Who's the Boss?: It Happened One Summer, Part 2

Who's the Boss?: It Happened One Summer, Part 2
ABC
October 1, 1985
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Hunter & Cohan also wrote this second part, which begins oddly enough with Mona writing in her diary and flashing back to the events of Part 1, even though she wasn't there for most of them.  Then we see Tony and Angela in the hotel.  They've apparently changed out of their wet clothes separately, and he's now in a towel, she in a "fitted sheet."  There's a lot of sexual tension, not helped when the motel manager (Schiavelli again) loans them one pair of pajamas.

Angela wants to hang up a sheet, as in It Happened One Night, but of course it falls, as in the movie.  She and Tony talk about the night they first kissed, sharing good and bad things about it.  He denies that his palms were sweaty, but he'd admitted to having sweaty palms at a dance when they swapped stories on "Dinner for Two."  He says he cut his lip on her braces but it was worth it.

It seems like something might happen, especially when he remembers the scent of her bug spray and Michael never could remember their anniversary.  Unfortunately, he reveals that, one, he was 11 that night, lying about his age because he knew she was 13; and two, he kissed her on a bet and one of his buddies hid in the bushes, timing them.  She's offended that he's tarnished her romantic memory.

Re his age, he said on the "bra" episode that he was a 30-year-old father, but I think he was rounding his age off.  If he was 11 in 1963 to '66, that gives him a birth year of '51 (after the summer) to '55, making him 31 to 34 now, and Angela about two years older.  Keep that in mind for future episodes, but I'll note now that he'll later claim to not know her age.  (Danza and Light were born in '51 and '49 respectively, so the two-year age difference in their characters is probably deliberate.)

Tony says the night "twenty years ago" was special to him, too, but Angela thinks that there's now a barrier stronger than a sheet between them.  Later the roof caves in over her bed, when she's fortunately not in it.  Tony chivalrously gives her his bed and tries to sleep in the chair.  Then he falls out of the chair and she says they can share a bed because they're adults and nothing's going to happen.  We get this exchange.


TONY: Things are pretty good between us the way they are.  [The same thing he said on "Double Date."]
ANGELA: Right, although things could probably be good between us the way they aren't.
TONY: They'd be great.
ANGELA: Yes, they would.
TONY: But they would not be the same, and I am not willing to risk losing what we've got.

This is similar to his reasoning on the "First Kiss" episode (which is now in retrospect about their second kiss), but the stakes are higher here, since they now know of their past encounter, and since they'll be sharing a narrow motel bed while not wearing much clothing.  Still, we find out in the tag that Tony thinks he "would've made a great monk."

The episode intercuts with hijinks at camp, including Mona leading the kids in pranks, not a great subplot but it does raise the viewer's curiosity about what's going on back at the motel.  And it does show what a good grandmother she is in the early seasons, here helping Jonathan to fit in.  Both Mona and Sam are disappointed to hear that Tony carved "Ingrid's" name rather than Angela's.  It will remain Tony & Angela's secret, and as I said, this episode is never officially referenced during the rest of the series, unlike, for instance, Tony walking in on Angela in the bathroom.

And yet, Tony and Angela are undeniably closer after their night together, and Season Two has a different feel to it with this in the background.