Who's the Boss?: Semi-Private Lives

Who's the Boss?: Semi-Private Lives
ABC
November 25, 1986
Sitcom
DVD
B

Wengrod & Cinnamon wrote this story where Angela has been dating Geoffrey (Robin Thomas, with shorter hair than he had at the wedding) for a few weeks.*  He's invited her to spend the weekend in Maine and it's implied, during her conversation with her mother, that this will be the first time for sex.  The kids spend the weekend in Washington, DC, on a Y trip.  Tony expects to have the house to himself, so he invites over his high school girlfriend, Tanya Stromball.  But he's distracted by a photo of Angela and Jonathan, like they're his wife and son.

Then Angela and Geoffrey return, having gotten lost on the way to Maine.  It's very awkward, and Mona is amused but doesn't linger.  (In a similar situation four seasons later, she'll have a bit more to say.)  Tony and Tanya head to Brooklyn, leaving Angela alone with Geoffrey, but she gets distracted by the vacuum, which reminds her of Tony.  Both couples end up at the Fairfield Inn, although they don't realize it at first.  In fact, I don't think Geoffrey and Tanya ever find out, but Angela and Tony talk on the balconies.

The tag has the kids return, with Sam annoyed with Jonathan.  And Jonathan says he put a glass to the wall to eavesdrop, and it's implied that Tony did this to Angela's room.

A few of the things going on at or slightly below the surface:

• Angela and Tony are jealous, although they can't come right around and say this.  Angela is catty about Tanya, and Tony, whether or not he eavesdropped, says that Geoffrey isn't fun.
• They feel guilty about being with other people, like they're cheating on each other.
• They are co-parents when the kids call, sharing the receiver and the love.
• Sam increasingly sees Jonathan as an annoying little brother, although they still get along better than they will when they're both adolescents.
• Angela seems a little uncomfortable with Geoffrey, especially his flattery.
• Mona doesn't really like Geoffrey, although she's not saying much so far.
• I've never seen it, but the Noel Coward play Private Lives, according to Wikipedia, "concerns a divorced couple who, while honeymooning with their new spouses, discover that they are staying in adjacent rooms at the same hotel."  This has a direct bearing on the episode, as we're to assume that both couples will have sex and are aware that they will have sex.  (However, we never hear from or of Tanya again.)

*We don't know what month the wedding was, or if Jonathan's six weeks in a cast came between the wedding episode and this one, but it is snowing now, and Christmas hasn't come yet.