Bosom Buddies Season 2
The ruse is revealed in the first episode out of the gate, at least to Sonny and Isabelle and through the magic of plot nothing really changes. This allows the show to become much more the buddy comedy originally envisioned by the show creators and I'm not sure if the show is better for it. Given they were cancelled after only 2 seasons its possible the execs at ABC weren't exactly happy with the changes either. According to the wikipedia article the show was hampered by a writer's strike in 1980 and the constant time slot changes by ABC.
The general plot remains the same though some details change. Instead of working for an ad firm Kip, Henry, Amy and Ruth end up becoming partners in a commercial production venture. Isabelle becomes the new manager at the Susan B. Anthony hotel with the departure of Lucille Benson (Lilly Sinclair). Kip is in constant pursuit of Sonny with various amounts of success. Amy is in constant pursuit of Henry and various hijinks take place around these central tenets.
In my season 1 post I said I felt Tom Hanks' acting ability really began to shine through in the quiet moments as opposed to the boisterous ones. I've been asked to elaborate on what I meant and to contrast this against the writing. I think early in Hanks' career he was "comedic" when he flew off the handle. It can be funny when someone is over exaggerated and enthusiastic in their expressions. Think Woody from Toy Story. I don't really prefer that though. If this was all Hanks had it would still be funny in this show, but I don't think he would have gone on to have the multi decade career he's had. Several episodes of Bosom Buddies have "learning a lesson" moments where Kip or Henry come to the realization that some behavior on their part was the source of the drama/tension. It's in these moments Hanks really shines I think. Think Jim Lovell from Apollo 13.
In the end I really enjoyed this show. The main characters were clearly Kip and Henry, but nearly every episode featured the "gang" in some way and I really enjoyed this ensemble of actors/characters. I was introduced to actors I never knew or didn't realize I knew in Peter Scolari,Wendi Jo Sperber and Donna Dixon. Despite its flaws, which I think are mostly a product of what was acceptable in 1980, I laughed quite a bit and I wasn't ready for it to end.
Next up can I track down Hanks' guest spots on Taxi and Happy Days.
Below I'll comment on each episode. I'm also going to include the brief plot description for each episode taken from the Wikipedia article here for context.
"The Truth and Other Lies"- Kip decides to take his relationship with Sonny to the next level by revealing that he and Buffy are the same person.
Rex Reed's baby joke that I didn't get. San Flan is a stereotypical poor "latin" country. Donna Dixon plays Sonny's hurt/anger at Kip's lying very well. The major drama is solved in typical sitcom fashion. Apparently a good kisser makes all forgiven?
"There's No Business..."- Kip and Henry buy their own commercial production house from an unscrupulous salesman.
Henry was supposed to be taking a combined $2000 from himself, Kip and Amy to buy a Treasury bill at supposedly 16%!!? Instead he tells his uncle who's in dire straits about the money who convinces him it's a good investment for plot reasons. Whatever happened to Spiegel, my mom used to love that catalogue? Ruth Dunbar's final scene here with the venture capitalist/mobster/lien holder is pretty amazing. She's like a cross between Joan from Mad Men fast forwarded and Evelyn Harper from 2 1/2 Men rewound to 1980 and I kinda love it.
"The Reunion"- At a reunion of students from his old high school, Henry meets a deaf girl and recalls how badly he treated her on prom night.
The recap doesn't mention how Kip is pretty much attempting to show off Sonny as his arm candy the entire night and she's not having it. She turns it around on him every time in subtle ways and Kip presumably learns his lesson, but I doubt it. Henry is just as shallow but he feels bad about it. There's a running gag about how "all black people look the same" because the guys Ohio high school had literally one black female and one black male in the entire school apparently. Isabelle decides to run with it after this comment though which is kinda eh... Were hall monitors actually a thing in the 70s?
