Who's the Boss?: Micelli's Marauders

The 1986 movie Stewardess School, with
Cadorette, Sperber, and of course Judy Landers

Who's the Boss?: Micelli's Marauders
ABC
January 30, 1990
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Two of the friends that Angela met at the gym earlier in the season, Carol (Soap's Randee Heller) and Deb (Three's a Crowd's Mary Cadorette), return and are joined by another ABC sitcom veteran, Wendie Jo Sperber as Lori.  The "girls" are all on a volleyball team which Angela encourages Tony to coach.  He does but she feels neglected.  Then towards the end we find out that he took her for granted because he sees her as strong.  There's some weird flirting here, like when she says she wanted him to "whip" her, too, that is, whip her into shape, and when he says she's a babe when her shorts ride up.  (Adam I. Lapidus's other WtB script, "Allergic to Love," is also odd.)  Note that her friends see them as a couple, despite her disclaimers months ago.

This is the 1300th sitcom episode I've reviewed.  We will definitely hit 1400.

Bosom Buddies: Not the Last Picture Show

Bosom Buddies: Not the Last Picture Show
ABC
March 25, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Leonard Ripps wrote this episode with its ironic title, the last episode to air.  Yes, Buddies in two seasons managed only one more episode than Gilligan's Island managed in its first season.  It's not much of an episode to go out on, although there are some things to note:

• We see the group in middle and old age, aging badly in Kip's version and gracefully in Sonny's, but sadly Sperber would die at 47;
• Ruth is ageless in both of Kip's scenarios, and ironically Holland Taylor hasn't really aged much in the last 35 years;
• The episode would be funnier if less was done with stereotypes about older people and more with predicting the future, although there is yet another Anson Williams reference;
• Kip sees not only himself marrying Sonny, but Henry marrying Amy (and having kids with her, while Kip's own marriage is sexless), and Sonny agrees with these pairings (but sees herself and Kip as frisky);
• They've seen the Smothers Brothers make three comebacks, and would see them make more;
• They spend the evening at a new wave concert, where "the kids" (presumably in their earlier 20s) take cocaine.

Bosom Buddies in its second season is at its best as good as it was the first season, but the thing is, it usually isn't at its best.  The grades range from one C to two B+s, averaging out to a B-, which isn't bad of course.  Watching Season Two, I sometimes wondered what went wrong, by which I mean both why didn't the show stay at its peak, and why wasn't it a bigger hit with the audience.  I think the series was always more than the cross-dressing slapstick show that it's still sometimes perceived as, even if the writers themselves resorted to low humor at times.  They were certainly capable of hip, literate humor, too, but that probably wasn't going to help sell the show.  (I watched the bonus feature on the DVD, which was marketing Buddies for syndication in '84, and only the most obvious comedy, and Hanks's new stardom, were hyped.)

Maybe this was never going to be more than a cult show.  Maybe it would've had better luck on cable, if it came along a few years later, when original programming on HBO et al. was starting to appear.  All I can say is that it was my favorite show when I was in junior high and I'm glad I got to revisit it over the years, including in recent weeks.  It holds up well, not perfectly, but well enough, and the cast is deservedly still proud of it.

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: Who's on Thirst?

Bosom Buddies: Who's on Thirst?
ABC
March 11, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Terry Hart wrote this episode which isn't as good as I remembered.  In the A story, Kip and Henry go to a remote cabin in the woods, to paint and write.  (Perhaps this is because they realized in the previous episode that they'd been neglecting their creativity.)  Unfortunately, the guy renting the cabin, Eddie (Raleigh Bond, who was the Oregon Senator on Soap), lied to them about how rustic it is, and for one thing there's nothing to eat but five cans of soup and a carton of non-dairy creamer.  Kip paints a gourmet meal, but Henry turns out to be a better whittler, making a Maserati model, while Kip just does an "albino snake."  And Henry doesn't write but instead wants to discuss "the nature of Man."

