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Join Date: Jan 09, 2001
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https://web.archive.org/web/20070225...ptheshark.com/
- Other Thoughts:
Couldn't watch it after seeing one daughter in The Warriors. Was that Debra Van Falkenberg?
Too much Cosmic Cow
When the show was cancelled by the network and new episodes were being produced in syndication. That's when they re-named the show "The Ted Knight Show".
Jm J. Bullock playing a STRAIGHT man? Wake up and smell the lavender!
I could never concentrate on the show because I always tried to figure out why Jm J. Bullock didn't use an "i" in his first name.
They should have given Cosmic Cow his own series.
Late in its run, Muriel gave birth to a baby. I think there was even an article about it on the cover of TV Guide when it happened (could be wrong.) I personally had trouble with the fact that Rush's presumably lethargic sperm could do anything for Muriel's fossilized uterus.
"Too Close for Comfort" jumped the shark when Henry's annoying niece April joined the cast. Her voice was so grating and offensive to the ears that I couldn't stand watching the show after that.
April was not only irritating, she was completely unnecessary. The show had Ted Knight & his wife, they had 2 daughters, the requisite smart brunette & dumb blonde, & they had Munroe. (Did Jm J. Bullock reinvent the spelling of Munroe's name too?) WHY OH WHY did they have to bring in another character? Especially one with no appeal whatsoever. GOOD GOD.
When the Rush's moved from San Francisco to Monterrey so Henry could take a job at a tiny second-rate newspaper. That Mexican exchange student showed up and lived with them in Monterrey, but what ever happened to their daughters? Or the baby boy, Andrew?
Jm J. Bullock is a KIND and GENTLE man! After all these years his touch still makes my pulse quicken. I am his life-partner and I emplore you people to LEAVE HIM ALONE! He is a comic genius- AIDS or no AIDS!
I realized that this show JTS when they aired A Very Special episode where Munroe is kidnapped and raped by a gang of aggressively horny women. I'm sorry, I just couldn't buy it. I don't think the writers intended too many laughs for this episode, but I for one was oddly amused by this stretch of a premise.
Jumped the shark when the two daughters decide to go big-time with a cookie recipe. You know a show has hit the skids when the writers resort to the tired situation of characters getting in over their heads producing unrealistically popular foodstuffs from home. Really, how many times can we see krazy-wacky-kooky people tripping over bakers racks with flour all over their faces?!?! (Did someone say "Bibby Bobkas"??) Regarding the spelling of Jm J Bullock's name...I heard him on a talk-show one time and was asked about the odd spelling of his name. In response, he explained that the screen actors union already had a "Jim Bullock" on its rolls, so he had to modify his name or completely change it in order to join the union. Opting for the former, he dropped the "i" in "Jim" to form a unique name that the union would accept. Seems a small price to pay for getting work. I believe he later went back to the correct spelling of his name. Definitely an interesting cat.
I don't think this show ever jumped the shark because it wasn't ever good enough to start with. I have got to say - those two broads, the daughters, got me through puberty! DAMN I used to love those women. I would spend entire episodes just staring at the blonde's boobs.
When that obnoxious cousin April joined the show. Her voice was terribly annoying, as was her personality. She sent this show high above the shark and it obviously crash landed into an iceberg ala Titanic - I haven't heard a thing about her since.
I had a serious thing for the brunette daughter when I was a wee lad. I think she was in that movie "The Warriors" as the token slut. Awesome. I live in SF and I remember when I was young we actually drove by the house that was featured in the opening credits. I nearly pissed my pants in joy.
When April the annoying niece shoed up. Munroe was bad enough, but the niece made the show barely tolerable. as I understand it, this was a show about a dad with two sexy daughters and a very funny comic strip. what else did it need?
When the Rush's moved from SF to Marin, things went straight to hell. And giving Monroe a GIRLfriend?? Who were they trying to kid?
Any show with that Blonde chick could never jump..It's the first time it was ok to look like a porn queen on a weekly sitcom.....trailblazing indeed
Even though they did all the things that perhaps would make a show jump, I loved it. Then again, I was so in love with Jim J so maybe I'm biased. Anyway, NEVER JUMPED BABY
I could never stand the Munroe character. Who would tolerate that buffoon? I heard Jm J Bullock interviewed some time after the show had gone off the air and he commented that the preceding year had been profound one. He said, "It was the year I finally came screaming out of the closet." I thought to myself, "You're the only one who thought you were in there." That guy has been a screamer since day one.
