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As a sex symbol, Jenilee Harrison wasn’t keen on stripping down.
The actress, who replaced Suzanne Somers on “Three’s Company,” posed for the June 1987 issue of Playboy. While she was ready for her close-up, Harrison was determined to appear in the Hugh Hefner-led magazine on her terms.
Harrison, 67, is the co-host of a new podcast, “Stall Talk,” where women of various ages, “from the boomer to Gen Z,” share unfiltered stories and wisdom from personal experiences.
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“It was in my contract that, yes, I’ll do [Playboy], but I have to keep my clothes on,” Harrison told Fox News Digital.
“So I show up for this photo shoot in the Playboy building in Beverly Hills, and I go into the charging room to do my makeup and all that,” Harrison recalled. “And the photographer – a very famous photographer – comes in. He goes, ‘You’re all ready to go?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, where’s my wardrobe?’ And he looked shocked. He’s like, ‘Your wardrobe? No, we’re doing Playboy.’ And I said, ‘No, my contract says I’m wearing clothes.’ He was just shocked.’
“So everything stopped,” Harrison continued. “He had to get back on the phone. They had to regroup and bring in wardrobe… He didn’t even know. But I had to fight for that.”
Harrison became part of a small group of pinups who appeared in Playboy without going nude, including Dolly Parton and Barbra Streisand, among others.
The self-proclaimed tomboy admitted she struggled with being depicted as a sex symbol in front of cameras. She wanted to be recognized for her hard work in showbiz, not just for her beauty.
“I looked at being a sex symbol as just a wardrobe I had to put on to go into Hollywood and do this job,” she explained.
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“Your wardrobe is your outside, but it’s not what your core person is, what your soul is. But I had a large wardrobe because your wardrobe is the tool of the trade. I would say at 10 o’clock I had to be a nurse. At 12 o’clock, I had to be a secretary. At 3 o’clock, I had to be a Sports Illustrated model. At 5 o’clock, I had to be a hooker. And at 8 o’clock I had to be a nun. I had to be all those things. But was I uncomfortable? Absolutely, many times I was uncomfortable.”
Harrison clarified that she felt “blessed” to appear in Playboy without baring everything. It’s been one of many surprising moments for her in Hollywood.
“When I was very young – like 19 years old… my agent called me and said, ‘They want to see you – they’re replacing Suzanne Somers on ‘Three’s Company,’” said Harrison. “I thought, ‘Oh geez, why am I even going to the interview? I’m not going to get a role like that.'”
In 1980, after starring in four seasons of the hit sitcom, Somers asked for a raise, which she said was equal to what her co-star, John Ritter, was getting paid. The actress was quickly phased out of the show and then fired.
By then, Harrison, a former Rams cheerleader, had already appeared in commercials, as well as an episode in “CHiPs.” It only took her one interview to secure the role of Somers’ on-screen cousin, Cindy Snow.
“When I showed up for the audition… I tripped when I was walking in,” said Harrison. “I fell over things and grabbed something or whatever. They instantly thought, ‘Oh, here’s our klutzy cousin girl’… How lucky I was.”
Harrison insisted she wasn’t fazed that she had big shoes to fill.
“I just live very much in the present,” said Harrison. “Luckily, I’m extremely disciplined… And whatever job I had, I looked at it in front of me and just did the work… And when I got on ‘Three’s Company,’ I was welcomed with open arms. They treated me lovely. They treated me like a little sister… And the girls [on set], we protected one another, and we supported one another.”
Harrison was eventually written out of the sitcom, but her luck didn’t end there. She later appeared in the hit soap opera “Dallas.”
“’Dallas’ was and is still such a joy,” she beamed. “And I worked with some of the people there… I remember visiting the set and Patrick [Duffy] was there with his boys. His kids started grabbing his shirt, and saying, ‘Dad, dad, that’s Jack Tripper’s maid!’ And Patrick’s going, ‘What are you talking about?’ The boys had been watching ‘Three’s Company’ and they were so excited. That broke the ice.”
According to Harrison, the cast of “Dallas” was keen to have her join their circle. Larry Hagman, who played ruthless oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, instantly welcomed her with his sense of humor.
She also saw a different side to the beloved TV villain.
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“He would not go out in public unless he had his hat on,” she said, referring to his character’s signature look.
“He had to have that cowboy hat because he said, ‘When I go out there, the people want to see J.R.’ He loved that character. And that hat was J.R. I remember one time we were all crammed in a limousine [heading] to some event. He left his hat or something, and he freaked out. We had to stop the car and everything. He said, ‘I need my hat!'”
Harrison said one of her favorite memories of Hagman was that, despite being the show’s star, he made sure to stay on set as long as he was needed to ensure the other actors could shoot their scenes with ease.
“Larry would not go home if his lines were needed,” she said. “Larry knew that the show’s success was not just about him. The show’s success was because of all the characters and how they interacted.”
“He had every right to be the number one star, leave the set and just have that air about him,” she continued. “And he didn’t. He was very down-to-Earth, and he worked hard with all of us. And he continued to work. His whole life… he’d still do autograph shows and be out in public. He never took his role, his popularity in ‘Dallas,’ for granted… [He taught us] not to take it for granted. It could be gone tomorrow.”
Today, Harrison is “living the dream” running a sprawling ranch. But when she’s not tending to her animals, she’s sharing stories on “Stall Talk.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a boomer or Gen Z, we’re sharing the most intimate, honest, relationship issues with ourselves, and we’re giggling, or we’re crying,” said Harrison. “But we’re sharing those stories… All of our guests just share real and honest questions about what women talk about when they go to the bathroom together.”
“The advice I always give [on the podcast] is go for your dreams, go for the opportunities,” Harrison reflected. “You have to persevere and remember that if you persevere, anything can happen. Anything is possible.”