Meanwhile, the B story is the ultimate in the series' cat fancy, with Amy happy about them shooting a commercial with a "kitty," until the kitty turns out to be a tiger.  The tiger and the cub in the tag are gorgeous but it's just too implausible that a wild animal would be dropped off without a trainer, when even a house cat would've had one.  The women do their best in these scenes, but there's not really anywhere to go after Isabelle makes a Little Black Sambo reference.  Note, this is at least the second episode where Henry fooling around with Kip's sister is mentioned, but it's unclear if this is the married sister or the virginal sister, or both.

Bosom Buddies: The Way Kip and Henry Were

Ohio State of mind

Bosom Buddies: The Way Kip and Henry Were
ABC
March 4, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Things to like/love about this Hart & Ripps story:

• It manages to present 1979* as a very different era from '82, which it was, although there's the suggestion that Kip and Henry, with their long hair, drug use, and dorm room decor are living a post-'60s life in college;
• It exemplifies Theme #1 of the series: friendship, with not only Kip sacrificing half his salary so that Ruth will hire both of them, but also the gang promising to support Isabelle in her pursuit of her singing career while working as hotel manager;
• It exemplifies Theme #2 of the series: art vs. commerce, with the boys giving up their dream of being starving artists ("with respiratory problems") to sell out, telling themselves, and three years later Isabelle, that you can have a paying job and still pursue your art in your spare time, although in that quiet, gut-punching ending, when it's just Kip and Henry, the latter admits he hasn't done any serious writing in four months, while Kip confesses he hasn't painted in six;
• Ruth winning in the negotiations, but also showing her nice side;
• Silly humor, like the "my herring is bad" routine with Amy and Sonny, as well as the deservedly applauded physical comedy of Ruth extracting herself from a bean bag chair;
• A pun on Siddhartha, which I assure you was a lot more sophisticated humor than on your average sitcom of the time;
• Kip's eyerolls and his imitation of Henry;
• The costumes and hair-styling of course;
• Isabelle's friends horribly singing "Stay" and her reaction;
• Amy's deservedly applauded line referencing the Yuban commercial: "That's funny, Sonny never has a second cup of coffee when I make it," perfectly delivered, with Scolari and Hopkins reacting in character and letting the applause play out before continuing.

*Henry has the line "It's 1978, I'm an anachronism already," but we know that they graduated from high school in '75 and there are several lines here that say they were in college for four years.  This means they arrived in New York and moved into the "dirt-cheap" apartment several months to a year before they switched to the Susan B. Anthony Hotel.

Bosom Buddies: Hildy's Dirt Nap

Bosom Buddies: Hildy's Dirt Nap
ABC
February 18, 1982
Sitcom
DVD/VHS
B-

Carrerow, Chambers, and Miller wrote this story where a stereotypical Eastern European man falls for Hildy, so her death is faked.  This episode probably is the most extreme example of the difference between the official DVD release and the USA Network's syndicated version.  (And I vaguely remember the original telecast.)  The best scene here is of course the funeral, but due to that music rights issue, you won't get to hear Isabelle sing "Rock and Roll Heaven," as Buffy taps out a rhythm on the casket, and their friends sway and smile, Amy making her Amy and Hildy puppets clap their little hands.

On the other hand, I've seen the tag only twice since the original airing, when I bought the DVD and when I watched it today.  This is one of three episodes with a reference to Heavyweight Boxing Champion Leon Spinks (Mork & Mindy has one so far), and that Eastern European brings his new bride, Leona Spinkus, to the hotel.  The kicker is that she's played by Scolari in brown pigtails, prompting Kip to ask where Henry's father was during the War.  (Henry and Hildy are given a birth year of '57, but I guess Leona could be older.)

