Too Close for Comfort is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from November 11, 1980, to May 5, 1983, and in first-run syndication from April 7, 1984, to February 7, 1987. Its name was changed to The Ted Knight Show when the show was retooled in 1986 for what would turn out to be its final season, due to Ted Knight's death. The original concept of the series was based on the 1980s British sitcom Keep It in the Family. Knight plays work-at-home cartoonist Henry Rush, who is married to Muriel, and their two adult daughters, Jackie and Sara, live in the downstairs apartment of their San Francisco two-flat. An episode involving the daughters moving across the bay to Oakland and the family complaining about crime, undrinkable water, and constant sound of police sirens saw the episode being briefly protested by Oakland politicians. The family moves to Marin County for the show's final season, where Henry Rush becomes a co-owner of the local weekly newspaper.
Too Close for Comfort
The cast of Too Close for Comfort during the show's second season
Season 6 title screen for first-run episodes.
Ted Knight was an American actor known for playing the comedic roles of Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack.
Knight in 1972
Ted Knight and Georgia Engel on The Mary Tyler Moore Show
From L-R: Ed Asner, Georgia Engel, Ted Knight and Mary Tyler Moore from The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1976)
Ted Knight's grave