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| Personal Information | ||||
| Gender: | Male | |||
| Character description: |
Old longtime friend and rival of Ralph Furley who boasts of all of his accomplishments when, in fact, he's a worse failure than Furley in moving to Santa Monica to try to find work himself | |||
| Character information | ||||
| Appeared on: | Three's Company | |||
| Episodes appeared in: | "Ralph's Rival" in Season 4 | |||
| Character played by: | Roger C. Carmel | |||
Merl Denker is a character who appeared in the Season 4 episode of Three's Company titled "Ralph's Rival". The part of Merl was played by veteran character actor Roger C. Carmel.
About Merl Denker[]
Ralph Furley's old friend and rival, Merl was sort of an "frenemy", while still a long-time buddy. They always tried to outdo one another, oftentimes, lying, boasting about their accomplishments, many of them misleading or downright lies! Case in point, when Merl calls Ralph and says that he is coming to town, Ralph is upset because the friend has always been, according to his boasts, such a big success.
Thus, when he gets the news, Ralph, who wants to try to present himself as a real "big-shot", asks Janet and Chrissy to come to his apartment to help him get through the ordeal of lying to Merl about his success, telling him that he owns the Hacienda Palms Apartments, as well as several other rental properties, when, in fact he is only the landlord. When Merl arrives and starts bragging about his pretty wife, Ralph, on a last-second desperate whim, introduces Chrissy as his own "trophy" wife.
When Merl decides to stay with Ralph rather than stay at a hotel, Chrissy is trapped in the apartment, leaving her muscle-bound date Elmo (Reb Brown) stranded at The Regal Beagle. The date arrives at the apartment in time to hear Larry telling Jack and Janet that Chrissy is sleeping with Ralph. They all rush to Ralph's for a confrontation. Chrissy gets her date under control and the friend then admits that he's an absolute failure himself, and came to California to try to land another job, anyhow.