"All gym teacher's are fascists" is a pretty good joke. In a flashback to high school Henry makes an off hand comment about pregnancy and the girl in the scene says "He told you! That big mouth gym teacher.!" and storms off in a huff. I'm left wondering did he commit a FERPA violation or something much worse.
"One For You, One For Me"- After berating Kip for being irresponsible with money, Henry buys a stolen VCR and is thrown in jail.
Really, the warrant comes from registering a warranty card? They go to jail for unknowingly buying stolen property? The criminals in the cell already, self admitted bank robbers, just happen to be a black guy and a hispanic guy? The show doesn't make any specifically racist comments necessarily, but in 2020 these optics are hard to overlook.
"The Road to Monte Carlo"- A near-death experience leaves Kip and Henry with a big insurance settlement, which they use to take a trip to Monte Carlo
The elevator collapse scene is pretty funny. The humor in this show really excels in physical gags. In this episode Hanks and Scolari duck walk together in a quite amusing scene. The Monte Carlo scene is also interesting. The show delivers a message about living in the now and experience being worth more than money, but I'm with Sonny on this one. Losing $10,000 in 10 minutes is not an experience I'd want.
"WaterBalloonGate"- Kip and Henry drop a water balloon on a car that turns out to belong to Richard Nixon. After being questioned by the Secret Service, Kip is so shaken that he gives up practical jokes.
Henry with the balloon is pretty hilarious. This episode seems to get Henry and Kip's characterizations backwards. I don't buy Kip being scared straight so completely and Henry being the carefree one. Amy appears to be relegated to one liners and prat falls.
"All You Need Is Love"- Depressed after breaking up with another girlfriend, Henry goes to a video dating service, where he meets a beautiful Satanist.
This episode makes a joke out of Kips sexual pursuit of Sonny. Ruth makes a dating tape? The awkwardness of it is funny, but maybe not if you think about it for more than a few seconds. Cindy (the new girl Henry meets) comes to dinner wearing a cape? OH I see she's a satanist. Satanic panic is funny I guess. The last quarter of the episode has Isabelle showing off the hotel to a reverend. Buffy and Hildegard along with Amy and Sonny enter and begin discussions of their love lives. The reverend thinks the ladies are involved in homosexual relationships and this tension is played for laughs because its 1980. The episode ends with Buffy and Hilde revealing their actually men as the big punchline.
"Other Than That, She's a Wonderful Person"- Henry starts dating a pretty interior decorator whom Kip detests.
Another Anson Williams joke I don't get. The characters have a scene where we get their inner monologues which is actually pretty funny. A TV Guide!
At this point I find that I don't have a lot to say about each episode. The show is what all sitcoms are, ridiculous plots and situations with humor derived from either the actors physical appearance, exaggerated reactions and awkward situations.
"The Slightly Illustrated Man"- Kip and Amy decide to prove their commitment to Sonny and Henry by getting tattoos.
Kips displays of machismo can't possibly be endearing to Sonny as she's been characterized so far. Ruth at the tattoo parlor is pretty hilarious. Of course Kip can't actually get a tattoo because he's too wimpy to take the needle.
"The Two Percent Solution"- Amy's small amount of stock in Kip and Henry's company gives her the deciding vote in a shareholder decision
The episode pits Ruth and guys against each other on how to pitch a potential client. They each pursue/bribe Amy in funny scenes and in the end she gives them each 1% so their still stuck. The guys make their commercial which I thought was pretty funny, but was clearly not what the client wanted and Ruth is able to save the day.
"Cablevision"- Kip and Henry produce an episode-length cable variety show, including an appearance by their special guest star and kidnap victim Penny Marshall.
This episode is just a mess. The ridiculousness and failure of the variety show is supposed to be funny, but it just seems too desperate and hollow. Also its last on the DvD so I thought this was how the show ended its run, but that does not appear to be the case according to the wikipedia article air dates.
"The Grandfather"- Henry saves the life of a little girl who turns out to be the granddaughter of a mob boss.
