Kate is a spendthrift who always finds Harris second jobs to work part-time to pay the bills — taking up what little spare time he has — and his two children are very active and hard for him to keep up with.

Harris is frustrated and overwhelmed by the many challenges he faces in his life, both at work and at home — with money, his family, his bosses, taxes, and people in general — and is prone to complaining about them, although underneath it all he is a good and soft-hearted person.

Helen and Norm Miller are Harris's good friends, and Cliff Murdock is the superintendent and handyman at 90 Bristol Court who frequently greets residents and visitors as they come and go at the apartment complex.

After the last episodes of Harris Against the World and Tom, Dick and Mary aired on January 4, 1965, 90 Bristol Court ceased to be a programming entity.

In mid-November 1964 The New York Times reported that NBC planned to cancel both Harris Against the World and Tom, Dick and Mary, effective in early January 1965.