Who's the Boss?: Party Politics

Who's the Boss?: Party Politics
ABC
February 26, 1991
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Tony and Angela get involved in a senseless and expensive competition with their next-door neighbors the Harpers (Sam McMurray and Leah Ayres again), who've moved back after a year in Japan, apparently having bought their house back from Angela and exchanged their daughter who's Jonathan's age for a son who's Billy's age, turning six.  No one is the voice of reason here, although Sam and Jonathan come closest.  The episode is mildly funny in an over-the-top way, as when Angela says she's prepared to spend a quarter of a million dollars on Billy's birthday party.

Phil Doran, who wrote a couple Bob Newhart episodes, here does his first of ten, while Bob Rosenfarb wrote the episode called "The Kid" and would collaborate with Doran on those ten; Gene Braunstein is the WtB veteran among the three collaborators, with this as his twelfth of seventeen.  Josh Byrne makes his final appearance as Billy's frenemy Joey, while Ross Malinger's third and last WtB role is as Travis.  And Whose Line Is It Anyway? fans will be amused  that Ryan Stiles plays Bobo the Clown, who has ambitions as a Shakespearean actor.