8 Simple Rules / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Is Paul a Jerk with a Heart of Gold or just a Designated Villain that the show makes sure that Bridget and Kerry look better by comparison?
- Similary, Kerry. Sympathetic put-upon woman who has to put up with constantly being in her sister's shadow, being unpopular at school, and feeling constantly misunderstood by people around her? Or whiny egotistical bitch who always has to be right about everything, doesn't appreciate what she has in life, and drives people away by being so antisocial?
Broken Base: The episodes after John Ritter's death. Some people hated the idea of the show continuing, as the central premise was gone. However, some fans feel the other characters gained a lot more depth as a result.
Creator's Pet: Kerry arguably, though mostly in Season 1. Half the episodes seem to focus on her being moody because of Paul's attempts to relate to her and Paul continually learning to let her have her space. In the episodes after his death, she undergoes Character Development and becomes a little less one-dimensional.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- From the episode "Wings" in Season 1:
  Paul: I don't think I can sleep, Cate, my heart is racing. Here, you're a nurse, feel my heart.
  Cate: There's nothing wrong with your heart, Paul.
  Paul: What do you know, you're not a doctor, you're just a nurse.
- In the episode "Trick Or Treehouse", when Paul says that Kerry "cheated" with the ouija board, he says "I'm pretty sure Paul Hennessy is not dead". Talk about tempting fate!
- "Sex Ed" has a scene where — after Paul and Kerry talk about the awkward movie they saw together — Kerry says they'll have to wait a few years for their next father/daughter activity. Paul cheerily says "it's a date". He dies two episodes later. It's either tragic or a little funny that the aforementioned movie could have been their last father/daughter activity ever.
- Kaley Cuoco's leg injury occurred again in The Big Bang Theory but it was almost so bad she would need to amputate it.
- The fact that Katey Sagal and Adam Arkin's characters dated certainly seems strange in the light of Season 2 of Sons of Anarchy. In that show, Arkin plays a white supremacist who orders his lieutenant to repeatedly rape Sagal's character.
- Also in "Wings" Cate's story of being in awe meeting pioneering heart surgeon Christian Barnard can come across as this when in 2016, US Congresswoman Ann Mc Lane Kuster spoke about Barnard sexually assaulting her when she was 23.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: Ironically the Parting-Words Regret between Bridget and Paul — where Bridget's last words to her father were "I hate you". In 2018 Kaley Cuoco revealed that John Ritter's last words to her were "I love you".
Hilarious in Hindsight: The scene where C.J. mentions having a satellite photo of Osama Bin Laden's hiding place is even funnier now for obvious reasons.
Retroactive Recognition:
- This is Kaley Cuoco's breakout role. She would later get in on the final season of Charmed before playing her best-known role as Penny on The Big Bang Theory.
- Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester appears as Rory's prom date in a Season 3 episode.
Tear Jerker:
- The hour-long episode which deals with Paul's death and the episodes immediately after which show the family trying to cope all fall under this.
- In his introductory episode, slacker C.J. is flat out asked by Cate why it took him so long to come and pay his respects to his uncle. C.J. responds that he didn't want to, because Paul was the only person who ever told C.J. he could go on to do great things and he felt that showing up as a loser living in his van would simply be disrespectful.
- One episode features Hennessey's returning to "the Cabin at the lake", a frequent vacation spot of the family prior to Paul's death. Remembering the last time they were there, Paul tried carving "Hennessey" into the wall behind a painting, Cate removes the painting... And finds that all Paul had managed to do was carve "Hi" into the wall. Becomes a CMOF for C.J. when he whispers to his grandfather that he's scared by Paul's apparent message from beyond the grave.
- There's also an in-universe example that's this out of universe too; Bridget's performance as Anne Frank. The earlier parts of the episode are played for comedy, especially Lacey only getting one line as Miep Gies. During the performance, Lacey's line now shows her begging the Gestapo not to go in.
- Kerry revealing how she misses Cate when the latter is working at the hospital, and also how, like Cate, she wants to be a career woman and a mum, but she knows that the former would work well in Manhattan, but the latter not so much, while the suburbs have the opposite issue.
Wangst: Kerry was guilty of this early on, though one episode post-Ritter has her defying the trope. She is caught with a bag of weed and Cate assumes she is acting out over Paul's death. Kerry angrily replies that she is sick of people assuming that is her reason for doing anything. She mentions a day when the school food was disgusting so she threw it in the trash — and got called to the principal's office for a talk on how she shouldn't starve herself to feel better after his death.

YMMV / 8 Simple Rules

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