''The Ted Knight Show'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

television series starring

Ted Knight Ted Knight (born Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka; December 7, 1923August 26, 1986) was an American actor well known for playing the comedic roles of Ted Baxter in ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', Henry Rush in ''Too Close for Comfort'', and Judge Elihu ...

which centers on the owner of an

escort service An escort agency is a company that provides escorts for clients, usually for sexual services. The agency typically arranges a meeting between one of its escorts and the client at the customer's house or hotel room (outcall), or at the escort' ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The series aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from April 8, 1978 to May 13, 1978.Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, Sixth Edition'', New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, , p. 1019.McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, pp. 820-821. The series was a spin-off of '' Busting Loose'' and was one of two series Knight starred in that bore his name; in 1986 his sitcom ''

Too Close for Comfort ''Too Close for Comfort'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from November 11, 1980, to May 5, 1983, and in first-run syndication from April 7, 1984, to February 7, 1987. Its name was changed to ''The Ted Knight Show'' whe ...

'' spun-off a new series after season 5 called ''The Ted Knight Show'' minus the two daughters. After one season Ted Knight died and it was decided to re-name the series for syndication and attach it as season 6 of ''

''.

Cast

as Roger Dennis *

Normann Burton Norman Burton (December 5, 1923 – November 29, 2003) was an American actor. He was occasionally credited as Normann Burton. Early life Born in New York City, Burton was a student of the Actors Studio. After early work on stage, he broke i ...

as Burt Dennis * Thomas Leopold as Winston Dennis *

Iris Adrian Iris Adrian Hostetter (May 29, 1912 – September 17, 1994) was an American stage, film actress and dancer. Life and career Adrian was an only child, born in Los Angeles, California, to Florence (née Van Every) and Adrian Earl Hostetter, who ...

as Dottie * Cissy Colpitts as Graziella * Fawne Harriman as Honey * Ellen Regan as Irma *

Tanya Boyd Tanya may refer to: * Tanya (Judaism),an early work of Hasidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. * Tanya (name), a given name and list of people with the name * Tanya or Lara Saint Paul (born 1946) * List of Mortal Kombat characters#Tany ...

as Philadelphia Phil Brown * Janice Kent as Cheryl *

Deborah Harmon Deborah Harmon (born May 8, 1951) is an American film and television actress. Harmon was born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended The Second City troupe in Chicago until moving to Los Angeles to pursue an active acting career. She is probably bes ...

as Joy * Claude Stroud as Hobart Nalven

Synopsis

Suave, divorced, middle-aged Roger Dennis is the owner of Mr. Dennis Escort Service, a high-class

located in a fancy

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

in New York City. He hovers over the attractive young women – the air-headed Graziella; Honey, who has a "take-charge" personality; the timid Irma; Phil, who is the companys only

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

escort; Cheryl, a floozy; and Joy – who serve as the escorts for his service. His brother Burt, a tyrannical, no-nonsense businessman, financed the company and is his business partner. Burt hired his wisecracking wife Dottie as the companys

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...

; she answers the office telephone with "Mr. Dennis Escorts! Wherever you want to go, we want to go with you!" Rogers college-age son Winston is trying to break into the escort business, but is easily distracted and constantly makes passes at the women who work for Roger, and Roger feels that he lacks maturity and self-control. Hobart Nalven is the mailman who has a crush on Dottie.

Production

''The Ted Knight Show'' was Ted Knights first attempt at starring in a show of his own after his run from 1970 to 1977 as newsman

Ted Baxter Ted Baxter is a fictional character on the sitcom ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (1970–1977). Portrayed by Ted Knight, the Baxter character is a broad parody of a vain, shallow, buffoonish TV personality. Knight's comedic model was actor William ...

on ''

The Mary Tyler Moore Show ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. Moor ...

''. After its pilot, "Mr. Dennis Steps Out, " was broadcast on October 26, 1977, as the fifth episode of the second season of the sitcom '' Busting Loose'', ''The Ted Knight Show'' was spun off as its own series in the spring of 1978. A disappointment, ''The Ted Knight Show'' drew low ratings and was cancelled after six weeks on the air. Episode director

Joel Zwick Joel Zwick (born January 11, 1942) is an American film director, television director, and theater director.Mann, Iris (June 1, 2016)"'Hillary and Monica': An Unlikely Meeting" '' Jewish Journal''. He worked on the television series '' Perfect Str ...

later said that in his opinion

had thought that Knights star power would carry the show, but that the premise of a situation comedy centering on an escort service was too strange for the show to succeed. Knight, meanwhile, said that in retrospect it had been a mistake for him to star in a new show so soon after the conclusion of ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''.

Lowell Ganz Lowell Ganz (born August 31, 1948 in New York City) is an American screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel. Ganz grew up in Queens, New York, attending Martin Van Buren High ...

and

Mark Rothman Mark Harvey Rothman (born November 1, 1947) is an American writer best known for having been involved with the creation and production of ''Laverne and Shirley.'' He was also the head writer and show runner of numerous other shows including ''Hap ...

created the show, which

broadcast on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. throughout its brief run. It was filmed in color before a live studio audience at

Paramount Studios Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

Episodes

Pilot (1977)

Season 1 (1978)

References

External links

*
''The Ted Knight Show'' opening credits on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ted Knight Show CBS original programming 1978 American television series debuts 1978 American television series endings 1970s American sitcoms 1970s American workplace comedy television series American television spin-offs English-language television shows Television shows set in New York City Television series by CBS Studios