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.