Series Description

Too Close For Comfort was a 30 minute comedy series on ABC about two sister who were barely adults. They lived together in one half of a duplex and their parents lived in the other half. The young ladies wanted to be treated like they were grownups and their conservative and overprotective father wanted to treat them like they were still little girls. That conflict in attitudes made the Rush family's living arrangement a little "Too Close for Comfort"! There was also a warmer aspect to the show, however, as the daughters often decided that it was nice to have their loving parents, including dad, close enough for comfort!

Too Close For Comfort Cast

Ted Knight .... Henry Rush
Nancy Dussault .... Muriel Rush
Deborah Van Valkenburgh .... Jackie Rush
Lydia Cornell .... Sara Rush
Jim J. Bullock .... Monroe Ficua

Too Close For Comfort Trivia

Too Close for Comfort was based on a British series titled, "Keep It In the Family". Brian Cooke created that series along with another named, "Man About the House". That series was the inspiration for another American TV show, "Three's Company"!

The Rush's home was a two story Victorian house that had been converted into a duplex. It was located at 171 Buena Vista Avenue East in the Haight-Asbury section of San Francisco. Mom and Dad lived upstairs and the daughters lived downstairs.

Jackie Rush was a 21-year-old brunette who worked as a bank teller and was also trying to start a career as a fashion designer. Sara Rush was an 19-year-old college student who also worked at several different jobs throughout the series' run.

Henry Rush was a cartoonist who worked mostly at home on his comic book titled, "Comic Cow" and Muriel Rush was a freelance photographer.

Jackie and Sara's apartment came available when the transvestite tenant downstairs died.

You might notice below at the episode information that Too Close For Comfort didn't debut until the middle of November. It wasn't a mid-season replacement. There was an actor's strike and nearly all shows of the 1980/1981 season were delayed by several months.

Ted Knight wore a sweatshirt on one episode of Too Close for Comfort that had a real-life University's logl on it. The series had a huge percentage of college students in its audience and started sending Ted hundreds of University's sweatshirts. Mr. Knight went out of his way to don as many t-shirts as possible each episode after that in order to satisfy his fans!

During a second season episode, viewers learned that Muriel Rush had been adopted. Her biological mother was a woman from England who had an affair with her American soldier father during World War II. It was also disclosed that almost immediately after Muriel was born her mother had become a nun!

If you never saw Too Close for Comfort, you may still remember Ted Knight from his role as "Ted Baxter" on seven seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show".

Too Close for Comfort was still doing decently in the ratings when it was canceled. Unfortunately, Ted Knight died. Even though ABC had already decided to renew Too Close for Comfort for a seventh season, the series was so much about Henry Rush's relationship with his daughters that they probably couldn't see any way to salvage it.

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

Too Close for Comfort - The First Season

1. Pilot Episode (11/11/1980)
2. It Didn't Happen One Night (11/16/1980)
3. The Bag Lady (11/18/1980)
4. Sara's Monroe Doctrine (11/25/1980)
5. Que Sara, Sara (12/2/1980)
6. Tenants Anyone? (12/9/1980)
7. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolfe? (12/16/1980)
8. Mister Big (1/6/1981)
9. The Location (1/13/1981)
10. A Friend in Need (1/27/1981)
11. A Fine Romance (2/3/1981)
12. The Boy in the Band (2/10/1981)
13. Deadline for Henry (2/17/1981)
14. Huey (2/24/1981)
15. Centerfold (3/3/1981)
16. What's Wrong with Mr. Right? (3/17/1981)
17. Up Your Easter Bonnet (3/24/1981)
18. Cosmic Cow vs. the Oval Office (5/5/1981)
19. The Return of Rafkin (5/12/1981)

20. Guess Who's Coming to Burp? (10/13/1981)
21. Your Guest is As Good As Mine (10/27/1981)
22. Who's Sara Now? (11/3/1981)
23. The Prince and the Frog (11/10/1981)
24. What's Our Rush? (11/17/1981)
25. Rafkin's Bum (11/24/1981)
26. Where There's a Will (12/1/1981)
27. The Remaking of Monroe (12/8/1981)
28. When the Bough Breaks (12/15/1981)
29. Cop-Out (1/5/1982)
30. April and September (1/12/1982)
31. A Fan for Henry (1/19/1982)
32. Brotherly Hate (2/2/1982)
33. Charlie's Last Hurrah (2/9/1982)
34. The Last Weekend (2/16/1982)
35. My Unfavorite Martin (2/23/1982)
36. Seventh Month Blues (3/2/1982)
37. As the Cookie Crumbles (3/9/1982)
38. Foreign Exchange (3/16/1982)
39. A Matter of Degree (3/23/1982)
40. A Policeman's Wife is Not a Happy One (5/4/1982)
41. Don't Shoot the Piano Movers (5/11/1982)