(I don't remember seeing Holland Taylor in this episode, please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Bosom Buddies: Kip Off the Old Block

Bosom Buddies: Kip Off the Old Block
ABC
February 11, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Leonard Ripps soloed on this script for one of the best episodes of the series, and possibly the best of Season Two.  (I remember the "cabin" one as quite good as well, and there might be one that I'm underrating at the moment.)  Kip's parents are in town, so he's taking Sonny to meet them for dinner at the house of Uncle Rudy (James Gallery, who was Murray Thompson on M*A*S*H and Wally's father in The Brady Girls Get Married).  Sonny is wearing a very lowcut (front and back) shocking pink dress.  But when the parents arrive at the ad agency, they assume that every other woman there is Sonny.  (Kip to Henry when they greet Isabelle warmly first, "Democrats.")  Kip's father, who's a dentist named Thomas, is quite taken with Sonny and flirts with her at dinner, which is Hawaiian thanks to Aunt Leilani.  Kip's mother, Enid, is offended, especially when Thomas asks if Sonny's dress is on backwards, and the two bicker, despite 28 years of marriage.  (Note, one episode mentioned Kip's sister's wedding.  That was clearly not the virginal 18-year-old sister we'll soon meet, so it is possible she is slightly older than 25ish Kip.)  It's up to Kip to make peace between his parents, even if he has to tell his mother about cross-dressing:

Things I like/love about this episode:

• The aforementioned "Democrats" thing and that Kip's mother definitely has hippie tendencies, with her wardrobe and her mention of "Women's Strike for Peace," putting an interesting spin on what we saw of Kip in 1975 (and what we'll see of him in the college flashback);
• The quirky details, like that Dr. Wilson flosses to relax, and the stuff about the Hawaiian meal;
• Henry reeling off a series of grain-related puns, including "I barley recognized you" (total crush-fodder, then and now);
• The quotations from the opening narrative as Kip and Henry explain to his dad "OK, we made one adjustment...";
• The totally believable dynamic among friends and family*;
• The quiet yet gut-punching ending exchange, where Henry teases Kip, "What, are you afraid of growing up?" and then Kip simply says, "Yes," not going for an easy laugh but instead giving us something to think about.  (The college flashback episode would end on a similarly reflective note.)

*I don't have them in any of my other shows, but I have to say that the casting of K Callan and Jerry Hardin is spot-on.  They feel like a married couple as well as Kip's parents (more than Henry's mother felt like his mother), and Hardin looks uncannily like Tom Hanks.

Bosom Buddies: The Grandfather

Bosom Buddies: The Grandfather
ABC
February 4, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
C+

So they moved Buddies back to Thursdays, I think in its old slot.  Unfortunately, they decided to lead off with a four-writer episode, never a good omen, especially when one of the writers did the "Cablevision" story.*  The episode isn't bad but it is weak compared to most of the rest of the series, although after all these years and viewings I can't pinpoint exactly why, beyond that it feels out of character and isn't especially funny.  (As an update to the "putting someone in a chicken costume is a sign of desperation" rule of comedy, Kip wears a penguin costume.)

Henry saves the life of a mobster's granddaughter (11-year-old Rori King, who had played Diana Canova's daughter on the short-lived I'm a Big Girl Now).  Out of gratitude, The Grandfather throws business their way, but he also asks them to guard a package with their lives.

Some things to note:

• Sonny is being written borderline dumb-blonde here and in the previous episode, a departure from her earlier characterization;
• This episode has references to the guys being in drag but doesn't actually show it;
• The bromance takes a surprising turn when a terrified Henry cries, "Kip, I love you!" and Kip calmly says, "We need to talk."  But that's just a throwaway of course.

*The other three are Terry Hart, doing his second Bosom script of four; Gary H. Miller, his third of four; and Leonard Ripps, his fifth of eight.

