Garner joins '8 Simple Rules'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- James Garner has signed on to help the sitcom "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" through its tricky post-John Ritter transition.

Garner will guest star in four episodes of the ABC sitcom as it moves from a show that revolved around the travails of a harried dad and newspaper columnist played by Ritter, who died of a heart ailment last month, to a new focus on a family coping with the sudden loss of its patriarch.

The Hollywood Reporter said Garner will play the father of Katey Sagal's character, the widowed Cate Hennessy, who comes to support his daughter and three teenage grandchildren as they grapple with grief and the harsh realities of becoming a single-parent family.