ABC's
"8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" will continue despite
star John Ritter's death and will show the TV family coping with his
character's loss, the network said Tuesday.
"Everybody recognizes that John loved that show. ... He'd have wanted
the show to continue," Lloyd Braun, chairman of ABC Entertainment
Television Group, told a telephone news conference.
Braun and ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne said the sitcom will
premier next Tuesday as planned and that the network will air the
three episodes Ritter filmed before his death last week.
After that, the series co-starring Katey Sagal will go into repeats
while writers retool it and production starts. No date was given for
when the show will return to the air.
Ritter, making a TV series comeback 25 years after he starred in
"Three's Company," became ill on the "8 Simple Rules" set and died
last Thursday of an undetected heart problem. He was 54.
It hasn't been decided if the death of Ritter's character, Paul
Hennessy, will mirror what happened to the actor, ABC executives said.
Ritter's series, which debuted last year with solid ratings, was
considered a key part of ABC's comeback effort and anchored its
Tuesday night lineup of family comedies.
ABC knows it is facing a difficult task, rebuilding a comedy on a
death and especially that of the series' star, network executives
acknowledged.
"We're going to take it an episode at a time," Lyne said. While the
idea of recasting Ritter's role was quickly rejected, new characters
will be added at some point, the ABC executives said.
Although Braun lauded Sagal as a "fantastic actress" capable of taking
on a greater role in the series, he said it would become more of an
ensemble production.
Ritter's widow, actress Amy Yasbeck, and the series' cast and
producers supported the decision to keep going, Braun said. An ABC
News tribute to Ritter was to air Tuesday night.
A 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.
Comedian Freddie Prinze, star of "Chico and the Man," committed
suicide in 1977 in the third year of the popular NBC sitcom. The
network cast a new younger Chico but the show was gone in a year.
The rarity of such occurrences makes it difficult to predict how "8
Simple Rules" will fare, Braun said. "I think it will be a show we'll
be proud to put on," he said.
Each of the first three episodes already shot will start with a
special introduction, featuring the cast members. The next new show
will deal with Paul Hennessy's death.
"Future episodes will take viewers into the Hennessy household as they
experience the loss of a father and construct a new life together,"
said Braun. "We will play out the situation as real life."
Executives said they considered a number of options, including
canceling the show.
"This is a business," analyst Steve Sternberg of the ad-buying firm
Magna Global USA said of the network's decision. But it's a risky one,
he said.
"Initially, the show could benefit from the publicity," Sternberg
said. "But they will have to do it well. If they don't, it could flop
quickly and ABC will look bad doing it."
One viewer took immediate issue with ABC's move.
"I think it's in poor taste," said Marleen Madge. She was a fan of the
show but didn't want to watch it without Ritter, she said. |