Tom Bergeron honored his late pal John Ritter by narrating a studying of a Three’s Firm episode in Hollywood final week that benefited the John Ritter Basis, which raises consciousness and funds analysis for thoracic aortic dissection and aneurysm.
Ritter handed away in 2003 from aortic dissection. His widow, Amy Yasbeck (Wings), has championed the inspiration for years, saving lives within the course of.
Ritter’s comedian genius is famous, and Bergeron is the king of dry-witted comebacks, as evidenced by his years of internet hosting on Dancing With the Stars and America’s Funniest Dwelling Movies.
“John and I acquired to know one another once we had been doing Hollywood Squares,” Bergeron tells TV Insider of the syndicated sport present he hosted from 1998-2004. “That’s once we acquired to know one another much more. I simply beloved the man. Who didn’t? We’d exit to lunch. My spouse and I went to see John and Henry Winkler (Glad Days) in a Neil Simon play [The Dinner Party] in New York.”
Bergeron additionally visited Ritter on the set of 8 Easy Guidelines (for Courting My Teenage Daughter), the ABC sitcom on which Ritter was working when he handed away.
“I used to be with John when he acquired phrase that that present had been picked up,” Bergeron warmly recollects.
“It was a deal with to see him in that sort of [sitcom] surroundings once more,” the Emmy-winning Bergeron provides. “We’d child that Paul Hennessy [Ritter’s 8 Simple Rules character] was the antithesis of Jack Tripper. What would occur if [Jack] turned a father, who had teenager daughters and ‘Jack Tripper’ confirmed updated them?”
8 Easy Guidelines introduced this concept to the display within the present’s first season in an episode titled “Come and Knock on Our Door” through which Paul dreamed that Kyle (performed by Billy Aaron Brown) turned a model of Jack Tripper and confirmed up at his entrance door!
“John was simply this splendidly optimistic ball of vitality, and a stunning, pretty man,” the host says.
Bergeron has stayed in shut contact with Yasbeck over time. “I’ve been on the East Coast for different [John Ritter Foundation events],” he says. “I truly flew in for this one.”
On the occasion, Bergeron narrated the stage instructions for a Season 7 Three’s Firm episode from 1983 titled “Going to Pot.”
“There’s this entire misunderstanding,” dryly notes Bergeron. “After all, misunderstandings had been the entire cornerstone of the present!”
Having pot got here with penalties when the present first aired. “Now, in 2025, they ship edibles proper to your home!” Bergeron chuckles.
Look ahead to the staged studying of the Three’s Firm episode, “Going to Pot,” to stream on Pluto TV (date to be introduced).