Katey Sagal Wasn’t Pleased With How ‘8 Simple Rules’ Handles John Ritter’s Passing

The actress wishes ‘8 Simple Rules’ had handled its tribute to co-star John Ritter in a better way.

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Don’t cross Katey Sagal.

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Best known for delivering badass performances as Gemma Teller Morrow, the tough-as-nails motorcycle gang leader, it seems to safe Sagal might have something in common with her fear-inducing characters, even if she seems typecast on occasion.

She also just welcomed a daughter via surrogate at age 52 years old. 

Sagal doesn’t just stand up for herself, whether it be on- or off-camera. She also backs her co-stars when the time comes around. John Ritter was one of those lucky friends of hers.

Katey Sagal: A Hollywood ‘Gem’

If you have seen Married…with Children, you are familiar with actress Katey Sagal. She played Peggy Bundy, the big personality with big red hair, married to Al Bundy. Her performance led her to a Golden Globe Award win for best actress.

When the show ended, she partook in several sitcoms and had many guest appearances. Her most notorious appearance is in FX’s Sons of Anarchy, in which she plays an intimidating figure who helped lead a motorcycle gang.

The role eventually won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series.

A Not-So-Simple Predicament

With so many credits and accolades, it’s easy to forget that Sagal also co-starred in 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter, starting in 2002, alongside the late John Ritter. She played his character’s wife.

The makers of the show decided to kill off Ritter’s character apparently to move on with the program. But that decision might’ve backfired, as it risks making the series looking bad overall.

Regardless, Ritter’s vacancy on the show continues to cast a long shadow. The series ended after three seasons, with Ritter having participated in the first season and the first few episodes of Season 2.

Ritter died in September 2003. Sagal showed she was close to Ritter by introducing the first few Season 2 episodes.

But she’s not vocally supporting how ABC handled Ritter’s sudden death at age 54.

Paying Respect to John Ritter

Sagal and other cast members implored the makers of 8 Simple Rules to address Ritter’s death directly to the audience, according to Sagal.

“We, as a cast, we really felt like, if it was going to go ahead, we wanted to tell it as a true story, like a family that lost their dad,” she said. “And that didn’t feel horrible to us. What would have felt horrible to us was just like, I don’t know, replacing him or brushing it off.”

She continued: “John was the center of that show. It wasn’t even about the show. It’s really not about the show. It was about losing this incredible person and way too early.”

Sagal made the remarks in September 2022.

She further stated that the show managed to get through the turmoil of Ritter’s death. Even so, Sagal still believes the show could’ve addressed Ritter’s passing in a more honest way.

“I’m really proud of the work we were able to do. Here was my only little thing: I think we rushed to get funny again too fast,” she said. “If I was in charge, I probably would have stayed in the reality of it a little bit longer. But I was super proud that we handled it the way we did. We got through it the way we did that.”

Coming Back Around

As it turns out, Katey Sagal is now heading back to one of the programs that helped her get famous in the first place.

Thanks to Futurama’s fanbase, Hulu is bringing back the animated program later this year. The new season will consist of 20 episodes.

It calls to mind times when Fox took Family Guy off the air due to low numbers but then had to court the show again after fans demanded its reinstatement.

Sagal provided the voice for one of the main characters in Futurama: Leela. She’ll provide the voice for the character once again later this year.

She continues to co-star in The Conners, the Roseanne spinoff that most recently enjoyed its fifth season.

READ MORE: “Katey Sagal’s Son Jackson White Is Following Her Footsteps

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