Kip yells too much. The guys start getting clients because the mob boss is sending them. There's a godfather joke where a tuxedo store comes back to do business with the guys because he received a costume penguin head in his bed. The guys think they're gonna be whacked because they lost an item for the grandfather that it turns out he had taken back from them without their knowledge. Its all pretty meh, but there are laughs derived from the performances. The gestures, the inflections, the looks on their faces.
"Kip off the Old Block"- Kip tries to prevent his parents (Jerry Hardin and K Callan) from breaking up.
Also Kip's dad is pretty unrepentantly obnoxious and pretty disrespectful to Sonny and Kip's mother. Leon Spinks and Plasmatics jokes I don't get. Henry's food puns are hilarious.
"Hildy's Dirt Nap"- A middle aged man falls in love with Hildy, so Henry fakes Hildy's death.
Our own Lake and Laura joke? A faux funeral complete with a casket. Sitcoms always amaze me with ridiculous situations they come up with for the characters. These guys are nearly broke, how can they afford a casket?
"The Way Kip and Henry Were"- The guys recall how they gave up their youthful ambition and went to work for Ruth.
4 years of college=2 months of hard work- pretty funny joke. Fish on a bagel for breakfast? Henry's college self looks like Dana Carvey as Garth Algar. Why have I never heard of Peter Scolari before this.
"Who's on Thirst?"- Kip and Henry spend a weekend in a mountain cabin without anything to eat or drink.
another joke I didn't get "looks like we got the dick gregory suite" Nothing else particularly special here. The situation is funny in a sitcom way.
"Not With My Sister, You Pig"- After Henry dates Kip's sister, the guys get into a fight that lands them in the hospital.
Kip again displays stereotypical machismo. He apparently has to "defend" his sister's virginity from his best friend. The physical comedy is amusing.
"Not the Last Picture Show"- Kip and Henry imagine what life will be like when they're senior citizens.
This was the last to air, but was second to last on the DvDs. I think cable vision while being a generally worse episode had a better epilogue. If I had been watching this in 1982 I would not have been satisfied with this ending to the series. A "peace in the middle east" joke, somethings never change. Future Sonny looks like Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus.
The general plot remains the same though some details change. Instead of working for an ad firm Kip, Henry, Amy and Ruth end up becoming partners in a commercial production venture. Isabelle becomes the new manager at the Susan B. Anthony hotel with the departure of Lucille Benson (Lilly Sinclair). Kip is in constant pursuit of Sonny with various amounts of success. Amy is in constant pursuit of Henry and various hijinks take place around these central tenets.
In my season 1 post I said I felt Tom Hanks' acting ability really began to shine through in the quiet moments as opposed to the boisterous ones. I've been asked to elaborate on what I meant and to contrast this against the writing. I think early in Hanks' career he was "comedic" when he flew off the handle. It can be funny when someone is over exaggerated and enthusiastic in their expressions. Think Woody from Toy Story. I don't really prefer that though. If this was all Hanks had it would still be funny in this show, but I don't think he would have gone on to have the multi decade career he's had. Several episodes of Bosom Buddies have "learning a lesson" moments where Kip or Henry come to the realization that some behavior on their part was the source of the drama/tension. It's in these moments Hanks really shines I think. Think Jim Lovell from Apollo 13.
In the end I really enjoyed this show. The main characters were clearly Kip and Henry, but nearly every episode featured the "gang" in some way and I really enjoyed this ensemble of actors/characters. I was introduced to actors I never knew or didn't realize I knew in Peter Scolari,Wendi Jo Sperber and Donna Dixon. Despite its flaws, which I think are mostly a product of what was acceptable in 1980, I laughed quite a bit and I wasn't ready for it to end.
Next up can I track down Hanks' guest spots on Taxi and Happy Days.
Below I'll comment on each episode. I'm also going to include the brief plot description for each episode taken from the Wikipedia article here for context.
