In all your years of acting, was there ever a time you thought it was too hard and considered quitting?
No. I never said that I was going to quit. But when I was doing ?Rockford,? I just got so incapacitated that I couldn't do anything. I went to Scripps [Hospital] and they said, ?You've got to stop working.? So I called the studio and said, ?Scripps told me and the doctors say that I have to stop working.? They said, ?Well, when can you come back?? I said, ?I don't know.

When I'm better.? Well, the lawsuits started that afternoon. I never wanted to quit. I'd love to have a couple of hundred million and then I'd quit. But I don't so I keep working. I love working though.
I fell in love with this job or business, whatever you want to call it, after I was in it for about two and a half years. I was just going along doing this and doing that. I was working a little here and there, and I didn't care. I was just like, ?Okay, fine.? I was learning my craft. It was really kind of an acting class for me. Then I got married and I got responsibilities and I took it seriously and found out that I liked it. I've been in love with this business for about 45 years.

How are you feeling physically these days?
Well, right now, I'm doing much better. I took off 25 or a little more pounds. And I've been working out trying to help my back and my feet. I had Thursday, Friday and half of Saturday I was great. I didn't use the cane. I didn't have a lot of pain. Then somehow Saturday my left foot started and my back started, and I had a terrible day yesterday afternoon and today wasn't that good.

It comes and goes, and I can live with that.

How do you like being back on TV again?
I love it. I got such a nice group of people. They are the most loving group. I love Katey [Sagal] and Kaley [Cuoco] and Amy [Davidson] and that young boy Martin [Spanjers]. He's a good boy. Of course we've got David [Spade], crazy David. We've got a hell of a cast. We've got wonderful writers, and I'm having a great time.

It was a tragedy that brought you onto the show. Did you have second thoughts about taking the role?
Oh, of course I did. Of course I did. It took me about a week to say, ?Okay, I'll do it.? What I did in that week is that I looked up to see who the writers were and what they'd done. Tracy Gamble is the guy who sold me on it because he's a wonderful writer. He used to write for ?Golden Girls? and I loved ?Golden Girls.? Some of the dialogue in that is the snappiest you're going to get. So I liked that. But it was a tough situation. You lose your leading man.

I couldn't have come in as the leading man. That wouldn't have been right. I came in as an assist, and that's why they finally got David because we're trying to cover up for the loss of John Ritter. The writers did a great job of merging from total sadness without being maudlin. I thought that they did a wonderful, wonderful job. Now, there's a little reference here and there to him. Of course, the girls, they miss him. They miss John a lot. Every once in a while, they pick up something on the set and say, '?Oh, John did that,? and the tears come.

PAGE 3:James Garner on Love, Steve McQueen, and "The Great Escape"