Would Too Close for Comfort not be able to be made today

[TMC]

I'm sure that in the age of social media, social justice warriors would immediately accuse the show of being transphobic due to the nature of the Myron (later called Neville) Rafkin character. I'm willing to bet that the Monroe Ficus character would be frowned upon due to coming across as a walking stereotype and the show refusing to acknowledge Jim J. Bullock's real life sexual preference. I hate to imagine the reaction on social media over the "For Every Man, There's Two Women" episode.

[SitcomsHeydayfan]

They may have to change things a little but it could still exist today.

[cbikle]

Who would want to ?

The only reason this show existed was because of Ted Knight.

And aside from the weird episode where Monroe gets raped, there's nothing else remotely controversial about this very bland show.

[MIKEPR]

I don't see why it's worth discussing.

[SitcomsHeydayfan]

Originally Posted by cbikle

Who would want to ?

The only reason this show existed was because of Ted Knight.

And aside from the weird episode where Monroe gets raped, there's nothing else remotely controversial about this very bland show.

I meant assuming Ted Knight was still in it. Like if Ted Knight were many years younger and still alive or we lived in a time warp or something. No way in hell could you have Too Close without Ted Knight!!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by SitcomsHeydayfan

I meant assuming Ted Knight was still in it. Like if Ted Knight were many years younger and still alive or we lived in a time warp or something. No way in hell could you have Too Close without Ted Knight!!

Lydia Cornell just said on Twitter that she was mortified that ABC allowed the producers to do a show like that:


With all due respect to Lydia, I thought that "For Every Man, There's Two Women" episode came along in the syndication years. Maybe the confusion lies with the fact that the episode was originally produced for the prior season. But it didn't air in proper, until Season 5 in July 1985.

[SitcomsHeydayfan]

Originally Posted by TMC

Lydia Cornell just said on Twitter that she was mortified that ABC allowed the producers to do a show like that:


With all due respect to Lydia, I thought that "For Every Man, There's Two Women" episode came along in the syndication years. Maybe the confusion lies with the fact that the episode was originally produced for the prior season. But it didn't air in proper, until Season 5 in July 1985.

Is that the episode where Monroe was raped by 2 women??

[TMC]

Another thing to make an pretty reasonable argument about is that Too Close for Comfort started off as show about a man (Ted Knight's character, Henry Rush) who may have been a tad bit too controlling of his adult daughters who were merely living downstairs in his building. But it pretty soon, morphed into essentially being about Henry being concerned that Monroe was somehow “after” his daughters.

Like I said before, I don't think that Jim J. Bullock all out intended to be that way, but his on-screen persona unfortunately, can be interpreted as a horrible stereotype for gay men. And once it became clear after the first season that Monroe had no interest in Henry's daughters or really any other woman, that's when depending on your point of view, descended into a homophobic-like undertone between Henry and Monroe.

It seems awfully coincidental that the people who made Three's Company also made Too Close for Comfort. And Henry's conflict with Monroe could've mirrored that of Mr. Roper's relationship with Jack Tripper (a man who he thought was gay but was merely pretending).

[TMC]

Originally Posted by cbikle

Who would want to ?

The only reason this show existed was because of Ted Knight.

And aside from the weird episode where Monroe gets raped, there's nothing else remotely controversial about this very bland show.

Not that I would absolutely know for sure myself, but looking back, was Too Close for Comfort peppered with questionable references to gays, Asians, Latinos, and women throughout? And and all of it was played mostly matter-of-fact straight instead of for a laugh. All in all, it just goes to show how much cultural sensitivity has changed since TCFC originally aired.