Bosom Buddies: Cablevision

Bosom Buddies: Cablevision
ABC
January 22, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
C

Jeff Franklin's first of two Buddies stories is probably the worst in the series, when it potentially could've been one of the best.  After all, a lot of the series is about pop culture, so the agency putting on a cable show should've been a golden opportunity.  Unfortunately, it has to be a cable show that sucks, and there doesn't seem to be a way to make that entertaining, or if there is, they didn't figure out how, and so we get moments like Amy trying to be in the show a la Lucy, and Sonny pointlessly spinning the camera, with characterization going out the window.  At least Isabelle's rendition of James Ingram's "Just Once" (left intact, as is the other music on the DVD) is worth watching.

As for Penny Marshall's cameo as herself, you can savor the irony that she would direct Hanks's hits Big and A League of Their Own.  Note that Kip asks Penny if she and "Shirley" hate each other, as the tension on the Laverne & Shirley set was infamous at the time.  (Marshall and Williams have long since made peace.)  If only there hadn't been the lame plot twist of Amy tying Penny up and there had been just the interview, I might've gone with a C+ here.  As it is, get ready to hit the fast-forward button if you watch the episode.

There's probably meant to be some irony to the casting and naming of the character of Mr. Silverman (as in Fred), since Dick Yarmy is not only Don Adams's brother, but he guested on a lot of shows, including That Girl and Mork & Mindy.

Bosom Buddies: Two Percent Solution

Bosom Buddies: Two Percent Solution
ABC
January 15, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Carrerow & Chambers story takes advantage of the fact that Amy owns 2% of the business to provide humor and character development.  Ruth has temporarily failed in contract negotiations at Livingston, Gentry, and Mishkin, so she decides to be a less silent partner at Sixty Seconds Street.  She disagrees with the guys on the format of an upcoming ad (a magic act with Carson and McMahon impressions), as well as its star, Sonny. So she offers the gig to Isabelle, who presumably doesn't know about Sonny.  Kip and Henry argue with Ruth (including about their fashion sense, ages, heights, and other personal aspects).  Then Amy steps in and manipulates the situation so that the three of them will spoil her.  They even, judging by the exterior shot, take her to Ann Marie's favorite Italian restaurant, Nino's.  (Hey, at least this show is set in New York, unlike when Phil Packer went there on a double Brady date.)

Amy has no intention of deciding between sets of friends, but she doesn't mind gifts, or payback towards Ruth, who's been treating her like an underling all this time.  Meanwhile, Ruth learns to appreciate Henry and Kip's youthful enthusiasm and creativity, while they value her experience and schmoozing.  And Sonny and Isabelle have the last laugh.  (I still don't know how that "sawed in half" trick is done, since there are no table curtains here.  And early '80s visual technology was still relatively primitive.)

Mario the waiter is played by Lew Palter, who was Mr. Gronsky on The Brady Bunch and Claude on Soap.

Scenes from an Italian restaurant

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: Other Than That, She's a Wonderful Person

Bosom Buddies: Other Than That, She's a Wonderful Person
ABC
December 25, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

The "she" of the title is Dana (Jennifer Holmes), the interior decorator that Ruth just hired and Henry quickly falls for.*  She's from California and sarcastic, but not in a way that meshes with Henry's friends.  At the time and now, I felt conflicted about this character and this episode.  On the plus side, the jokes about California are hilarious (maybe even funnier now that I don't live in Cali), and of course ironic considering that Hanks is from the Bay Area.  (There's an in-joke when Henry asks if Dana knows Leonard Ripps, who's from California.  Ripps was a writer and producer of Buddies that season.)  I also am fond of the restaurant scene where we hear everyone's thoughts, including the redheaded waitress.  (Watching the episode this time, I suspect that someone had seen Annie Hall recently, although this uses voiceovers rather than subtitles.  And there's a red-lightbulb joke later.)

The thing is, with Kip and the others not liking Dana, it's hard for me to warm up to her, and she doesn't really do anything to make me like her.  Cindy was sweet before she revealed her satanic side and, like I said at the time, Ellen Williams (Kip's replacement when he quits in a huff) had some nice chemistry with Henry.  I wouldn't have minded seeing them date, and then there could still be a plot where Amy is jealous, and Kip worries he's going to lose the closeness of his best-friendship with Henry.  But the story is what it is, and of course, as in most of these cases, sitcom characters can fall in love one week and then never see other again.

