The show will continue despite the death of star
John Ritter.
Tuesday night is the season premiere of “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter,” and rarely before has the old showbiz axiom that “the show must go on” rung so hollow.
John Ritter appears in the first three episodes, which ABC will air beginning this week. (The show airs at 8 p.m. EDT) Ritter was in the process of making the fourth episode when he was rushed to the hospital, where he died of a heart ailment.
Within four days ABC executives had conferred with, among other people, Ritter’s widow, Amy Yasbeck. They decided that somehow, some way, “8 Simple Rules” would continue without its star.
The three episodes with Ritter will open with “a special introduction by members of the cast.” Though that gesture might seem a little unnecessary – as it is hard to imagine any viewers by now unaware of Ritter’s passing – it will no doubt be a tasteful opening, sincere and appropriate to the moment.
It’s what will happen after those three episodes that has led some viewers to question the sincerity and taste of the people connected to this show.
According to the show’s Web site, “Future episodes will then take viewers into the Hennessy household as they experience the loss of a beloved father and construct a new life.”
In a conference call last week, ABC executives admitted they were leaping into the void here. They did say, however, that the role of Dad would be laid to rest with Ritter, that his character’s death would be incorporated into the show and that maybe a male father figure, in the form of a close relative or family friend, would be added to the cast.
“I do believe it will be great television,” said Lloyd Braun, the chairman of ABC Entertainment. “It may not be funny television, but it will be great television. Eventually it will have to get funny again. The question is will the timing of that coincide with America’s appetite?”
That could be never if the e-mails I’ve been getting are indicative of the general mood of the show’s fans.
“He was the person the show revolved around, and nobody could replace him,” wrote Eva Ferguson. “He was truly wonderful in it and our whole family enjoyed him.”
It was that cross-generational appeal that helped make “8 Simple Rules” a hit.
Readers say that was all thanks to Ritter.
“We were the same age as him in the “70s, and we now have children of the same age with the same problems,” wrote Mike Carruth. “I can’t think of anyone who could take over for him and out of respect I hope the show doesn’t continue.”
Well, it’s going to – in large part because “8 Simple Rules” is the highest-rated comedy on ABC, and the network has $30 million of potential advertising revenue riding on this season. So stay tuned. Or don’t.
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Three new shows have their premiere Tuesday night, and thanks to good scheduling, all stand a decent chance of avoiding cancellation.
“I’m With Her” stars David Sutcliffe and Teri Polo in a charming little comedy about a schoolteacher who gets picked up by a big-time movie star. It’s supposedly based on the real life of the show’s creator, Chris Henchy, though this is a little hard to believe given that he himself is in show business and earning several multiples of a teacher’s wage. But we get the point – he’s married to Brooke Shields, so he arguably has knowledge of what it feels like to suddenly appear in the viewfinders of the paparazzi.
Scheduled immediately after “8 Simple Rules” at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ABC, “I’m With Her” will undoubtedly enjoy high ratings for at least a few weeks (an ABC tribute to Ritter last Tuesday drew 14 million viewers, more than any other show that night). And the show has promise.
The same can be said, I guess, of “One Tree Hill,” a standard-issue WB teen soap opera about love and basketball that promises to get better because it can’t really get much worse. Airing at 9 p.m. EDT, it has a terrific time slot (“Smallville” used to be here) and a typically good-looking cast. But it has no distinguishable stars and worse, for all its dramatic story lines, no real passion. Perhaps fans of the late “Dawson’s Creek” are ready for a new hormonal saga. I’m not.
Last and certainly least, there’s “Navy NCIS,” starring a jut-jawed Mark Harmon as a military crime-scene investigator. Airing at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS, it inherits the old time period of “JAG,” which has moved to Fridays, and was created by “JAG’s” creator. But if its idea of entertainment is a new domestic terrorist threat every week – as it is in tonight’s debut – no thanks. As for the stars, Harmon is Harmon, an acquired taste I never acquired. Trying to liven things up as a whimsical medical examiner is David McCallum, 35 years after “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
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Aaron Barnhart: (816) 234-4790 and TVBarn.com.
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AP-NY-09-22-03 1603EDT
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