LOS ANGELES: Veteran television actors Suzanne Pleshette and James Garner will join comedy 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter "to help fill the void left by the death of the show's star John Ritter", ABC has stated.

Pleshette and Garner will join the show for a one-hour special on November 4, the first post-Ritter show. Garner will guest star in four episodes of the comedy.

Media reports stated that ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, decided to continue the show after Ritter's sudden death on 11 September.

Pleshette and Garner - who starred together in shows like Maverick and The Rockford Files, will play parents of widow Cate Hennessy, played by Katey Sagal, and grandparents to her teenage children.

The story goes that the grandparents are separated, but put aside their differences to comfort the family after the unexpected death of Paul Hennessy, Cate's husband, who had been played by Ritter.

Pleshette left NBC's Good Morning Miami, after starring in the first season of the show last year. She played Emily Hartley, the wife of comedian Bob Newhart's character, Bob Hartley, in The Bob Newhart Show which ran from 1972 to 1978. She co-starred with Garner in the 1957-62 Western Maverick, which launched Garner's career.

In the 1970s, Garner earned five Emmy nominations and one win for his role as private investigator Jim Rockford in NBC's 'The Rockford Files.'