Jack Tripper
Played by: John Ritter
- Attractive Bent-Gender: When dressed in drag in the Season 4 episode "Jack on the Lam." Chrissy's date found him especially hot.
- Camp Straight: Which certainly helps when pretending to be gay.
- Casanova Wannabe
- Catchphrase: "Oh lordy, lordy, lordy..."
- Chivalrous Pervert
- Cure Your Gays: Mr. Furley thinks his friendship with Jack did the trick when he moves in with a woman in the series finale.
- Faux Yay: Jack must pretend to be gay in front of the landlords so that he can live with two females.
- The Klutz
- Meaningful Name: Jack Tripper refers to the fact that Jack is a klutz.
- Mistaken for Gay
- Nice Guy
- The Pratfall:
- Punny Name: Just repeat his name slowly until you get the joke.
- Starving Student: The reason why he moves in with the girls.
- Supreme Chef: Jack attends cooking school for the first few seasons and later opens a French restaurant.
- Troll: Quite often when Mr. Roper makes a crack about him being gay (or sometimes just to get rid of him), Jack gets his own back by pretending to flirt with him.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Multiple episodes suggest that he and Janet might have a thing for each other, but nothing ever comes of it, and in the series finale, Janet marries someone else, and Jack has a live-in girlfriend.
Janet Wood
Played by: Joyce DeWitt
- Brainy Brunette
- Cloudcuckoolander: Although she's Closer to Earth than Chrissy, she often overhears things and Hilarity Ensues.
- Jerkass Ball: In the episode where she gets a blonde wig and starts to act increasingly ruder to everyone because she enjoys all the attention it gives her.
- Leg Focus: Joyce DeWitt had a gorgeous set of gams and always wore pantyhose on the show, refusing to appear bare-legged even when her character was supposedly naked under a towel. She even appeared in several commercials
for L'eggs. - Male Gaze: There tends to be countless of shots of her curvy behind, more often than Chrissy, even.
- Ms. Fanservice: Frequently seen in short skirts and nighties, although more conservative than Chrissy. On rare occasions (such as "Larry Loves Janet", where she wore a bustier dress), she made it clear that she could be every bit as attractive as Chrissy.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Janet was initially somewhat of a tomboy to Chrissy's girly girl, although this became less pronounced after the first season.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Jack.
Christmas Noelle "Chrissy" Snow
Played by: Suzanne Somers (Seasons 1-5)
- Brainless Beauty
- The Ditz
- Dumb Blonde
- Dumb Is Good
- Flanderization: In the first season, Chrissy was somewhat naïve but not really stupid; from Season 2 onwards, she Took a Level in Dumbass.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She may not be too bright, but she compensates for that by being very nice.
- Ms. Fanservice: The most of the show, frequently shown in bathing suits and short shorts.
- Preacher's Kid: Her father is a conservative Methodist minister, leading to the inevitable conflict over his daughter's decidedly non-traditional lifestyle. Amusingly, the actor who played Reverend Snow, Peter Mark Richman, is actually Jewish in real life.
- Put on a Bus: Following Suzanne Somers' departure.
- Punny Name: Which, she explains, is a result of her father being a big Bing Crosby fan.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Early on, she wasn't particularly bright, but she was somewhat ditzy and naïve at worst. By the end, she was so dumb it was a wonder she could get dressed in the morning.
Stanley and Helen Roper
Played by: Norman Fell and Audra Lindley (Seasons 1-3)
- And Starring: During their time on the show, Fell and Lindley got an "And Starring as the Ropers" credit.
- Aside Glance: Mr. Roper's specialty, after getting in a really good dig at his wife.
- Many times, this flirts with Breaking the Fourth Wall, as Mr. Roper looks straight at the camera (and thus the viewer) and smiles broadly.
- Awful Wedded Life: Albeit with occasional Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moments.
- Captain Obvious: Mr. Roper occasionally, prompting Mrs. Roper to reply, "Very good, Stanley."
- Cranky Landlord: Mr. Roper
- Iconic Outfit: Mr. Roper's cardigan sweaters, and Mrs. Roper's caftan dresses.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mr. Roper. He's grouchy, greedy, and often makes insulting comments about his wife and Jack. But deep down, he loves his wife, and cares about Jack, Janet and Chrissy.
