Early career :"I made my living by making chocolate desserts and selling them to restaurants in
Sausalito, California, and by making children’s dresses and selling them on consignment to little children’s stores." After divorcing in 1968, Somers worked as a prize model, on
Anniversary Game, a game show, based at
KGO-TV in
San Francisco, hosted by
Alan Hamel and produced by
Circle Seven Productions. From 1971 to 1973, Somers was a panelist on the Alan Hamel-hosted
Mantrap, a weekday daytime panel show, from
BCTV in Vancouver for
CTV Television Network stations in Canada, and syndicated in the United States. In 1973, Somers appeared in bit parts in movies, such as the "Blonde in the white
Thunderbird" in
American Graffiti' and an uncredited role as a "pool girl" in
Magnum Force. In 1974, Somers appeared in an episode of the American version of the sitcom
Lotsa Luck, based on the British sitcom
On the Buses, as the
femme fatale. It led to her first appearance, 21 February 1974, on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, promoting her book of poetry. In 2009,
Kristen Wiig gave a reading of excerpts from Suzanne Somers' book of poetry
Touch Me, for
Celebrity Autobiography (KUSH). Later that year, Somers made an appearance in
The Rockford Files and did an audition to guest host
AM San Francisco on KGO-TV alongside
Jim Lange. Somers also had a guest-starring role on
The Six Million Dollar Man in the 1977 episode "Cheshire Project". She played a passenger on the first episode of
The Love Boat and made a guest appearance in a 1976 episode of
One Day at a Time.
''Three's Company'' After actresses
Suzanne Zenor and
Susan Lanier did not impress producers during the first two pilot episodes of the
ABC sitcom ''
Three's Company, based on the British sitcom Man About the House, Somers was suggested by ABC president Fred Silverman, who had seen her in her initial appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. Silverman hired her the day before the taping of the third and final pilot commenced. Somers portrayed
Christmas "Chrissy" Snow, who exemplified many
blonde stereotypes and was employed as an office secretary. At first, Somers made $3,500 per week from the show. The series co-starred
John Ritter and
Joyce DeWitt in a comedy about
two single women living with a single man who pretended to be gay in order to bypass the landlord's policy of prohibiting single men sharing an apartment with single women. The program was an instant success in the
Nielsen ratings, eventually spawning a short-lived spin-off series,
The Ropers, loosely based on the British sitcom
George and Mildred, starring
Norman Fell and
Audra Lindley. When ''Three's Company'' began its fifth season in late 1980, Somers demanded a salary increase "from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 an episode, equal to what Ritter was making and comparable to the salaries of other male sitcom stars at the time" :"The night before we went in to renegotiate, I got a call from a friend who had connections high up at ABC, and he said, 'They’re going to hang a nun in the marketplace, and the nun is Suzanne,' The network was willing to do this because, earlier that year, the women on
Laverne & Shirley had gotten what they asked for, and they wanted to put a stop to it. They’d destroy the chemistry on
Company to make a point." — Alan Hamel, 2015
After ''Three's Company'' During the 1980s and 1990s, Somers was a spokesperson for
Polaris Vac-Sweep automated pool cleaner. In 1983, through her Hamel/Somers Productions, she signed a deal with
Columbia Pictures Television. Somers and her ''Three's Company'' co-star, John Ritter, reconciled their friendship after 20 years of not speaking to each other, shortly before Ritter's death in 2003. Somers appeared in two
Playboy cover-feature nude pictorials, in 1980 and 1984. Her first set of nude photos was taken by
Stan Malinowski in February 1970 when Somers was a struggling model and actress and did a test photoshoot for the magazine. She was accepted as a Playmate candidate in 1971, but declined to pose nude before the actual shoot. During an appearance on
The Tonight Show in 1980, she denied ever posing nude, except for a
High Society topless photo. This prompted Playboy to publish photos from the 1970 Malinowski shoot, without her permission. Somers' original motivation for posing nude was to be able to pay medical bills related to injuries her son Bruce Jr. suffered in a car accident. By the time the photos were published, her son was 14 and Somers feared seeing his mother posing nude would be difficult for him. Somers sued Playboy and settled for $50,000, which was donated to charity, with at least $10,000 of it going to
Easterseals. The second nude pictorial by
Richard Fegley appeared in December 1984 in an attempt by Somers to regain her diminished popularity after the ''Three's Company'' debacle in 1981. Despite her anger and the earlier lawsuit, Playboy approached her earlier that year to pose nude a second time. Initially she was angered again, but eventually agreed after discussing it with her family. She felt she would have a better chance to control the quality of the photos the second time, and having such control was an important condition that Somers attached to posing. Despite Somers' earlier belief that her son would not want to see his mother nude, her then 18-year-old son did view the second pictorial. In the 1980s, Somers lived in
Las Vegas and was an entertainer, headlining at the
MGM Grand for two years until the theater burned down and then at the
Las Vegas Hilton for another years. In 1986 the Las Vegas critics voted her Female Entertainer of the Year. In the early 1980s, Somers performed for U.S. servicemen overseas. From 1987 to 1989, Somers starred in the sitcom ''
She's the Sheriff'', which ran in
first-run syndication. Somers portrayed a widow with two young children who decided to fill the shoes of her late husband, a sheriff of a
Nevada town. The show ran for two seasons. In 1990, Somers returned to network television, appearing in numerous guest roles and made-for-TV movies. In 1991 a two-hour biographical film of Somers, starring the actress herself, entitled
Keeping Secrets, based on her first autobiography of the same title, was broadcast on ABC. The movie chronicled Somers' troubled family life and upbringing, along with her subsequent rise to fame. In 1994, Somers launched a daytime talk show titled
Suzanne Somers, which lasted one season.
Step By Step continued on ABC until the end of its sixth season in 1997, when the series moved to CBS for what turned out to be its final season. From 1997 to 1999, Somers co-hosted the revised
Candid Camera show, when CBS revived it with
Peter Funt. In the 2000s, Somers appeared on the
Home Shopping Network for more than 25 hours per month, selling household items, clothing and jewelry that she designed. In the summer of 2005, Somers made her Broadway theatre debut in a one-woman show,
The Blonde in the Thunderbird, a collection of stories about her life and career, based on her books,
Keeping Secrets and
After the Fall, by Somers. The show was supposed to run from 8 July until 3 September 2005, but was cancelled in less than a week after poor reviews and disappointing ticket sales. The
Associated Press referred to it as "an extended therapy session crossed with a tacky Las Vegas revue – minus the other showgirls". She compared her treatment by critics with the treatment of soldiers in the
Iraq War, prompting even more criticism. In 2012, Somers began an online video talk show,
Suzanne Somers Breaking Through, at
CafeMom. Three of the episodes featured a reunion and reconciliation with former ''Three's Company'' co-star
Joyce DeWitt; the two had not seen nor spoken to each other in 31 years. Somers and Dewitt briefly discussed John Ritter and how glad they were they both had spoken with him shortly before his sudden death. On February 24, 2015, Somers was announced as one of the stars participating on the
20th season of
Dancing with the Stars. Her partner was professional dancer
Tony Dovolani. Somers and Dovolani were eliminated in the fifth week of competition and finished in 9th place. In May and June 2015, Somers starred in "Suzanne Sizzles" at the
Westgate Las Vegas. ==Medical views==