This is the only Buddies episode written by Stu Silver of Soap, so perhaps it's appropriate that Sonny enjoys the General-Hospital-like atmosphere.


*Holmes ironically would play a character who would become Scolari's character's cousin-in-law, after her departure, in that Holmes would be Leslie Vanderkellen on the first season of Newhart, and then Stephanie Vanderkellen (Julia Duffy) would come in as Leslie's cousin and eventually marry Scolari's Michael Harris.  Holmes would later in the '80s be Judy on Who's the Boss?

Bosom Buddies: All You Need Is Love

Bosom Buddies: All You Need Is Love
ABC
December 18, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

Almost a decade after her Brady Bunch appearance, 25-year-old Rita Wilson plays Henry's seeming dream girl, and, yes, I think this is where she met Tom Hanks (who was then married with one child).  It's an entertaining episode anyway, one of the best of the season, although I do think it's a bit over the top in some scenes.

It begins with Kip trying to set up a time and place for him and Sonny to "move their relationship to the next level."  Then Henry comes into the hotel restaurant and dumps his girlfriend of three weeks.  He later tells Kip that he's tired of purely physical relationships, which of course makes Kip jealous.  Still, he helps Henry make a list of qualities, including (this has driven me crazy for almost 35 years) "flaxen hair," the color of flax.  The thing is he uses Snow White as an example, and then later falls for Rita's character, Cindy, who is obviously a brunette.  (I think he means "raven," which is a sloppy mistake for a character who's a writer to make.)  Kip says that this is the 1980s and we have better living through technology.

The next scene is set at a video dating studio.  Henry and Kip watch Henry's tape, where Kip makes a quick appearance and says that Henry is so sensitive he "makes Alan Alda look like Vlad the Impaler."  The guys watch some tapes of women, ending with Ruth's, prompting Kip's remark that Ruth is a simple hometown girl "if you live in the Bizarro World."  (Hanks gets a lot of good lines this episode.)

They're about to leave, when they see Cindy making her tape and Henry realizes they have a lot in common.  He wonders if she has web toes (another feature he's looking for).  The two of them leave together, to the disgust of the woman who runs the place, at people meeting people in person.  (This feels quaintly futuristic, as so much of the early '80s does.)

The video customers are assigned numbers rather than last names (Henry makes a joke about it), and yet no one reacts to Cindy's number being 666.  (It feels really obvious in retrospect, and all I can say is that we still weren't tuned in to that kind of humor at that point in the '80s.)  She turns out to be a devil-worshiper, which Henry says explains the web toes.

In the last scene, Isabelle is showing a reverend around the premises.  Why?  Just to have an outsider to react to the apparently lesbian relationships between Hildy and Amy, and Buffy and Sonny.  (When Amy says she loves Henry, he replies he loves her, too, but he wants children someday.  Amy says she's willing.)  Henry realizes that he's capable of loving and being loved and someday, somehow, someone will turn around and say, "Smile, you're in love."  (A Candid Camera reference, sorry if I didn't get the exact quote.)  And Buffy and Hildy tell the reverend it's all right because they're men.

Susan Elliot, who's Girl #2 (I think the one that Kip makes a "dimebag a dozen" joke about), had played hippie-ish Rainbow on Mork & Mindy.  James Saito, who's the nameless Man who gets Henry's girlfriend on the rebound, was Hiro on Soap and did four M*A*S*H episodes.  DeVera Marcus, who plays Violet, would be Willa on Who's the Boss?  This is the first of four Buddies episodes written by Terry Hart, who contributed to the pilot for The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.  And it's the 200th program from the '80s, with eight years to go.

These two stills have got to be from a rehearsal of this episode,
as no one is actually in costume (the guys especially).