I had this vague memory of Munroe (the most pathetic character in TV history) getting raped by 2 fat women in a van. I thought I had imagined it, but found that others describe the episode here. What were the writers thinking?
When Munroe got raped by two fat ladies in a van, I cried my little eyes out.
When Nancy "I've already hit menopause" Dusault gave birth to Andrew, the name all babies are given when they ruin a show.
At conception is the point this show not only jumped the shark, but swallowed Jaw's whole. I saw the interview with Jm J talking about how he came to the realization that he was gay, and decided to come out. Who are you kidding? This guy was, is, and always will be gayer than George Micheals in a porta pottie at an N'SYNC concert. The ONLY reason to watch this show was the slutty looking, barely clothed, blonde daughter.
Remember the Christmas episode when at the end it snowed in San Francisco? I've lived in the SF Bay Area my whole life and believe me--it does NOT snow in San Francisco!
I remember really liking this show (I was 7 or 8), but I can only vaguely remember a character called Munroe. I looked it up somewhere else on the net, saw the guy, and still can't remember. Those two daughters were the biggest hotties on T.V., and they've obliterated most other memories of the series. I do have to say that I liked the cousin and thought she was funny. I believe I've heard "that annoying voice" doing voice-overs on commercials over the years; Planters peanuts comes to mind. I thought that was her playing Zarabeth in "Witchboard" and Chloe, Sherri Stringfield's druggie sister, on ER, but apparently that's a different actress. Anyway, I was young, but I don't remember a jump--just wanting to jump.
April ruined it for me. Initially ( I was young! ) I thought that the show was just trying to introduce a handicapped character, like Blair's cousin on Facts of Life. I seriously thought April was somehow mentally deficient, because of her voice and bad overacting. It would not have jumped if that was the case and April had an excuse for being that way.
You know whom JM J reminds me of? Ted McGinley. HONEST TO GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But the pair of them together couldn't ruin a perfectly good show the way Lisa Antille did ("go pouf!"), with that stereotypical accent of hers. The daughters certainly got out while the getting was good, though we didn't hear much from either of them after.
Not a bad show. I even thought Munroe was okay in small doses. What got on my nerves was how poor brunette Jackie would get dumped by her boyfriends so that they could pursue her blonde sister Sarah. Okay, Sarah was a total babe, but Jackie was not a toad either. She may not have been a Supermodel but she's more attractive than the average woman and has a promising future, where Sarah is just eye-candy and a scatter-brain. I totally enjoyed the episode where, for once, Sarah's boyfriend dumped her to pursue Jackie. Classic TV. Way to go, Jackie!
Too Close for Comfort? Too Dreadful for Television, more like it. Ted Knight was good as Ted Baxter, but on this show he played a dumbed down Baxter. The only good thing about it was our first glance at the very funny JM J. Bullock
Came close (too close!) several times, but NEVER JUMPED. I've recently rediscovered this favorite show from my childhood (The WB affiliate in Houston shows it everynight at 3am), and have to say watching it again after 20 years has been a ball. At the comic heart of the show are the very funny Ted Knight and Jm J. Bullock. Sure, the series started out as a typical family sitcom (Bullock wasn't even a cast member originally), but the producers soon realized that the chemistry between Knight and Bullock was what kept the viewers coming back. This was proven when the 2nd or 3rd season (don't recall which) ended with a "highlight" show featuring Henry and Munroe's greatest feuds. Interestingly, I noticed that the "developer" of the show was one Don Taffner, whose other famous show was Three's Company. Which leads me to wonder if perhaps Taffner didn't have a secret "gay agenda" he was pushing. Think about it - Three's Company innocently introduces a gay theme to primetime in 1977. Three years later, Too Close For Comfort becomes a hit whose most popular character, Munroe, is played by the gayest actor since Paul Lynde. Of course, back then, they couldn't make Munroe openly gay. But the hints were definitely there. He fell in love "for the first time" with a co-worker of Jackie's who turned out to be a dude in drag. It was even implied (subtly) that Munroe had a crush on Henry. If I'm not mistaken, there was also a show which was one of the very earliest TV episodes addressing the then-new AIDS crisis, though they couldn't even use the term AIDS in the episode (a buddy of Henry's from the Navy turned out to be gay, and had a longtime companion who was dying of a mysterious illness). Yes, there was a lot of gay subtext in this show which went over my head as a kid, but is plain as day now. Props to Taffner if this was intentional - it makes him a tv pioneer. One last thing - two of my good friends spotted Jm J. Bullock about 2 months ago at a Starbucks here in Houston (I believe he lives here part time, he is a native Texan). They said he was really "rocked up", meaning he's been working out and he looks great.
