<Tr> <Th> Related shows </Th> <Td> Keep It in the Family Family Business </Td> </Tr> <P> Too Close for Comfort is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from November 11, 1980, to May 5, 1983, and in first - run syndication from April 7, 1984, to February 7, 1987 . It was modeled after the British series Keep It in the Family, which premiered nine months before Too Close for Comfort debuted in the United States . Its name was changed to The Ted Knight Show when the show was retooled for what would turn out to be its final season . </P> <P> Ted Knight and Nancy Dussault star as respective characters Henry and Muriel Rush, owners of a two - family house in San Francisco, California . Henry is a conservative cartoonist who authors a comic strip called Cosmic Cow . During scenes in which Henry draws in his bedroom, Knight used his earlier acquired ventriloquism talents for comical conversations with a hand - puppet version of "Cosmic Cow ." Muriel is a laid back freelance photographer, having been a lead singer of a band in her earlier days . They have two grown children, older daughter, brunette Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) who works for a bank and younger daughter Sara (Lydia Cornell), a blonde bombshell and a college student at San Francisco State University . </P> <P> At the start of the premiere episode, Jackie and Sara are living with their parents in a cramped, awkward arrangement . Their longtime downstairs tenant, Myron (later called Neville) Rafkin, recently died . The family discovers Rafkin was a transvestite and the many strange women Henry had been opening the door for all those years were actually Rafkin himself . Jackie and Sara convince their parents to allow them to move into the now - vacant downstairs apartment . In a running gag, Henry falls off the girls' ultra-modern chairs or couch every time he attempts to sit down . Despite the daughters' push for independence and moving into the downstairs apartment, Henry proves to be a very protective father and constantly meddles in their affairs . </P>

Where did too close for comfort take place