Too Close for Comfort

Finally Ted Knight got a hit show, the last Mary Tyler Moore alum to do so. While hardly top-notch, this sitcom was nonetheless a great 80s memory for me. Sure Jim J. Bullock was annoying as hell, but Ted Knight was good for a chuckle as Henry Rush, and watching his two on-screen daughters jiggle around didn't hurt either. The only drawback is that I now always refer to the memory of Ted's on-screen wife as "Murual" ...and only recently realized the actress had a real name: Nancy Dassault. And that theme song is just oh-so-80s.

I notice most of the negative reviews,based on dates posted come from a generation of those not use to what quality television was.. Don't get me wrong,shows like Friends to Big Bang Theory are enjoyable in their own right.. I'm sure kids years later will find it,as lame or lacking in some regards too.

I feel the(overall)casting & acting was fine,as was the cinematography & although outdated in some aspects it does continue to be as enjoyable when it first started airing.. Only thing that made me curious & although siblings can be different which did get used in episodes,it never made sense as neither were adopted into the family was Jackie's ethnicity.

Also why do people feel when a baby enters the picture,that means a show is dying & so forth? In this instance on the show it was prevalent because it shows an average family & a couple becomes parents again,at a later age with all that unfolds versus a younger couple just starting off in life.

Have seen it said in reviews also a poor version,trying to be another Three's Company? Really! Not even close,lol.

Enjoyed this years back & still watch reruns today,worth checking out.

I used to watch this show back in the 80's, then watched all the re-runs, and still to this day watch it on video. The acting was great as Henry (Knight) was the over protective father with the ego who always clashed with clumsy Monroe Ficus (Jim J Bullock). This show dealt with lots of subjects and was very entertaining.

My favorite on the show was the daughters, both Sara (Lydia Cornell) and Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburg). Both are beautiful and would steal any mans heart. Sara the blonde ditz is the one that most men would want, but I was intrigued by Jackie as a kid. She is smarter, more confident, more mature, and honestly prettier. Her black hair, pretty smile, and voice were very alluring. Her character as Jackie Rush was the prototype of the type of woman I dreamed about be married to when I got older. The blonde bimbo act can get dry after a while, but it was only an act as Lydia Cornell is a very bright woman in real life. Both these daughters were alway rebelling with their parent to be independent of them, yet always lived in the basement.

I truly miss this show as it was an all time 80's great in the ranks of Threes Company, Silver Spoons, Diff'rt Strokes, and others. How I miss the good old happy 80's. The show may be outdated, but the story lines are still good even in this day and age. Scary how we haven't really progressed by that much. Cell Phones and Internet don't really make the world go round and round.

need i say more, this show is from the 80s, its already a classic. this show is hilarious. this show was also the most popular show in 1981.

Henry Rush, a conservative San Francisco cartoonist of children's comic book heroine, Cosmic Cow, resided in the upstairs apartment of a two story home with wife, Muriel, a former big band singer, (which allowed us to occasionally hear Nancy Dussault's terrific voice), and free-lance photographer. Their college-aged daughters, pretty brunette Jackie, a bank teller and sexy blonde Sara, a freshman at San Francisco State, wanting independence, moved into the downstairs apartment. Guys came and went and Henry agonized over his 2 "little girls".Other characters in the show included Henry's boss, tiny Mr. Wainwright, Monroe, Sara's goofy school friend and thorn in Henry's side, Mildred Rafkin, the sister of the deceased former transvestite downstairs resident and Henry's Cosmic Cow puppet, which he always wore when he was drawing.During the subsequent seasons, Henry's hippie niece April stayed with the family for a year, Muriel became pregnant and gave birth to son, Andrew, Henry's hated mother-in-law Iris was a semi-regular, Jackie became a fashion designer and was engaged to a policeman, Brad, but broke the engagement, and went to Italy to pursue her career. Sara became a TV weather girl and eventually Monroe and she graduated from college.When the show's title changed from "Too Close for Comfort" to "The Ted Knight Show", there was a huge format change. Henry purchased a 49% share in a weekly newspaper, the Marin Bugler, and Muriel, Andrew and he moved to Mill Valley, CA to be closer to his new business. Jackie and Sara were not seen as they were now on their own. Monroe, who had lived with the Rush family in San Francisco and worked as a security guard, worked for Henry at the newspaper, but had his own place, which was never seen. The Rushes' gained a Hispanic housekeeper, Lisa, and the publisher of the Bugler, 51% owner, Hope Stinson, who enjoyed her conflicts with Henry, the editor. Muriel worked as a staff photographer. "The Ted Knight Show" was due to go into its second season of production when its star, who was ill with cancer, passed away.

This was probably Ted Knight's second most famous role behind that of Ted Baxter. This show allowed him to pretty much play a role that was totally the opposite of that character. While Baxter was an annoying and vain dim bulb, Henry was more or less a very intelligent man who had a hard time dealing with the changing world around him. Also, the running gag on the show was that he was still trying to get over the fact that his daughters were growing up and that even though they technically didn't live in "his" house, they still were under the same roof. Also, Nancy Dussault was great in the role of Muriel. She pretty much was the middle ground between Henry's conservatism and the girl's more liberal attitude. The only thing that keeps it from being more fondly remembered is Jm J. Bullock as Monroe. He and the character of Steve Urkel were two of the most annoying characters ever created for television.