Angela’a the Boss; She’s Just Totally Infeffectual. (Elevdado: SDE Write-Off Part I)Aug 01 '01 (Updated Aug 15 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line What do you mean I don't get pros and cons in this category?! Um, Who's The Boss was a good show for several years before it was left to rot.
Hey, don’t rag on me. So, I used the TV show from the example in levda’s and elvisdo’s e-mail inviting me to the “Elevdado: Six Degrees of the Eighties Write-Off.” Well, my options were kind of limited; I was only alive during 80.12% of the eighties, and I have virtually no recollection of anything prior to 1985. In fact, one of my earliest memories is the Challenger disaster of that year. So, unoriginal as it is, Who’s the Boss? seemed to be my best option. Anyway, here goes my first ever review of a television series. But, first, an explanation of why I used this generic category, “What Should You Know About the Programming On ABC?” You see, epinions.com does not offer a category on Who’s the Boss?! I could have used a specific program category if I had chosen The Wonder Years or WKRP in Cincinnati, but now I am instead forced to use the ABC category to tell you about a show that hasn’t been on ABC for nine years. But it was on ABC, so it’s technically on-topic. Fine, need something more specific? Here: “You should know that ABC doesn’t know when to kill a decent show before it mutates into a hideous freak that causes untold pain and suffering to millions.” Okay? So, on with the review (Am I even going to earn eroyalties with the review in this topic?)! Wait, I just discovered a new inconvenience to this category: No pros and cons, and no star rating. Okay, I can fix that. Pros: The first four seasons. Cons: The last four seasons. * * * * Wow, after discovering, explaining, and fixing all the things wrong with this category, what was supposed to be a thirty second cut-and-paste job (I wrote this, offline, more than a week ago.) has become a forty-five minute ordeal. Somebody will pay. Oh, yes, somebody will pay. The premise of Who’s the Boss? is simple. Angela Bower (Judith Light), a divorcee (I think) and successful advertising executive, decides that she needs a live-in housekeeper who can cook, clean, and help take care of her son Jonathan (Danny Pintauro). Angela’s sexpot mother Mona (Katherine Helmond) encourages her to hire handsome Tony Micelli (Tony Danza), an Italian-American widower (I think) with a young daughter of his own named Samantha (Alyssa Milano). Here’s a rundown of the major plot developments over the course of the series: Jonathan and Samantha go through puberty as sexual tension develops between Tony and Angela. Angela establishes her own ad agency, and the sexual tension between Tony and her is further developed. Samantha enrolls in the local college, as does Tony, and the sexual tension between Angela and him becomes palpable. Samantha gets married and her husband moves into the house with his son (unless I imagined that--it’s possible), and the sexual tension between Tony and Angela becomes stagnant and belabored. Since these five actors and actresses stuck with their roles for eight years (1984-1992), it seems only fitting to dedicate a little more time and space to discussing the performers and their characters than I usually do for a movie. Tony Danza would probably be considered the star of the show, if one cast member had to be chosen. According to imdb.com, he was born Antonio Iadanza in 1951, in Brooklyn. He attended the University of Dubuque, and became an original member of the ensemble cast of the hit sitcom Taxi in 1978, playing boxer Tony Banta. A few forgettable movie roles followed, but Danza would be best known for his years spent as Tony Danza on Who’s the Boss?, one of the most highly rated sitcoms in the second half of the eighties. One movie role of moderate note was that of the thrown-for-a-loop father in 1989’s She’s Out of Control. During the nineties, he played guys named Tony in two different, failed sitcoms, 1995’s Hudson Street and 1997’s The Tony Danza Show. The unpolished manner of these characters has led some self-styled wits to suggest that Danza himself is too stupid to play a character named other than “Tony,” because he wouldn’t recognize his cues. However, Danza has proved them wrong with his addition to the cast of Family Law, as a lawyer named…Joe. Still, for some reason I don’t think Tony Micelli was all that much of a stretch for him. In pretty much everything I’ve seen him in, he seems to play the same character, who I assume must be himself. Well, anyway, Tony fiercely loves his daughter, and is somewhat overprotective of her. He is an excellent cook, and every woman he meets finds him irresistible (It’s called suspension of disbelief--American entertainment is founded on the stuff.). In other words, the standard Italian-American man. I think the original premise had something about him having been injured, thus ending his career in minor league baseball, but I think that plot point rapidly lost importance as the show progressed. Judith Light of Trenton, New Jersey (my home state!) attended Carnegie Mellon University (where I go now!). Following a six-year stint on One Life to Live, she landed the plum role of Angela on