Goodbye John Ritter

A fascinating gift to the morbidly curious, and a rare instance of death intruding upon the smooth running of the media machine. John Ritter (lead actor in the light but broad US comedy version of ‘Man About the House’, ‘Three’s Company’) was filming the third episode of the second season of another comedy series, ‘8 Simple Rules’, when he collapsed, had to be taken to hospital, and died of what was later diagnosed as an Aortic dissection.
Bless their hearts, the makers of this show took a mid season hiatus and then came back with an episode which did not replace Ritter with another actor but included the death of his character, mixing up their real and natural grief with that of the fictional family they had created together. Quite a challenge for all involved, including Kaley Cuoco, who would go on to delight us all as Penny in ‘The Big Bang Theory’.