Bosom Buddies: Not with My Sister, You Pig

Bosom Buddies: Not with My Sister, You Pig
ABC
March 18, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Chris Thompson wrote and co-directed, with Van Atta, this story that treads Three's Company territory, with Kip overprotective of his visiting younger sister, Vickie.  Kip worries that Henry seduced her, and made her watch him juggle, but it turns out that Vickie, who's starting college that year, wants Henry to be her "first."  They also had some encounter with a lather machine when Vickie was eight, which may or may not rule out him doing something with her older sister at "Monkey Ward's."  Two big differences from 3'sC are that Kip and his friends are wearing "new wave" outfits when Vickie arrives, and there's drug humor in the hospital.

Bosom Buddies: The Slightly Illustrated Man

Bosom Buddies: The Slightly Illustrated Man
ABC
January 8, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B

Chris Thompson wrote this episode that manages to work despite its shaky premise.  After hearing for over a year how much Kip loves Sonny, it feels odd that he wants to go out with another woman, and that Henry and Amy don't seem to care.  Then Sonny walks in on Kip kissing the woman and claims not to be jealous.  But then she goes out with Beau DeLabarre.  I mean, clearly the only reason why she'd take a pretty boy like Stephen Shortridge, playing a character named Tim, to the hotel restaurant is so that Kip could see them.

I like how Kip is mocked for the macho posturing he tries to do, with Tim responding in kind, Henry pointing out that Kip has been in only one fight and he lost it, to a 4th-grade girl with a false leg.  Meanwhile, Isabelle thinks "white people sure fight boring."  And Amy eggs Kip on.

This episode is a bit similar to the one where Kip and Amy schemed to get Sonny and Henry, only now they're on better terms, sort of like a brother and sister who've made peace with each other.  This time they get drunk, commiserate, and, with a crab in tow, go out to get tattoos to demonstrate their readiness to commit.

J.J. Barry, who's probably most recognizable to '70s and '80s sitcom fans as Janet's boss on Three's Company, does a nice turn as the tattoo artist, particularly playing well off Ruth, who is in the parlor to have a butt tattoo covered up with vines and flowers.  (If you go by sitcoms, the posterior is the most popular place to get an embarrassing tattoo.  See Carol on The Bob Newhart Show, and Jack on Three's Company coming up later.)

K & S and A & H clear up their respective relationships and Kip uses the term "post-'70s."  In some ways, that's almost a more accurate term for where we are now than "early '80s."  It definitely is no longer the '70s, but the '80s haven't solidified yet.  This episode makes some interesting points and has unexpected humor and overall, as I said, is better than it should be.

Bosom Buddies: There's No Business...

If I remember correctly, Amy's T-shirt
is from the Joey Midnight episode.

Bosom Buddies: There's No Business...
ABC
October 15, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Chris Thompson wrote this story, which is another series-shifter.  Henry's Uncle Mort (John C. Becher, who would be Mr. Gretski on Three's Company) sells him a commercial production studio for the $2000 that Henry was going to buy a treasury bill with.  (Half of it was Kip's, minus $40 Amy contributed.)  Kip is unhappy with this news but it's too late by the time he finds out.  And then they find out that Mort owes a sleazy man named Victor (32-year-old Joe Regalbuto, later of Murphy Brown) $17,000.  The guys can't come up with the money but Ruth can, which she does out of friendship and out of a desire to humiliate Victor, who in so many words calls her a hooker.  She'll be the silent partner, with Amy still retaining 2% rather than 1%.  (This will matter in a later episode.)

We are settling in to the Eighties, or at least the Early Eighties here, with cocaine jokes ("Snorting money, Kip?"/ "It cuts out the middleman") and the line that I still remember vividly from the time: "Our future?!  We now have the same future as disco!"

Bosom Buddies: Best Friends

I vaguely recall this show, which aired a
few months before Buddies premiered.