Who’s the Boss?. When that show went off the air, she went on to star in the short-lived sitcom Phenom, in which she played the mother of a rising tennis star. Aside from those three roles, she seems to have worked almost exclusively on movies for the Lifetime Network. Look at these titles, and tell me if you reach the same conclusion: In Defense of a Married Man, Wife, Mother, Murderer, and A Strange Affair. More recently, I have seen her selling skin-care products on QVC. In retrospect, Angela was a pretty stupid character. I mean, she’s supposed to be independent and confident, as demonstrated by her professional success. Yet, at home, she behaves very immaturely, especially when it comes to dealing with Tony. Really, the name of the show says it all. Why is Angela’s authority in question? Because she’s whiny and annoying, that’s why. A native of Texas, Katherine Helmond stands just 5’2”. She is well-known for her role as Mona Robinson on Who’s the Boss?, as well as for playing Jessica Tate, one of the two matriarchs on Soap, a show of the late seventies that parodied soap operas by being outrageously over-the-top. She, too, has little else of note to her credit. Since Mona is Angela’s mother, we can now see why Angela is so pathetic. Mona is a widow, and I certainly have no problem with an older woman being sexual, especially because Katherine Helmond happens to be beautiful. However, no knowing how long ago Mona’s husband died, I have to wonder if Angela was raised in the environment that Mona now support--one of men coming in the night and leaving gifts when they leave in the morning, one of constant sexual innuendos in every conversation, and one of careless disregard for responsibility as demonstrated by her incompetence as her daughter’s secretary. Well, I’m being unfair. Mona is supposed to be a foil for “responsible” characters like Angela, but they had to take Mona ridiculously far to make Angela look good. I actually like the Mona character, but I think the writer’s just didn’t bother to consider how being raised by this woman really would have affected Angela. Alyssa Milano, at 28, is currently the “hottest” of the five individuals who once made up this cast. This was her first role after successfully transitioning from the stage as a very young girl. Work continued to come her way during and after the run of Who’s the Boss?. She appeared briefly as the sister of a major character on Melrose Place, and now is one of the three stars of the WB’s immensely popular Charmed. Years ago, she and Party of Five’s Scott Wolf were a hot Hollywood couple, but the relationship eventually ended with a broken engagement. She drew attention worldwide when she sued (and eventually won a cash settlement from) a website that posted nude pictures of her, from a magazine photo spread years earlier. Last year, her sexy ads for “Candies” body spray were the stuff of a million teenaged boys’ fantasies, and she has followed up as Eva Savalot, the centerpiece of 1-800-COLLECT’s current campaign. Samantha Micelli probably developed more than any other character on the show, and I’m not just talking about breasts (Ba-dum-bum! [And that’s “Ba-dum-bum!”, not “Ba-da-boom!”. Learn the difference.]). She went from being tomboyish and a bit sullen to being attractively feminine and very self-assured. Danny Pintauro also made headlines recently, when he came out as a homosexual in a 1997 interview with the National Enquirer. The graduate of Stanford University is an Eagle Scout (not anymore, I guess…), proving that we’re not all flakes. He starred in 1983’s Cujo, but has focused most of his post-Who’s the Boss? energy into stage roles. My mother claims that she almost immediately pegged this cutie for gay, and the sentiment seems to be common. I have yet to locate a rerun of the show to check it out for myself. (Okay, twelve hours after posting this, I discovered it on Fox Family. Jonathan had a scene in which he talked about how much he "digs chicks," etc. It was quite possibly the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.) Jonathan was probably the least developed of the regular characters. Most of his plots were about his need for a strong father figure, and how Tony filled that void for him. I probably started watching (or became aware of watching) Who’s the Boss? during the second or third season, but I eventually saw earlier episodes in syndication. The show was very lively at first, as Tony and Angela would often lock horns over one another’s professional or parenting techniques. Even though neither of them seemed to want the other’s help, Tony would sometimes manage to land a client for Angela, or Angela would help Samantha work through some womanly issue that Tony just couldn’t’ deal with. It was obvious that Tony’s and Angela’s relationship was moving beyond that of employer and employee; the two were becoming friends. Then the writers faced a conundrum: A romantic connection between Tony and Angela seemed obvious, but for the two characters to actually become involved in that way would be ratings suicide, because the exploitable subtlety would be gone. So instead we got increasingly ridiculous situations, starting around 1988: Tony walks in on Angela coming out of the shower, naked; Angela