Bosom Buddies: The Show Must Go On

Bosom Buddies: The Show Must Go On
ABC
March 26, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B+

This Gewirtz & Praiser story is another that works on different levels:

• While Kip and Henry's friendship with each other is central to the show, we here see what good friends they are to Isabelle, taking jobs as busboys so she can fulfill her dream of being a singer;
• Hopkins is a wonderful singer, not surprising considering that she was part of Dawn (as in Tony Orlando &), but she's showcased well, and when you see her friends beaming at her, it looks completely genuine;
• Sperber and Dixon offer back-up, as singers and as friends, looking great in their black dresses, and they're funny with their "Is she unconscious?" exchange;
• Also, Dixon has a cool almost Marilyn Monroe moment, when Sonny asks, "How do you like the show so far?" before exiting to check on Isabelle;
• There's a nice little "girl talk" bit where Amy lusts after Henry, and Sonny has drunk enough to lust after Kip;
• We find out that Henry had stage fright in junior high, which not only gives us some more background, but underlines the message of not giving up on your dreams (an important theme throughout the series of course);
• 24-year-old Bob Saget plays Bob the Comic, but it's not like he's just getting up there and doing a stand-up routine (like the comics on Welcome Back, Kotter for instance), he's doing some meta stand-up about stand-up, like when he throws in a reference to Gumby just for generational cred;
• The character is clearly presented as untalented (watch his insecurity about Isabelle, even though she's in another field), and Kip's "Bob the Comic, once again saving his best material just for us" line is brutally funny;
• Ruth shows up with a hunk who's done Moliere;
• The club-owner is a jerk who keeps firing his relatives, but it's played down rather than up, as it would be on Three's Company and other sitcoms of the era;
• The "mumps" sequence, including the Godfather reference and what I think is the first time the guys do their falsetto sing-song "Who is it?", is funny, even if it does beg the question of what excuse Buffy and Hildy made for not attending the second night.

Reb Brown, who had played Elmo Hacker on Three's Company, is Ruth's beefcake boyfriend Roger.  Lilly is absent, although she knows Isabelle much better than Ruth does.