I think you should experience life before you can recreate it.
— John Ritter
My father was a country music singer and a motion picture actor, Tex Ritter, and I sort of had a normal upbringing, except dad would come down in full regalia with the boots and the guns and the hats, and the horse would eat with us. But other than that, it was pretty normal.
We had - there was 'Laverne and Shirley,' but 'Happy Days' started off the evening, and then, you know, we just sort of swam along with them.
I am both so beaten up and bolstered up - I've gotten so many criticisms and accolades - that the fulfillment happens on the floor in front of the camera, not when the project comes out.
I would get scripts about 'a young swinging bachelor on the make,' and I said, 'No, I've done that.'
I've been offered a few movies lately, but I don't want to do a movie just for the sake of saying, 'Oh, boy! There's popcorn involved in this.'
Basically, what I'm doing is what I want to do. I feel very lucky. And very satisfied.
Me a TV star? I've got to be the luckiest guy in the world.
Once during a taping there was an actor who kept blowing his lines. It happened again and again. Finally Norman Fell came out-he wasn't even in that scene. But Norman came out and you know what he did? He killed the guy with a hammer.
My daughter did this production of 'Romeo & Juliet' when she was younger, and this agent said she should work, and I said, 'You know what? I'd rather just have her go to school.'
Neil Simon didn't like it too much when we came out in clown makeup. We stopped doing that.
I never feel frustrated. I really feel fulfilled and very lucky.
I met Harry Thomason when I signed on with 20th Century Fox in 1985.
I had my serious side - I idolized Bobby Kennedy; he was my role model. But so was Jerry Lewis.
One of the things about acting is you can always use your life. You have to recall how you are and how people are and how you relate.
Dad didn't wear the guns unless a report card came in that he didn't particularly dig.
If I found a cure for a huge disease, while I was hobbling up onstage to accept the Nobel Prize they'd be playing the theme song from 'Three's Company'.
Most people don't know that I am an accomplished dramatic actor... But I've performed in several Shakespeare productions including Hamlet, except in this version, Hamlet lives in an apartment with two women, and has to pretend he's gay so that the landlord won't evict him.
Sure, every young person dreams about being famous, but nobody wants to be famous - unless they're Zsa Zsa Gabor - every single moment of every single day.
The thing that is so touching about - I can come right up and call him Mr. Simon. The thing that's great about Mr. Simon is he really uses the audience as a partner, and they tell him what's working and what's not. So he's always working on a play.
My father would make record after record, and he'd be so surprised at what would sell and what wouldn't.
I don't have a temper. There's no fist through the walls.
I was the class clown, but I was also student body president in high school.
Basically, I try to look at everything I do as a stretch.
After you've watched your dad beat the crap out of Charlie King or some other bad guy in about forty movies, you pretty much always said, 'Yes, sir,' and meant it.
I knew when I grew up, I always wanted to be a liar, and if you're in television, you're lying because you're just pretending to be yourself much like I'm doing now.