- Put on a Bus: They move across town (and to their own spinoff show) at the end of season 3.
- The Bus Came Back: They make a one-shot return in the season 5 episode "Night of the Ropers".
- Secret-Keeper: Mrs. Roper finds out Jack isn't really gay in the second episode, but goes along with the charade in her husband's presence for the rest of their time on the show.
- Sexless Marriage: The Ropers appear to have one of these for the most part, much to Mrs. Roper's chagrin.
- Single-Issue Landlord: Mr. Roper will not stand for a single man sharing an apartment with two women. Hence Jack's need for Faux Yay.
Larry Dallas
Played by: Richard Kline (Seasons 2-8)
- Ascended Extra: He made a one-shot appearance in the first season before being brought back as a Recurring Character in Season 2.
- Casanova Wannabe: Could be considered one of the defining examples for the disco era.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Larry's singing is terrible, as Jack and crew discover when he inadvertently hires Larry to sing at his restaurant.
- Inverted in Season 6's "Strangers in the Night," when he sings while Jack pretends to serenade his Girl of the Week.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even if he makes a sleazy first impression, and occasionally schemes, Larry actually is a pretty nice guy, and he genuinely cares about his friends.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 4.
- Small Name, Big Ego
Ralph Furley
Played by: Don Knotts (Seasons 4-8)
- Abhorrent Admirer: To Lana, and many of the women he tries to hit on.
- Always Camp: His loud Seventies clothes seem to make sense only in his mind.
- Ascended Extra: Furley was originally supposed to be a one-time character, but Knotts fit in so efficiently with the rest of the cast that he became a series regular.
- Casanova Wannabe
- Catchphrase: "Now hear this!"
- Dirty Old Man
- Drop-In Landlord: Eccentric, frequently around, and frequently roped into whatever wacky hijinx the main characters got up to.
- Expy: He's basically Barney Fife in a leisure suit.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Like Mr. Roper, he is the only member of the cast who does not know that Jack is really straight.
- Unlike Mr. Roper, it's implied that Furley himself would not have a problem with the trio's living situation, especially given his own "swinger" lifestyle. It's just that his brother Bart, the building's true owner, would never stand for it.
Lana Shields
Played by: Ann Wedgeworth (Season 4)
- Abhorrent Admirer: To Jack, and she never takes the hint.
- All Women Are Lustful: Often considered to be TV's first "cougar".
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Appeared in only 9 episodes and was last seen in "A Black Letter Day", given very little explanation on her disappearance, and was not mentioned after the episode.
- Mrs. Robinson: Part of the reason the character was quietly dropped was due to John Ritter's complaints about the implausibility of Jack spurning her attentions.
- Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: Basically the whole idea behind her character. She was obsessed with Jack and refused to leave him alone, even moving into his apartment building to be near him. He, on the other hand, was not interested in her and would go to great lengths to avoid her. If it was one of the girls who had an older man chasing them, the situation likely would not have been seen as funny.
Cindy Snow
Played by: Jenilee Harrison (Seasons 5-6)
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Her primary attribute.
- Commuting on a Bus: In Season 6 she moves out of the apartment to attend UCLA, but continues to make regular appearances before eventually vanishing without explanation.
- Nice Girl
- The Cutie: A very sweet, bubbly, naive and approachable young girl.
- The Ditz: Albeit a milder example than Chrissy.
- The Klutz: Even more so than Jack.
- Leg Focus: While not as notable as Janet, Chrissy or Terri, Cindy did showed off her fine set of legs in short shorts quite a few times, a more notable example would be in the episode "Jack's Other Mother".
- Statuesque Stunner: 5'8" Jenilee Harrison actually stood taller than John Ritter in heels, and absolutely towered over petite Joyce DeWitt.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Justified, as she's Chrissy's cousin.
Terri Alden
Played by: Priscilla Barnes (Seasons 6-8)
- Contrasting Replacement Character: To Chrissy and Cindy. She may be an attractive blonde but she's neither ditzy nor klutzy like her predecessors.
- Hospital Hottie: Terri is a Registered Nurse.
- Meet Cute: A non-romantic example. She first meets Jack as a hostile, uncooperative patient at the hospital where she works as a nurse.
