Twenty-five years ago that remark might have been accompanied by a wink and a leer. Ritter was then staring as Jack Trippers, the randy roommate of two single girls on ABC's Three's Company. These days, however, Ritter, 54, is speaking as a dad—and not just the one he plays on TV. The dressing-room walls are covered with photos of Ritter's real-life children Jason, 22, Carly, 20, and Tyler, 17, from his first marriage to actress Nancy Morgan and Stella, 4, his daughter with actress Amy Yasbeck, whom he wed in 1999. "He's got unbelievable kids," raves pal and fellow '70s icon Henry (the Fonz) Winkler. "He's a great father."
And a concerned one. Upon glimpsing Cuoco's underwear, he felt an urgent need to discuss it with TV wife Katey Sagal. Then Sagal, also in low-cuts, bent down, prompting Ritter to call a cast meeting. "Am I the only one," he asked, "who doesn't have on a thong?"
"John keeps everyone laughing," says Sagal. "He's paternal, but he's also a cool guy. Just by being at ease, he puts us at ease. He doesn't have any of that elitist energy."
Raw energy suffices. Though Three's Company departed in 1984, Ritter has never lacked for work. He starred in two more sitcoms, Hooperman and Hearts Afire, did TV movies, miniseries (Stephen King's IT) and feature films (Sling Blade, Tadpole) and has popped up on Felicity, Scrubs and Ally McBeal (which earned him a 1999 Emmy nomination). He also spent much of last year on Broadway opposite Winkler in Neil Simon's The Dinner Party.
"Acting fulfills him," says his wife, Yasbeck, 40. But when the pilot script for 8 Simple Rules came along, Ritter hesitated to take on the role of Paul Hennessy, a stay-at-home sportswriter trying to raise three feisty teens. "I didn't want to be [another] beleaguered dad bitching to his children," he says. What sold him was a scene in which his younger daughter asks if he thinks she's pretty. "I see her big eyes and beautiful expression and I open up my heart, telling her that, yes, I think she is pretty," he says. "Then she goes, 'What do you know? You're like 100.' And I thought, oh, that's profound. That's really how life is with kids."
Ritter ought to know. At his sprawling Beverly Hills house, preschooler Stella is "good at working me," he says. "She'll say something like 'Stupid daddy,' and I'll turn and say, 'What?' And she'll go, 'Super daddy.' "
As for his older kids, Jason, a New York University grad, is an actor who's now shooting Freddie vs. Jason. Carly is a student at Vassar, and Tyler is a star shortstop on his high school baseball team. "I don't want him to live my broken dreams, but it would be nice if he played shortstop for the Dodgers," quips his dad.
Actually Ritter's childhood fantasy was to play first base and then win election to the U.S. Senate. The younger of two sons of Tex Ritter, the '50s singing cowboy star, and Dorothy Fay, a part-time actress, John and his brother Tom, now 56 and a lawyer, spent summers touring with their parents. "We went to fairgrounds, rodeos and auditoriums all over America," he says.
Back home in L.A., he was elected student body president at Hollywood High before enrolling at USC, where he began as a psychology major intent on a political career. Disheartened by the King and Kennedy assassinations in 1968, he switched to theater arts. After graduating in 1971, he spent the summer in regional theater. "I remember thinking this is what I want to do for the rest of my life."
While nabbing guest shots on series like The Waltons, he heeded the advice of his father (who died in 1973): "Just don't get too cocky." He kept his head even when Three's Company became the hottest show on TV. "John's all about not taking life too seriously," says Three's costar Joyce DeWitt. "There were days we went home from rehearsal with our cheeks sore from laughing."
The laughter abated when Suzanne Somers left in 1981, after holding out for more money. "There were a lot of hurt feelings," says Ritter. The two didn't speak again until 1996. Somers was then recovering from breast cancer, which "made me realize," says Ritter, "that all I care about is how happy and healthy she lives her life." He said as much in an interview for a TV bio on Somers, who thanked him in a letter. Soon afterward, Ritter phoned. "He said, 'I miss you. I love you. I'm sorry,' " recalls Somers. "I said the same things." She adds: "I thought we'd be friends forever. And I guess we are. We just took a little detour."
It didn't take Ritter quite as long to charm Yasbeck (his costar in 1990's Problem Child) once they began dating in 1994, about a year after he'd separated from Nancy Morgan. (The couple, who divorced in 1997 after 19 years together, "grew apart," Ritter says, but remain "good friends.")
"There wasn't anything I didn't like about him," says Yasbeck, then costarring on the NBC series Wings. "He's very idealistic. His philosophy of life is, if we treat each other's children like they're our own, the whole thing will work." In 1999 Ritter proposed. "I was 8½ months pregnant [with Stella]," says Yasbeck. "We were in the swimming pool and he pulled out a diamond-and-sapphire engagement ring he'd designed. I was so moved. I think I said something like, 'It's about time.' " They wed Sept. 18, a week after their daughter was born.
Asked if he's easy to live with, Ritter shrugs. "I would think not," he says. "I don't have a temper. There's no fist through the walls. But, uh, I don't know." His wife does. "There's nothing bad about John," says Yasbeck. "Maybe he's excessive with the TV watching. [There are eight sets in the house.] But he's the best kisser I've ever met. He also throws his socks in the hamper. What more do you want?"
Michael A. Lipton
Todd Gold in Beverly Hills
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