42. Break Out the Pampers - Part 1 (9/30/1982)
43. Break Out the Pampers - Part 2 (9/30/1982)
44. Guess Who's Coming Forever? (10/14/1982)
45. A Snip in Time (10/21/1982)
46. The Luck of the Iris (10/28/1982)
47. Do You Take This Woman Again? (11/4/1982)
48. Who Was That Baby I Saw You With? (11/11/1982)
49. Monroe's Secret Love's Secret (11/18/1982)
50. A Thanksgiving Tale (11/25/1982)
51. Pressure's Rising (12/9/1982)
52. Mr. Christmas (12/16/1982)
53. The Yearning Point (1/6/1983)
54. Briefly at the Counter (1/13/1983)
55. To Buy or Not to Buy (1/20/1983)
56. The Seperation (1/27/1983)
57. Girls of the Media (2/3/1983)
58. The Courier (2/17/1983)
59. The Adoption Story (2/24/1983)
60. Out to Lunch (3/10/1983)
61. A Portrait of Henry (3/17/1983)
62. Don't Rock the Boat (4/28/1983)
63. Family Business (5/5/1983)

64. The Enemy Above (4/7/1984)
65. Making Mountains Out of Molehills (4/14/1984)
66. Just Another Pretty Face (4/21/1984)
67. Home Is Where the Bart Is (4/28/1984)
68. High Infidelity (5/5/1984)
69. Son of the Groom (5/12/1984)
70. Witness for the Persecution (5/19/1984)
71. Henry Draws a Blank (5/26/1984)
72. Shipmates (6/2/1984)
73. Is There a Doctor in the House? (6/9/1984)
74. High and Inside (6/16/1984)
75. The Runaway (6/23/1984)
76. The Graduates (7/14/1984)
77. Goodbye, Mr. Chip (7/21/1984)
78. No Patsy, This Kelly (10/6/1984)
79. Hawaii Five-8 (10/13/1984)
80. Quick on the Draw (10/27/1984)
81. The Missing Fink (11/3/1984)
82. The Sound of Mother (11/10/1984)
83. The Return of Mr. Wonderful (11/17/1984)
84. Divorce Chicago Style (11/24/1984)
85. Cinderella Update (12/1/1984)
86. Henry Bites the Big Apple (12/8/1984)

87. Drawing Room (2/2/1985)
88. Nearly Departed (2/9/1985)
89. My Son, the PhD (2/16/1985)
90. All in a Day's Unemployment (2/23/1985)
91. Devereaux & Son (3/2/1985)
92. And Baby Makes Two (5/4/1985)
93. Reconcilable Differences (5/11/1985)
94. The Two Faces of Muriel (5/18/1985)
95. No Mas, Monroe (5/25/1985)
96. For Every Man, There's Two Women (7/20/1985)
97. Finders Keepers (7/27/1985)
98. These Stupid Things Remind Me of You (8/3/1985)
99. Terms of Endangerment (9/28/1985)
100. The British are Coming, The British are Coming (10/5/1985)
101. No Deposit, No Return (10/12/1985)
102. Off and Running (10/19/1985)
103. Accused, Confused and Abused (10/26/1985)
104. Arrivederci, Jackie (11/2/1985)
105. Ars Gratia Iris (11/9/1985)
106. Henry Enters the '80's (11/16/1985)
107. Freddie Loves it, We Love It, You're canceled (11/23/1985)

108. Henry's Change of Life (4/5/1986)
109. Front Page Monroe (4/12/1986)
110. Four is a Crowd (4/19/1986)
111. Ho-Ho Ho Chi Henry (4/26/1986)
112. Miss Marin Bugler (5/3/1986)
113. Garfield the Cat Joins the Marin Bugler (5/10/1986)
114. Bedtime for Henry (5/17/1986)
115. Educating Lisa (5/24/1986)
116. Henry's Novel Solution (5/31/1986)
117. Henry Gets Taken for a Ride (6/7/1986)
118. Late, Great Herbert Maxwell (7/12/1986)
119. Muriel's Fish Story (7/19/1986)
120. Ya Gotta Have Heart (9/27/1986)
121. Monroe's Critical Condition (10/4/1986)
122. Cyrano Henry (10/11/1986)
123. Family Fued (10/18/1986)
124. Rock Around Henry (11/1/1986)
125. Herb Kiss, Henry Tells (11/8/1986)
126. Believing is Seeing (11/15/1986)
127. Acropolis Now (11/22/1986)
128. Presenting Buddy Ficus (1/31/1987)
129. Lisa Goes Lottery Loco (2/7/1987)