Who's the Boss?: Jonathan Plays Cupid

Who's the Boss?: Jonathan Plays Cupid
ABC
February 11, 1986
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Paul Robinson Hunter, who also wrote "Requiem" and a couple others in between, contributes his last WtB story, one that builds on what's come before and also sets up the next five and a half years of the series.  Jonathan and his friend Steven (Christopher Burton, in a role he played at Jonathan's summer camp) both want to enter the junior-senior golf tournament at the country club.  But the other boys will be teaming up with their fathers, while Jonathan's father, as Angela reminds him, is married and living in California.  Tony offers to play with him, although Tony has never actually played golf.  Jonathan is happy but Steven tells him that housekeepers can leave, so the two of them come up with a scheme where Jonathan will set up his mom and Tony on a blind date for Valentine's Day, and then they'll fall in love and get married, so Tony will never leave.  (Never mind that Michael left.)

Jonathan has them each receive anonymous notes to meet at the French restaurant Chez Rene at eight that evening.  They find out that their "host" is "Monsieur Bower," so they assume Michael is paying for everything.  At first, they're surprised and disappointed to discover who their blind dates are, but they decide to stay, have a good time, and run up a bill that Michael will have to pay for.  Little do they know that Jonathan borrowed his mother's credit card.

Back at home, Mona and Sam learn about the blind date, although not the motivation for it.  They and Jonathan eagerly await for Angela and Tony's return.  To avoid suspicion, Angela enters through the front door and Tony from the kitchen door a couple minutes later.  But Jonathan is disappointed when they claim they had dates with other people.  He confesses his scheme, as Mona and Sam listen in, until their remarks get them sent away.  Then Tony and Angela have a heart to heart talk with Jonathan.  In the tag, the two of them bond over a shared Alka-Seltzer or similar.

There's a lot going on here, both as a stand-alone and this episode's place in the series as a whole, the former including moments like Mona's many Valentine's cards and the matching "father & son" golf outfits.  Of the most significant of the latter, we have...

• While the show hadn't exactly gone through a mid-season slump, it is notable that the episodes between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day are less interesting, so this comeback is extra welcome.
• This holiday is used well, not just for its main plot but also for touches like the chocolate, and how the various characters act characteristically, including Sam's joy at getting a Valentine from Chad McCann.
• This episode would be referenced almost exactly three years later, on the ironically titled "First Date" episode.  The verdict there is that this date doesn't count as it was a blind date under deceptive circumstances.
• Tony and Angela try not to treat it as a "real date," but they do flirt a little, and of course they have to react to the family's reactions.
• The penultimate scene, from around the time that Tony and Angela find out who their host is to the end, is full of little comedic gems, like Mona's "And the way you love your housekeeper," and the kids' attitudes towards their parents having "S-E-X."  The studio audience in particular loves Jonathan's "Is that all?  Then why don't you just have that and get it over with" and Sam's "Goodnight, Dad.  Goodnight, Mom."
• There are also some touching moments, especially Tony's vow to always be there for his "pal" and "buddy" Jonathan, which if anything is more moving decades later, when you know of the tight bond among the main cast, and how supportive Light and Danza have been of Pintauro's coming out and eventual marriage.
• Michael, even offscreen, is unreliable, while Tony is in a sense Jonathan's true father.
• Tony and Angela can't take as cavalier attitude towards having sex as the innocent 8-year-old can have for them, but with "First Kiss" and "It Happened One Summer" in the background of this episode, we know that they have certainly considered the possibility of sex, although not yet marriage.
• This is, not counting the episode where Sam lies to her new friends, the first time that marriage between Tony and Angela has been put on the table, and I get the feeling that Mona and Sam like the idea, even if they know it's not as simple as Jonathan thinks.
• While this is one of the best Jonathan episodes, with Pintauro playing up the innocence and fears as well as manipulation, it's also one of my favorite Sam episodes, as the wisecracking but sweet tomboy of the first season returns in a more grown-up (13-year-old) incarnation.
• Helmond as Mona is delightful as well, with that dry delivery of killer lines that is, perhaps, showcased best on the next season's episode where Tony and Angela do think about marrying each other.
• Danza and Light are great, both reacting and moving the plot forward.
• It's another Angela in Her Bathrobe episode, the pink one this time.
• And Tony and Angela's golf-playing is a thread that had begun earlier (she played mini golf with Wally) and will have an interesting pay-off down the road.