Too Close for Comfort - Episode Guide

Henry and Muriel consider renting the just vacant apartment they have to their own daughters. The girls promise to work hard to pay the rent. Henry discovers the previous lodger was a transvestite. A masseuse and a body paint artist come to ask for the flat but Henry dislikes them.

Sara goes on a trip to Lake Tahoe with her friends, and Henry panics after he inadvertently finds birth control pills in her room.

After an armored car company goes on strike, Jackie's forced to take home $100,000 from the bank where she works.

Muriel and Henry's anniversary plans change when Sara and her friend Monroe are arrested.

Muriel moves out when she and Henry disagree over Sara's new job.

After a disagreement with Henry, Jackie and Sara move to a tenement.

Sara's reputation is on the line when she accepts a dinner date and a promotion from the bank manager.

Henry and his boss set out to capture the crooks who stole Sara's purse.

Henry and Muriel's table doesn't include a setting for a lion that wanders into their dinner party.

Sara believes that Monroe needs a sex surrogate to overcome his problems.

Muriel's divorced college friend arrives for a visit and propositions Henry.

Muriel's former boyfriend stops by for dinner and directs his attention to Jackie.

While on jury duty, Henry creates havoc when he unknowingly destroys a piece of evidence.

Henry's 75-year-old father wants to start a new life after he's booted out of a rest home for cavorting with the ladies.

Muriel takes a stand for independence when Henry objects to her photographing a male centerfold.

Jackie continues her relationship with a married man despite opposition from the family.

Wanting to surprise his parents with an Easter visit, Monroe is shocked when they tell him not to come.

Henry feels the pains of unemployment after he's fired for satirizing the president in a cartoon.

When Mildred Rafkin comes back searching for her mother's brooch, Jackie suggests hiring a medium for help.

On her 42nd birthday, Muriel discovers she's pregnant.

Henry finds it difficult to tolerate his free-spirited niece who is staying with the family.

Muriel and Henry wonder if Sara is their real daughter.

Sara decides to go out with one of Jackie's former boyfriends.

Muriel and Henry must decide if they want to know their baby's sex before it's born.

A derelict shows up for his annual Thanksgiving feast with the Rushes' transvestite tenant.

The Rush family starts a round of bickering when Henry decides to make out his will.

A self-effacing Monroe takes an assertiveness-training course that turns him into an egomaniac.

Muriel's latest assignment interferes with Henry's 25th anniversary plans.

Jackie falls in love with a policeman, much to Henry's disappointment.

April's affair with a middle-aged music executive doesn't set too well with Henry.

When a fanatical fan steals a Cosmic Cow puppet, Henry sets out to recover it.

April schemes to effect a reconciliation between Henry and the brother he hasn't spoken to for 40 years.

An old friend with a penchant for practical jokes sets Henry up with a woman in a restaurant.

On a ski trip with Sara and Jackie, Henry finds himself alone with champagne and a hot tub until unexpected company arrives.

Muriel sides with Henry when her mother voices her disapproval of him.

In her seventh month of pregnancy Muriel is feeling unattractive.

Sara and April's new business is fined for violating city regulations.

Sara and Jackie exchange apartments with a European couple Henry suspects might be terrorists.

Despite Henry's disapproval, Sara decides to pursue a TV talk show job instead of a college degree.

Jackie eagerly awaits a marriage proposal when Brad returns from a trip, but he's having second thoughts.

Muriel's labor pains start off with a bad note when a stuck piano blocks their way to the hospital.

Part one of two. After bouts with false labor pains, Muriel has to be rushed to the hospital on Monroe's motorcycle. 

Conclusion. Henry rushes to the delivery room where a vigil awaits the newest member. 

Henry threatens to move out when Muriel's mother decides to move in.

Henry is told that the solution to his problematic love life is a vasectomy.

When the baby contracts chicken pox, Henry squawks at having to take refuge at his mother-in-law's. 

A decision by Muriel and Henry to renew their wedding vows almost leads to divorce.

Andrew is taken by a senile grandmother during one of Muriel's photo sessions.

