November 11, 1980: "Too Close for Comfort" Premieres

Left to right: Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Nancy Dussault

Jim J. Bullock, Ted Knight, Lydia Cornell and Audrey Meadows.

November 11, 1980: Too Close for Comfort premieres on ABC. It was based on Keep It In the Family, a British sitcom created by Johnny Speight, who also created That Was the Week That Was and Till Death Us Do Part, on which All In the Family was based.

Ted Knight played Henry Rush, a cartoonist in San Francisco. In real life, Knight dropped out of high school to serve in World War II, and never went to college, so, as Henry -- a much smarter and, though a bit gruff, nicer guy than Ted Baxter of The Mary Tyler Moore Show -- he wore college sweatshirts, 4 years before Bill Cosby started doing it on The Cosby Show. This proved popular enough that fans began donating sweatshirts, some of which he wore on the show.

Nancy Dussault played his wife Muriel, a photographer. Deborah Van Valkenburgh, previously known for her role in The Warriors, played their daughter Jackie. Lydia Cornell played their daughter Sara. In the pilot episode, the daughters moved out of the upstairs apartment in their house to the downstairs apartment. At the start of the 3rd season, despite their parents both being in their late 40s, they were joined by a baby brother, Andrew.

Jim J. Bullock (then billed as "JM J.") played Monroe Ficus, a friend of the daughters, intended as a one-time role, but became popular enough to be the show's "Cousin Oliver" or "Urkel." Ray Middleton played Henry's father. Audrey Meadows played Muriel's mother, coming full circle from her role on The Honeymooners: Now she was playing the battleaxe mother-in-law.

The show ran for 6 seasons, until Knight died of cancer in 1986. As of November 11, 2022, the rest of the main cast have all retired from acting, although Cornell has mostly produced and directed since 2005.

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November 11, 1980 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 9 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons, 149-118 at Madison Square Garden. In spite of the Knicks' high point total, the game's leading scorer was Michael Campanella "Campy" Russell, with 28 points.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Denver Nuggets, 107-92 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 126-97 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Houston Rockets beat the expansion Dallas Mavericks, 105-94 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 119-113 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. Billy Knight led all scorers on the night with 52 points. Despite being a basketball player for an Indiana team, he was black, and thus not related to Indiana University coach Bobby Knight, who was about to start a season that would see him win the 2nd of his 3 National Championships at IU.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 100-96 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 121-80 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the San Diego Clippers, 109-107 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

* And the Kansas City Kings beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 102-101 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Calgary Flames, 7-3 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary. Guy Chouinard had a hat trick.

* The New York Islanders and the Minnesota North Stars played to a tie, 6-6 at the Nassau Coliseum. Mike Bossy scored 4 goals, and it still wasn't enough to give the Isles the win.

* The Chicago Black Hawks and the Quebec Nordiques played to a tie, 6-6 at the Colisée de Québec. The Nords blew a 5-0 lead.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 4-4 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-2 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. Les Habitantes got goals from 8 different players: Larry Robinson, Mark Napier, Pierre Mondou, Serge Savard, Gaston Gingras, Brian Engblom, Keith Acton and Bob Gainey.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Vancouver Canucks, 8-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.