Commish here, and welcome to this silly blog about the 1980s TV show "Too Close for Comfort." One of our followers asked me to do this in June, and since I have a little bit more spare time due to losing my real job recently, I decided to take this task upon myself and write about it.

Now, you’re probably wondering what this 1980s sitcom has to do with college football or college in general. Don’t worry, I will get there, and I am going to break down each episode of all 129 of this show you may or may not know to have existed before this.

This was a show starring Ted Knight, an actor that you may know from Caddyshack as Judge Smails with the famous line of “Well, we're waiting” or many other zingers in that movie. You may know him from the Mary Tyler Moore Show or many other numerous TV roles; I cannot possibly list them all.

This show took place towards the end of his career, before his death in 1986. It was a classic 1980s sitcom with simple 22-minute episodes. Ted was playing a character called Henry Rush, who was a cartoonist in San Francisco and made a cartoon called Cosmic Cow. They had a character in the show that made Henry hilariously angry called Monroe, and I am counting this as a ULM Mentioned in the 1980s.

If you want to go through all 129 episodes like I did, you can for free on TubiTV. Double check me if you want, I will update it as I have plenty of free time now.

The main thing I am diving into about this show is that in nearly every single episode, Ted’s character wore a different collegiate sweatshirt in the show. It started simple enough, as in the pilot episode, Ted’s character wore a sweatshirt for Michigan, and then the show started this insane run of college sweatshirts.

Now, we found a thread of nearly all the colleges he wore on the show, and I’ll put it at the bottom of the post and I will put some pics in here, but as the Commish, I am here for STATS. I need to know how many times he wore a college, and I need to know if there were any repeats, and guess what? Not only that, but I made a spreadsheet to help you analyze this show’s sweatshirt choices. So, let's get going before I completely lose you reading this ridiculous post and break it down.

Season 1 - Now this was the first season, and the Michigan sweatshirt was in the Pilot Episode. So, it took a while to catch on.

• Episode 1 - Michigan

• Episode 2 - None

• Episode 3 - None

• Episode 4 - None

• Episode 5 - UCLA - it begins with another school here.

• Episode 6 - UCLA - Same sweatshirt two episodes in a row. 

• Episode 7 - Northwestern

• Episode 8 - Notre Dame

• Episode 9 - None

• Episode 10 - None 

• Episode 11 - Syracuse 

• Episode 12 - Stanford but a Purple one?

• Episode 13 - Princeton

• Episode 14 - Notre Dame (repeat from Episode Eight) and USC (Our First 2 Sweatshirt Episode)

• Episode 15 - Oklahoma and Northwestern

• Episode 16 - Georgia Tech

• Episode 17 - Northwestern 

• Episode 18 - Minnesota and Ball State

• Episode 19 - None

Season 1 Stats - Northwestern wins this with three different sweatshirt appearances. We had three multiple sweatshirt shows and averaged 0.84 sweatshirts per episode, with eight episodes not featuring a sweatshirt at all. Which is pretty damn good for a trend to start in the 1980s in the first season of a TV show.

Season 2 - This season was the height of the show’s popularity. Season 1 topped in at 15th in the TV Ratings but Season 2 got all the way to 6th in the ratings tied with the Dukes of Hazzard.

• Episode 1 - Ohio State

• Episode 2 - Kentucky and Oregon State (This one will be the famous one)

• Episode 3 - Alabama

• Episode 4 - Maine

• Episode 5 - None

• Episode 6 - Pacific and Maryland

• Episode 7 - American

• Episode 8 - Columbia

• Episode 9 - Toledo

• Episode 10 - None

• Episode 11 - Saint Francis Xavier University in Canada! Our first Canadian one!

• Episode 12 - Florida and Earlham College

• Episode 13 - Slippery Rock

• Episode 14 - Penn State and Iowa State

• Episode 15 - None

• Episode 16 - Whitman and Los Angeles Community College

• Episode 17 - Yale

• Episode 18 - Cornell and Los Angeles Valley College

• Episode 19 - Army West Point

• Episode 20 - Georgia, West Virginia and Lehigh! Our first 3 sweatshirt episode!

