By Joe Puccio
Although it’s not a four-letter word, regret is an interesting feeling to have. While the sense of sorrow or remorse over something an individual would’ve accomplished if given another opportunity or could’ve altered if time travel were an option is often reflected on, the thought is commonly dismissed, specifically by those in the public eye, with the stock answer of “I wouldn’t change a thing.” Perhaps due to believing it legitimizes work choices, possibly at the urging of a publicist – or maybe an amalgamation of both – the reasons vary. For someone known for being a realist, however, the reply is frequently different.
“I always hear actors interviewed and they say they have absolutely no regrets. Me? I have tons of them,” acknowledged Priscilla Barnes, during a recent conversation with Generation X Wire. “I didn’t have any confidence when I was younger, and I was constantly lying about my age. I didn’t know what I was going to do for a living. It wasn’t an easy road.”
Barnes was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey, the third of four children of a United States Air Force major father and a mother who was a homemaker. As a result of the family patriarch’s travel-heavy vocation, she rarely remained in one location for long as a youth and combined with being a middle child, never felt like she completely fit in. “I was a little different than my siblings. My parents had me later in life and there were a lot of years between us. I can’t say it was a particularly happy environment,” she conceded. “Everybody says youth is wasted on the young and I guess, in some respects, it is. But I would never want to be that age again. Not that it’s so great to be my age now, of course. I just don’t think I really hit my prime until I was in my late twenties and early thirties. That’s when I found my identity.”
The said identity that Barnes references turned out to be that of an extrovert. “I was regularly in different places and specifically, military bases throughout the country. I’d try to get attention, doing things like dancing on tabletops,” she admitted. “My parents didn’t know what to do with me. I knew that I didn’t want to go to college, I didn’t want to enter the military, and I didn’t want a nine to five job, because that’s how I was raised.”
Free spirited yet intelligent, Barnes wound up graduating from high school early and moving from Lancaster, California to Reno, Nevada, where she briefly lived with her older sister, entering beauty contests and taking waitress jobs at only 16 years old. “When it’d come time to show my ID, they would find out I was underage, I’d get fired, and I’d move on to the next club or bar. Eventually I ran out of places to work,” she laughed. “I moved back to California, in San Diego, and found more work as a cocktail waitress.”
Little did Barnes know that a random encounter in her new home city with Bob Hope, a regular at the establishment, would change the trajectory of her life forever. After getting to know her via his frequent visits, the entertainment legend offered her the chance to join his troupe for a 1973 performance at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. “Bob told me I’d be known as Miss San Diego, even though I didn’t actually win that title. Each night, I’d be on stage with him, trading one liners,” she recalled. “While doing the tours with him, I met Lynda Carter, who was Miss World USA at the time and we became friends. She had a commercial agent and invited me to L.A., where I started going on auditions and slowly started to get work.”
After taking classes with renowned acting coach Sal Dano, whose students included names such as Tom Selleck, Catherine Bach, and Robert Hays, Barnes scored the lead in the CBS action series The American Girls, which was canceled after seven weeks. “Debra Clinger and I were investigative reporters traveling the country in a van, and we’d often be in bathing suits and things like that. All these years later, I’ll never forget how the producers described my character to me – a fuckable Barbara Walters,” she disclosed. “It was the network’s answer to Charlie’s Angels.”
Despite its failure, Barnes remained focused, landing small parts on a variety of popular shows of the era, from Kojak to The Love Boat to Taxi, before securing her most notable role as Terri Alden on the smash ABC farcical comedy Three’s Company. Although her experience on the show wasn’t a positive one, she makes it clear that it had nothing to do with her co-workers, which consisted of John Ritter (Jack Tripper), Joyce DeWitt (Janet Wood), and Don Knotts (Ralph Furley).
“Don and I became very close friends. He passed away shortly after I met my husband (actor Ted Monte). He was so kind. His daughter Karen was actually at the Hollywood Show I just appeared at and she put me in touch with his widow Frances, which was beautiful,” she stated. “Joyce and I became good friends during the show’s last season and the two of us lived together for about six months when we were both between relationships. And John was a good person and always treated me well. What an amazing physical comic he was.”
The tension on the Three’s Company set fostered an uncomfortable atmosphere for Barnes, primarily due to the way the producers treated not only her but all the on-screen talent. “They made you feel like you were lucky to be there. One day it was Mickey Ross (producer) reprimanding me because my hair was too blonde. The next day, the wardrobe guy was complaining about me because of the clothes I was wearing. It was nonstop,” she remarked. “They were constantly worried that I was going to turn into Suzanne.”
