John Ritter: Tuesday night, ABC broadcast the first post-Ritter 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter episode that featured James Garner and Suzanne Pleshette joining the cast as Cate's (Katey Sagal) estranged parents, called on to help the Hennessy family deal with the sudden, unexpected death of the wonderful man of the house.The special hour-long episode averaged 20.6 million viewers during the 8-9pm time period, good enough to easily win the night's ratings race on the official first Tuesday of the November sweeps. Some may claim that ABC aired it just to be number one for a night. They would be wrong. The shows's writers and network deserve credit for presenting a realistic picture of a family in crisis over the death of a partner. It aired when it did because it was a tribute to Ritter, his family and friends that did not need to sit on the shelf gathering dust. The timing was perfect.

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