• Episode 21 - Colgate

• Episode 22 - Emerson College (not 100% here because Ted is wrapped in an electric blanket due to the heat being out in his house and we don’t get a clear view)

Season 2 Stats - We averaged 1.22 sweatshirts per episode here which is very impressive and only two episodes without any college sweatshirts. We had our first Canadian school appearance. No repeated sweatshirts in this season, we have seven multi-sweatshirt episodes and we had our first three sweatshirt episode with the amazing combo of Georgia, West Virginia and Lehigh.

Season 3 - This season the ratings dropped down to the 38th most popular TV show. The show is cancelled by ABC after this season due to the poor rating performance. However, it gets picked up in Syndication and the show lives on and we get three more seasons of sweatshirts.

• Episode 1 Part 1 - Wisconsin-Oskosh and Sarah Lawrence College

• Episode 1 Part 2 - University of Rochester

• Episode 3 - Washington 

• Episode 4 - Lawrence University and Spartanburg Methodist College

• Episode 5 - Maryville University of St. Louis

• Episode 6 - Dayton and Citrus College

• Episode 7 - Ohio State and St. Paul's Tiger College (this one closed in 2013)

• Episode 8 - Colorado and Penn

• Episode 9 - Morris Brown College and Rutgers

• Episode 10 - University of Hartford, Indiana and Nebraska

• Episode 11 - Cincinnati

• Episode 12 - Lafayette and Purdue

• Episode 13 - South Dakota-Springfield (Closed in 1984 and now a PRISON) - This is incredible really. The school closed basically a year after this sweatshirt appeared in the show and now is a PRISON!!

• Episode 14 - El Camino College and Arizona

• Episode 15 - Cal State Long Beach, Ole Miss and Kansas

• Episode 16 - Christmas Special - None

• Episode 17 - San Jose State and San Francisco

• Episode 18 - North Dakota State, Brooklyn College, and Rockford College

• Episode 19 - Mulenberg College and Washington

• Episode 20 - South Dakota Tech and Ripon

• Episode 21 - Michigan

• Episode 22 - Staten Island University

• Episode 23 - None

Season 3 Stats - We averaged a whopping 1.65 different sweatshirts per episode if we count episode one as just a two-parter. If we don't, it’s still a 1.58 sweatshirt per episode average. Incredible work by Ted Knight and the crew to go through all the sweatshirts. We had our first Canadian university entry here. Also, we had three episodes with three different sweatshirts in a single episode. We had 12 multi-sweatshirt episodes in this season. Half or OVER half of the season, Ted had on multiple sweatshirts in an episode. There were only two episodes where he didn’t wear one this season. Just a legendary run of sweatshirts here, and it was at its sweatshirt peak, but ABC was like, we're going to cancel the show.

Season 4 - This season the show was in Syndication and the ratings improved. When Too Close for Comfort was canceled by ABC, Metromedia Producers Corporation elected to pick up the series and began producing all-new episodes to run on various stations throughout the country. The show took a break but returned in April of 1984 with the same cast and another 23+ episodes. (Tubi & Wiki don’t agree on episode numbering)

• Episode 1 - Pasadena City College and Missouri

• Episode 2 - None

• Episode 3 - New York University

• Episode 4 - Brooklyn College (Repeat)

• Episode 5 - Arizona State

• Episode 6 - Xavier University and Rice

• Episode 7 - Vanderbilt Hall of Fame Bowl 1982 (This is the only specific bowl reference shirt the entire show! Vandy was so proud of the Bowl game to send to the show! Also, they lost to Air Force in the game 35-28 and the ‘Dores wouldn’t have another winning season till 2008!)

• Episode 8 - Brandeis University 

• Episode 9 - Marquette, St. Louis, and Indiana

• Episode 10 - Penn State and Rutgers

• Episode 11 - UW Milwaukee

• Episode 12 - Cal State Long Beach and American University

• Episode 13 - Boston University

• Episode 14 - Northeastern University

• Episode 15 - UCF

• Episode 16 - Cal State Northridge and St. John's

• Episode 17 - Washington University of St. Louis

• Episode 18 - Oberlin College

• Episode 19 - The University of Alberta (our second Canadian school)

• Episode 20 - Oklahoma

• Episode 21 - Maryville University of St. Louis

• Episode 22 - Kansas and Georgia

• Episode 23 - Fairleigh Dickinson

• Episode 24 - Purdue and Webster University

• Episode 25 - None

• Episode 26 - Holy Family College (then Flashback Episode with Colgate and Washington)

