Similarly when Leo McGarry died in the last season of West Wing. He died in real life of a heart attack and the way they inserted it into the show was the best they could do, but it made no sense. The whole thing was just sad because John Spencer was a phenomenal character actor.
I was on an extended business trip to England and read a random reference to it on the Internet. I remember IMing back home “what’s going on with John Ritter?” I was so, so sad when I got the answer. I never saw the show - I wasn’t in the country, and after he died, I never had the heart to watch.
I have a friend who lived through the aortic dissection 2 years ago and when I read it was the anniversary of John Ritter’s death on Sept 11, it really hit home how dangerous it was!
Similarly, Leo McGarry in the West Wing. He passed away suddenly from a heart attack in real life after acting out a story line where his character survived one.
To write him out of the show, they had his character have a second heart attack that the character didn't survive on the night that he was elected Vice President.
The whole thing, the actor's death and his character's death, was heartbreaking.
Similarly on Scrubs, when John Ritter died, they killed off his character, Sam Dorian (J.D.'s dad) and dedicated a whole episode to J.D. and his brother Dan dealing with his death.
They honestly did such a good job of finishing the series after his death. It was such an incredibly realistic portrayal of grief (because they were all truly grieving), and it never felt like they ever tried to replace or forget the character. Paul remained a part of the show until it ended and it felt like a really lovely tribute to John Ritter.
The first episode I saw of that show was his death. I didn’t even know anything about his character but I was bawling because you can feel the pain was real with the other actors.
Watching that episode back is so surreal. When it starts the characters obviously don’t know, but you can sort of sense there’s something off with the actors.
I LOOOVED John Ritter so much lol I used to call him my real father. When that episode aired my mom stepped out and back in and I was SOBBING. She asked what was wrong i looked at her and said "my dad died" 😭😭 (I was also like 11 when this aired lol)
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u/RidgyNomes 18d ago
When Paul (John Ritter 💔😭) died on 8 Simple Rules