Who's the Boss?: Spud Micelli

Who's the Boss?: Spud Micelli
ABC
December 9, 1986
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Alan Mandel's first of five WtB stories has Sam deciding not to try out for the girls' basketball team when her boyfriend Todd (Katisse Buckingham again, credited on the episode itself although not IMDB) fails to make the boys' team.  The last time we saw Todd he was trying to go further physically with Sam than she was comfortable with, and I'm surprised that she's now his girlfriend and that Tony is seemingly OK with this.  Todd doesn't come off much better in this episode at first, since she worries he'll feel threatened by her sports prowess, and then he mocks girls' basketball.  She challenges him to one-on-one and wins.  At first, he seems to have lost interest in her, but then he redeems himself by agreeing to come to her game.

Meanwhile, Angela beats Tony at miniature golf, admittedly not a sport he's very familiar with.  (We never did hear how his game with Jonathan went back in February.)  When Sam sees what a poor sport her father is, she then makes the decision about not trying out.  Angela tells a story about giving up a chance to study abroad in college because of a boy, who dumped her for a girl in the Honor Society.  And Tony realizes that his attitude is influencing Sam, so he tries to be a better sport, including when he and Angela have a rematch.  When Tony practices in the living room the stuffed giraffe looks like a red version of the one Chrissy brought home in 1980.

I like the mini-golf set and I like Sam eventually standing up for herself, as well as the way the rivalry between Tony and Angela is handled in this episode.  I'm just not crazy about Sam dating Todd.  (Not that Chad McCann is a winner, but he's less creepy.)