Henry advises Monroe to lavish attention on a woman who won't give him the time of day. 

Iris's disappearance on Thanksgiving adds excitement to a family gathering already enlivened by the presence of Grandpa and the thoughts of baby Andrew.

Henry's blood pressure soars when he is trapped in an elevator with Monroe while on the way to an insurance physical.

The baby's fever cancels a Christmas family holiday and occasions a last-minute celebration at home.

A visit from Muriel's former singing partner causes her to wonder what it would have been like if she had pursued a career.

Iris is sure she's found the man of her dreams, but the family is curious about the whereabouts of his former wives.

War erupts between Muriel and Henry when he decides to buy a gun for protection.

In a '50s flashback, Henry and Muriel relate a rocky part of their romance to Jackie who has to decide between marriage and a career, or lose Brad.

Sara poses for a national magazine clad in a bikini, but when the photo is published the bikini is missing.

Henry reluctantly allows a flirtatious substitute courier named Bambi to take a cold shower when she arrives for a pickup extremely hung over. This proves to be an error in judgment when Bambi falls asleep in his bed wearing nothing but his robe just as Muriel arrives home.

Muriel discovers that she was adopted and hires a detective to learn about her birth parents. 

Andrew's hungry and his nursing mother is at work, so Henry takes the baby to the photo session.

Henry is enraged by Monroe's ineptness at hanging a portrait.

The wedding of Henry's lifelong friend to a young Las Vegas showgirl upsets the groom's sons from his previous marriage.

Two hapless brothers are hired by the Rushes to convert their attic into an apartment for Iris.

As Iris prepares to move in with the Rushes, she's offered a business partnership back in Chicago.

Jackie decides to have a breast implant operation in order to make herself more attractive.

Sara competes for an anchor position.

The Rush's house is scheduled for demolition when the city plans to construct a new subway station.

Monroe's visit with his father takes a turn for the worse when he catches him with another woman. 

Henry's father pays a visit with his future bride, a woman in her 40s who is pregnant with his child.

Henry's life is threatened when he's the only eyewitness in a robbery.

Henry gets a new idea for Cosmic Cow, thanks to a story about a dog with amnesia.

Henry runs into an old Navy acquaintance, unaware that his friend is gay.

Henry uses Cosmic Cow to seek a tax deduction and an honorary college degree.

Without consulting Sara, Henry makes a date for her with a star baseball player, unaware of the athlete's recent drug problem.

Monroe asks to have a friend room with him temporarily, without mentioning that the friend is a female runaway.

With college graduation approaching, Monroe applies for jobs without any success.

Monroe, Jackie and Sara use a home computer to bet on horse races.

While Henry frets over the possible expiration of his employment contract, he allows Monroe to have a colleague named Kelly spend the night because they have a security guard training class together the next day. However, Monroe fails to specify that Kelly is a Doberman Pinscher.

Jackie returns from a vacation engaged to her surfing instructor.

When Henry breaks his arm Mr. Wainright hires an over-ambitious artist to help him with Cosmic Cow.

Henry suspects Muriel is having an affair when she becomes secretive about the return of her stolen camera. 

The girls ask to meet their grandmother despite Muriel's adamant refusal to see the woman, who gave her up for adoption. 

Iris comes to town for a rendezvous with a past suitor who now wants to ask her a "very important question."

Muriel becomes depressed after a visit from her friend Sylvia, who has recently gotten remarried and is having the time of her life. She decides to resume her photography career, but she feels uneasy when her employer asks her to travel out of town alone with him.

After a terrible experience at a singles bar, Jackie considers changing her life by moving to Dallas. However, the change she was looking for unexpectedly comes to her when Sara's date arrives early at the apartment.

Henry is offered an executive position at a rival comic publisher for double his salary. He lets his enthusiasm get the best of him, however, when he tells off the new editor of Wainwright Publishing before asking where his new job will be located.

Henry decides to work at a downtown office, due to life at home getting crazier, but it turns out there were more distractions downtown than he bargained for.

After his father's death, Henry decides it's time to plan his own funeral. He soon starts to examine his life decisions.

