"Too Close For Comfort" (ABC and syndication: 1980-1986)

Henry Rush (Ted Knight) was a cartoonist who wrote a comic strip that was syndicated to newspapers.  His wife Muriel (Nancy Dussault) was a former singer who worked as a photographer.  Their daughters Sarah, a college student, and Jackie, a bank employee (Lydia Cornell, Deborah van Valkenburgh) lived with them.  When the downstairs neighbor passed away, the Rush's daughters begged Henry to have that apartment. He agreed to let Sarah and Jackie move into the empty apartment and pay rent.

But Henry's conservative and overly protective nature did not keep him from hovering over his daughters.  Much of the humor came from Henry not realizing that he needed to give his daughters room to breathe and the right to make their own decisions.  Added to the mix was Sarah's naive friend Monroe (Jim J. Bullock), who irritated Henry to no end.  The sister of the deceased tenant, Mildred (Selma Diamond), came around from time to time to pick up items her brother had left behind.  Mildred often over-stayed her welcome.  Henry also had to deal with his tart-tongued mother-in-law, Iris (Audrey Meadows), who felt Muriel could have picked a better husband.

The show was canceled in 1983, but picked up for syndication the following year with the cast mostly intact, except for Meadows, who decided to do guest appearances only.  Muriel became pregnant, and she and Henry welcomed a son named Andrew (Joshua Goodwin).  Monroe ended up moving into the attic above Henry and Muriel.  During the last season of the show, Henry had given up drawing cartoons to become manager of a newspaper in Marin County, where he and Muriel moved.  Jackie had gone to Italy to pursue a fashion career, and Sarah's character had disappeared as well.  Monroe and Muriel both worked at the newspaper.  Henry's business partner in the news business was Hope (Pat Carroll), who owned half of the paper.  Lisa Flores (Lisa Antille) was the Rush's maid, and a love interest for Monroe.  The title of the show was changed to "The Ted Knight Show" (not to be confused with an earlier sitcom that Knight headlined).  Before the show could resume for another season, Knight passed away.

Knight was Ted Baxter, the only person on the news staff of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1970-1977) who didn't lose his job during the finale of that series.  Selma Diamond also appeared on a couple of seasons of the series, "Night Court".  Jim J. Bullock was part of one of TV's more odd parings when he co-hosted a talk show with Tammy Faye Baker in 1996.