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Starting Sunday, actor Jason Ritter will be back onscreen as attorney Julian Markston in Season 2 of the CBS legal drama \u201cMatlock,<\/a>\u201d loosely inspired by the 1980s and \u201990s Andy Griffith show of the same name. He still gets a thrill when he thinks about the cast he gets to work with, which includes Skye P. Marshall, Beau Bridges and Oscar winner Kathy Bates. <\/p>\n In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.<\/p>\n \u201cYou almost, but not quite ever, forget that you\u2019re working with an absolute acting legend,\u201d Ritter says. \u201cKathy is so sweet and so kind and such a team player and collaborator that it helps to sort of stop that voice in your head from going like \u2018It\u2019s Kathy Bates!\u2019 every time it\u2019s a scene with her.\u201d<\/p>\n The 45-year-old L.A. native, part of an entertainment family that includes his late father, sitcom legend John Ritter<\/a>, didn\u2019t offer up many details about the new season but did say viewers can expect more on-the-edge-of-your-seat episodes. (If you need a refresher of last season, episodes of \u201cMatlock\u201d are available on Paramount+.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt has the same pace and fun mystery as the first season, but now my character\u2019s secrets have been revealed,\u201d says Ritter, who regularly posts about the show and his fellow actors on Instagram<\/a> along with humorous bits.<\/p>\n At home with actor-wife Melanie Lynskey, whom he married in 2020, and their 6-year-old daughter, there aren\u2019t any great mysteries that need to be solved, but there is work to do before bed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen midnight starts,\u201d Ritter says, \u201cwe\u2019re probably finishing up the jobs, as we call them \u2014 you know, the dishes and the chores and cleaning everything up, which is a lovely habit that I\u2019ve gotten into from [my wife]. I always used to just wake up to the nightmare from the night before and I\u2019ve learned to really appreciate waking up to a clean area.\u201d<\/p>\n After lights out and some sleep, his ideal Sunday picks up hours later and is filled with plenty of coffee, some miniature golf or a nature walk and more.<\/p>\n This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n 7 a.m.: A different kind of call time<\/b> 9:30 a.m.: Time for more coffee<\/b> 10 a.m.: Miniature golf or a \u2018beauty\u2019 walk<\/b> If mini golf didn\u2019t take up so much time, my daughter and I like to go on these little beauty walks where she gets on her scooter and puts her helmet on. We just walk around the neighborhood, and she can\u2019t pick any flowers. But we can pick up little flowers or leaves off the ground. So anything that she sees that\u2019s beautiful, she picks up, and we make a little bouquet. And what\u2019s so amazing about it for me is to see what she finds beautiful on those walks.<\/p>\n 1 p.m.: A <\/b>chopped <\/b>salad and fries for lunch<\/b> 2 p.m.: Time for the Museum of Jurassic Technology<\/b> 5 p.m.: Fresh escape room fun<\/b> 9 p.m.: Dinner and <\/b>\u201cThe Bachelor\u201d before bed<\/b> If our daughter has gone to sleep around 8, this will usually be maybe 9, 9:30 depending on if I\u2019ve fallen asleep in the bed next door. This is also why sometimes it gets so late and bleeds into the next day. Because by the time we get to have our alone fun, dinner and watching time, it\u2019s 9:30, 10, and some of those \u201cBachelor\u201d episodes are two hours long.<\/p>\n And yes, I promise that somewhere in this day, I have showered. [Laughs] That is another very important element of our day. It\u2019s the one that can go by the wayside. But we always try to check in with each other. Like, \u201cHave you showered today? Have you showered? OK, you go and then I\u2019ll go.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n
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I will wake up usually at 7. If our daughter is going to school, then I have to wake up at 7 so I can start making her lunch and getting stuff ready. But if she\u2019s having a bit of a sleep-in [on the weekend], then I still have to wake up at 7 to make sure everything times out. And then I\u2019ll make her little lunch and her breakfast. While she\u2019s eating breakfast, she usually gets to watch an episode of something. That\u2019s my prime scrolling through social media time. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
We would all pile in the car, and our first stop would probably be a coffee stop. We are a big coffee family \u2014 not our daughter. We always make a pot of coffee in the morning. And even though we\u2019ve had several cups already, we\u2019ll stop at Go Get Em Tiger<\/b><\/a>, one of our favorite coffee places in L.A. We\u2019ve come to know a lot of the baristas there, so we get to chat about life and everything. And then we\u2019ll be back on the road.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Our daughter and I will go to Castle Park<\/b><\/a>, which is the miniature golf place in Sherman Oaks. My daughter and I have really bonded over miniature golf, and that\u2019s sort of our little thing. Any miniature golf course has a real special place in my heart, but Castle Park is the place that I went to as a kid. The course is basically the same. It\u2019s just so fun to watch [our daughter] get better and better at golf; even though, recently she\u2019s become obsessed with par.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a place called Angelini Osteria<\/b><\/a> that has a salad that I really enjoy. It\u2019s called the Alimentari Chopped Salad. It\u2019s got avocado and chicken and bacon and currants and almonds. It comes with two dressings, but I usually just do the sort of lemony kind of oily dressing. And it is just so delicious. I am the only meat eater in my family. At some point, maybe my conscience will get the better of me, and I\u2019ll switch over to their diet. Angelini also has very good french fries. When we\u2019re on the road and the lunch that I\u2019ve packed hasn\u2019t been enough for [my daughter], french fries is one of those safe things that if we\u2019re in a bind, we can pick them up from almost anywhere.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Another favorite thing that I would do is go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology<\/b><\/a>. I just love that place. It\u2019s so fascinating. It\u2019s one of those places that if someone\u2019s coming in from out of town, I love showing them. I love taking them there without telling them anything about it and just watch them kind of explore. And it\u2019s just such a mysterious, magical place. <\/p>\n
Then I would see if I could get a bunch of my friends together, and we would go do an escape room somewhere in town. It\u2019s just one of my favorite things to do, and they\u2019re all over the place in Los Angeles. I would go to maybe 60out<\/b><\/a> or Maze Rooms<\/b><\/a> or one that I had never heard of. There\u2019s an app called Morty<\/a> that helps find escape rooms and keep track of the ones you did if your memory is poor like mine. If I can\u2019t convince my friends to do another one right after in the same location, then we would be done by 6. It would be time to go back home and make our daughter\u2019s dinner and get her through the entire dinner-bath time-bedtime phase.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
My favorite thing is when Melanie and I order in from a place called Bulan Thai Vegetarian Kitchen<\/b><\/a>. It has these incredibly delicious hot wings. Our daughter will be asleep in the other room. And we get to eat some delicious Thai food and watch some silly show or some serious show.<\/p>\n