goes on a date and Tony follower them to the restaurant and accosts her date in the bathroom; they all go to Hawaii, where Tony and Angela share an absurdly sloppy kiss that they promptly decide to disregard; the IRS thinks that Tony and Angela are married because they one checked into a hotel as Mr. And Mrs. Tony Micelli, so they have to go to South Carolina for an annulment. The show metamorphosized from “Will they or won’t they?” to “When the fuck are they going to, already?!” As the years went by, the only intelligent move the writers made was to allow Samantha’s character to change to accommodate the changing actress who played her. Alyssa Milano was always a cute young girl, but she turned out to be a beautiful woman. The writers took this into account as they made her character become more feminine as she matured. As a young girl she usually wore loose, athletic shirts, but later she was often dressed to…um…”advantage.” She would sometimes have romantic plotlines, and her role expanded as Samantha learned to deal with her own problems. Who’s the Boss? demonstrated finale suckitude of Seinfeldian proportions. I tried to repress the memories, but the tree-parter went something like this: Tony is offered a job coaching high school basketball(?) / football(?) / baseball(?) in Iowa (The show took place in Connecticut). It made sense from whatever Tony was studying when he went back to college. Anyway, Angela decides to move out there with him (Maybe they were engaged or something by then, but I can’t remember.), only she keeps forgetting if it’s Iowa or Idaho, because she’s really that stupid. But it interferes with her job, so she can’t stay there, and she returns home. Tony can’t stand to be without Angela, so he gives up the coaching job to return to her. It was all kind of muddled to me because I hadn’t watched the show that last season, tuning in only for the finale. The major problem with this show was the fact that it didn’t know when to bow out gracefully. It is actually very rare for a show to grasp the fine concept of euthanasia, i.e., to die with dignity. Despite the awfulness of the last episode, Seinfeld managed to do that. In doing so, it joined a very short list of shows that includes The Golden Girls (but only if we disregardGolden Palace), Star Trek: The Next Generation, and ALF. Oddly enough, all three were actually cancelled by their respective networks--even though I thought their quality was still high, viewership must have dropped off. On the other hand, Who’s the Boss? joined the ranks of shows that became unstomachably bad before being finally leaving the air. They include Kate and Allie, Roseanne, Lois and Clark, In Living Color, Family Matters, Step by Step, Perfect Strangers, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Boy Meets World. Americans should take a lesson from the British; many British sitcoms are actually season-long miniseries, with the entire plot written out beforehand. Programs in this style include the three Black Adder series. There are a few subtle reminders that this show was made in the eighties. Foremost among them is the fact that Judith Light’s hair requires a separate close-up, since it doesn’t fit in the shot with the rest of her. Also, the dresses worn by the women in formal settings are somewhat different from the dresses that women wear these days. Aside from that, though, I think the show holds up pretty well. However, it’s hard to be sure, because I haven’t seen it in almost ten years. (Like I said, twelve hours later. Anyway, it's on Fox Family on weekdays at 6:30 pm. I decided not to move this review to a Fox Family area, since it is an 80s review and the show was on ABC in the eighties. And an extra note on the clothes: Shoulder pads like bricks.) Okay, so I’m supposed to connect this to Kevin Bacon. Well, let’s see. I told you about Tony Danza’s later show, Hudson Street. On that show, his son was played by a young man named Frankie Galasso. Frankie is a member of a boy band called Dream Street. My sister Kimberly loves Dream Street, and she has a website at www.downondreamstreet.com. Anyway, the whole band appeared on All My Children, on which show band member Jesse McCartney is a cast regular. Also a cast regular is Daytime Emmy Award-winning (finally) actress Susan Lucci, whose real-life daughter Liza Huber used to be on Passions. So was a young woman named Lena Cardwell, whose only other acting credit is a tiny appearance in The Object of My Affection, which starred Jennifer Aniston, who also starred in Picture Perfect with…Kevin Bacon. Five degrees. This has been my first entry in the “Elevdado: Six Degrees of the Eighties Write-Off” sponsored by levda and elvisdo. This is a three-part write-off; next week I will review an eighties CD, and the next week an eighties movie. I’ll add the links when the reviews are written. The other participants are: 29th_Candidate * ainsleyjo * Bijou * bluehawq * brotherman * Caleo * Chris_Maverick * Elvisdo * Fez_Monkey * ggrimes1221 * levda * mattjoe * MuseMelpomene * orator * Phineaskc * repulsemonkey * rfr * Sloucho * st3on1ey1baby Our beautiful write-off website can be found at http://www.geocities.com/elevdado. Hope you enjoy!  |
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