Suzanne Somers, who was fired over a salary dispute a year earlier and initially replaced by Jenilee Harrison (Cindy Snow) before Barnes came aboard, was persona non grata from that point on. And even though Barnes had no connection to Somers, who played Chrissy Snow, she was routinely made to feel as if Somers’ behavior was that of Barnes’. “I went to ABC and tried to get out my three-year contract, and I was basically told that if I left, I would never work for any network again and I’d be blackballed,” she clarified. “It was oppressive. So, when you hear actors toeing the company line about how their sets are one big family, you have to wonder.”
Ironically, not only did Barnes audition for the role of Chrissy before it eventually went to Somers (she was told she was too young) but she starred in the pilot for the much-maligned 1987 sitcom She’s the Sheriff – after DeWitt turned it down – and before being replaced by Somers. “One of the writers, Mark Rothman, who was married, asked to stay in my one-bedroom loft when he got to town since he didn’t have a hotel yet. I told him it wasn’t a good idea and sure enough, he came over and wanted to sleep with me, which I turned down,” she shared. “Then we were in a meeting, and I asked what a specific word meant and he made a remark about me only understanding one syllable words. When I decided the show wasn’t for me, I didn’t tell them the real reasons. In those days, there was shame attached to being sexually harassed. This was long before the #MeToo movement.”
Surprisingly, the prolific performer never met Somers, who passed away in 2023, in person, despite their respective careers being virtually intertwined with each other. However, a meeting did, in fact, come close to occurring on one occasion. “Suzanne hosted a few episodes of The Late Show in 1987 after Joan Rivers was fired and she requested to have me on as a guest. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, so I decided to watch one to prepare,” Barnes explained. “But her punchlines were all at the expense of her guests and I knew enough that a good interviewer wasn’t going to treat people that way. Look at Jimmy Kimmel, for example. He is very funny but he’s not mistreating his guests. Perhaps if it were now, I would still go on since I do stand-up comedy and I’m more confident in that area. But I decided it wasn’t a good idea.”
If her tenure on Three’s Company seems like it left a lot to be desired, Barnes’ time filming Licence to Kill, the 1989 James Bond entry starring Timothy Dalton, was the opposite – her confusion about certain plot points, notwithstanding. “I could never figure out why Bob Davi (drug lord Franz Sanchez) kept that pet iguana on his shoulder,” she joked. “Timothy was brilliant to work with and such a nice man. A real actor’s actor. The first time I met him, he told me that if I had any ideas for my scenes, I should let him know.”
While Dalton was obviously the picture’s lead, it wasn’t until years later that the actress realized she was a colleague of an at the time up-and-coming celebrity on the film. “Someone mentioned to me that they didn’t know I worked with Benicio del Toro and I replied that I didn’t. They said that he killed me in Licence to Kill,” she marveled. “I then figured out that the skinny Puerto Rican man was Benicio! I remembered him as this good-looking guy, but I did not realize it was him.”
Dalton wasn’t the only of the select group of Bond portrayers she managed to share the screen with. “About a decade before, I did a movie called Sunday Lovers with Roger Moore, who was in the midst of his run in the series,” she commented. “He was a lovely man.”
These days, Barnes is keeping things fresh by taking on new challenges, including the aforementioned solo comic gigs, in addition to doing improv and even clown classes. “I meet young actors today who tell me they are giving it five years and if they don’t hit it big, they’re moving on. And I immediately advise them not to even start if that’s the case,” she counseled. “You have to fall in love with it and give it your all or else you just won’t make it.”
The glamorous thespian is also still acting, set to appear in the upcoming comedy feature Soapbox, along with David Duchovny, Jennifer Grey, and Laverne Cox. Additionally, Barnes is still active on the convention circuit, with what is likely to be one of her most fruitful expos ever, Chiller Theatre, this coming weekend in her original home state of New Jersey, due to the rare group presence of five Three’s Company alumni together at the same time. “It’ll be myself, Joyce, Richard Kline (Larry Dallas), Jenilee, and even Jordan Charney (Frank Angelino), who’s almost 90.” Unable to make the trip is fan favorite Gino Conforti (Felipe Gomez). “They tried but Gino is 94 and he lives in L.A. so he’s not able to come.”
With a lengthy career that is remarkably now in its 50th year, Barnes has learned to appreciate her life more and more as each day goes by. And even a recent back surgery could not prevent the determined artist from meeting her devoted fan base. “I found something that I truly love, by accident” she opined. “I’m very lucky.”
The Chiller Theatre Toy, Model, and Film Expo (Chiller) will be held at the Dolce Hotel (199 Smith Road, 973-969-1728) in Parsippany, New Jersey on October 30 (6pm–11pm), October 31 (11am-7pm), and November 1 (11am-4pm).
For a list of guests, click here.
To order tickets, click here.