Bosom Buddies: WaterBalloonGate

Bosom Buddies: WaterBalloonGate
ABC
December 11, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This story by David Chambers has Kip deciding to grow up after he throws a water balloon out the apartment window and accidentally hits Richard Nixon's car.  The Secret Service breaking down the door and the guys belatedly reacting has to be one of the better "Who is its" in the series.  And yet, I do have to reluctantly admit that the second season is not as good as the first.  This episode is fine but it's not as hilarious or as wise as some of the episodes from the year before.  I do like that there are moments when you can see the cast trying not to laugh, like Taylor's reaction to Hanks's Eddie Haskell impression, or Hanks's to Scolari's funny eyeglasses.  (Youtube currently has a set of bloopers from the latter scene, and even on the episode proper you can see Hanks's throat move as he fights a laugh.)

Charles Aidman, who was Col. Victor Bloodworth on M*A*S*H, is Fred here.

Bosom Buddies: On the Road to Monte Carlo

Bosom Buddies: On the Road to Monte Carlo
ABC
December 4, 1981
Sitcom
DVD/VHS
B

Gary H. Miller wrote this story that covers a wide range of moods and images and food for thought.  If I can't go higher on it, it's because one, I'm not sure how well it all hangs together, and two, I feel sorry for Amy.  (But we'll get to that.)

• Kip tries to get Henry to talk about his date the previous night, while they're in drag and waiting for the elevator;
• The elevator plummets I think three floors, nearly crushing them;
• It's played for laughs, with Isabelle ordering everyone in the lobby around;
• Amy, with adrenaline that she later says she could sell on the street, comes to their rescue;
• Buffy and Hildy head up the stairs, apparently forgetting their promise to take Amy to breakfast;
• At work, where they're filming a cat food commercial, Ruth wonders if the guys are having an acid flashback because their minds are not on the job;
• We see a couple cute cats (this was definitely a show for cat-people rather than dog-people);
• Kip wants to go out and do crazy things like get naked on a cross-town bus, while Henry is feeling more philosophical;
• They meet again three days later in their apartment, where Henry has somehow put all their furniture into the bathroom so as not to be distracted by material things, and he's wearing harem pants and a general "eastern" outfit;
• Kip is dressed as if he's the "middleweight champion of the Holy Roman Empire," and there's no explanation how he got to their apartment without being in drag;
• He helps Henry, who's cramped from the lotus position, walk off the stiffness, holding him under the arms, while they try to explain their recent experiences, and there's a Gilligan "Little Buddha" pun;
• Isabelle comes to the door and leaves them a certified letter, remarking, "I was just getting used to you two dressing as women";
• Kip says that the elevator company has sent them checks (yes, this is very fast);
• Henry goes from doing the "om" of meditation to "Papa Oom Mow Mow," singing and dancing with Kip (left out of the DVD, so it's never explained how Henry gives up anti-materialism);
• The five friends sit around and talk about how they would spend the money;
• Amy and Isabelle leave because they're going to spend the weekend with Amy's parents in Hoboken;
• Kip, Henry, and Sonny agree to attempt to break the bank at Monte Carlo, although Henry (including over airplane footage) can't believe they're doing this;
• They indeed go to a Monte Carlo casino, where a French prostitute latches on to Henry but she's presented nonjudgmentally;
• Not very impressive in retrospect look-alikes of Charles and Diana show up;
• The guys bet at various tables, winning until they lose it all on the roulette wheel;
• They feel no regret-- Kip calls it the best night of his life-- because they value the experience and life can be short;
• In the tag, Amy and Isabelle think the guys are lying because they're jealous about Hoboken.

Joe Mantegna, who was Juan One earlier in the year, is the Shiek here.  Arnold Turner, who plays Doug, would be the Graves Registration Assistant on M*A*S*H.

