Before she was Penny on The Big Bang Theory or Ava on Based on a True Story, Kaley Cuoco played John Ritter‘s beautiful daughter in the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules, where they were constantly at odds over her taste in clothes and boys.
And it sounds like their roles were rather true to life, as well. Cuoco revealed during a recent appearance on Today with Hoda & Jenna that her first interaction with Ritter involved him scolding her over her outfit choice at their first table read, in true dad fashion.
“I’ll never forget I was wearing – I was playing the hottie next door, I can say that now that I’m, like, 40 — so I was so excited, so I wore this kind of very sexy outfit,” she recalled to Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.
She explained that she had never met Ritter before that day.
“I’m like, ‘Hi I’m Kaley, I play your daughter.’ He pulls off his jacket, he puts it over me and he’s like, ‘Never dress like that again.’ And then he sat down,” she told Kotb and Bush Hager with a laugh.
“He’s like, ‘From here on out, I’m your dad and you’re never dressing like that,’” she continued.
As they all laughed over the memory, Kotb asked Cuoco if she had found the moment “embarrassing” at the time.
“Oh my god [I was] in love,” she replied. “He was an instant dad.”
The ABC sitcom starred Ritter as Paul Hennessy, a strict father raising three equally unruly but unique teenagers — Cuoco’s Bridget, plus Kerry (Amy Davidson) and Rory (Martin Spanjers) — as they navigate puberty and dating. Katey Sagal also starred as his wife.
Ritter tragically passed away in September 2003 soon after the show began production on Season 2. 8 Simple Rules paid tribute to the late actor with a one-hour episode where the Hennessey family grapples with his death. It also helped introduce James Garner and David Spade, who later joined the cast in his absence as Sagal’s father and nephew, respectively.
Cuoco has always praised Ritter for being a paternal figure in her life.
“He treated us three kids on the show like his children. He loves his kids. His real kids were the apple of his eye, but he literally treated us the same,” Cuoco said at an annual gala for The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health earlier this year, per Us Weekly. “We always felt like family. That’s why we’re all here still 20 years later celebrating him, feeling like the family that he really created.”
The show lasted for three seasons until it was ultimately canceled by ABC in 2005.
8 Simple Rules is streaming now on Disney+.
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