Henry Rush - A happily married, grey-haired cartoonist (played by Ted Knight) on the situation comedy TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT/ABC/SYN/1980-85. Henry draws a weekly children's sci-fi cartoon strip "Cosmic Cow" for Random Comic, a subsidiary of Wainwright Publishing, owned by Arthur Wainright (Hamilton Camp). Henry produced the comic for newspaper entrepreneur, Arthur Wainwright (Hamilton Camp) whose deadlines for "Cosmic Cow" often frustrated the already hot-tempered cartoonist. Henry's biggest challenge when sketching Cosmic Cow was "to draw an udder so it is not offensive."

Cosmic Cow

Working at home, Henry found he could be more creative if he wore a hand puppet of Cosmic Cow while he drew. So, putting a pen in the cow's mouth Henry cranked out the weekly strip, occasionally asking his puppet advice on whether the plot line was proceeding properly. Cosmic Cow, who was depicted as a space age hero righting the wrongs of the universe, had bright orange colored horns and wore a silver space suit.  

The Rush family lived in a red Victorian building that once was an infamous brothel.  Henry's family included his wife, Muriel, a former band singer turned freelanced photographer; and his pretty daughters Jackie and Sarah who rent rent a downstairs apartment for $300 a month. Henry's hippie niece April lived with the Rush's for a year. Monroe Ficus is their annoying neighbor. At age 42, Muriel gave birth to a baby named Andrew. In 1986 the Rush's moved North to Mill Valley when Henry purchased The Marin Bugler, a weekly newspaper.