- Keep going.
- What are you--
That was my coffee.
- You got a good sound.
- [Jason] Thank you.
- Keep going.
- What is that?
A quarter?
- Do you know any Foghat?
- [Jason] No.
- Do you know BTO?
- What does that stand for?
- You're young.
How about Hanson?
Heard of them?
- Yes, I remember Hanson.
- Yeah, Hanson.
- Oh, I'm not a guy who's taking requests
and looking for money.
I'm not a street musician.
- Oh, well, I've given you at least 50 cents.
- Well, you ruined my coffee which was
more expensive than 50 cents.
- Play.
Play, peasant.
- What?
Ow!
I don't want--
- [Rainn] Play.
- What song?
What song do you want me to play?
- Are you Jason Ritter?
("Metaphysical Milkshake Theme")
♫ Take a sip from your soul
♫ On a metaphysical
♫ Milkshake
So, man, I'm super sorry about that.
I just, I didn't know who you were.
- Oh, that's totally fine.
It was a little weird that you did force me to play
several songs, though, after you figured it out.
- Well, I had given you some money, so, you know,
it's a give and take.
Thanks, Erin.
- Thank you, Erin.
- Thanks so much.
Okay, we're good?
We're good?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Metaphysical Milkshake
I haven't done one of these shows in a very long time
and look, I have a beard now.
I've got a very exciting young guest, Jason Ritter.
So, Jason, you may or may not know this,
but this is a magical van.
We can go anywhere you want to go.
- [Jason] Why don't we go to the Amazon rainforest?
- I love it!
(swooshing)
- [Jason] Ah, it's so beautiful.
(jaguar growling)
- Look at that!
- That is--
We're safe in here, right?
- We're gonna be okay.
- I forgot about all the dangers.
- Yes, it's a dangerous and beautiful place.
It's dangerously beautiful.
- [Jason] Yes, dangerously beautiful.
- Speaking of dangerously beautiful, who are you?
What are you about?
(laughing)
- [Jason] Thank you for saying that.
- Your father was John Ritter.
- [Jason] Yes.
- Television's beloved star, John Ritter,
who passed away, unfortunately, many years back.
But then, also, you're a third generation performer.
Tex Ritter!
- [Jason] Yep!
- Cowboy Tex Ritter!
- Cowboy Tex Ritter.
- Was your grandfather!
Do you play music, too?
- I do play music.
Remember?
I played right outside.
- I wouldn't call that music, technically.
- Okay, fine, that's true.
No, I don't really play music.
It's a hobby for me.
- Do you know any Cowboy Tex Ritter songs?
- Yeah, I know a whole bunch.
♫ Do not forsake me
♫ Oh my darlin'
- Don't worry.
I'm not gonna forsake you.
♫ On this our wedding day.
- This is our wedding?
I had no idea!
So, you grew up in this show business family.
You have your dad, who you love,
and he was a legendarily great guy and your hero,
but you've got to individuate against him.
Did you rebel against--
- [Jason] Oh, yeah!
- The nicest television father of all time.
- [Jason] Oh, yeah, for sure.
- So you were like "(bleep) you, Dad" to John Ritter?
- I never said--
- Did you do like a James Dean?
Did you punch him like in Rebel Without A Cause?
(laughing)
- I never quite did that either.
It was a subtle rebellion.
- Your dad passed away and how did that effect your
spiritual outlook on life?
- You know, it makes you sort of be forced to reckon with
some of the bigger questions about what happens afterwards
and do things happen for a reason.
The biggest thing that sort of helped me through that was
sort of switching my perspective from it feeling like
I had been reading a great book and all of a sudden,
I see that the last 10 chapters had been ripped out.
I was like, "What?
"That's not fair!
"I was enjoying that!"
And instead, just try to enjoy it as if that was
the whole story and to find the beauty in that and
go back to old chapters instead of just feeling robbed
of the chapters that I didn't get.
- Did you feel super-angry?
Angry at God?
Angry at the Universe?
- I never was angry.
For instance, my parents had gotten divorced and
I had my little issues, or whatever,
and my girlfriend at the time,
her father had an illness that affected his mental health
and she was unable to talk to him about the things that
they had and so she was always kind of on me about like,
"Talk to your dad.
"He's alive, he's well.
"Fix it."
And I was going, I have time, you know.
