process must be openly addressed and fixed. At a minimum, IP sources should be checked to assure that copyright contributors have the authority to tra