Ritter & Sagal

A couple things to note about this picture: 1) John Ritter spilled coffee all over himself right before our interview. Note his collar. (Yes, he was a klutz in real life AND on TV.) And Katey Sagal was thoroughly annoyed. Seems moments before I sat down, some insipid fool-reporter brought a guitar to the interview and asked her to sing her answers. There you go, Jack Tripper and Peg Bundy, two television icons sitting in front of me. They were both delightful, really. Did you know in an episode of “Three’s Company” you can clearly see one of Ritter’s testes emerge from his boxer shorts as he is jumping over a couch? (True story. I asked. He confirmed.) And did you know Katey Sagal once sang back-up for the one and only Olivia Newton-John? My favorite part of this story actually happened several hours later off-set. John saw me in the hallway at the end of a very long day. He walked up and remembered me by name. “Michael, you did a great job today. I thought it went well. Did you?” Considering he had just met with 60+ journalists, I was floored. I stammered a polite answer and shook his hand. A few months after this picture, John Ritter passed away on the set of his show. He was a class act and a real charmer!