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Topic: John Ritter's Death, Bad News for Colby (Read 497 times)

BlankWillWin
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John Ritter's Death, Bad News for Colby
« on: Sep 12^th, 2003, 8:51pm »

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Friday, Sept. 12, 2003
ABC Faces Tough Choices for Ritter Show

NEW YORK (AP) - Beyond the personal tragedy, John Ritter's death left ABC executives with an unprecedented nightmare: the loss of one of their biggest stars a week before a new TV season is to begin.
No decision had been made Friday about the future of Ritter's
comedy, ``8 Simple Rules ... for Dating My Teenage Daughter,'' a network spokesman said.
Three new episodes of the series had already been filmed and
Ritter was working on the fourth when he became ill and died
suddenly Thursday.
ABC could cancel the series outright, continue without him or,
considered less likely, cast another actor in Ritter's place. `He was the lead in the show and you can't just suddenly drop in another person, nor could you write a death like that into that
type of show,'' said Shari Brill, a television analyst for the ad buying firm Carat USA. ``ABC is really in a tough situation.''
ABC also could play reruns starting next week, save Ritter's
three completed episodes for the November ratings ``sweeps'' and end with a special tribute to the actor, Brill said.
``8 Simple Rules'' was Ritter's comeback vehicle, a comedy about a father's reaction to growing daughters that worked as a companion piece to Ritter's first hit two decades ago, ``Three's Company.''
It's hard to exaggerate its importance to ABC, a third-place
network whose latest comeback strategy is to try to build an
audience for its young comedies.
``8 Simple Rules,'' in its first season, was ABC's second most
popular scripted series after ``NYPD Blue.'' ABC was using it to
lead off four comedies on its Tuesday night schedule.
The only similar episode in television history came when comic
Redd Foxx died in 1991, after making seven episodes of his comeback series on CBS, ``The Royal Family.'' The show returned without him six months after his death, but lasted only a few episodes.
In 1971, actor Peter Duel shot and killed himself after watching
an episode of his ABC western, ``Alias Smith and Jones.'' A new actor was hired and the show lasted another season and a half.
Over the past few years, the deaths of Richard Crenna of
``Judging Amy,'' Nancy Marchand of ``The Sopranos'' and Lynne Thigpen of ``The District'' have forced writers to think of ways to write TV characters off programs.
``8 Simple Rules'' was sold to advertisers and viewers as a John Ritter vehicle and he was at the show's core, said Tim Brooks, a Lifetime executive and author of ``The Compete Director to Prime-Time Network and Cable Shows.''
``It would be folly to replace him with another actor,'' Brooks
said. ``In that sense, it would be hard to continue the show. It's like the John Ritter show.''
One possibility - and it's a longshot - would be to refocus the
show around actress Katey Sagal, who plays Ritter's wife, he said. Ritter's death immediately puts dozens of actors, writers and producers in limbo.
In New York Friday, former ``Survivor'' contestant and aspiring
actor Colby Donaldson was on a cell phone to his agent. Two days earlier, Donaldson had signed to appear in one ``8 Simple Rules'' episode, and possibly more, as a handyman. His agent had no answer for Donaldson. ``I would have loved to have had the opportunity to work with him and meet him,'' Donaldson said. ``But all I can think about is the loss to those close to him.''

Eric.

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MzWings
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Re: John Ritter's Death, Bad News for Colby
« Reply #1 on: Sep 17^th, 2003, 6:50pm »

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I heard a quick blurb on TV this morning that the producers are planning to have John Ritter's character actually die. :bigcry:

This is all so sad!

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