Bosom Buddies: One for You, One for Me

Bosom Buddies: One for You, One for Me
ABC
November 27, 1981
Sitcom
DVD/VHS
C+

So, after a month off the air, ABC moved Buddies to Fridays at 8:30, after Benson.  I kept watching and liked this Jack Carrerow story at the time, although watching it now I can see some elements have aged badly.  One is the racial aspect, with the two prisoners that Henry meets, Hispanic Jay and even more so black Rochelle (a pre-Ghostbusters Ernie Hudson), presented somewhat stereotypically.  The other is the sexual aspect, particularly in regards to Kip.  Not only do we have him buying tickets to female mud-wrestling (not that long after being embarrassed to admit he enjoyed attending with Dr. Bob), but he pressures Sonny into going on a ski weekend with only one hotel bed, ignoring her hesitation about sex and claiming it'll be innocent, and then he's annoyed when "all Moose Moss wants to do is ski."  (Amy's line to Henry, "Did they beat you? Or worse?" plays male rape for laughs, although at least it's not graphic.)

Another flaw with the episode is inconsistent characterization, besides Kip.  This is seen with Isabelle, who rebuffs Rochelle's pick-up lines and then confides to Ruth, "His head may shine, but his body is fiiiiiiiine!"  And it's seen with Rochelle himself, who's never heard of a metaphor and yet chimes in on Henry's "I feel like Doesteyski in debtor's prison," with "You, too?"

Still, the episode does have one of the funniest moments of the series.  Henry has unknowingly bought a hot video recorder and so he's thrown in jail.  Despite a recent fight about money (including another funny moment, involving Special K), Kip comes to bail him out.
DESK SERGEANT: Could I have your name?
KIP: You could, but it'd be an incredible coincidence.
And then he applauds himself with the ski gloves hanging from his belt.

There are also a couple of musical interludes that did not make it onto the DVD, although they're important to showing how Henry and Kip (the latter also now in jail because his name is on the warranty, too) bond with the other inmates.  The four of them sing and dance to "Yakety Yak."  And then Henry lets Kip use the bail money to go rejoin Sonny, and Rochelle and Jay sing "Da Doo Ron Ron" with Henry.  Note that Kip makes another cocaine joke this episode.

Desk Sergeant Warren Munson was Mr. Collins on What's Happening!!, and incidentally was one of the executives in the 2003 movie Down with Love.  (He's pretty recognizable there.)

Bosom Buddies: Reunion

Bosom Buddies: Reunion
ABC
October 22, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

If you can get past the fact that an Ohio high school (Poe High in Shaker Heights) is having their sixth reunion in not only New York but the restaurant of the Susan B. Anthony hotel, this is a good episode.  Henry thinks back to an awkward time, but it's not the usual high school memory.  He lied to a deaf girl who asked him to the prom, saying he couldn't go, but he was really worried about other kids making fun of him.  He still feels guilty about it, especially when she shows up at the reunion.

I like how he confides in Amy, including through flashbacks, which are, yes, anachronistic.  Kip is full-on hippie, including using drugs and calling everyone a fascist, while Henry refers to "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," although SNL wouldn't premiere till the Fall of '75.  And his dancing lessons are very disco-y.  But they're still fun to watch, especially when Kip does a looser-limbed version.

Meanwhile, Kip tries to use Sonny to impress his male classmates, but she keeps undercutting him till he learns his lesson; and Isabelle learns that everyone is mistaking her for Brenda, the only black girl in the school, but when Rodney, the only black guy, shows up, she doesn't mind so much.  Note that the roster on the high school wall contains the names of Hanks, Scolari, and Zwick among others.

Jeff Harlan, who plays Jackie, was Bill Mason and a Customer on Mork & Mindy.  Ruth is absent.  This is the first of four Buddies episodes written by Gary H. Miller.

