Trivia / 8 Simple Rules

• The Cast Showoff:
  • Katey Sagal got to show her singing talent twice in the show.
  • Kaley Cuoco, a former tennis player, got to play tennis twice in the show as well.
• Celebrity Paradox: In the episode with the Anne Frank play, Grandpa Jim says seeing the play was worth missing The Rockford Files rerun on TV that night. James Garner played both Jim Rockford and Grandpa Jim.
• The Character Died with Him: Paul Hennessy, played by John Ritter. It's implied that Paul died of the same (or at least similar) causes - with a line from Bridget about him collapsing in a grocery store.
• Creator Backlash: Katey Sagal states that she didn't like when the show quickly went back into comedy after Paul's death. She states that there should have been multiple episodes centered around grieving and the drama surrounding it.
• Died During Production: John Ritter was still working on the show when he collapsed on-set and later died after succumbing to aortic dissection on September 11, 2003 while he was rehearsing an episode for this show. This is the reason why his on-screen character Paul got written out by having Paul dying of some sort of heart problem while buying something at the store.
• The Danza:
  • Katey Sagal as Cate Hennessy.
  • James Garner as Jim Egan.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Amy Davidson was twenty-three playing a high schooler.
  • Martin Spanjers was four years older than his character. Rory is fourteen by Season 3; Martin was eighteen.
  • Averted with Kaley Cuoco, who was just a year older than Bridget, and turned twenty after the show had ended.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The first and second seasons are not only available on DVD but are available to stream freely on ABC's website. The third season, however, was not only never released on DVD, but is not available anywhere to legally stream either. In 2022, the series was added to Disney+, but again, only the first two seasons.
• Playing Against Type: Katey Sagal's Cate Hennessy is the polar opposite of Peg Bundy. She actually cares about her kids and husband.
• Those Two Actors: Ed O'Neill guest starred as a potential love interest for Katey Sagal's Cate, after the two famously played husband and wife on Married... with Children for 11 seasons.
• Typecasting: Kaley Cuoco as the bubbly blonde with most guys after her.
• What Could Have Been:
  • An episode was in the process of being rehearsed when John Ritter collapsed on set. Eerily enough this would have been the fourth episode of Season 2.
  • After Ritter's death, Michael Eisner proposed a plotline involving his character's widow discovering that she's pregnant, and eventually having the baby during sweeps week to rally ratings. The showrunners and producers found this disgusting and tasteless and refused to write the plotline, which infuriated Eisner, though he later reneged after the broadcasted episodes were critically acclaimed.
  • Plans for a spin-off involving Bridget going off to college were tossed around but never amounted to anything due to Kaley Cuoco joining Charmed.

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