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Ritter passed away in September 2003 during surgery to repair an aortic dissection. He had previously appeared on two episodes of Scrubs and played the father of Cavanagh’s character and of Zach Braff, the series lead and Cavanagh’s onscreen brother.
Cavanagh’s story was touched off before the interview technically began; this writer counts “My Cake” as one of the best single episodes of a television series ever made, and related that to Cavanagh as he sat down. His response was touching, and seemed worth sharing particularly in light of the recent, tragic death of comedian and actor Robin Williams, which has left a number of talk show hosts scrambling to put together tribute reels to one of their favorite guests.
“It’s hard to know what to say because as an actor you don’t want to put yourself in the same sentence, you know what I mean?” Cavanagh said of Ritter. “I will say he was, not just by that show but by everybody in the community, so beloved and I think there was a lot of pressure on the guys at Scrubs, on Bill Lawrence, to forge a tribute and forge it quickly. It’s interesting you say that because I felt and I think we all felt the same way, that at least we weren’t doing a disservice to his memory. When it’s so immediate, it’s tricky.”
He turned to the other reporters to explain, saying, “For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, we were set to do an episode of Scrubs where John Ritter plays Zach Braff’s and my father. He passed away suddenly, you may remember that, and it was just such a complete shock. I think there was a sense of, do we just step back, or do we try to forge a tribute quickly? They forged a tribute and I thought it was tremendous. [Ritter was] just an amazing human being, you know? It was a very significant part for us, to be a part of it.”
