Too Close for Comfort

[All My Shadows]

I think I've read something before about Nancy being mean (I love how that's the word we're using lol). I really appreciate the fact that Lydia Cornell spoke out a lot about the show a few years ago, the good and the bad, though it was mostly good stuff. However mean Nancy might have been, I see that she still gets together with the others every now and then.

Now Deborah Van Valkenburgh. She has bitchface fuh DAYS.

[KMan101]

So Nancy was basically a bitch at times? I can see a bit of Henry and Muriel in Ted and Nancy. I enjoy her though. She was great on the show. I adored they used Audrey Meadows as her mother. Loved Audrey Meadows.

I'll have to find Lydia Cornell talking about the show. I really never knew much about TCFC because I never bothered to research it much. Never had the opportunity to watch it really until now, thanks to Antenna TV.

[dragonflies]

I haven't seen this show in forever, didn't know Antenna TV was airing it.

Didn't Ted Knight pass away during the shows run?

[SFK]

Nancy never had any children, it was just a classic case of sitcom baby boost, which frankly boosted nothing for the show, imho. Gotta love that camptastic scene of Muriel singing I Can't Help Falling in Love with You to baby Andrew.

Lydia says that she's much better now, but that Nancy was unkind during the run of the show and seemed to harbor jealousy towards her younger castmates. Lydia had a huge crush on Jm and didn't realize that he was gay. Jm learned that he was HIV+ during one of the middle seasons and has very fortuitously never fallen ill to the virus.

I need to read up on it, but this particular viewing go round, I've noticed how many episodes DVV has missed, I think in the third season. I know the plot explanation, but I want to know the BTS dirt.

Clitoris Roberts and Selma Diamond did a bit on an NBC special that inspired Brandon Tartikoff to order "Miami Nice", a sitcom about wisecracking old ladies. That of course became The Golden Girls, and you can certainly see how Selma Diamond may have inspired a Sophia Petrillo when you watch her as Ms. Rafkin.

Nancy never had any children, it was just a classic case of sitcom baby boost, which frankly boosted nothing for the show, imho. Gotta love that camptastic scene of Muriel singing I Can't Help Falling in Love with You to baby Andrew.

Lydia says that she's much better now, but that Nancy was unkind during the run of the show and seemed to harbor jealousy towards her younger castmates. Lydia had a huge crush on Jm and didn't realize that he was gay. Jm learned that he was HIV+ during one of the middle seasons and has very fortuitously never fallen ill to the virus.

I need to read up on it, but this particular viewing go round, I've noticed how many episodes DVV has missed, I think in the third season. I know the plot explanation, but I want to know the BTS dirt.

Clitoris Roberts and Selma Diamond did a bit on an NBC special that inspired Brandon Tartikoff to order "Miami Nice", a sitcom about wisecracking old ladies. That of course became The Golden Girls, and you can certainly see how Selma Diamond may have inspired a Sophia Petrillo when you watch her as Ms. Rafkin.

[All My Shadows]

SFK. Why, bruh? Just why? And you know what I'm talking about.

Jackie was my favorite of the two daughters, but I also prefer Janet over Chrissy and Mary Ann over Ginger, so no surprise there. The last time TCFC was on Antenna, whenever they'd roll around to the very last season in San Francisco with the daughters (before the classy dinner party version of the theme song), I always cringe at how horrible the girls' hair and wardrobe looked. Lydia especially looked about 20 years older.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BVv5qKA7g

Also, it freaks me out that Muriel, Jackie, Sara, AND Monroe are all giving the giggly-eyed stare to the left.

Let's talk about Cousin April's annoying ass. I don't understand why they thought she was needed. By the second season, there was just this push to get away from the daughters that I don't quite get. I feel like there was still plenty of story left to the basic concept of 20something daughters living in an apartment below their parents in a quaint San Francisco home. Monroe and Iris were necessary supporting characters, but other than that, nothing else was needed.

[Khan]

Oh, must we? I'd just as soon forget she ever invaded the Rush's turf.

