These Friends of Mine: The Houseguest

These Friends of Mine: The Houseguest
ABC
May 24, 1994
Sitcom
DVD
C+

I feel like this Bell & Rosenthal story doesn't really work, although it has good moments, like Ellen and company coming back with new hairdos after attending the filming of a Tina Yothers hair-care infomercial.  Ellen wants to make her younger cousin's visit to L.A. fun, but everything goes wrong, including the cousin running off with tough-guy author Nestor Biggs (Dennis Burkley, who played Pee Wee on Who's the Boss?).

Christopher Darga, who was a House Buyer on Roseanne the previous year, is the Officer here.  John Bowab, who directed one episode of Soap, two of Bosom Buddies, and two of Who's the Boss?, stays true to form and directs his only episode of this series.

Who's the Boss?: Eye on Angela

Who's the Boss?: Eye on Angela
ABC
February 19, 1985
Sitcom
DVD
B

Ellen Guylas wrote this farcical story, with special guest star the one and only Betty White, still in Sue Ann Nivens mode as Bobbie Barnes.  Bobbie hosts local TV show Eye on Hartford and she'll be profiling Angela.  She's looking for dirt and finds it when Tony and Angela, through an admittedly contrived set-up, accidentally wake up together in Sam's bed.  (Sam has a nightmare after the family watches Valley Ghoul, a nonexistent horror movie, on TV.)   Mona has spent the night in Jonathan's room so she's on the spot when Bobbie and her crew catch Tony and Angela in their nightclothes entering the upstairs hall, Angela saying, "I love when you put whipped cream on them!"  (Belgian waffles.)  Angela worries that everyone will think she's sleeping with her housekeeper.  Tony says she could do worse, so Mona says, "And has."  He invites Bobbie over, but it takes Mona, in full catty-but-protective mode, to blackmail former "weather bunny" Bobbie.

It's funny that even in the post-Three's-Company era, Angela possibly having sex with Tony is considered "kinky."  And, yes, there's a lot of shipping fodder here, especially in the tag, where Tony and Angela both claim they didn't dream while in bed together (Tony says he doesn't dream, which we'll later have proof is untrue), and yet we see them each remembering something that makes them grin, with a symbolic fire blazing behind them.

Who's the Boss?: Guess Who's Coming Forever?

Who's the Boss?: Guess Who's Coming Forever?
ABC
January 29, 1985
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Bud Wiser wrote this game-changing story.  Mona takes in a sheepdog named Grover and gets evicted from her apartment.  Then, at Tony's urging, Angela remodels the loft over her garage so her mother can move in.  The two women quarrel but admit to peacemaker Tony that they admire traits in each other.  Also, Mona tells the story of how Angela took care of the bills and everything at fourteen after her father died.  I'd have gone with a B, but the "family-ness" feels a bit forced, like Fonzie moving in over the Cunninghams' garage, especially with the dog shoehorned in.

Pat Harrington, Jr., who had played Schneider for nine years on One Day at a Time since we last heard from him on Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, appears as contractor Dominic Burgozzi, with his real son as his character's son.  This is the first of two WtB episodes directed by John Bowab, who did one for Soap and two for Bosom Buddies.

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: What Price Glory?

Bosom Buddies: What Price Glory?
ABC
January 1, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

This is unfortunately the only Buddies episode written by Roger Garrett.  It offers a nice blend of humor (among the references, That Girl and Shari Lewis) and food for thought.  The agency has a potential client, Dr. Leonard Bob (James Callahan, who'd been Tommy Gillis on M*A*S*H but is probably most recognizable for Charles in Charge), and the question is whether Kip and Henry can be sleazy enough to win him over.  They recognize that being in advertising involves some compromises, but they value their integrity.

Note that when Kip and Henry show up in leisure suits like Dr. Bob, it's an example of costumes telling part of the story.  (In '75, for instance, leisure suits wouldn't have the connotations of sleaziness and insincerity they do by the early '80s.  Bob Hartley wore them and he was nothing like this Dr. Bob.)

Hello, Larry's Joanna Gleason plays Faith Crane, but it's the actress playing her sister Esther who's more of a household name: L.A. Law's Susan Ruttan in her little-screen debut.  Patrick Quinn didn't really do much more acting, but he's quite good as Marty Bursky and at times suggests Sam McMurray of The Tracey Ullman Show.  This is the first of two Buddies episodes directed by Bowab, who did one for Soap's second season.

Soap: Episode 44

Soap: Episode 44
ABC
February 15, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

With the help of Danny, Jodie, and Sally, Burt and Mary reconcile, but this Harris & Silver episode is mostly Tate-focused.  Jessica confesses her "affair" with Detective Donahue to Chester, who's mostly amused as he doesn't see him as a threat.  Eunice visits Dutch in prison.  Billy meets a former classmate, Lisa (Ruth Cox in her first of three appearances), who's now a Sunnie, a more direct parody of Moonies than we saw on Welcome Back, Kotter, What's Happening!!, or Three's Company.  And Corinne's baby proves to have mysterious, sinister powers, although the audience knows this before the family does.

Tim McIntire provides the voice of the Devil for the first of four times.  Dick Miller, who plays the Guard, would be a Motel Manager on Who's the Boss? over a decade later.  Chuck and Bob remain absent.  This is the only Soap episode directed by John Bowab, who would do two for Bosom Buddies.