Shark Bytes

It's been a while since I've seen this show, but I find it curious how some people are saying the pregnancy was the moment the show jumped. I just found it strange how long they prolonged it. Didn't Muriel find out she was pregnant at the end of the first season, stayed pregnant *all* of the second and then gave birth in the third season premiere?!

Anyway, I agree with the others who said this show was never that great to begin with, but it was watchable when I was a kid. The show jumped when they moved to Marin. The change in location wasn't the problem, though. The whole tone of the show seemed to change and quickly became boring. Pat Caroll was a welcome addition to the cast though.

I don't feel the show jumped at all...I think ABC is who jumped the shark when they canceled it after they themselves put the show in a terrible time slot among shows that were low-rated...when the show was on a must-see night it had the ratings but ABC wanted to play around and put the show on a low-rated night and then they never had the decency to re-new the series for the 1983-1984 season and put it back in a favorable time-slot, instead ABC cancels the show, so it's ABC that did the show in and then it was picked up in syndication in 1984 and continued in syndication until Knight's death in 1986. I think the series would have had at least 2 more years in syndication.

I don't feel that the "mother-in-law" jokes were terrible. Audrey Meadows, the actress playing Iris, was famous for playing Alice on 'The Honeymooners' and so her Iris role was based upon Audrey's sarcastic put-down image she cultivated playing Alice. So, for me, it was always funny and tense seeing Iris and Henry bickering at one another.

I also don't feel it's a negative stereotype for fathers of daughters to be portrayed as over-protective, over-bearing, rude, etc etc. That is where family comedy comes from, at least to my way of thinking. It isn't funny watching fathers being hunky-dory and understanding of their daughters and so that is why sit-coms take the approach of having fathers being the way they are with their daughters. Speaking from my own experiences, i have two sisters and my father was always over-protective and nosy and all of those other things most fathers are when it comes to their daughters, specifically if their daughters are teenagers or twentysomethings. Fathers are just like that...it's the rule, not the exception that often gets portrayed on TV.

I'm sure there are lots and lots of fathers who are fine and don't get too involved in their daughter's lives once they reach adult-hood, but it isn't funny watching "normal people". This is why I was never a big watcher of sit-coms that depicted normalcy and non-funny situations. I think you need the bizarre, or the strange, in a lot of family sit-coms, if just for the attention factor of a TV audience. Henry's use of the Cosmic Cow hand puppet I would suspect was inserted into the series just for it's strange attention-getting concept? So, the show never really jumped the shark, but ABC did when they canceled it.

I loved the show for awhile but then when it resorted to non-stop mother-in-law bashing that's when I got tired of it. Not because I have in-law problems nor because I don't: it's just because the show degenerated into nuthin but mother-in-law this,mother-in-law that, mother-in-law something else.

Ted Knight was great as Ted Baxter...in small doses. As the centerpiece of his own sitcom? Holy moley.

Jm J. Bullock was merely the cherry on top of this s*** sundae.

This show jumped as soon as it was evident that Bullock was the poor mans equivelant of Ted McGinley. I mean they could have used the real Ted and it would have been better

I remember seeing this show when it first ran, and thought it was just okay at the time. I've recently seen it again and realize now it is just not very good at all.

As good as Ted Knight was on "Mary Tyler Moore", or as the character Judge Smails in the great movie comedy "Caddyshack",
this show underscored the fact that his greatest strength lay in supporting roles, rather than as the focus of his own show.

Clearly, Jim J. Bullock's character of Monroe Ficus was important to the show, but with him, a little went a long way. Though I did find the character annoying at times, it wasn't until Henry's niece April showed up in season two, that my eyes were opened to the true meaning of the word ANNOYING.
After that, Monroe seemed quaint and almost low-key in comparison.

Although it's highly debatable as to exactly where this show actually jumped, my vote would be when the character of April showed up.

Looking back now, I'm not quite sure how a show of this caliber, though likable, lasted over 125 episodes.
For me, like many other males, a good part of the initial allure was the attractive females; but there just had to have been more to it as a show to have lasted for that many episodes.

Didn't there?

April was OK, as was Moving out of SF. I didn't even mind the baby or the talking portrait. The only thing bad about this show was Henry's obnoxious father. EEECCCHHHH!!!

Um, it moved to Marin County, not Monterey.

Too Close For Comfort deserved better. Ted Knight deserved better. The Ted Knight Show (besides his death on 8/26/1986) was a sad way to end a show that never got a chance to be a classic.

I don't really care if the show jumped or not, It was a God-send for this young teenager before the age of internet. Those two chicks used to tear my nerves up. The brunette was a stone-cold knockout and the blond was delicious, yes, delicious. Mom, I would appreciate it if you would knock before entering.

This was a show I really liked when I was growing up. I would say it never jumped, and Ted Knight never really got the credit for being a lead in a sitcom. RIP, Ted. You died far too soon.

NEVER jumped!

One of the most realistic sitcoms ever! Forget the "daughters", Nancy Dussault was the bangable one! Yowsa!

Jm J. was ahead of his times. So humorous. So stylish. So Ghey!

RIP Ted - U da Man !

Never that good a show, but it jumped with the baby (how old was the wife, 60?). Kids grow up, you don't need to replace them by having some old fart supposedly pump out a newborn. And, add my vote that Jackie & Sara were hot!

HOLY COW!! <--no pun intendid, but THAT PAINTING of Henry Rush, OMG, that STILL freaks me out, 20 years after seeing that.... When it actually started to "age" in front of his own eyes, that really made me creeped out.....Sara, o Sara....I remember seeing her on an episode of Love Boat, in that bikini, i think i had my 7 year old self a wet dream.....

JTS had to be the episode when Ted Knight (Mr Rush) recieves a gift of the painting of himself (which really did look more like Barry Goldwater than Ted Knight), and the painting begins to talk to him at night. WTF??? Honestly I saw this episode as a kid and that damn image of the creepy painting with its creepy eyes gave me nightmares for a week

Barry Goldwater is scary

Oh and the epsiode with the Munroe rape was just as stupid as the All in the Family Edith rape. I mean wasnt Munroe suppose to be a security guard or something.