8 Simple Rules

8 Simple Rules (originally 8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter) is an American television sitcom originally starring John Ritter and Katey Sagal as middle-class parents Paul and Cate Hennessy, raising their three children. Kaley Cuoco, Amy Davidson, and Martin Spanjers co-starred as their teenage kids: Bridget, Kerry, and Rory. The series ran on ABC from September 17, 2002, to April 15, 2005. The first season focused on Paul being left in charge of the children after Cate takes a full-time job as a nurse, with comedic emphasis on his often strict rules concerning his daughters and dating. The series' name and premise were derived from the book 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter by W. Bruce Cameron.

While 8 Simple Rules was renewed for a second season and production had begun, Ritter's sudden death on September 11, 2003, left the series in an uncertain position. After a hiatus, the series returned and killed off his character. James Garner and David Spade later joined the main cast as Cate's father Jim Egan and her nephew C.J. Barnes. In May 2005, after three seasons, ABC cancelled 8 Simple Rules due to low ratings.

The first three episodes of the series' second season had been completed when Ritter experienced discomfort during a rehearsal on the afternoon of September 11, 2003. Crew members took him to a nearby hospital, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, where he was misdiagnosed as having a heart attack and, as a result, his condition had worsened when physicians later diagnosed him with an aortic dissection. He died that night at the age of 54. Two days after Ritter’s emotional funeral, Disney CEO, Michael Eisner weighed in with an email to ABC Entertainment Chairman, Lloyd Braun, and President, Susan Lyne, outlining how they should resume the series; Eisner proposed that Cate, Ritter’s wife in the show, played by Katey Sagal, be pregnant (she’d had a pregnancy scare in an earlier episode). Then she could give birth for the May sweeps week. Before the TV executives could respond, Eisner’s number-two (Disney’s President and COO), Bob Iger, weighed in with an email, cheerleading his boss’s proposal. Nevertheless, Braun and Lyne were both appalled; they were still undecided about resuming the series at all, but to suggest that Ritter’s character would be leaving a baby behind was going too far. It seemed unspeakably exploitative to capitalize on Ritter’s death by making his wife pregnant and having her give birth during the May sweeps. After highly emotional arguments between both factions, where Eisner accused Braun and Lyne of behaving as elitists, the pregnancy pitch eventually faded.

Following Ritter's death, ABC announced that 8 Simple Rules would continue after a hiatus and would incorporate the death of Ritter's character. The three new episodes that Ritter had completed were aired with an introduction by Sagal.

8 Simple Rules returned two months after Ritter's death with a one-hour episode, "Goodbye", which was turned into a tribute to Ritter's character. Subsequent episodes dealt with the family's reaction to his death and how they moved on from it. The first four post-Ritter episodes were shot without a live audience with James Garner and Suzanne Pleshette guest-starring as Cate's strict but loving parents and David Spade guest-starring as Cate's wayward nephew, C.J. Barnes. Garner and Spade later received starring roles in order to fill the void left by Ritter for the remainder of the series' run.

Before Ritter's death, 8 Simple Rules ranked 42nd in the Nielsen ratings. After Ritter's death, it had slipped to 50th, but was renewed for a third season, in which ABC moved the series to Friday at 8:00 p.m. as part of its TGIF comedy line-up. The series' creator and show-runner, Tracy Gamble, left the series for a time over creative differences prior to the third season, but he later returned as a consulting producer midway through the season. Gamble was replaced by Judd Pillot and John Peaslee, who had performed the same role in the final season of Spade's sitcom Just Shoot Me!. The series plunged to 94th in the ratings. Even before the third-season finale's airing, rumors began circulating that 8 Simple Rules was facing cancellation because of Ritter's death and poor ratings. The Friday night "death slot" ratings took their toll on 8 Simple Rules. The third-season finale was not aired for May sweeps. The finale received a 3.9/8 rating share, which gave ABC a third-place finish behind NBC's Dateline (5.8/11) and CBS's Joan of Arcadia (4.9/10), which starred Ritter's son, Jason. ABC officially cancelled 8 Simple Rules in May 2005.

While the ratings for 8 Simple Rules were well above those of the surrounding TGIF shows during the show's third season, ABC canceled it because of a perceived inability to sell reruns of the show into syndication; a fourth season would have given the show one hundred episodes, traditionally considered the minimum number of episodes necessary for a show to successfully enter daily syndication.

On July 11, 2005 (less than two months after ABC officially canceled the show), The WB network announced that it would air all 76 episodes of 8 Simple Rules from 4–5 p.m. as part of its replacement of Kids' WB with the Daytime WB block, aimed at a broader audience. The show aired weekdays from January 2, 2006, to September 15, 2006, when it was replaced by Reba upon the merger of UPN and The WB into The CW.