8 Simple Rules for the first season had a lot of promise of being a really good show that they could've easily milked out about 5-7 seasons from the show. But unfortunately the demise of John Ritter put the show in a situation where it would be impossible to succeed.
I'll give them credit they made a valiant effort trying to keep the show going. For them it was good luck they had the talented Katey Sagal in the wife role who could be bumped up to the #1 parent role. If they had just an average actress in that role they wouldn't even have been able to get through season 3.
As much as they tried to keep the show going the show just wasn't the same without Ritter it just changed the dynamic of the show too much. It was supposed to be about a dad losing his mind trying to keep his daughters under control. But once Ritter passed away they replaced him with James Garner as the grandpa and David Spade as the nephew to Katey's character.
I'll give them credit they made a valiant effort trying to keep the show going. For them it was good luck they had the talented Katey Sagal in the wife role who could be bumped up to the #1 parent role. If they had just an average actress in that role they wouldn't even have been able to get through season 3.
As much as they tried to keep the show going the show just wasn't the same without Ritter it just changed the dynamic of the show too much. It was supposed to be about a dad losing his mind trying to keep his daughters under control. But once Ritter passed away they replaced him with James Garner as the grandpa and David Spade as the nephew to Katey's character.