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: The Truth and Other Lies

Bosom Buddies: The Truth and Other Lies
ABC
October 8, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Bosom Buddies for the moment continued airing on Thursdays after Mork & Mindy, but for now with Best of the West* in between.  But, as with some other shows in their second season, Buddies decided to try something new.  I know that some people consider this Leonard Ripps story a shark-jump, but I don't find the revealing of Kip and Henry's identities to be a deal-breaker for the show. I do have some quibbles with this episode, but nothing like I did with Three's Company's season-opener.

Kip and Sonny are getting closer, including sharing a kiss they both find incredible.  He wants to tell her the truth.  Henry supports him but expects Kip to wait till they get back to the hotel, not to pull Sonny aside at a gathering for the President of San Flan (a literally banana republic, if the flag is any indication).  Of course Kip is his usual spontaneous self and strips to the waist, shortly before the curtain is drawn back so that everyone can salute that flag.  The studio audience has a great time, first anticipating and then seeing the reveal and consequences.  Some of that has faded for the home viewer over time, but there are some nice touches, like Ruth's amusement, and Sonny pulling Amy's hair as if expecting it to be a wig.  (Has she never seen her roommate naked or at least in underwear?)

Isabelle is also present.  She's managing the hotel in Lilly's absence, and it's suggested Lilly won't be coming back, as she's engaged to a native island king.  I don't know how Lilly would've taken the reveal, but Isabelle decides to put her friendship for the guys, as well as her own pride, ahead of the rules of the hotel.  Kip and Henry can stay, as long as no one else at the Susan B. finds out.

Sonny is not as easily placated.  She's very angry at Kip (not so much at Henry) and she has it out with him.  They yell and they push each other's shoulders, but he tells her he did it all for love of her.  And they have another passionate kiss.  The scene ends with fireworks and a train crash, indicating more passion, although we'll find out in subsequent episodes that they never have sex.

My issues with the episode are that the transition from anger to affection is uncomfortable, although I'm not sure how else it could've been played; and that there is minor racism, with San Flan and the native chieftain.  Still, I feel like Buddies is in a better place at this point than Mork & Mindy, and I'm not just saying that with hindsight.

It looks like this is the first episode Joel Zwick directed since the Pilot, although it also looks like he'd do all of the second season.


*Western comedy the critics loved and the viewers didn't.  I watched, given that line-up, but don't remember much beyond it had Joel Higgins pre-Silver-Spoons.

Bosom Buddies: Cahoots

Bosom Buddies: Cahoots
ABC
April 30, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Carrerow & Chambers story would be my least favorite episode of the season, if not for the "lobby scene."  Of course, least favorite for Bosom Buddies does not mean what it would for Soap.  It means C+, since the episode is still full of pop-cultural references, from Gilligan's Island to Sound of Music to (generic) reggae.*  I'm not crazy about Kip and Amy helping each other woo Sonny and Henry respectively, because of the dishonesty and manipulation.  But I do like that Sonny and Henry are on to them and pretend to have fallen in love.  And I actually prefer it when Kip and Amy go back to bickering like brother and sister.  (This is the 600th B- I've given out by the way.)

Waitress Samantha Lewes has only one other IMDB credit, but she was then married to Tom Hanks (making Rita Wilson's later appearance on the show more ironic or awkward or something).

Bosom Buddies in its first and slightly longer season gets 9 B-s, 8 B's, and 2 B+s.  This may not make it the best show ever, but it does make it incredibly under-rated at the time.  And it has aged ever so gracefully, still sharp, funny, and sweet.  The writing, the cast, the direction, and the costumes, are all generally solid.  I know that it's not just nostalgia, because I don't feel that Mork & Mindy and Three's Company have aged nearly as well, although of course they still have their moments.  I'm curious to see what I think of Season Two, which did have a weak episode or two, especially towards the end.  But maybe they will look good in comparison to other shows I'll be watching.


*Re Lilly and Isabelle's argument about the number of celebrity marriages, Mickey Rooney was actually on his last marriage then, not separating till 2012, but Elizabeth Taylor would divorce John Warner in December '81 and go on to Larry Fortensky in '88.