ABC Faces Tough Choices

[Lor3nzo]

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - Beyond the personal tragedy, John Ritter (news)'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 (news - Y! TV)." ABC was using it to
lead off four comedies on its Tuesday night schedule.

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 (news), 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.

In 1971, actor Peter Duel (news) 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 (news) of "Judging
Amy (news - Y! TV)," Nancy Marchand (news) of "The Sopranos (news - Y!
TV)" 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 long shot — would be to refocus the show
around actress Katey Sagal (news), 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."

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