When Munroe got raped by two obese women in a van. I don't even know what the writers were thinking when they thought this up. Maybe they were trying to prove he wasn't gay or something...nice try.
Let's see. Ted Knight as the creator of a comic strip called Cosmic Cow...Lydia Van what's-her-name as a short-lived '70s poster girl for drooling boys...Jm J. Bullock as the gay who hasn't quite come out of the closet yet...all topped by the classic desperation move "Let's have a baby to spike the ratings!" How much more shark-jumping can one take?
When Muriel learned she was adopted, and that her biological mother had been a widow at the time she was born. Huh? I don't think too many married women, then or now, give up babies for adoption.
It's hard for me to tell if this show jumped the shark because it was never very good to begin with. The relationship between ditzy, flaming Monroe & "the always on the verge of popping a blood vessel" Henry provided this show with some moments of genuine comedy. But take away Monroe and this sitcom was doa.
Ted Knight deserved better than this after MTM. Nancy Dussault is a fine actress whose never had a role to really show her off. Yes, the girls WERE cute and JBullock was one of the most annoying people ever to appear on tv. I don't mind flamboyant and/or obviously gay men on tv--if they have talent!!! (Paul Lynde, Pee Wee Herman, etc). but J should never be allowed in front of any camera. Oh, and to the alleged "life partner of Bullock" (yeah, right) who posted this: "I emplore you people to LEAVE HIM ALONE! He is a comic genius- AIDS or no AIDS!" 1. The spelling is i-m-p-l-o-r-e, not 'emplore' (Gee, if you have a 'life-partner' making the mega-millions J is making, you can afford to get your GED) 2. Look up the word "genius" in Webster's--I guarantee nothing JB has done REMOTELY fits the definition!
This show jumped from Day One. Sure, the blonde was fun to look at, but the biggest laughs (?) came from Ted Knight stuttering. "Puh, puh, puh pregnant?" Sorry, I just don't find stuttering all that funny.
When everyone made a big deal of Monroe's being a virgin and had some kind of therapist come to remedy this situation. Now I admit Monroe's putting the moves on the wrong woman (a visitor to the house he thought was the therapist) was kind of funny, does virginity ALWAYS have to be portrayed as something to "get rid of." even if the character is not in a relationship?
The person that said they thought April was a handicapped rip-off from "Facts of Life" hit it on the nose. Were those clothes the networks idea of 'edgy'? She was annoying, with that voice, the character itself... but yeah, I spent a lot of time wondering if there was something wrong with her too, which distracted me from the actual episode. I enjoyed this show and thought it hilarious for the time, but April was the giant leap over our finned friend. I am surprised that so many people said that Munro's rape episode was the shark jumper. I thought that one was hilarious, though I was admittedly very young, and trying to comprehend how women could rape a man, and the visuals that floated through a mind nowhere near sexual awakening, but vaguely aware of how it was supposed to be done, made it one of the funniest things I ever saw. I think that's about time my newly emerging "GAYDAR" caught on to JM J Bullock being a bit light in the loafers. Explains why Ted trusted him with the girls, though. It was April, man. April did it. It was actually a decent show before she was introduced.
Terrible concept, with Ted Knight (who was on the great Mary Tyler Moore Show and should have known better) as the artist of a comic strip called "The Cosmic Cow," haw-haw! I don't know which was worse--the feeble attempt to promote Lydia Van Valkenburgh as a sex-symbol poster girl, or that awful opening sequence where Ted falls backwards on the open sofa and comes back up all pop-eyed, as if it was a fantastic sight gag. Yeesh!
This show never jumped. It was bad from the start and never changed. I can't believe that only one other poster commented on the only reason to watch this show. Ted Knight's two hot daughters. Both were big breasted, wore tight jeans and high heeled boots. That is quality TV.
Too Close For Comfort came close to jumping on a couple of occasions (cousin April and baby Andrew). But it finally jumped when Jackie and Sara left the show. They were two of the most beautiful women on television during the 80's. They were both talented actresses who had great chemistry together.