Bosom Buddies: Best Friends
ABC
April 9, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Chris Thompson wrote and co-directed (with Van Atta) this episode that has another take on Kip and Henry's friendship.  Adrian Zmed guest-stars as Kip's old friend who's become rocker Joey Midnight.  In addition to doing Bachelor Party with Hanks in the future ('84), Zmed had co-starred with Scolari on the short-lived show Goodtime Girls (along with Annie Potts, Lorna Patterson, and Georgia Engel, see picture).  He works pretty well with both men, but the episode itself feels slightly off, maybe because it's weird to see Kip and Henry questioning their friendship.  There are a bunch of rock and pop references, from ABBA to Devo.  Sperber's fangirling of course is reminiscent of her appearance in the movie I Wanna Hold Your Hand.  Ironically, we don't hear Zmed sing anything but a summer camp song with Hanks, although he would sing a lot in Grease 2 the following year.

Bosom Buddies: The Rewrite

Bosom Buddies: The Rewrite
ABC
March 19, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Gewirtz, Praiser, and Thompson story is another of those "not quite a B+" episodes and I guess the explanation this time is that the pace is ever so slightly off.  I laughed, but I wasn't rolling on the floor.  Still, definitely solid work by all, yes, including Dixon and Benson.

Ruth shows up at the Susan B., looking for Amy, so the boys are almost caught in drag.  Henry, who's been writing up their experiences for his "great book" (see the opening credits) tries telling it as it happened and then, with Kip's input, three more ways.  The cast is again clearly having a blast (when the women are supposed to be moving menacingly towards the men, I caught Benson and Hopkins laughing), and it's fun to watch them.  Special shout-out to Taylor, especially her imitations of Carson and Dietrich, the latter with one of the greatest entrances on a sitcom ever.  (An honor guard and two I think greyhounds add to it.)  I remember that the "sex" portion was probably the raciest thing I'd ever seen on a sitcom to that point, even though the most intimate it gets is Sonny and Kip eating food at each other.  As an adult, I'm impressed by all the literary and pop-cultural jokes thrown in.

Bosom Buddies: Sonny Boy

Bosom Buddies: Sonny Boy
ABC
February 12, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

Leonard Ripps wrote this story that sounds like Sonny will be in drag, but it's actually about the reaction of Mrs. Desmond when she sees Henry and Kip in drag, talking about beating up two punks (in the "hood" sense, not the punker sense).  It's a funny episode, including the early Geraldo Rivera parody, Jesus Salazar, but it also has Henry torn between pleasing his mom and wanting to live his own life.  (And, yes, he's out to her as a cross-dressing heterosexual, but this does have parallels to gays dealing with their parents.)  Still not quite a B+ but it's close.  Some things of note:

• Henry's father is alive but we never get to see him.
• Henry's first big date was at 17, to his prom.
• I can't remember if it was mentioned before that the guys are from Ohio; we'll later learn they're from Shaker Heights.
• Kip always got blamed when the boys got in trouble, and Mrs. Desmond never really liked him.
• Her nickname for Henry was Winky.
• Unbelievably, Kip's mother expected him to go to med school.  (We'll later see what hippies he and his family were/are.)
• Henry and presumably Kip have been in New York for a year.
• We get a glimpse of Isabelle's apartment, and I get the impression she lives alone.
• The rent is $200, up from $150 in the pilot, but still not bad.  (It's higher on Three's Company, but that's a two-bedroom rather than a studio without a kitchen.

I'm guessing someone in casting was a Bob Newhart Show fan, because Dr. Leon is an even more obnoxious gum-chewing psychiatrist than Phillip R. Allen's Dr. Frank Walburn.  Randy Stumpf, who was a Greek Soldier on M*A*S*H, is Punk #1 here (and would play a Burglar on The Brady Brides).  I think this is the first episode that Ruth is absent from.  Again, both Thompson and Van Atta directed, maybe because of the "action sequence"?

Bosom Buddies: Kip and Sonny's Date

Bosom Buddies: Kip and Sonny's Date
ABC
January 8, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

Chris Thompson wrote this episode that works on a few different levels.  As the title indicates, Kip and Sonny have an actual date, to a French restaurant, but they double with Henry and his blind date, Ruth's niece Cecily, who's now a punker who calls herself Andrea Pus.  (This is the second episode to refer to Ruth's other niece, 8-year-old Gloria.)  Kip makes a fool of himself, as he realizes when, as Buffy, he plays a game of Truth.  He goes on a bender for a day and a half but resolves to try again with Sonny.

