So Why is John Ritter's death...

[HeadRusch]

...bothering me so damn much.

At a recent drunken gathering of a bunch of my peers, we were discussing life events in general and John Ritter came up.  And the general concensus was that for some damn strange reason, when we heard about most celebrities dying we go "wow that sucks" and move on..but John Ritter just bummed EVERYONEONE OUT.

It was like a 2nd cousin had died or something.....not quite enough to stop you in your tracks and make you sob, but not so distant that you can easily dismiss it....it lingered!

Now the funny thing is that 3's Company totally sucked...I mean I was like 8, 9, 10 in those days and the whole sexual humor thing really did escape me back then...today I can't watch it because, well, like any show from the 70's the studio audience and $20.00 cheezola sets make me cringe......back in the 70's and 80's, give me BattleStar Galactica any day!!!  I saw like 30 seconds of Problem Child...and I hadn't even seen John Ritter on TV in...well...probably since the 80's!!!  So...why did the fact that he dropped dead bother me so much??

I started to think about it, and I came to this conclusion:

John Ritter is probably one of the few people on TV who never did anything but smile.  The guy when interviewed was always the clown...he was always a nice friendly guy.  And by all accounts, he was exactly the same way off the air.

He wasn't out punchin reporters in the face after getting trashed at some LA strip Club, he wasn't out whoring himself to every movie or TV show that he could, ..he even managed to totally ignore all the in-fighting that makes for E! Hollywood True STories these days  regarding Three's Company.  He never showed up on Leno or Letterman coked up....but he didn't come across as "wholesome" and "dull" as other "nice guy" stars on TV........he just had that right balance of personality without having an ego.
His new show was starting to get a following and you sorta had to feel good for the guy, he was making it happen again...

He seemed almost innocent...or at least better than your average crop of sarcastic on-TV crap comedians.....just a regular, likable, befuddled kinda guy.  The kinda guy who, if he were your real neighbor, would probably invite you over for pie, and not build up a 30 foot fence and have his security guards harass you when your dog crapped near his electric fence.

In other words...he didn't deserve to die.  And in this world of 24 hour newschannels bombarding us with negativity every minute, TV shows that show death and destruction and "The way life really is!" (Bah!), those abyssmal "reality" shows where it proves we, as human beings, will act any way and do any thing to make a buck and try to get the world to notice us......well, we need more John Ritters on TV to balance all that out.  

And now he's gone, and man....it still bums me out.  *sigh*..oh well...whaddya gonna do....guess the next time I see a 3's company rerun, I'll probably stop and watch it and think to myself "I can't believe this guy is dead already".

[Apollo]

I agree, when I heard I told my wife and we cried about it for gods sake!
I don't really understand it but it must be something to do with him always being there on the TV. He has done so much work and we all grew up watching him all the time. And he just seems like a nice regular guy.
Very sad...

[shmokes]

You cried about it???  

I didn't even cry when Walter Matthau or Douglas Adams died.  Of course, I never actually knew either of them, but both made me smile a lot more than John Ritter.  Don't get me wrong, it's really sad when anybody dies young and John Ritter is no exception, but there are a hell of a lot sadder things going on.  If I cried every time some random celebrity died I don't know how I would even survive with places in the world like Bosnia or Somolia or Israel.  

I don't want to make light of your pain, but seriously, one of the guys who invented Tetris snapped one day and murdered his wife and two small children while they slept by smashing their heads with a hammer.  He then killed himself.  It's sad that John Ritter died early, but if you didn't know him, it's not THAT sad.  Not compared to just about anything else.

I'm sorry.  That was mean.  

[Apollo]

No it wasn't mean. I thought it was ridiculous to.
I probably said that wrong anyway, we didn't actually cry. It was just a slightly moist eyed moment. It just took me by surprise that I would get that upset over someone who I don't know who lives on the other side of the world and is just an actor.
It was just weird is all.

[HeadRusch]

If Suzanne Somers or Joyce DeWitt had died, I doubt I'd have even batted an eye.  But for some damn reason, the death of John Ritter just *bothers* me.....and its hard to figure out why.   I think it all comes back to him being just a regular nice guy, kinda like the guy who got left behind cuz he gave up his seat to someone else who needed it more, that kinda thing....

I would have to think the last time a celebrity died that actually AFFECTED more than "oh that sucks, hey you got any Dorito's?", was when Kurt Cobain blew his head off.  I think I was sad because I knew he'd never live up to his potential.....kinda like how music would have been changed had he lived..or had Morrison lived...or Hendrix.....or Wham.....<Sniff><choke>..but I digress

Yeah, I know its silly, thats the whole point.......Dying young sucks, Dying young SUDDENLY *really* sucks...new wife, new family, new show and his name getting back in the headlines and stuff......dude never even got a chance to say goodbye......too bad.

[Magnet_Eye]

Yes, it sucks. Mostly cuz it was unexpected. Now, what about Johnny Cash!? The Man in Black is a damn legend!  

[Dartful Dodger]

Walter Matthau is dead?

That sucks.

[HeadRusch]

Yeah, Matthau died awhile ago actually......

Whats scary is that Don Knotts has outlived John Ritter!!!  And he looked ANCIENT back in the 70's when 3's company was on the AIR!!!
 

As for Cash, yeah its a shame he's gone, but he lost his wife..and you know anyone that age that loses a spouse pretty much loses the will to live, and considering his health and his age, it didn't surprise me to see him go.  He had a full run.....