Ted Knight's Final Work Was On An '80s Series That Nobody Talks About Today

Ted Knight's face and voice were all over television from the late 1950s through his death in 1986, and he could be seen throughout TV's late Golden Age in the '60s and '70s on popular series like "Get Smart" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Knight earned six Emmy nominations for playing TV news anchor Ted Baxter on the latter series, but his swan song in the '80s has drifted into the land of forgotten shows since Knight left this Earth four decades ago. From 1980 through 1987, Knight starred on "Too Close for Comfort" as work-from-home cartoonist Henry Rush, appearing in all 129 episodes of the series. It's a relatively low-stakes family sitcom with mostly familiar characters.

Henry and his wife, Muriel (Nancy Dussault), live in a San Francisco apartment above their oil-and-water daughters, Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) and Sara (Lydia Cornell), and gentle familial conflict provides plenty of comedic opportunities. The series wasn't one of the rarest of '80s shows that redefined the sitcom genre, but "Too Close for Comfort" was and is more entertaining than its performance in early seasons or even long-term reputation might suggest.

"Too Close for Comfort" was based on a British comedy called "Keep It in the Family," and it originally shared ABC's Tuesday primetime schedule with "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley," and "Three's Company." The network moved it to a then-weaker Thursday night for Season 3 in 1982, but canceled it after that season due to disappointing ratings. Reruns aired during the summer of 1983, after which the series ran in syndication via Metromedia's fledgling Fox network. It wasn't one of Fox's important early shows like "The Simpsons" or "Married... With Children," but reruns of "Too Close for Comfort" drew more viewers than recent originals. This surge in popularity prompted Fox to order new episodes for Seasons 4 and 5.

It remained popular enough to warrant a Season 6, but the new season brought big changes for the Rush family. Henry and Muriel moved across the Golden Gate to Mill Valley, and he left his cartooning gig to become part-owner of a local newspaper. The two daughters were written off the series, which was renamed "The Ted Knight Show." When Knight died in August of 1986, his namesake show was dropped following Season 6. You can watch all six seasons of "Too Close for Comfort" on Peacock with a subscription or free with ads on Pluto or Fandango.