Levels I appreciate this episode on (in no particular order):

• Again, nice ensemble work, as when Henry, Amy, and Isabelle help Kip ask Sonny out, and the other questions in Truth (Isabelle doing something at 18, but first kissing a guy at 12, and of course Amy hijacking a Greyhound bus because of peer pressure);
• It contains one of Dixon's best performances on the show; yes, she looks stunning in the shining red dress but she's also willing to look silly, as when she imitates Kip;
• Kip and Sonny's interaction with the waiter;
• What I recall as one of the earliest portrayals of a punk-rocker on a sitcom, and a fairly sympathetic portrayal at that; 
• The nice twist that Henry actually hits it off with Andrea, who finds him sweet;
• The Mrs. Robinson references (and Sperber seems to be a pretty good singer);
• Back when I was twelve and a Henry fangirl, I probably wouldn't have thought about this, but now I think Isabelle is right, Kip does have a nice butt;
• Kip and Henry playing most of one scene on their knees, even their hug;
• The way their friendship works;
• The references this time range from the then very accessible Dr. Pepper set-up to the now "I had to Google him" Richard Boone.

Bosom Buddies: Macho Man

Bosom Buddies: Macho Man
ABC
December 18, 1980
Sitcom
DVD
B

Leonard Ripps's first of eight Buddies stories is the first episode where I feel like the cast is coming together as an ensemble.  This is seen a bit in the breakfast scene where Sonny and Isabelle look slightly appalled by Buffy's eating habits, but it's strongest in the interaction in the "urban cowboy" bar, including when they all cry, "Oh no, Shlomo!"  Giving the character a stereotypical Jewish name is a nice unexpected touch, and Amy's line "It looks like Ray Bolger exploded" is one of my favorites from the series.  The plot is that Henry, partially from spending so much time in drag, is starting to feel unmasculine, so he adopts two macho personae, first the gold chains and unbuttoned shirt look, and then "Hank."  After making a fool of himself and hurting Amy's feelings, he realizes that his friends like him as himself.  The anti-machismo message definitely tells us that we are in the very early '80s.  And the subplot about the radioactive cookies is both ridiculous and subversive.

Twyla Littleton, who plays Cheryl, would be Ann on Three's Company.  Oddly enough, both Thompson and Van Atta directed, maybe because of the "action sequence."

Bosom Buddies: My Brother, My Sister, Myself

Bosom Buddies: My Brother, My Sister, Myself
ABC
December 4, 1980
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Chris Thompson wrote this story which introduces Lucille Benson as new hotel manager Lilly Sinclair.  (Benson had played mother-in-law to both Mame and Mr. Roper.)  Unfortunately for the guys, Lilly shows up right after Sonny has walked in on Hildy holding a man in her arms.  (Henry was trying to get Kip out of bed in the morning.)  Hildy's reputation is ruined, including among "men who Simonize."  Henry learns a lesson about gossip and makes amends to a woman he offended.

The layout of the apartment is different than in the pilot, and the men's drag is relatively more believable.  (The latter can at least be explained by them having had more time and practice.)  We also get to see the hallway (with elevator) and the bar downstairs.  But the episode is most significant for the, as the opening credits would later put it, "but they also know us as Kip and Henry, Buffy and Hildy's brothers" aspect being introduced.

I just wish the episode were better.  There are again some sharp lines, as with Amy's reply to "polls don't matter": "That's what Carter thought."  (This is more specific than the "actor president" line on Mork earlier that evening, and it is possible both episodes, or at least this one, were filmed less than a month before they aired.  Or they could've shot Amy's line both ways and edited the right one in before broadcast.)  Buffy's spoonerisms, like "clappy as a ham," are cute.

