Bosom Buddies: Beauty and the Beasts

Swinging singles

Bosom Buddies: Beauty and the Beasts
ABC
January 15, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This first of four Buddies stories by Howard Gewirtz and Ian Praiser, who had co-written one for Three's Company, is a bit meta in that Amy tells Henry to try not to force chemistry, while the episode itself feels a bit forced.  The agency hires a gorgeous but untalented actress for the "Mouse Motel" commercial.  Then when Sonny and Isabelle take Buffy and Hildy to a singles bar, Henry gets upset that no men ask them to dance.  I have to say that much as I adore Some Like It Hot, I find the parts that are closest to the movie (like all the residents dropping in B & H's first night in the hotel) to be among the weakest in the series.  When Jerry gets upset about how men treat them (although in Daphne and Josephine's case it's that men are getting fresh), we're not meant to see it as a feminist awakening but just as farce, while here it feels a bit heavy-handed.  I mean, to some extent a lot of this series is about Kip and Henry learning things about themselves and about women by being in drag, but I feel like sometimes it's just too a Very Special Episodic and the right tone hasn't been found, especially this early on.  Well, Ruth's throwaway line about the ERA quickly makes its point, since it's not very feminist of her to hire the actress the "boys" were drooling over.

Anyway, Kip encourages Henry to rethink how he treats Amy, whom he sees as just a friend.  So Henry asks her out (on the phone from the downstairs bar & grill, even though he could wait till they're at work or he's back upstairs), and they have an awkward time.  A spacy woman flirts with Henry, but he'd rather be with Amy, because it feels comfortable, he says.  The thing is, neither of them seem to be having a good time.  I think the script needed a rewrite, although there are individual good moments and scenes, like Kip's "interview" of Sonny, and Ruth showing up at the singles bar in search of a meaningless "gothic" relationship.  Note that Isabelle previously told Kip she'd go out with him (because of his butt), and she in this episode tells Henry she'd go out with him if he were taller.

Judith-Marie Bergan plays Sally of the auras, a very different character from her Marilyn McCallam, and different again from her future Three's Company character, Gail Kenderson.  Robin G. Eisenmann, who plays Miss Graham, was Penny on Mork & Mindy and would soon be Veronica Furley on Three's Company.  And, yes, that's the Will Mackenzie who played Larry Bondurant on The Bob Newhart Show; he would direct seven more Buddies episodes.