TVSquad

This week, we're going to take a bit of a departure from the shows we normally cover. It's very rare that a show that puts out 76 episodes could be considered by anyone to be gone too soon, and yet I make the argument that 8 Simple Rules (for Dating My Teenage Daughter) is that show.

I'm also not going to try and convince you that 8 Simple Rules was one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, because it simply wasn't. It was a fairly standard, solid series headlined by a brilliant comic actor... and then it became something else.

I love seeing celebrities dressed up for Halloween. Some of them go all out and look rather crazy. A lot of celebs don't wear anything because they don't want to mess up their hair or be caught dead in anything but Prada. Once in a while a celeb that doesn't go the costume route will put on a mask, like Elvis Presley in this photo. It's one of many photos that The Daily Beast has in a new Halloween gallery.

Alfred Hitchcock doesn't really have a costume, more like a prop. You can almost hear what he said to the crew. Look, I'll stand behind this atrocious pumpkin structure and hold a broom, but I am not going to wear a costume.

Looks like it was shot on the set of Alfred Hitchcock Presents maybe (it was 1958)?

The two doctors who treated actor John Ritter after he went to the hosptial from the set of 8 Simple Rules... have been cleared of negligence charges.

Ritter's wife, actress Amy Yasbeck, sued the two doctors for $67 million, saying that they didn't do as much as they could do to save the veteran actor that night. The jury decided that the doctors were not at fault because nothing could be done to save his life after he suffered an aortic dissection. Defense attorney Stephen Fraser says that Ritter either didn't follow up in his care or didn't take his medication after a previous examination. The actor went to the hosptial from the show's set because he thought he was having a heart attack.

Interestingly, Yasbeck and her family have already collected $14 million from the hospital and other workers at the hospital.

John Ritter's widow Amy Yasbeck is suing two doctors who treated her husband before his death in 2003. She is suing for the potential earnings of the show he starred in before his death, 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter.

I'm kind of ambivalent regarding this lawsuit. On one hand, the death of a loved one is always a tough time and my heart always goes out to anybody who lost someone special in their lives. On the other hand, we have too many frivolous lawsuits in this country and suing a couple of doctors isn't going to bring John Ritter back.

I'm feeling a little melancholy today. This past Friday, a friend of mine lost two daughters in a senseless automobile accident. They were thirteen and eighteen; one having just started college and the other just entering the magical teen years. It was so sudden and insane that I can't really wrap my brain around it. As a parent, I can only begin to understand what he and the girls' mother are going through, but even then I'm sure it pales in comparison to the reality.

As I thought about this blog and things to post on television, I was struck by how death can have a dramatic and instant impact on a fictional show as well. Sometimes when an actor dies, the show is able to move on with relative smoothness, but other times there is an irreplaceable hole that just never seems to be filled.

Jason Ritter is best known to television audiences for his role as Kevin Girardi in the CBS drama Joan of Arcadia. His other television credits include Hack, Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as a role in the movie The Dreamer of Oz. Ritter is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied at the Atlantic Theatre Company. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He is the son of actors Nancy Morgan and the late John Ritter and the grandson of famed film cowboy Tex Ritter.

1. Where were you born?
Los Angeles, California.

2. How many siblings do you have?
Three. Carly, Tyler, and Stella.

4. Do you have any pets?
I had a lot growing up! My apartment doesn't allow pets. I want a dog though! I love dogs. Thelma and Louise were our two dogs growing up. We also over the years had a bunch of cats. First we had Pippi, who my sister named (The Pippi Longstocking movie had just come out), and Pippi had two kittens, that my brother and I each got to name. I named mine "Fluffy," because I'm sooo creative, and my brother named his "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ghostbuster," who was also known to the rest of us as "patches."

Here are the new TV DVDs in stores tomorrow.

• The Benny Hill Show - Hill's Angels, Set 6
• The Big Valley - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Dallas - Season 6
• I Dream of Jeannie - Season 3
• Law and Order: SVU - Season 3
• Lucky Louie - Complete Series
• Murder, She Wrote - Season 5
• Three's Company - Jack's Favorites

The family of John Ritter has reached a tentative agreement in a wrongful death lawsuit with Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California. Ritter collapsed on the set of the sitcom, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, on September 11, 2003. When he arrived at the hospital, he was suffering from chest pain, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. In the lawsuit, Ritter's family claimed that doctors misdiagnosed him twice and he "underwent improper and unnecessary procedures." Ritter died that night of an aortic aneurysm. He was 54. Ritter's wife, Amy Yasbeck, claimed damages of $25 million. The terms of the settlement are not being released.

Oh, this is certainly good news for Newsradio fans: the long-awaited second DVD set is going to be released on February 28.

There will be just the third season in this set, but the third season is a good one, with guest stars like Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller, John Ritter and James Caan. This is the season that includes the classic Christmas episode where Jimmy buys everyone new Miatas (except Matthew - who gets tapes and the rights to Fibber McGee and Molly).

The set will also contain several commentaries, like the first set.

Correction: that Xmas episode is on the first DVD set, not this one.