Too Close for Comfort

The cast of Too Close for Comfort during the show's second season

During its second season, the series' principal stories were focused around Muriel's pregnancy. Henry's niece April comes from Delaware to live with the Rush family. The season concluded with Muriel giving birth to a son, Andrew (later played regularly by twins William and Michael Cannon from 1983 to 1984).

The character of Henry Rush became famous for wearing sweatshirts from various American colleges and universities. Fans would send in sweatshirts from universities around the country hoping they would be used during taping.

In the fall of 1982, ABC moved the series to Thursday nights, which proved to be disastrous and its ratings fall drastically. The network canceled the series at the conclusion of the season.

During the early 1980s, TV station owner Metromedia was expanding its portfolio of original syndicated programming through its production subsidiary, Metromedia Producers Corporation. When Too Close for Comfort was canceled by ABC, Metromedia Producers Corporation elected to pick up the series and began producing all-new episodes to run on various stations throughout the country. Starting in April 1984, a total of 23 new episodes were broadcast for the show's fourth season, featuring the same cast as seen on the ABC episodes.

The show's ratings improved in syndication and Metromedia ordered an additional 30 episodes, airing through November 1985. When the fifth season began, a single child actor, Joshua Goodwin, took over the role of Andrew Rush. A total of 107 episodes of Too Close for Comfort were produced.

The sixth season title screen for first run episodes. Note the title change.

The sixth season title screen for reruns.

In late 1985, several changes were made before production started. The show's title was changed to The Ted Knight Show (not to be confused with the short-lived 1978 CBS show of the same name), the setting was moved to Marin County, a new theme song was recorded, and a new opening title sequence was shot. Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Lydia Cornell, and Audrey Meadows left the cast. Pat Carroll and Lisa Antille were added to the cast along with returning Nancy Dussault and Jim J. Bullock.

First-run episodes of The Ted Knight Show were broadcast starting in April 1986. Twenty-two episodes were produced prior to the summer of 1986 and twelve had aired by mid-July. The revamped show was scheduled to resume production until the death of star Ted Knight, who had been battling colon cancer since 1985. The ten remaining first-run episodes were broadcast from September 1986 to February 1987, after which those episodes were added to the Too Close for Comfort syndicated rerun package and reverted to the original show title.