I can't figure out the reason for the constant tinkering with the show either, AMS. Didn't it initially get good ratings when it was on Tuesday nights with "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley" and "Three's Company"? IIRC, ABC canceled TCFC after the third season, b/c the show didn't do as well on another night.

One thing's for certain, when TCFC became "The Ted Knight Show," and Henry, Muriel, Andrew and Monroe packed up and moved to Marin County so Henry could run his new newspaper, I truly, truly felt the show had lost whatever spark it had left. There are some good moments in those episodes, but at the same time, I felt as if I was watching a brand-new series and one without a real center and purpose to it.

[All My Shadows]

I like The Ted Knight Show season, but yeah, it really is like a new show. To Ted, Nancy, and Jm's credit, though, they never really dropped a beat in the transition. The characters were the same, but the atmosphere was different. Whereas the ABC years of TCFC were kinda like Three's Company, TTKS felt more akin to The Golden Girls or Mama's Family.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Love this show. But, don't get a chance to watch it often. The only TV with an antenna (digital TV) is in my bedroom. And, I don't often stay back there. My DVR doesn't hook straight to my TV either. So, I can't tape it.

By far the weirdest episode is the one where Monroe gets raped. I saw it again last week because it was on right after I woke up. It was worth staying for.

Oh, IMO. The funniest episode is the one where Monroe wants to lose his virginity and thinks that Selma Diamond's character (LOVE HER ANYWAYS) Ms. Rafkin is the sex surrogate that Sarah hired.

[KMan101]

Yeah, I've noticed that they seem to not feature or give the daughters a whole lot to do. I don't think adding Andrew was necessary at all, either. I don't know why sitcoms insisted on doing this at the time. Oh, let's add a baby and then make them a "precocious" child. Yeah, let's not. It never works. I haven't seen the April season yet. But why add her when you had Jackie and Sarah? That makes no sense.

The Monroe rape episode was definitely one of the weirdest episodes I've seen and it's, um, interesting, that it's all played for a big laugh.

[Marco Dane]

Why was Sara pushed out in the last season?

[SoapDope]

I remember the studio audience howling with laughter when Monroe told them what happened.

[SFK]

Yes, April was completely unnecessary, as was Andrew. They must have lacked confidence in their storytelling if they felt the need to "spice it up" with these additions. Jackie and Sara definitely read early twenties but I don't think "teen" April was any sort of draw for an untapped audience.

[Soapsuds]

I'm surprised that one of the girls actually didnt know Jim was gay...it was so damn obvious..lol

[SFK]

I continued to enjoy the final TTKS season, complete with the cocktail party version of the opening theme (love that description AMS, years ago I posted the video in the What Are You Listening To? thread), but the show lost some of its soul. The original concept was gone and the title change appropriately reflected that, but still, it was a jarring and rather generic change (no offense to the late TK). Then you replace the iconic red Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood house with a lovely, but again, generic looking home in Marin. It was like when they ditched Angela Channing's baller black Pullman Benz limo for a dime a dozen white Rolls.

Gotta love Pat Carroll though. Ursula, Katrina Stoneheart, I could listen to her all day. I'm blanking on the reintroduction of their maid though, because Monroe almost marries her and she runs away before she becomes a regular in the final season.

Oh, and sorry AMS, old Seinfeld joke.

[Khan]

If Jackie and Sara had to be written out, that's one thing. (In fact, I suspect we saw less and less of them as time went on, b/c either the network or the show's producers weren't too crazy about Lydia Cornell or Deborah Van Valkenburgh.) But I think the producers would have been much better off keeping Henry, Muriel and Monroe in SF and instead having Henry rent out Jackie and Sara's old apartment to new tenants would could clash repeatedly with their landlord.

If it had been me, I would have had Henry reluctantly renting out the pad to a gay couple. (Heck, we're in syndication by this point -- and besides, the guy who rented the place before the girls was supposedly transsexual) And the big running joke, of course, would be their constant suspicions about Monroe's sexuality even though Monroe insists he's straight.