Meine wilden Töchter

I'm actually closer to the age of the son, Rory, but I can totally relate to the two daughters. A protective father, who's out to kill his daughters boyfriends, most fathers are like that. And most teenagers are stubborn and like to break rules. Its real life!

John Ritter from Three's Company and Katey Sagal of Married With Children were teamed as the Hennessys in 8 Simple Rules For Dating M Daughter. John Ritter's sudden death took the heart from this show sadly although they carried on with a bunch of new episodes with James Garner as Sagal's father tried to carry on.

Watching 8 Simple Rules I couldn't help thinking that the wolfish Jack Tripper from Three's Company was just the kind of man that Paul Hennessy from this show would have been warning his daughters about.

The daughters are the popular Kaley Cuocco and the scholarly Amy Davidson. He watches them like a hawk, there isn't a member of the male species that he doesn't view as predator material. Sagal just rises above it all.

Ritter could have really burlesqued the part, but he played it quite straight and the audience might laugh, but they felt his concern.

There was a younger son played by Martin Spanjers in the Hennessy household, but he was probably grateful the daughters got all the attention.

Tried as the producers could to keep it going, 8 Simple Rules had the heart knocked out of it when John Ritter died. Just one of those tragic things.

Treasure the surviving stories.

This show indeed has it all! The humor: brilliant! the drama: fantastic! the acting: better that ever! ABC has had some recent hits, but this tops them all. John Ritter always makes drama a comedy somehow, and here he does it again. Please try and watch this.

I live in the UK and have watched this sitcom in bits and bobs when it has been on The Disney Channel. And I really enjoy it, its a bit like an old-school family sitcom but updated and not afraid to cross a few boundaries.

When it first started it had it's full title 8 Simple Rules for dating my teenage daughter. It all focused around the dad's insecurity about trying to raise his two teenager daughters who were growing daily and how he couldn't connect with them in the way he did with his son. In these first episodes John Ritter's character dominated the show (and rightly so) but was pumped up so much that Katey Segal, who is one of my favourite actresses, was pushed to the sidelines until they decided to focus on the relationship between husband and wife as well as father and daughters.

After the untimely death of John Ritter I thought this series may have been cancelled but they carried on and I'm glad they did. Now Katey Segal's been given more to do and they've introduced two new characters one played by James Garner and the other by one of my favourite comedy actors David Spade (who I'm glad's back on TV now Just Shoot Me's finished). These two new male characters fill the gap in the parental hole for the dad. Where James Garner's grandad character is the strict oldie who wants to discpline the kids, Spade's character is the chilled out cousin who wants to be down with the kids and tell them how to be cool but also is looking out for them. These two characters demonstrate both sides of the dad but at the same time are conflicting views on how the mother should raise her children.

A great sitcom and long may it continue

Network: ABC; Genre: Family Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-G; Classification: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Season Reviewed: Season 2+

Unfortunately, '8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter' (based on the book by W. Bruce Cameron) will most likely be remembered as the last series that comedian John Ritter worked on before his tragic, sudden death in 2003. It couldn't have happened to a more pleasant and unlikely series. Before that startling jolt of reality intruded on its world '8 Simple Rules' was as passive and insignificant as family sitcoms get. A show that kept its head down, churned up warm and fuzzy feelings and got a few laughs in the process. From a purely creative standpoint Ritter's death slashed right at the heart of this show. It was him that was the star, he was much of the reason I was drawn to the show, and it was his impeccable comic delivery that was able to elicit a laugh-out-loud response.

In the wake of the tragedy, the show attempted what at the time might have been unthinkable. Not only continued without Ritter but wrote his death dramatically into the series. And they pulled it off - something without a successful precedence in a TV series. Katey Sagal ('Married…With Children', 'Futurama') was pushed into the lead role and after years of trying to shed her Peg Bundy supporting-role image she has stepped up to the task with steadfast assurance. The show follows the Hennessey family lead by Cate (Sagal), her son Rory (Martin Spanjers, little seen and limited to cliché one liners in season 1), and two daughters - the tall, tall, blonde, vein, popular Bridget (star in the making Kaley Cuoco) and (as trite as it may sound) spunky, red-headed, equally pretty Kerry (a great Amy Davidson) who the show couldn't even go for one season pretending she wasn't attractive and engaging enough to get dates. James Garner was brought in as Cate's father for a little insurance but wisely not as a replacement. I have a problem with the addition of David Spade to the cast, but I've never liked Spade anyway. His bratty nephew role here is just Spade doing his same old tired shtick.

I've criticized ABC in the past for recklessly mismanaging its shows for years - sending great shows on the chopping block far too soon - but in this case they and the "Rules" show-runners did exactly the right thing. Faced with impossible decisions no show should have to make they didn't turn tail and run as so many people wanted them to, but stuck it out and proved that even something so often looked at as disposable as a sitcom can still deal head-on with true life-altering issues in a genuine and intelligent way. More than that, it became a graceful love-note to its late star.

Family sitcoms are a dime a dozen, but '8 Simple Rules' is better than we're used to from the genre. It's got moments that are so lame and broadly played they are clearly only for the kids, but most of the time it is cute and kind of funny without being embarrassingly stupid, and genuine without being maudlin sap. It is familiar but in a warm and cozy way. It doesn't try to be artificially edgy or plugged with wacky dysfunctional family humor. It is charming, smoother, richer and more resonant as a character comedy without relying on condescending clichés ("the dotting wife and idiot husband" for one aren't present). Plus, it's ambitiously titled in a current TV climate where people think audiences get confused if a show title is longer than 3 words. This type of show isn't generally my cup of tea, but if you're in the market, '8 Simple Rules' is one of the better ones.

* * * / 4