"The Truth and Other Lies"- Kip decides to take his relationship with Sonny to the next level by revealing that he and Buffy are the same person.
Rex Reed's baby joke that I didn't get. San Flan is a stereotypical poor "latin" country. Donna Dixon plays Sonny's hurt/anger at Kip's lying very well. The major drama is solved in typical sitcom fashion. Apparently a good kisser makes all forgiven?
"There's No Business..."- Kip and Henry buy their own commercial production house from an unscrupulous salesman.
Henry was supposed to be taking a combined $2000 from himself, Kip and Amy to buy a Treasury bill at supposedly 16%!!? Instead he tells his uncle who's in dire straits about the money who convinces him it's a good investment for plot reasons. Whatever happened to Spiegel, my mom used to love that catalogue? Ruth Dunbar's final scene here with the venture capitalist/mobster/lien holder is pretty amazing. She's like a cross between Joan from Mad Men fast forwarded and Evelyn Harper from 2 1/2 Men rewound to 1980 and I kinda love it.
"The Reunion"- At a reunion of students from his old high school, Henry meets a deaf girl and recalls how badly he treated her on prom night.
The recap doesn't mention how Kip is pretty much attempting to show off Sonny as his arm candy the entire night and she's not having it. She turns it around on him every time in subtle ways and Kip presumably learns his lesson, but I doubt it. Henry is just as shallow but he feels bad about it. There's a running gag about how "all black people look the same" because the guys Ohio high school had literally one black female and one black male in the entire school apparently. Isabelle decides to run with it after this comment though which is kinda eh... Were hall monitors actually a thing in the 70s?
"All gym teacher's are fascists" is a pretty good joke. In a flashback to high school Henry makes an off hand comment about pregnancy and the girl in the scene says "He told you! That big mouth gym teacher.!" and storms off in a huff. I'm left wondering did he commit a FERPA violation or something much worse.
"One For You, One For Me"- After berating Kip for being irresponsible with money, Henry buys a stolen VCR and is thrown in jail.
Really, the warrant comes from registering a warranty card? They go to jail for unknowingly buying stolen property? The criminals in the cell already, self admitted bank robbers, just happen to be a black guy and a hispanic guy? The show doesn't make any specifically racist comments necessarily, but in 2020 these optics are hard to overlook.
"The Road to Monte Carlo"- A near-death experience leaves Kip and Henry with a big insurance settlement, which they use to take a trip to Monte Carlo
The elevator collapse scene is pretty funny. The humor in this show really excels in physical gags. In this episode Hanks and Scolari duck walk together in a quite amusing scene. The Monte Carlo scene is also interesting. The show delivers a message about living in the now and experience being worth more than money, but I'm with Sonny on this one. Losing $10,000 in 10 minutes is not an experience I'd want.
"WaterBalloonGate"- Kip and Henry drop a water balloon on a car that turns out to belong to Richard Nixon. After being questioned by the Secret Service, Kip is so shaken that he gives up practical jokes.
Henry with the balloon is pretty hilarious. This episode seems to get Henry and Kip's characterizations backwards. I don't buy Kip being scared straight so completely and Henry being the carefree one. Amy appears to be relegated to one liners and prat falls.
"All You Need Is Love"- Depressed after breaking up with another girlfriend, Henry goes to a video dating service, where he meets a beautiful Satanist.
This episode makes a joke out of Kips sexual pursuit of Sonny. Ruth makes a dating tape? The awkwardness of it is funny, but maybe not if you think about it for more than a few seconds. Cindy (the new girl Henry meets) comes to dinner wearing a cape? OH I see she's a satanist. Satanic panic is funny I guess. The last quarter of the episode has Isabelle showing off the hotel to a reverend. Buffy and Hildegard along with Amy and Sonny enter and begin discussions of their love lives. The reverend thinks the ladies are involved in homosexual relationships and this tension is played for laughs because its 1980. The episode ends with Buffy and Hilde revealing their actually men as the big punchline.