- This was before he passed?
- This was before he passed.
I called him--
- Like a year before?
- Like a year, yeah.
I just was like, I just wanna get it all out,
so I called him and we had
this kind of amazing coming-together.
That was one of the things that I really was
grateful for later because, up to that point,
I had been like, we have plenty of time.
I'll do it tomorrow.
- Yeah.
- I don't want to do it today.
It's so uncomfortable.
- Isn't that one of the greatest life lessons?
You got to live.
You got to resolve outstanding issues with your father.
- Yeah!
- And imagine if he had passed and you hadn't?
If you hadn't dealt with that.
- [Jason] I'm haunted by that.
- The questions that we're talking about now have
a lot to do with this new show you're doing,
Kevin Can Wait.
- [Jason] No, it's actually called, it's not called that.
- Kevin Probably Saves The World.
- That's it!
- So, tell me a little bit more about the character of Kevin
- Well, he's been going through a real rough patch and
everything that he had tried to do to make him happy,
none of it worked and so he's moved back into
the house where he grew up with where his twin sister
and her daughter live and it's kind of awkward because,
in this pursuit of what he thought would make him happy,
he's completely neglected them and there's this
meteor shower all over the world and one lands
pretty close to Kevin and he touches it and
gets blasted through the air and when he wakes up,
there's this woman telling him that he's been
chosen to save the world.
- [Rainn] But we don't know if he's maybe crazy coo-coo.
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
- Because no one else can see her.
- It could be a head trauma.
- It could be a head trauma!
- So, it's like a really (bleep) up Touched By An Angel.
(laughing)
- [Jason] I guess that would be one way to look at it.
- So, Kevin has this two-fold mission,
to find these people and also,
to make himself a better, more selfless person.
What's your mission?
- Are you making the world and the people around you
incrementally happier or not?
Are you a spiritual drain on the world, even this much?
- [Rainn] Right.
- [Jason] Or are you adding something, even this much?
- So that's a pretty good litmus test.
Checking in, like, am I making peoples' lives around me
even just incrementally a little bit better?
Okay, it's time for SoulPancake.
Chewing Life's Big Questions: Lightning Round.
(imitates explosions)
So, you don't need to need to do that,
because we'll put that in in the post-effects.
(thunder crashing)
Life's Big Questions.
What would you have for your very last meal?
I assume, if you're being executed.
- [Jason] If I'm being executed?
Maybe something like some kind of exotic fruit.
- What wows you?
- [Jason] Cirque du Soleil performers.
- Not the shows, just the performers?
- No, the performers.
- How elastic they are?
- Yeah, they have a lot of control over their--
- [Rainn] Spandex?
- [Jason] Body.
- Do you think that I can pull off this hat?
- [Jason] Yes, I do.
- It's kind of hipster?
- [Jason] It's like hipster mixed with Cat In The Hat.
- Who's the most selfless person that you know?
- My sister, Carly.
She's always thinking about other people and just--
- Can we get her for this show?
- Probably.
- Speaking of selfless, how do I look?
- [Jason] I think you look great.
- Right?
But, you know who's responsible for that?
Erin the make-up artist.
- Erin the make-up artist!
- Erin, come in here!
Now, we're going to turn the tables.
We're going to pay it forward.
We're going to make you look extra-beautiful
in the same way you put powder on us
and made us look pretty.
- I'm gonna do some contour.
- Oh, good.
Contouring is really important.
Accentuate the cheekbones.
Let's get these--
- Don't you dare?
- [Rainn] Don't?
- [Jason] That thing is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
There's something about it.
- This gives you the creeps!
(groaning)
You look like my Aunt Mary Lou.
- [Jason] Is this the right spot for--
- That's how she spent most of the 70s.
You really do know how to braid.
- [Jason] Yep!
- So, you see, didn't that feel good, giving back like that?
- [Jason] Yes, it did.
It felt great.
- Don't hide back there.
Just let everyone see just how beautiful
we were able to make you, so thank you so much.
This has been so great talking to you.
Thanks so much for tuning in and make sure to check out
Kevin Probably Saves The World on ABC.
That's the American Broadcasting Company, am I right?
- That is the American Broadcasting Company.
- And that's starting October 3rd at 10 p.m.
- Yes, it certainly is.
- Thanks for being on our show.