WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE GOOD GUYS?

Thoughts on the passing of John Ritter

There was no going back to sleep when the startling news came over the radio at 3 AM regarding the deaths of both Johnny Cash and John Ritter last Friday morning. There was less surprise with Johnny Cash because we've all known that he hasn't been in good health, especially since the passing of his beloved June Carter Cash earlier this year.

But John Ritter, dead at age 54? That news rocked me. It isn't everyday that a star of a network television show collapses on his set and cannot be saved with the best of modern medicine. As the shock brought me out of bed I immediately thought of the three young people who called John Ritter "Dad" on his excellent show, "8 Simple Rules," Kaley, Amy, and Martin. The news was sketchy at that hour, but I worried that the kids who played Ritter's TV children were actually present when John collapsed.

An old and familiar ache crept over me as I thought of Donna Reed and Carl Betz, the television parents who raised me and were taken away far too soon. There is a brutal reality for kids on a family show that suffers this kind of loss, and that is the images and memories that will not go away. Most people grieve in private, and deal with the pain of loss in their own manner. Not so with "public kids." Just when you think you have a handle on the multi-layered mourning process an unexpected question from the Press or a Fan comes along, or you're sitting down watching a news program and there is the image of the person you love on the screen. How do you deal with that?

It wasn't long before I was emailing Melissa Gilbert, President of Screen Actors Guild. Melissa and I have often talked about the loss of our television parent, and I knew that Melissa's experience when Michael Landon died would be important if we were officially or unofficially called upon to help.

For the remainder of Friday, September 12th, a large number of people whose names you will not know constructed a safety net of heroic proportions as professional therapists and grief counselors, studio executives, and system administrators knitted a program together made up of pre-existing contingency plans that were largely unknown, new services and personalities that will last well into the future, and frankly, ought to have been in place years ago. The potentiality of this program was communicated throughout the Industry in a remarkably short span of time. Coordination of resources was the key.

The unexpected death of a major working celebrity is not, historically, a new development. In the light of September 11th we must not ignore the lessons of history. An in-place, permanent Rapid Response Team to deal with unexpected Industry deaths should be and must be fully realized. The loss of a key employee, especially one so visible and vital as a major television series star upon whose shoulders so many lives depend, has to trigger a comprehensive Industry reaction. The stakes are too high, emotionally and financially, to leave this to chance.

John Ritter's reputation and his standing in our close-knit community proved crucial to this endeavor of preparing a group of people and institutions to help if help was needed. Not only was John part of a family legacy with generational ties to Hollywood, he was uniquely, super-naturally respected for both his talent and his character…two often conflicting personality traits. John Ritter gave and gave endlessly, tirelessly, in a wide variety of pursuits. He was, in the short hand of The Business, "the real deal."

A "good person" gains that reputation over years of dedication and commitment, and the influence of an honestly decent human being reaches into many quarters. Celebrity status adds to the sense of loss because the very idea of "family" is stretched almost beyond comprehension. The length of a person's career, the status of current projects, and the web of personal relationships all impact the direction and depth of the grieving process. There is both the public and private grief process. No one escapes. There are career considerations for those left poor behind, especially when a long-running show is involved, and just to complicate matters even further, there is the always-difficult issue of dealing with professional children who are swept up in the drama of life and death in a cruel paradox where there is always a question of what is real and what is "reel." There is more to this than the death of a co-worker and friend whom you respect and adore and with whom you spend a major portion of your waking life.

Any production unit focused on one singular project is by any definition, a family. When the project itself depicts a family there is a natural tendency, especially for the younger and less experienced team-members, to invest the whole of the project with family characteristics. What's amazing is that no one in the entire chain…in this case all of Disney Corporate, all of Touchstone Pictures, all of the ABC Network, and all of "8 Simple Rules" Producers and Staff, plus the cast and crew…can escape being involved in John Ritter's death.

It doesn't get more real than this.

Since this is "real" and has happened before it is time to have a ready reference guide on hand and in place so everyone in our family knows what to do and what to watch for, whom to call and what resources are available.

I suggest that we create this disaster relief program and name it "The John Ritter Report." None of us need go through this again. Bringing some good out of this awful loss is exactly the sort of thing John Ritter would not only approve of, but also join.

In sadness,
Paul Petersen