As a child of the
70's and 80's, I thought Three's Company was the best
way to spend a half-hour in my entire life. I wanted
to be Jack Tripper. No, let me rephrase that - when my
uncle and I actually played "Three's Company" (our
version of cops and robbers I guess) I was Jack
Tripper. Although I remember us both thinking Larry
was the shit too and we'd fight over who got to do
spit-takes. Anyway, I believe a love for Three's
Company is a shared memory of anyone my age.
I however actually
liked "Three's A Crowd". I faithfully watched his next
show "Hooperman". Told everyone about it, no one
cared. Hell I was even excited about "Have Faith", a
show John Ritter simply Executive Produced. Everything
he did I supported, and would've given my left nut at
14 to be as cool as he was in "Skin Deep". (I came
close at 22 - heh).
I remember earlier
this year seeing him do a walk through on the local
news from the set of "8 Simple Rules" and it hit me
that we work roughly 2 minutes away from each other.
It really bummed me out that I was so close to him,
hell we probably share a common commute - but I could
never really say "hey". It's strange though, I
probably could've pulled it off. It seems he's more of
a celebrity to me than the rest of the world…
…I mean not
to rant here, as Johnny Cash was and is certainly more
influential than John Ritter, but the man was 71. A
very sick 71. It took me all day Friday the 12th to
even find one story on TV about Ritter. I mean the man
dropped dead out of the blue at 54! Then again, as I
talk to people about it, no one seems to be even
phased by it. I guess other than his close friends and
family, he just didn't have too much of an impact.
Kinda scares the
shit out of me really. I would consider the career of
John Ritter an incredible success. He was a bona fide
Superstar for the run of Three's Company. Yet his
career all boils down to a small story, and
syndication. It's not that I'm striving for FAN GRIEF
when I die, but I want to have an impact…and man
if the unexpected death of John Ritter is barely a
ripple…whew. What have you done for me lately
man. The cold, hard, truth.
Anyway, he
inspired the hell outta me. I will miss him.
On the DVD front,
holy shit there is some great audience reaction shots.
To laughter that actually looks like a guy about to
crap his pants, to a father and son side-by-side
singing the words to "Lock the Taskbar", to a couple
leaning their heads together during Sleep, Baby Sleep
- you guys FRIGGIN ROCK. You better goddamn believe,
every DVD I ever make (that I can control - don't use
this against me in 2012) will be filmed in Columbus.
The final piece to the DVD is being compressed as we
speak, and I'll be burning discs all night long
tonight. Expect to get your disc at the earliest
Saturday, but most likely Monday morning. Sorry for
the slight delay, but the extras I added (and the
extra time I spent adding more of your reactions) will
be well worth it. I was watching everything on the
plane, and I couldn't help but BEAM over how well
things came out. I mean there's even a part of the
show where Cameron makes fun of Adam for expecting the
audience to clap when they didn't - and YOU GUYS DID!
HA! Here's hopin' I have an audience half as good on
the 1st.. Shit, that's two weeks away and I have to
rebuild the towers and buy all new cables. (sigh). I
really need a mental break man. Every single day off
has been busier than my days on, and Ohio was hectic
as hell. There's no real end in sight though. Once I
get the towers rebuilt for the show, I have to start
hitting up managers and booking agents. I'm pretty
pumped though. With both of these DVDs in their hands
(or in their laps with my portable DVD player if I can
get an actual meeting) - someone's gotta jump. At the
very least, this is an easy sell to every damn student
activities director on every college campus on the
west coast. Only real concern would be monetary with
the expense of a tour. I just really feel I need to go
on the road with this. It's such a strange urge,
because logically - it doesn't serve a real purpose
for my career. It would help me get my name out, but
man could I even make a dent venue by venue? Whew.
Anyway - busy months ahead.
I'm secretly happy
about that though. Just let me bitch. ;-)
Adam
PS -
I've included the opening to
"Three's
A Crowd"
because I've never been so blown away by
nostalgia in my life. I truly
haven't seen this in 20 years. Most
people say that, about something, but this
is one case where this has NEVER been on
TV again after it's horrendous first (and
only) season. I found this online,
and couldn't believe how familiar it was
to me considering I was 9 the last
time I saw it. I remembered being so
excited about this new show - thinking it
was the greatest thing ever at the
time...incredible.
I had to download
the audio seperately and sync it up so it's actually a
bit off in the middle - but it's just such a great
little piece of my childhood. And man, didn't VCRs
BLOW in the 80's? I mean, the reception is
exceptionally bad here (you should hear the original
file) - but I remember quite a few tapes looking
like this from the 80's. Amazing what we put up
with.
