Who's the Boss?: In Search of Tony

Who's the Boss?: In Search of Tony
ABC
September 19, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Braunstein & Perlow wrote this season-opener and game-changer.  The family goes with Angela on a business vacation to Jamaica, but even Angela is having fun more than working.  It bothers Tony that she's having fun without him.  Also, 17-year-old Sam says she'll be leaving for college in a year and eleven months.  (Was she left back or something?  Or is she still planning to take a year off and bum around Europe, now without Jesse?)  When Angela almost drowns topless, she and Tony quarrel, in front of a crowd of tourists, and then make their fun more competitive, culminating in a dance-off, she to "Hot, Hot, Hot," he to "Singing in the Rain."  He injures his knee doing the splits and she goes over to talk to him on a bench in a quieter area.

They not only talk things out but when she tells him that the best times of her life have been with him, they kiss passionately!  He thinks it's going to lead to sex and he says they can't do that until and unless they get married.  So they talk that out, too, although Angela doesn't admit she's been consciously in love with him for two years.  He, per the episode's title, needs to find himself and figure out his future before he can plan a future with her.  So, unlike Season Five, which was sort of treading in place, Season Six will have the shadow of this episode hanging over it, till it all comes crashing down in the season-closer.

Alan Haufrect, who was Mr. Miller on Bosom Buddies, is Hank Whiteman here.