Spade Digs in for "Rules"

Thu., Nov. 20, 2003 5:35 PM PST by

If you'd just suffered a huge family tragedy, would you want pesky David Spade to show up as a long-lost relative?

ABC apparently thinks so. The acerbic comedian is the latest high-profile addition to the post- John Ritter cast of 8 Simple Rules, signing on to do a handful of episodes on the sitcom.

Thursday, the Alphabet network confirmed the guest casting but said nothing was yet known about the exact character Spade would be playing, only he would be "a member of the Hennessy clan."

The show has undergone radical changes following Ritter's sudden death in September. After ABC decided to continue the show sans the star, it shortened the title from 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter to, simply, 8 Simple Rules, and brought in TV vets James Garner and Suzanne Pleshette to play the estranged parents of Katey Sagal's widowed Kate Hennessy.

Then, executive producer Flody Suarez, who helped develop 8 Simple Rules, was dumped from the show this week, according to Daily Variety, for "different managment opinions" with fellow producer Tom Shadyac.

Shooting on the sitcom is currently on hiatus for the Thanksgiving holiday, but will resume in December. Garner--the sort of relative you would like to have in a crisis--is set to film at least two more episodes as the gruff but kindly granddad. It is not clear whether Pleshette will be returning as his trouble-making ex-wife Kate's mom.

Spade, meanwhile, will likely shoot two or three episodes in mid-December for broadcast during February sweeps.

An SNL graduate, Spade earned an Emmy nomination for playing snarky Dennis Finch on NBC's 1997-2002 sitcom Just Shoot Me. His recent big-screen credits include Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star and Joe Dirt.

More than 20 million viewers tuned in for the first post-Ritter episode, a critically lauded episode in which the Hennessy brood dealt with the surprise death of their dad.

Since then, as the mood has shifted from tragedy back to comedy, ratings have slipped for the Tuesday night program. This week's show, the third to air sans Ritter, averaged 11 million viewers and was actually beaten in its 8 p.m. slot by the first half-hour of CBS' Navy NCIS, which pulled in an average of 12.4 million fans. Still, 8 Simple Rules did win in the advertiser-important adults 18-49 demo, beating Navy NCIS by 56 percent and NBC's Whoopi by 27 percent, and its average of 11 million viewers this season is still a smidgen ahead of last year's 10.9 million.

We'll just have to wait and see if drop-in Spade, whether uncle, cousin or step-nephew twice removed, can push the numbers up even more.

Print Share on Facebook Share Comments

View Next Articles

0 Comments

Now loading...

Add Your Comment!

Guests

E! Online members

Register | Forgot password?

Play nice and have fun. And please, no HTML tags or special characters including [&*#()!@$].
You've got 1000 characters left.

Post Comment

The Big Picture

Happy Meal Katherine Heigl and her crew have a bit of fun while grabbing some fast food

More Photos
GRAB & SHARE
Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.
Click Here

Our Partners

  • Huffington Post
  • PopEater

Get Your E! News Now

Text ENEWS to 4INFO (44636) for daily celeb news alerts

Standard messaging rates apply.

Did you know you can grab smokin' hot E! Online news, review and gossip through our RSS service?

New to RSS feeds? Learn more >>

Birthdate:

Enter your full birthdate:

  • Opt in for Breaking News Alerts

has been subscribed to the E! News Now Newsletter.

To change your settings, go to your preferences.

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.