First, Fonzie. Now, Peg Bundy.
Jurors in the John Ritter wrongful death trial Tuesday saw actress Katey Sagal choke up on the stand as she fondly recalled her late costar.
"I loved John Ritter, so anytime I talk about John Ritter, I'm filled with love and sadness," Sagal said, per Los Angeles' KABC-TV. "You know, I miss him."
Sagal, who played Ritter's wife on 8 Simples Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter and before that worked Peg Bundy's leggings for 11 seasons on Married...with Children, was the second prime-time fixture, after Happy Days' Henry Winkler, to testify in the civil trial.
Ritter's widow, actress Amy Yasbeck, and the late star's four children, including actor Jason Ritter, are suing a cardiologist and radiologist whom they claim both missed a crucial defect in Ritter's heart that led to the TV icon's death from a torn aorta on Sept. 11, 2003.
Winkler, who was filming an 8 Simple Rules guest-star stint on the day Ritter died, took the stand two weeks ago. As the former Arthur Fonzarelli before her, Sagal described the final day on the set with Ritter.
At first, according to Sagal, the day was just a normal workday. Then, after lunch, Ritter began sweating profusely.
"I looked over at him at one point, and he looked like someone had put a bucket of water over his head," Sagal said, according to an L.A. wire service.
Ritter was taken to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, right across the street from his sitcom's Burbank, California, set, where he died about four hours later. He was 54.
Sagal testified that she went to the hospital that night to visit Ritter, only to be told he had died.
Jason Ritter, best known for his roles on the CBS series Joan of Arcadia and The Class, also took the stand.
The eldest child from Ritter's first marriage to Nancy Morgan, the 27-year-old actor praised his late dad, the Associated Press said, as "a great father and a great teacher."
According to reports, Ritter's youngest child, nine-year-old daughter Stella, was briefly introduced to jurors, as well. The girl, his lone child with Yasbeck, turned five on the day her father died.
Jurors also heard from Ritter's agent, who bottom-lined it, testifying that the Emmy winner's career was in full swing, and that, had he lived, he could have made as much as $350,000 for each 8 Simple Rules episode, not including what he would have pulled down had the show made it into syndication.
Ritter died three episodes into his sitcom's second season. ABC canceled the show after three seasons. In all, the show produced 76 episodes, shy of the 100 usually considered the magic number for a lucrative rerun run.
Ritter's family is seeking damages totaling $67 million, money it says the star would have earned had he lived.
On Wednesday, Matthew Lotysch, the radiologist named in the lawsuit, testified that the body scan he did on Ritter two years before the actor's death showed a normal aorta.