‘8 Simple Rules’ taps Garner

The new look and approach for ABC’s “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter” are becoming clearer, with the network announcing Thursday that veteran movie and television star James Garner will be appearing on the sitcom in a four-episode arc when the series returns in November.

The comedy began reruns this past Tuesday after airing the three episodes that the show’s star, John Ritter, taped before his death of a heart ailment on Sept. 11. When the series returns, it will now focus on the Hennessy family coping with the sudden death of Ritter’s character, a sportswriter with two teenager girls and a son.

Garner, who began his TV career in 1957 on ABC in “Maverick” and won an Emmy in 1977 for “The Rockford Files,” will play the father of newly widowed Cate Hennessy (Katey Sagal), who arrives to help his daughter and the three children during their time of grief and adjustment. Garner’s character’s estranged wife (not yet cast) also will appear in at least one of the four episodes that will air during the November sweeps. Garner’s first episode will either air Nov. 4 or 11.