ABC to continue John Ritter's sitcom without him

[sher]

well, she's fortunately not pregnant. that would've sucked b/c it would have been SO sad.

[YCan'tAngieRead]

I was thinking about this in the shower the other day....(yes, I have no life...) I fear the show will fail without Ritter. He was so great in this role-one of the few ABC sitcoms I actually watched.

How badly must it suck to be the actor who will take his place? I was thinking that there are only a few ways they could pull this off...1) Not bringing in a "new father", and 2) maybe bringing in a "male figure" to assist Cate in raising the kids...and wouldn't it be bittersweet if that person was Henry Winkler?

Winkler's such a great actor and I certainly would watch it with him...and he's already appeared (I think...I can't remember for certain...) in an episode. And him being Ritter's real life close friend...it'd just be really poignent.

[JunkieGirl]

Did anyone catch the latest episode? OMG What a tearjerker!!! I cried almost beginning to end, it is soo sad to know that John is gone, and his TV wife caputures the essence of how it feels when someone passes on..........Puffy eyes and all, they didn't laugh or attempt to get laughs at all....and that is kinda sad, because when anyone in our family has passed, we share stories and laugh and remember how our loved one also chuckled....All in all very good episode, but definitely a tear filled hour.

[firegirl]

I did watch it , very sad, but I thought they laughed a little but just enough to lighten moments.

It will be sad the rest of the season. I liked Garner in the role of Cate's dad.

[SnowflakeGirl]

I haven't seen the latest episode myself, but I did see a few of the last two. Am I the only one that thinks it's incredibly tacky to go on without John Ritter? I think it would have been better to simply end the series with his final episodes and then maybe one other that wraps the ends up, but he seems so intrinsic to the show, it just doesn't seem right to me to go on.

I happen to like Katy Segal, and I wish her the best, but I'd like to see her succeed in a different project, to move on to something new.

[hepcat]

Ooh, I tried to watch this tonight but I just couldn't. The few jokes made it more awkward to me, and it was just a little too raw thinking about what really happened. I won't be watching this show.

[marybethp]

I saw the last 10 minutes and cried.

[Duxxy]

I saw the last 10 minutes and cried.

Ditto but I didn't catch what Cate was reading from.
How did the end up writing John out of the show?

[firegirl]

It appeared that he went to the store for milk and collapsed while he was there. That was all they said.
Cate was reading his last colum he wrote. His boss asked if they could get it and use it as a tribute to him. So Cates father got it off the computer and they were reading it.

[Duxxy]

Thanks firegirl, from what Katey read, it was a fitting tribute