Too Close for Comfort: Season 03 (1982)

Season two of the ABC sitcom Too Close for Comfort climaxed with Muriel Rush (Nancy Dussault), 42-year-old wife of ultraconservative newspaper cartoonist Henry Rush (Ted Knight), giving birth to her third child, a son named Andrew. Season three finds Andrew old enough to be played by actual child actors instead of anonymous infants. In this case, the role is shared by twins William Thomas Cannon and Michael Philip Cannon) (though the baby "talks" with the voice of an adult actor in those scenes wherein the audience is made privy to Andrew's innermost thoughts). Now the neurotic Henry is given another child to fret over in addition to his pretty college-age daughters Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) and Sara (Lydia Cornell), who are still living in the apartment below Henry and Muriel's. The fact that the nursing Muriel needs extra help around the house permits the writers to beef up the character of Muriel's domineering mother Iris, played by Audrey Meadows. Once again, this addition is made to heap more frustration upon Henry, inasmuch as he and Iris are constitutionally incapable of seeing eye-to-eye on anything. Addtionally, viewers see more and more of Jackie's policeman fiancé Brad Turner (Jordan Suffin during season three. The season finale, "Family Business", rather curiously downplays the presence of Henry, Muriel et al. to concentrate on the characters played by guest stars Jimmy Baio, George Del Hoyo, and Hillary Bailey Smith. On second glance, however, maybe it isn't so curious: whenever an episode of this nature shows up on an established series, it's a sure bet that the episode is the pilot for a spinoff show (which was true in this case, though the spinoff never spun off anywhere, except into oblivion). Having moved from its high-rated Tuesday night slot to a Thursday berth, and suffering from a general drop of interest in sexy sitcoms that promised much but delivered little, Too Close for Comfort plummetted in the ratings during its third season. However, the show still boasted enough of a following to warrant two additional seasons, produced for first-run syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi