This Land is our Land: With Ritter at helm, ‘TVLand Awards’ celebrates TV’s past

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, March 11, 2003 | 8:27 a.m.

John Ritter was on his way home from work recently when he visited a bit of his past.

It had nothing to do with his TV legacy as Jack Tripper on "Three's Company" and its spinoff "Three's a Crowd," Detective Harry Hooperman from "Hooperman," or the less-remembered John Hartman on "Hearts Afire."

Instead, the 54-year-old actor found himself visiting the Los Angeles-area neighborhood where he grew up.

Ritter walked along the sidewalk through the newspaper route he'd worked as a boy. He came to the spot where he once fought a neighborhood bully after he had insulted Ritter's handicapped brother.

He even saw the house he and his family lived in.

"Here we are on the eve of a possible war and I found myself walking around my (former) house and in a way comforting myself with memories of the past. In a way, TVLand sort of does that," Ritter said in a recent interview from his dressing room at Walt Disney studios in Los Angeles.

"I remember 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' when I was 14 and the worst thing I had was a pimple," Ritter said. "Now chemical warfare is possible. So I think that TVLand is not a diversion or a distraction, so much that it's a reminder of a happier time."

Ritter will host the first "TVLand Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV" that airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday on TVLand and Nickelodeon (Cox cable channels 41 and 23). The show was taped at the Hollywood Palladium on March 2.

Ritter said he couldn't be more pleased about the assignment. With a TV acting legacy that dates to 1970 with an appearance on "Dan August" as a "campus revolutionary," it's not surprising Ritter is a big fan of the classic TV channel.

"I thought these guys at the network have such a wonderful attitude and are fun and not taking themselves so seriously and being respectful of the shows and sort of taking care of old-timers like me," he said. "It's just a wonderful place."

The TVLand Awards offer a bit of novelty when compared to most of the major award presentations.

The honors range from the serious Innovator and Legend Awards to the Most Amazing Cast Cross-Over and Funniest Food Fight.

Of presenting the award for the latter, Conrad Bain (Mr. Drummond on "Diff'rent Strokes") said sardonically, "I love my career."

But, really, what's not to love?

Swinging by the TVLand website -- tvland.com -- classic TV fans were allowed to vote on the following:

Catchiest Classic TV Catch Phrase, Comedy Theme Song You Just Can't Get Out of Your Head, Favorite Guest Performance by a Musician on a TV Show, Favorite Dual Role Character, Favorite Second Banana, Working Stiff of the Year, Nosiest Neighbor, Favorite Retrommercial, Hippest Fashion Plate (male and female), Superest Superheroes and Classic TV In-Law, among others.

Certainly, don't look for any of these categories from the Emmys.

As for the "serious" awards, they were decided upon by the network: Innovator Award,"All in the Family"; Pop Culture Award, "Star Trek"; Groundbreaking Role Award, "Julia"; and the Legend Award, "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

And just as the other awards shows, some fans will want to tune in to the 2 1/2 hour celebration just to catch a glimpse of their favorite TV star from yesteryear a decade or much more since their prime-time heydays.

Some of those in attendance included: Lee Majors ("Six Million Dollar Man"), Bea Arthur ("The Golden Girls"), Barbara Eden ("I Dream of Jeannie"), Don Knotts ("The Andy Griffith Show"), Barbara Feldon and Don Adams ("Get Smart"); William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan ("Star Trek") and much of the cast of "The Dick Van Dyke Show": Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Carl Reiner and Larry Matthews (who played little Richie).

Most looked older, some less steady when going up a small flight of stars to the podium, with one notable exception. Bernie Kopell looked almost the same has he did during his days as "Doc" from "The Love Boat" 20 years earlier (a fact made all the more eerie when compared to the aged appearance of co-star Gavin McLeod).

As for Ritter eventually landing his own TVLand award, he's not making space on the bookshelf just yet. It would be several years before his current ABC hit, "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" would even be eligible for a classic-TV award.

And his most famous show, "Three's Company," would win only under a strict set of circumstances.

Or, if "they got really, really desperate," as Ritter said.

" 'Three's Company' was always popular with the people. But the critics, while they were nice to me, they weren't really thrilled about the show," Ritter said. "We never got nominated for any awards. I got nominated for an Emmy and I won one out of pity, after about the fifth or sixth time. (But) they gave us a People's Choice award for 'Three's Company,' so people really liked it."