Andrew might be a genius and is recruited by a school for gifted children.

Monroe asks for a raise and is fired.

The Rushes' friend Paul pretends to be a member of their family to impress his long-lost son.

Jackie shocks her folks when she announces her plan to become a single parent. 

Henry and Muriel end up in counseling thanks to the strain of helping another couple settle a squabble.

Muriel wonders whether she should undergo a face lift after a friend has one and looks much younger.

The Rushes hire an illegal housekeeper with good looks, minimal English, and an urge to become a naturalized citizen.

Henry is determined to bring to justice the two women who kidnapped and raped Monroe. 

Note: Though this episode was broadcast during the fifth season, it was originally produced for the fourth season. Also this episode was banned after its original airing due to the controversial plot and was not seen again until decades later when the show was broadcast on Antenna TV.

Henry and Monroe find a bag of money and plan to keep it, until they discover that a neighbor's home was robbed.

Note: Though this episode was broadcast during the fifth season, it was originally produced for the fourth season.

In this clip show, Monroe is away taking care of his ill father, and Henry has been feeling depressed. He insists it has nothing to do with Monroe's absence, but his family tries to convince him otherwise through the use of flashbacks.

Note: Though this episode was broadcast during the fifth season, it was originally produced for the fourth season; as a result, this episode only features clips from the first four seasons.

The Rush family learns that Monroe is dating a wealthy woman who's old enough to be his mother.

Henry discovers that his war-time friend visiting from England is still a womanizer.

Faced with a huge library fine, Henry resorts to action that isn't quite by the book. 

Henry's job is threatened when he and Cosmic Cow inadvertently endorse a political candidate. 

Monroe and Sara decide to help a teenage boy who was going to juvenile hall for stealing.

Jackie is asked to accept a fashion design job in Italy, but doesn't know how to break the news to her overprotective father.

Henry competes with 100 top artists in a contest to design a logo for Iris' company.

Henry flips out when Sara says her boyfriend is moving in.

Henry gets the chance to make Cosmic Cow a Saturday morning cartoon. But when heads of programming keep changing, he's constantly asked for several (sometimes absurd) changes.

The Rush family moves to Marin County where Henry becomes an editor of a weekly newspaper.

Monroe is jailed for refusing to reveal his source for an unauthorized story about toxic waste.

Muriel and Henry's best friends overstay their welcome at the Rushes' home.

Henry, Monroe, Muriel and Mrs. Stinson want to help a Vietnamese family find the American Dream.

To increase its popularity, the Marin Bugler holds a beauty contest, with unexpected repercussions for the winner.

Henry strikes up a deal to run the Garfield comic strip in the Marin Bugler.

Henry's peaceful day in bed is ruined when everyone expresses concern over his health.

The Rush's housekeeper Lisa enrolls in classes to become a naturalized American citizen.

Henry's admiration for a famous author diminishes when he learns the man gets his inspiration from the bottle. 

Henry and Lisa learn a lesson in trust when he gives her advice on buying a car.

Monroe and Henry discover a coverup in the death of Mrs. Stinson's friend.

A famous oceanographer asks Muriel to be his photographer on a five-week expedition. 

Mrs. Stinson's niece causes friction when she works as an intern at the newspaper.

Monroe's life is threatened after he gives an entertainer a harsh review.

Mr. Forester asks for Henry's help in writing a personal ad, which turns Henry into a ghost writer of sorts for all of his correspondence with the women who answer.

Muriel takes drastic measures when Henry uses someone else's pictures for the front page.

Henry refuses to run a notice by two rock musicians protesting the town's refusal to let them play at a music festival. 

Muriel and Henry get caught up in the Kennedys' marriage problems when Herb has an affair.

Mrs. Stinson announces she is ready for retirement.

Iris is ready to marry after a shipboard romance, but a suspicious Henry insists that her fiancé sign a prenuptial agreement.

Monroe's debut as a stand-up comedian is a bust.

In the final episode, all but Mr. Rush play lottery scratch ticket games. Lisa is overjoyed when she wins $5 and becomes addicted to playing.