"Other Than That, She's a Wonderful Person"- Henry starts dating a pretty interior decorator whom Kip detests.
Another Anson Williams joke I don't get. The characters have a scene where we get their inner monologues which is actually pretty funny. A TV Guide!
At this point I find that I don't have a lot to say about each episode. The show is what all sitcoms are, ridiculous plots and situations with humor derived from either the actors physical appearance, exaggerated reactions and awkward situations.
"The Slightly Illustrated Man"- Kip and Amy decide to prove their commitment to Sonny and Henry by getting tattoos.
Kips displays of machismo can't possibly be endearing to Sonny as she's been characterized so far. Ruth at the tattoo parlor is pretty hilarious. Of course Kip can't actually get a tattoo because he's too wimpy to take the needle.
"The Two Percent Solution"- Amy's small amount of stock in Kip and Henry's company gives her the deciding vote in a shareholder decision
The episode pits Ruth and guys against each other on how to pitch a potential client. They each pursue/bribe Amy in funny scenes and in the end she gives them each 1% so their still stuck. The guys make their commercial which I thought was pretty funny, but was clearly not what the client wanted and Ruth is able to save the day.
"Cablevision"- Kip and Henry produce an episode-length cable variety show, including an appearance by their special guest star and kidnap victim Penny Marshall.
This episode is just a mess. The ridiculousness and failure of the variety show is supposed to be funny, but it just seems too desperate and hollow. Also its last on the DvD so I thought this was how the show ended its run, but that does not appear to be the case according to the wikipedia article air dates.
"The Grandfather"- Henry saves the life of a little girl who turns out to be the granddaughter of a mob boss.
Kip yells too much. The guys start getting clients because the mob boss is sending them. There's a godfather joke where a tuxedo store comes back to do business with the guys because he received a costume penguin head in his bed. The guys think they're gonna be whacked because they lost an item for the grandfather that it turns out he had taken back from them without their knowledge. Its all pretty meh, but there are laughs derived from the performances. The gestures, the inflections, the looks on their faces.
"Kip off the Old Block"- Kip tries to prevent his parents (Jerry Hardin and K Callan) from breaking up.
Also Kip's dad is pretty unrepentantly obnoxious and pretty disrespectful to Sonny and Kip's mother. Leon Spinks and Plasmatics jokes I don't get. Henry's food puns are hilarious.
"Hildy's Dirt Nap"- A middle aged man falls in love with Hildy, so Henry fakes Hildy's death.
Our own Lake and Laura joke? A faux funeral complete with a casket. Sitcoms always amaze me with ridiculous situations they come up with for the characters. These guys are nearly broke, how can they afford a casket?
"The Way Kip and Henry Were"- The guys recall how they gave up their youthful ambition and went to work for Ruth.
4 years of college=2 months of hard work- pretty funny joke. Fish on a bagel for breakfast? Henry's college self looks like Dana Carvey as Garth Algar. Why have I never heard of Peter Scolari before this.
"Who's on Thirst?"- Kip and Henry spend a weekend in a mountain cabin without anything to eat or drink.
another joke I didn't get "looks like we got the dick gregory suite" Nothing else particularly special here. The situation is funny in a sitcom way.
"Not With My Sister, You Pig"- After Henry dates Kip's sister, the guys get into a fight that lands them in the hospital.
Kip again displays stereotypical machismo. He apparently has to "defend" his sister's virginity from his best friend. The physical comedy is amusing.
"Not the Last Picture Show"- Kip and Henry imagine what life will be like when they're senior citizens.
This was the last to air, but was second to last on the DvDs. I think cable vision while being a generally worse episode had a better epilogue. If I had been watching this in 1982 I would not have been satisfied with this ending to the series. A "peace in the middle east" joke, somethings never change. Future Sonny looks like Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus.
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