I don't think it ever jumped, I thought there were a lot of cool things about this show. The closest it came to sleeping with the fishes was having the whole Rush family, and throw in Munroe and cosmic cow, with totally different hair color. White, red, black, blonde, brown, no laws of genetics on this puppy. How about the technicolor of the girls' apartment, oh, and the blonde Sarah, where have you gone? Now female leads look like Ellen and Rosanne if we're lucky. The theme song was great too, the prettiest wordless theme of any sitcom although not quite at the level of the granddaddy of all tv instrumental theme songs, Dallas. The theme to Dallas especially when they added those wicked bass licks at the beginning during the shows later years is victory itself. Bownt, nownt, nownt, nownt, da-da, da-daaaaa, da-da, da-da-da-da. But I digress. What's with Jm J's name? Shark eat the i?
too close for comfort was an incredibly funny sitcom until the birth of baby andrew. one of the worst mistakes ever made in a sitcom! all of the humor was sucked out of the show
I am surprised only one other person has said that the show JTS-ed when the daughters left! Not only were they attractive, but the whole premise of the show was that he was still tied to his family (living downstairs) when most men would be entering a new phase of life with grown children! The show lost its theme when they were gone, and their departure also gave too much prominence to Munroe. (I saw their relationship as sort of a George and Lenny/"Mice and Men" thing. As for April, I thought her annoyingness suited her character a flaky new age wannabe. (Her boyfriend was named Moonbeam for Chrissake!) To the person above pretending to be Jm's lover--his lover actually died. May you, sir who thinks AIDS is funny, get a itch that will forever go unscratched for your abhorrent mockery. Scum is as scum posts.
When Andrew was born. With two grown daughters living in their downstairs apartment for some degree of independence, the characters played by Ted Knight and Nancy Dussault were clearly past the child-rearing stage of their lives. Sure, the kid was cute, but Andrew's arrival only tightened "Too Close For Comfort"'s already cramped quarters.
Nobody mentioned the shark jumping moment when Muriel had her baby and there would be a scene with people talking and they'd cut to the baby and a voice (supposedly the baby's) would make some wise-ass comment much like the dog on Married With Children. In fact when I saw Buck do that on MWC I said "they got that from TCFC!"
Obviously, this was an idiotic show... we watched it for a few weeks when it first came on, but it was just too stupid. Re the two daughters...the brunette would have been the hottest thing on a lot of other shows, but she was a distant second to the blonde on TCFC. The blonde girl was incredible. Ted Knight was great as Ted Baxter on the MTM Show, but only because of the interaction of the entire ensemble cast of that show. Knight was never a star vehicle himself...in fact, I found his character to be totally obnoxious and unwatchable on TCFC (I understand that Ted Baxter was supposed to be obnoxious, but one obnoxious character is OK when you have a cast like MTM Show did). Knight needed great actors around him to make him look good. So yes, the daughters were the one and only reason to watch this crap. On a side note, a recent post referred to "Married With Children" 'copying' the 'thinking out loud' dog bit from TCFC 'thinking out loud' kid. Not so. From 1955-1958, NBC ran a sitcom called "The People's Choice", which starred Jackie Cooper as a Ornithologist studying to become a lawyer. He elopes with the Mayor's daughter (played by Patricia Breslin), and they spent their time trying to conceal their marriage from the Mayor (who didn't want his daughter marrying Cooper because he wasn't a lawyer yet). Anyway, I remember seeing this show in reruns in the late 60s, and liking it... The real "star" of the show was a "thinking out loud" Bassett Hound named Cleo (voice provided by Mary Jane Croft, of "I Love Lucy" fame). So the Buck idea from MWC is even less original than you thought. In the case of "The People's Choice" however, "Cleo" was clearly the 'star' of the show, whereas in MWC, Buck would only occasionally 'comment' on the events of the day. "Cleo" would make comments throughout every episode.
I never could understand what was up with all those collegiate sweatshirts, what really made Munroe tick, or why Jm spelled his name like that. I guess I am trying to say the show lacked any substance, but I loved, LOVED the opening scenes of San Francisco and the "setting" of the show had such a San Francisco feel. For me, the show recorded a moment in time of an amazing city that drastically changed (and became enormously populated) in the late 80-s present thanks to the computer boom. TCFC is kind of like viewing an old National geographic---love it!!!
Yes, this otherwise fine piece of comedy television jumped when for some reason they decided add a baby to the show? Why do producers do this??
Jumped from day one, because the premise was annoying and absurd. Why are all fathers-of-daughters (those aged usually 15 and up) depicted (on sitcoms) as overbearing, overprotective, stupid a**holes? It gives fathers a bad name, especially if they're fathers of daughters!! I'm proud to say that my own dad (who raised two daughters, of which I am the eldest.) is NOTHING like that negative stereotype perpetrated by TV sitcoms!
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09-26-2013, 06:52 PM
Too Close for Comfort Boned the Fish When...
