I read Eric Idle's Sortabiography earlier this year but don't recall him mentioning Nearly Departed -- a short-lived NBC sitcom from 1989, axed after only six episodes were aired.
The six broadcast episodes are on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mFzPdlGwlQ
The theme tune is a nice Eric Idle song and dance routine. Idle seems to have had a hand in the scripts, especially his own dialogue. At times he channels Basil Fawlty's smug irritation and snide anger, and at times he is himself -- such as in the opening minutes of the first episode, he hops into a shower to observe a nude woman. Chortle. He also engages in some olde Cleese-style physical comedy, contorting his limbs in one scene.
Idle and his wife play a couple of ghosts living in their old house with the new owners -- but unlike The Ghost and Mrs Muir sitcom, only one person can see them.
It's very much a typical cheesy/preachy 80s sitcom, as opposed to Married With Children, Roseanne and Seinfeld, which in 1989 were trailblazing a major shift in sitcom style to the 90s.
Nearly Departed is closer to The Ropers than Splitting Heirs. It's no worse than the butler sitcom that Peter Cook did for CBS in the early 80s.
The guy who plays the plumber who moved into Idle's house does a good Jackie Gleason impression.
Wikipedia says:
Nearly Departed is an American sitcom that aired on NBC on Monday nights from April 10, 1989 to May 1, 1989. The series focused on English professor Grant Pritchard and his wife Claire who are killed in a rockslide. They return to their home as ghosts to find plumbing contractor Mike Dooley and his wife Liz, son Derek, and his father, Jack, living there. Grandpa Jack was the only one who could see and hear the Pritchards. In exchange for continuing to live in the house as ghosts, the Pritchards would mediate through Grandpa Jack and try to help the Dooleys with their problems. In one such instance, Derek was doing poorly in school because he was intimidated by bullies; Grant and Claire use their abilities to scare off the bullies.