Bosom Buddies: Sonny Boy

Bosom Buddies: Sonny Boy
ABC
February 12, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

Leonard Ripps wrote this story that sounds like Sonny will be in drag, but it's actually about the reaction of Mrs. Desmond when she sees Henry and Kip in drag, talking about beating up two punks (in the "hood" sense, not the punker sense).  It's a funny episode, including the early Geraldo Rivera parody, Jesus Salazar, but it also has Henry torn between pleasing his mom and wanting to live his own life.  (And, yes, he's out to her as a cross-dressing heterosexual, but this does have parallels to gays dealing with their parents.)  Still not quite a B+ but it's close.  Some things of note:

• Henry's father is alive but we never get to see him.
• Henry's first big date was at 17, to his prom.
• I can't remember if it was mentioned before that the guys are from Ohio; we'll later learn they're from Shaker Heights.
• Kip always got blamed when the boys got in trouble, and Mrs. Desmond never really liked him.
• Her nickname for Henry was Winky.
• Unbelievably, Kip's mother expected him to go to med school.  (We'll later see what hippies he and his family were/are.)
• Henry and presumably Kip have been in New York for a year.
• We get a glimpse of Isabelle's apartment, and I get the impression she lives alone.
• The rent is $200, up from $150 in the pilot, but still not bad.  (It's higher on Three's Company, but that's a two-bedroom rather than a studio without a kitchen.

I'm guessing someone in casting was a Bob Newhart Show fan, because Dr. Leon is an even more obnoxious gum-chewing psychiatrist than Phillip R. Allen's Dr. Frank Walburn.  Randy Stumpf, who was a Greek Soldier on M*A*S*H, is Punk #1 here (and would play a Burglar on The Brady Brides).  I think this is the first episode that Ruth is absent from.  Again, both Thompson and Van Atta directed, maybe because of the "action sequence"?