In one episode, Ted Knight wore a sweatshirt with the name and logo of an actual university on it. Soon, college and university students who were fans of the show began sending logo sweatshirts for Knight to wear on the air. From then on, Knight began wearing as many different sweatshirts as possible in each episode to please the fans.
The first university sweatshirt that Ted Knight wore on the show was University of Michigan.
The show was an American adaptation of Brian Cooke's British TV sitcom Keep It in the Family (1980). Another of his successful transatlantic adaptations was the UK show Man About the House (1973) becoming the US show Three's Company (1976).
Monroe was only intended for one episode, but became popular enough to be brought back for more, and eventually became a regular character on the series.