Unfortunately, there is some subpar acting, for which director Don Van Atta, in his first of five BBuddies gigs, may be to blame.  Dixon is still not great and, like her, Benson seems capable of only doing a couple emotions, not necessarily the right ones at the right moments.  Worst of all though are Samantha Fox, not that Samantha Fox, and Cherie Eichen, as respectively Lee Ann and Amanda.  While it's interesting to hear what may well have been the first Valley Girl on TV (OK, it's New York, but "gag me with a spoon" is very Californian), Eichen doesn't really do much with the character.  And Fox plays her "tramp" character sullenly, not helped by Van Atta's decision to have characters stand up to deliver their lines in that scene.  Everyone else is fine, and I don't want to mark the episode down too much, but overall the episode is a drop in quality from the pilot.  (Still better than what M*A*S*H and Soap were offering up of course.)

Bosom Buddies: Pilot

Bosom Buddies: Pilot
ABC
November 27, 1980
Sitcom
DVD
B

When this premiered on Thursday at 8:30, after Mork & Mindy, I soon had a new favorite show.  It's a little hard to sort out how I felt about the show in junior high, or how I felt seeing it again at 16, when Splash's popularity caused NBC to resurrect this program that ABC (and most folks) had too little faith in, let alone what it was like to see it appear on cable in the early '90s, with its defiant theme song-- a cover of Billy Joel's "My Life"-- replaced by the pop-souly "Try to Shake Me Loose," whose instrumental version had aired in the closing credits from the beginning.  And now, so many layers, over 35 years later.  Deep breath, here goes, let me try to untangle this.

First off, it had a young, relatively inexperienced cast:

• 32-year-old Telma Hopkins as Isabelle Hammond
• 25-year-old Peter Scolari as Henry Desmond
• 24-year-old Tom Hanks as Kip Wilson
• 23-year-old Donna Dixon as Sonny Lumet
• 22-year-old Wendie Jo Sperber as Amy

Even Holland Taylor, who plays Ruth Dunbar, was only 37 at the time (and she honestly hasn't aged much since).  With the exception of Dixon (who never quite clicked), they all have a firm hold on their characters right from the beginning.  The chemistry is strong as well, especially with Hanks and Scolari riffing together like they'd been doing this for decades.  Joel Zwick, who had directed three first season Mork & Mindy episodes, directs his first of eighteen for this show, nearly half of the total (37), and he deserves some of the credit for the pilot being as strong as it is.

But I think even more should go to creator Chris Thompson, who would write eight more episodes.  He gave the two leads sharp, hip, funny lines, like the one about Black Like Me.  At twelve, I was still too young to watch Saturday Night Live much (and it would be pretty lame that season anyway), but this was my cutting-edge show, even if the critics and others thought it was a pathetic rip-off of Some Like It Hot.  This first episode does have some SLIH moments, like when all the neighbors come by for drinks in their nighties, but this program was never just about drag humor.  When Burt and Danny wore drag in Soap's season-opener, it was supposed to be funny just to see them in wigs and dresses.  BBuddies always put an extra little spin, like in the "Macho Man" sequence pictured above.*

The other aspect of the show I need to talk about is that Kip and Henry were ad men, but they were nothing like Darrin Stephens.  They had late-Baby-Boomer pop-cultural sensibilities, which would show up in their ads but mostly in their banter.  I didn't get all the jokes at the time-- I probably laughed harder at the Margaret Trudeau reference now, in middle age with an awareness of her affairs, than I would've in the past-- but as with Mystery Science Theater later, I loved trying to keep up.  Also, the conflict between advertising and their more artistic dreams is set up here in the pilot and would play out in various ways throughout the series, something I hadn't seen much of on television, and is perhaps more poignant for being set in such an on-the-cusp time as the early '80s, when it was not yet The Eighties in the way that 1987 for instance would be but is not the '70s either.  I'll talk about that more later, and not just in reference to this show.

Mike Agresta, who was an uncredited Student on Welcome Back, Kotter, is an uncredited Office Worker here.  I don't think I have Edie Adams in anything else, but I'll note that she appears as the building manager Darlene.


*Note that the music rights issue is a complicated one for this series.  Besides "My Life," other songs would be omitted from the DVD versions and sometimes cable as well.  So I will at times watch both the DVD and VHS copies and compare them, perhaps adding my memories of what's missing from either or both.