Humphrey Barclay became Head of Comedy at LWT in 1977 and supervised various successful series including "No, Honestly", "A Fine Romance" (1981–84). In May 1980 he unveiled "Metal Mickey" as a show "with the appeal of "Star Wars", the Daleks and "Mork and Mindy"" Following criticism at the Edinburgh International Television Festival of what was seen as casual racism the LWT series "Mind Your Language" (1977–79; 1986), Barclay commissioned "No Problem!", transmitted by Channel 4 during 1983–85, the first original black-made sitcom for British TV (an earlier series featuring a black family, "The Fosters" (ITV, 1976–77), had been a remake of a
John Ritter series "The Waltons" from October 1972 to December 1976. Since he was not a weekly cast member, he had time to pursue other roles, which he did until December 1976, when he left for a starring role in the hit ABC sitcom "Three's Company" (the Americanized version of the 1970s British Thames Television series "Man About the House") in 1977. In 1978, Ritter played Ringo Starr's manager on the TV special "Ringo". In 1982, Ritter provided the voice of Peter Dickinson in "The Flight of Dragons". Ritter became a household name playing struggling culinary student Jack Tripper with two female