1980: ABC Launches Ted Knight's 'Too Close for Comfort'
On this day in 1980, ABC debuted the sitcom Too Close for Comfort, a series based on the British show Keep It in the Family. The show was a vehicle for Ted Knight, perhaps best known for his role as Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Knight played Henry Rush, a San Francisco cartoonist whose two grown daughters move into the downstairs apartment of his two-family house. The cast included Nancy Dussault as rush's wife, Muriel; Deborah Van Valkenburgh and Lydia Cornell as daughters Jackie and Sara; and Jim J. Bullock as a friend of Sara's and Henry's comic foil. Former Honeymooners star Audrey Meadows appeared for two seasons as Muriel's mother, Iris.
Buoyed by its primetime neighbors Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Three's Company, Too Close for Comfort pulled in high ratings its debut season. A time-slot change in the show's third season, however, proved disasterous, and the show was cancelled by ABC. An independent producer, Metromedia Producers Corporation, resumed production for syndication, adding an additional three seasons to the show's run.
In its final year, the show was renamed The Ted Knight Show. While renewed for a seventh season, production ceased as a result of Knight's death of cancer at age 62.