Season 4 Stats - We averaged a solid 1.35 sweatshirts per episode but you could tell the sweatshirts hit their prime last year. While it was a good clip this season you only got one three sweatshirt episode if you don’t count the clip show at the end of the season. It was like passing for 5,000 yards and then the next year you only pass for 4,000. We dropped down to seven multi-sweatshirt episodes and while they were solid inclusions, I noticed Ted was starting to forgo the wardrobe changes this season and maintained one sweatshirt for a really long time in each episode. Multiple times this season Ted wore the sweatshirt for over a half an episode. It’s like he went to more of a sweatshirt ball possession offense. We did only have two episodes without a sweatshirt appearance.

Season 5 - This is the second season in syndication and the last season we would get college sweatshirts and the last season with the original cast. I’ll explain the Season 6 changes in a little bit, as this was the last run of sweatshirts.

• Episode 1 - George Washington and Cincinnati. However, Oregon State is in the opening credits of this entire season, bar one episode.

• Episode 2 - None

• Episode 3 - Valparaiso and Southern Illinois

• Episode 4 - North Florida, THE OSPREYS!!

• Episode 5 - Marquette (Same one as Season 4)

• Episode 6 - Oregon State (Same one from the Credits of this Season)

• Episode 7 - None

• Episode 8 - None

• Episode 9 - Dartmouth and Harvard

• Episode 10 - South Dakota Tech aka South Dakota Mines (same from prior season) and Johns Hopkins

• Episode 11 - United States International University

• Episode 12 - USC (From the 1st Season)

• Episode 13 - San Francisco

• Episode 14 - Texas A&M

• Episode 15 - (intro now has Cincinnati) None

• Episode 16 - (back to Oregon State intro) Michigan State

• Episode 17 - Fairmont State University

• Episode 18 - St. Johns from Season 4 and the very last one in the show’s history.

Season 5 Stats - We averaged a 1 sweatshirt per episode if you don’t count the credits but you could tell the sweatshirts hit their prime last year. If you count the credits, which feels like cheating it’s at 2 sweatshirts per episode. That just doesn’t feel right. I can credit one Oregon State and Cincinnati for a total of 20 sweatshirts in the 18 episode season and will rule this was a 1.11 sweatshirts per episode season. We only had three multi sweatshirt episodes, without any three sweatshirt episodes. We had four episodes with without any sweatshirts.

Season 6 - They completed retooled the show and called it the Ted Knight Show but it was later rolled into the Too Close for Comfort show series. Ted’s character moved to Marin County and did a weekly newspaper instead of the cartoon. Monroe, played by Jim J Bullock, (ULM Mentioned) and his wife came with him. Season 6 got rid of the college sweatshirts completely. Ted’s character was just wearing sweatshirts of cities.

• Episode 1 - None

• Episode 2 - Boston

• Episode 3 - Fort Worth

• Episode 4 - Houston

• Episode 5 - None

• Episode 6 - None

• Episode 7 - New Orleans Sweatshirt with crawfish

• Episode 8 - Chicago

• Episode 9 - Wichita

• Episode 10 - None

• Episode 11 - None

• Episode 12 - Albuquerque

• Episode 13 - None

• Episode 14 - Pittsburgh

• Episode 15 - None

• Episode 16 - Waterbury, CT

• Episode 17 - None

• Episode 18 - None

• Episode 19 - Colorado Springs

• Episode 20 - None

• Episode 21 - None

• Episode 22 - San Francisco where the show was set

Season 6 Stats - We averaged 0.50 city themed sweatshirts per episode this season. We never had a multiple city sweatshirt episode. We had 11 episodes without a city sweatshirt.

There were plans to continue the show for a 7th season, but unfortunately Ted passed away from his battle with colon cancer in August of 1986. I hope you are resting in peace, Ted. Thank you for this crazy journey of college sweatshirts.

I linked a twitter thread below of nearly all of the college sweatshirts in the show. Just a magnificent thread.

FINAL SWEATSHIRT STATS FOR THE SHOW

Thank you for reading this absolutely silly blog and stats about a sitcom in the 1980s.