John Ritter's Widow Starts Fresh
Eight months after
John Ritter's death, his spunky wife,
Amy Yasbeck, resumed her acting career by shooting the pilot for Fox's
Life on a Stick. The family sitcom — debuting March 23 at 9:30 pm/ET — features her as the sexy stepmom of a 19-year-old slacker who prefers to live at home and cook up corn dogs at the mall instead of going off to college. You can see the first few minutes of the show before it airs, in this exclusive TVGuide.com.
video clip. And for Yasbeck's touching and often funny thoughts on moving on with life after loss, read on...
TVGuide.com: Your hair looks fabulous in the first episode. I'm a big fan of redheads.
Amy Yasbeck: [Laughs] Thank you. You are? It's funny, I ran into Marilu Henner last night at the airport, and today on The View, I was huggin' up on Reba McEntire, so you would've been going crazy. There was lots of redheadedness going on.
TVG: The coif looks especially good in the postcoital scene with your TV hubby in the garage.
Yasbeck: If you notice, I flipped my hair back on purpose. It was a little nod to Rita Hayworth in Gilda. [Laughs] No, I was actually thinking, "Get your hair out of your face — you're on camera!" But when I watched it later, I thought I could pretend it was a Gilda nod.
TVG: Last hair question: Is red your natural color?
Yasbeck: I've been a redhead since I had the technology, right after college. My mom was a redhead, so I feel kind of like it's natural. I own a beauty salon on the show, so if I'm ever doing a TV-movie on the side and I have to change my hair, we can explain it away because I'm a hairdresser!
TVG: Smart. You've obviously had a rough year. Is it good to get back to work?
Yasbeck: There was no conscious choice of getting back on the horse. It's not that. It's just that I'm an actress. It's my job; it's what I do. If I were a waitress or I worked in an office, they'd go, "OK, you've been off for eight months now. It's time to come back to work." You know what I mean? I don't think you should have any special privileges when you have a loss in your life just because you're an actor.
TVG: Does work help keep you in good spirits, though?
Yasbeck: My main inspiration that keeps me going is my daughter, Stella, and John's three big kids. That's where my main focus is. [Laughs] I just needed something to do while Stella was in school! I love the sitcom format just like John did. It's like a little play you put on every week... I wouldn't say it's a distraction, but for me, I wanted to be able to model the behavior of going on for my daughter. You keep going on. Having the world stop is certainly not what her dad would've wanted. John and I were actors, [in our projects] together and apart, and we loved the joy of that.
TVG: You're a stepparent both on screen and off. Did you draw on real-life challenges to play conflict on this show?
Yasbeck: I have nothing to base that on! I make the writers tell me how to do that. I swear to god, one of the ways I feel the most blessed in my life — especially now — is that Stella's brothers and sister, who are my stepkids Jason, Tyler and Carly, are some of my best friends in the world. I've never, ever, ever tried to mother them in any way. We've become really good friends, which is great for Stella. Especially since John has passed away — I thank god that we all had our relationships together before that happened. They've always been wonderful to me and to their sister.
TVG: You and John must have been proud of Jason's acting on Joan of Arcadia.
Yasbeck: Isn't he fantastic? He's such a good guy and a wonderful actor. Jason and John had that acting bond — John knew that it wasn't just a fame trip at all. And Jason has a wonderful work ethic like his dad. He's easygoing and very down to earth. I think he comes by it naturally, but also because his dad was a real man of the people. There wasn't any star trippin' going on in our family.
TVG: So why did you choose to do Life on a Stick?
Yasbeck: People were sending me scripts, and this one looked quirkier than normal family sitcoms. Then I noticed it was written by Victor Fresco, the guy who created Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which was one of my all-time favorite shows. So I auditioned, and they liked me.
TVG: Do you actually like eating hot dogs on a stick?
Yasbeck: I've been a vegetarian for 25 years. So I stayed away from the end of the set where they made the corn dogs.
TVG: The show's premise is quirky.
Yasbeck: It's about that limbo when you're out of high school and you haven't yet taken that leap to college. It's about love, life and disaster, all happening in the microcosm of the mall's food court.
TVG: I don't get it. Why doesn't the slacker kid just go to college if he wants to avoid real life?
Yasbeck: I don't know. It's not explained. Maybe it'll be revealed later!
