Bosom Buddies
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| Bosom Buddies | |
|---|---|
 Title screen |
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| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | Chris Thompson |
| Starring | Tom Hanks Peter Scolari Donna Dixon Holland Taylor Telma Hopkins Wendie Jo Sperber Lucille Benson (1980-1981) |
| Theme music composer | Billy Joel |
| Opening theme | "My Life" Performed by Bertie Higgins |
| Ending theme | "Shake Me Loose" |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 37 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 24-25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | November 27, 1980 – May 27, 1982 |
Bosom Buddies is an American sitcom starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari created by Robert L. Boyett, Thomas L. Miller and Chris Thompson. It ran from 1980 to 1982 on ABC and in reruns in the summer of 1984 on NBC.
The series was originally conceived by Miller and Boyett as both a takeoff on the movie Some Like It Hot and a male counterpart to their hit farce show Laverne & Shirley. After the cast had been chosen, Miller and Boyett asked Chris Thompson, one of the writer-producers of Laverne & Shirley, to write the pilot and be the series showrunner. Thompson (who would go on to executive-produce such shows as The Larry Sanders Show), said later that he took the job purely for the money, but unexpectedly found it to be "my completely favorite experience in show business," because the network left him and his young cast free to experiment. "We were left alone," he recalled. "Nobody was paying attention to us. We were all really young, but it was like we had daddy's Porsche. We had $500,000 to play with every week." [1] The show became known for its quirky humor and its frequent use of improvisation, especially between stars Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. Though the show started out with good ratings, it failed to hold the public's interest and was canceled after two seasons.
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[edit] Premise
After their own apartment is demolished, two men disguise themselves as women in order to live in the women-only Susan B. Anthony Hotel because of the dirt cheap rent. Kip Wilson (Tom Hanks) is originally skeptical of the plan, but after meeting knock-out resident model/dancer/nurse Sonny Lumet (Donna Dixon), he ends up convincing aspiring writer Henry Desmond (Peter Scolari) that the experience will make a great book. Their co-worker, Amy Cassidy, (Wendie Jo Sperber) is the only resident in on the plan because she's attracted to Henry. In the first season, Kip, Henry, and Amy work for Ruth Dunbar (Holland Taylor) at the advertising firm of Livingston, Gentry & Mishkin, where Kip is a graphic artist, Henry is a copy writer, and Amy is the receptionist. Ruth often takes credit for the boys’ work when reporting to her (unseen) boss, Mr. Rubinowitz.
The boys’ deception includes outwitting the hotel manager, Lily Sinclair (Lucille Benson), and fellow resident, Isabelle Hammond (Telma Hopkins), an aspiring singer.
In the second season, Kip, Henry and Amy leave Livingston, Gentry & Mishkin to start their own advertising firm, Sixty Seconds Street, with Ruth serving as a not-quite silent partner.
In the first episode of the second season, the male characters’ ruse of living in drag is revealed, although they are allowed to continue living at the women-only hotel anyway. Sonny forgives Kip for the deception, and as the new hotel manager replacing Lily, Isabelle agrees to go along with the ruse rather than admit it to the other residents.
[edit] Cast
- Tom Hanks - Kip Wilson/Buffy (when in drag)
- Peter Scolari - Henry Desmond/Hildegarde (when in drag)
- Wendie Jo Sperber- Amy Cassidy, co-worker and friend who knows their secret
- Holland Taylor - Ruth Dunbar, their boss
- Donna Dixon - Sonny Lumet, Kip’s love interest and hotel resident
- Telma Hopkins - Isabelle Hammond, hotel resident (hotel manager in the second season)
- Lucille Benson - Lilly Sinclair, hotel manager (1980-1981)
[edit] Episode Guide
Season 1
- Pilot
- My Brother, My Sister, Myself
- Loathe Thy Neighbor
- Macho Man
- What Price Glory?
- Kip and Sonny's Date
- Beauty and the Beasts
- Revenge
- Amy's Career
- Gotta Dance
- Sonny Boy
- How Great Thou Art
- Kip Quits
- Only the Lonely
- The Re-Write
- The Show Must Go On
- The Hospital
- Best Friends
- Cahoots
Season 2
- The Truths and Other Lies
- There's No Business ...
- The Reunion
- One For You, One For Me
- Road to Monte Carlo
- WaterBalloonGate
- All You Need is Love
- Other Than That, She's a Wonderful Person
- The Slightly Illustrated Man
- Two Percent Solution
- Cablevision
- The Grandfather
- Hildy's Dirt Nap
- Kip Off the Old Block
- The Way Kip and Henry Were
- Who's On Thirst?
- Not With My Sister, You Pig
- Not the Last Picture Show
- Cablevision
[edit] Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2009) |
- The theme song for the opening credits was "My Life" by Billy Joel, although Joel's version was not used on the air. (Some sources credit singer Bertie Higgins as the performer.) Some reruns shown in syndication (such as when USA Network and TBS aired reruns) and all home video and DVD releases use a vocal version of the show's end credit instrumental theme, "Shake Me Loose", performed by Stephanie Mills, for the opening credits, with "My Life" removed altogether.
- Although the series was produced on videotape, the pilot episode was shot on film.
- Kip and Henry were named after two popular bars in Berkeley, California.
- Edie Adams plays the hotel manager in the pilot, and when Kip and Henry name each other's alter egos, they say Buffy and Hildy are sisters. Lucille Benson is introduced as the new hotel manager in the series, and she is told that Kip and Henry are Buffy and Hildy's brothers, respectively. Buffy and Hildy are allegedly from Saskatchewan, but Kip and Henry somehow attended high school in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
- Edie Adams in the pilot episode stated that the girls were "Nice girls——probably virgins!" This was edited out of the syndication episodes. The DVD version did not edit out that phrase.
- Peter Scolari appeared in the Tom Hanks directed feature film That Thing You Do! as an Ed Sullivan-style announcer. He also appeared as astronaut Pete Conrad in an episode of the Tom Hanks produced HBO series From the Earth to the Moon and co-starred with Hanks in The Polar Express.
- Bosom Buddies was taped on Stage 25 at Paramount Pictures. Stage 25 was also the home of The Lucy Show, Cheers, and its spin-off Frasier.
- Bosom Buddies reruns also aired briefly on NBC in the summer of 1984. Ratings were respectable and talks to bring the show back were mentioned; but by that time, Peter Scolari was on Newhart and Tom Hanks was just starting his film career.
- This was the last show to use the Miller-Milkis-Boyett production team due to Eddie Milkis leaving the company in 1983. This was also the last Miller-Boyett production to be produced by Paramount Television before they moved their base of operations to Lorimar Productions (later Warner Bros. Television).
[edit] DVD Releases
CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) released both seasons of Bosom Buddies on Region 1 DVD. The original theme song My Life by Billy Joel was replaced with Shake Me Loose, a song penned by show creator Chris Thompson, which was used during the show's syndication run. Many of the musical numbers featured during the show's run are edited or eliminated altogether from the DVD releases. Notable in this vein are the songs "Yakkity Yak" (from the episode "Call Me Irresponsible"), "Chances Are" (from "All You Need is Love") and "Rock and Roll Heaven" (from "Hildy's Dirt Nap").
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The First Season | 19 | March 13, 2007 |
| The Second Season | 18 | September 4, 2007 |
