Too Close for Comfort

Too Close for Comfort
multi-camera
Running time	24 minutes
Production companies	D.L. Taffner Productions Metromedia Producers Corporation Fox Television Stations (season 6)
Original release
Network	ABC (1980–1983) Syndication (1984–1987)
Release	November 11, 1980 (1980-11-11) – February 7, 1987 (1987-02-07)
Related
Keep It in the Family Family Business

Too Close for Comfort is an American

Synopsis

Henry and Muriel Rush are owners of a two-unit house at 171–173 Buena Vista Avenue East[4] San Francisco, California. Henry is a conservative cartoonist who authors a comic strip called Cosmic Cow with a hand-puppet version of "Cosmic Cow." Muriel is a freelance photographer. They have two adult daughters, Jackie and Sara.

Additional characters include Sara's friend, Monroe Ficus, and Henry's boss, Arthur Wainwright, who was head of Wainwright Publishing. The character of Monroe was originally intended to be used for only a single episode but producers added the character to the series.

Seasons 2 and 3

During its second season, the series' principal stories were focused around Muriel's pregnancy. Henry's niece April comes from Delaware to live with the Rush family. The season concludes with Muriel giving birth to a son, Andrew (later played regularly by twins William and Michael Cannon from 1983 to 1984).

Knight's character became famous for wearing sweatshirts from various American colleges and universities that were sent to him by fans.

In the fall of 1982, ABC moved the series to Thursday nights, which proved to be disastrous and the show saw its ratings fall drastically. The network canceled the series at the conclusion of the season after falling from #6 for the 1981–82 season to #38 for the 1982–83 season.

First-run syndication

During the early 1980s, TV station owner Metromedia was expanding its portfolio of original syndicated programming through its production subsidiary, Metromedia Producers Corporation. When Too Close for Comfort was canceled by ABC, Metromedia Producers Corporation elected to pick up the series and began producing all-new episodes to run on various stations throughout the country. Starting in April 1984, a total of 23 new episodes were broadcast for the show's fourth season, featuring the same cast as seen on the ABC episodes. The show's ratings improved in syndication and Metromedia ordered an additional 30 episodes, airing through November 1985. When the fifth season began, a single child actor, Joshua Goodwin, played the role of Andrew Rush.

The Ted Knight Show

In late 1985, several changes were made before production started for Season 6. The show's title was changed to The Ted Knight Show (not to be confused with the short-lived 1978 CBS show of the same name), and the premise and setting were altered. Henry retires from drawing Cosmic Cow and, along with Muriel and Andrew, moves to Marin County where he buys a share of a local newspaper and becomes its editor. Monroe joins the Rushes takes a job with Henry's paper as a reporter. Actress Pat Carroll played the role of Hope Stinson, who owns the majority share of the newspaper and serves as a foil for Henry. In addition, the Rushes hire a live-in nanny, played by Lisa Antille. The characters of Jackie, Sara and Muriel's mother Iris were not included in the retooled show.

First-run episodes of The Ted Knight Show were broadcast starting in April 1986. Twenty-two episodes were produced prior to the summer of 1986 and 12 had aired by mid-July. The revamped show was scheduled to resume production when Knight, who had been battling

since 1985, died on August 26, 1986. The 10 remaining first-run episodes were broadcast from September 1986 to February 1987, and those episodes were added to the Too Close for Comfort syndicated rerun package with the original show's title.

Cast

• Ted Knight as Henry Rush
• Nancy Dussault as Muriel Rush
• Deborah Van Valkenburgh as Jackie Rush (1980–1985)
• Lydia Cornell as Sara Rush (1980–1985)
• Jim J. Bullock as Monroe Ficus
• Hamilton Camp as Arthur Wainwright (1981)
• Deena Freeman as April Rush (1981–1982)
• Audrey Meadows as Iris Martin (1982–1983, guest appearances thereafter)
• William and Michael Cannon as Andrew Rush (1983–1984)
• Joshua Goodwin as Andrew Rush (1985–1986)
• Pat Carroll as Hope Stinson (1986)
• Lisa Antille as Lisa Flores (1986)

Notable guest stars

• Peter Haskell
• Georgann Johnson
• Hillary B. Smith
• Selma Diamond as Mildred Rafkin
• Jordan Suffin as Officer Brad Turner
• Elyse Knight (daughter of Ted Knight) as Samantha Bishop ("The Runaway," 1984)
• Graham Jarvis as Arthur Wainwright (1985)
• Ernie Wise as Ernie Dockery (1985)
• Jim Davis (creator of the comic strip Garfield) as himself (1986)
• Walter Lantz (creator of Woody Woodpecker) as himself
• Ray Middleton as Henry's father, Huey Rush

Episodes

Syndication

ABC aired reruns of the show during its

.

In the U.S., reruns currently air on streaming services Pluto TV and Tubi.^[7]

Home media

with "Oldtown", as Oakland city officials had decried the show's denigration of the city during the show's original run.

In January 2024, Visual Entertainment Inc. revealed on Facebook that they were working on a complete series box set.^[10] That box set was released on April 3, 2024.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
The Complete First Season	19	November 2, 2004
The Complete Second Season	22	June 7, 2005
The Complete Series	129	April 3, 2024

References

External links

• Too Close for Comfort at
  IMDb