Her life has been hard, but Yasbeck is sticking with it
Amy Yasbeck chokes up when she thinks about “Tubthumping,” the favorite song of her late husband, actor John Ritter: “I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never going to keep me down …”
“That was his anthem,” Yasbeck says of Ritter, who won an Emmy for his broad physical comedy on “Three’s Company.”
“Unknowingly, he programmed that in us, too. We get knocked down, and we get back up again.”
Yasbeck, 42, is back up again, promoting her first TV role since Ritter’s death 18 months ago after collapsing on the set of ABC’s “8 Simple Rules.”
She plays a mom of teens working at a mall corndog stand in Fox’s “Life On A Stick” (debuting Wednesday at 9:30 p.m.).
“The only thing I knew I had to do after John died was to go on with Stella,” Yasbeck says of their 6-year-old daughter.
“It’s incumbent on you as a parent to model life-affirming behavior, even after the most devastating punch to the throat,” she says. “You don’t have to like it, but you have to go on.”
Ritter’s son from a previous marriage, Jason (a regular on CBS’ “Joan of Arcadia”), wanted his father’s copy of the Chumbawamba CD “Tubthumper,” which contains “Tubthumping.”
“He has a philosophy just like his dad’s,” says Yasbeck. “When you’re doing something you love, and doing something creative, it’s healing.”
Her Hollywood friends knew this. She received many offers for guest shots and other roles after Ritter’s death. She thanked the people profusely, and waited for the right job to come around.
It was Victor Fresco, creator of Fox’s brilliant but short-lived “Andy Richter Controls The Universe,” who lured her back to television.
In “Life On A Stick,” Yasbeck and Matthew Glave (“The Wedding Singer,” “Corky Romano”) play parents of a blended family who dote on their 9-year-old son and generally ignore their two teenagers from previous marriages.
Fox executives like the show enough to give it a plum position, following the “American Idol” voting results show.
Yasbeck is her usual perky self, the persona viewers have seen on NBC’s “Wings” and WB’s “Alright Already.”
On the show, her 16-year daughter, Molly (Saige Thompson), rages with anger and angst over being neglected by her mom and stepfather. That’s 180 degrees from Yasbeck’s close connection to Stella.
“We have a very strong bond,” she says. “Thank God that came naturally to us, because it would have been too hard to create that relationship in the midst of a loss.
“She’s very intelligent, very creative and hysterically funny. She demanded honesty and the truth. It’s been a very healthy way to deal with (Ritter’s death).”
For Yasbeck, a situation comedy was her only option as a single mother. Sitcoms are rehearsed during the day, and taped one evening a week.
“The sitcom schedule is perfect,” she says. “I can drive her to school every morning, and pick her up after work. I don’t want to do anything that will take me away from Stella.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Karl Malden is 93. Mime Marcel Marceau is 82. Composer Stephen Sondheim is 75. Actor William Shatner is 74. Guitarist George Benson is 62. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 57. Sportscaster Bob Costas is 53. Singer-actress Stephanie Mills is 48. Actor Matthew Modine is 46. Actress Reese Witherspoon is 29.