No, wait, that’s the worst best thing.
This is still the next best thing. And the best bests thing.
A good tip is to abandon the cross-dressing subplot. Bosom Buddies figured that out by season two. Should have taken heed.
Category Archives: Buffy & Hildegarde
Well, If We Can’t Have a New ‘Bosom Buddies,’ Then This is the Next Best Thing, Right?
Filed under Bad Humor, Buffy & Hildegarde, The Worst
The Origin of a Laugh
It occurred to us recently, as we watched this classic scene from the Money Pit, that we may have very well learned our deep, guttural laugh from Tom Hanks himself. Sure, the nature vs. nuture debate remains, but as this movie was a touchstone of our childhood, during our most formative years, it’s not a stretch to suggest we picked up our miggle (man giggle) from the former Kip Wilson.
(find the guffaw at the 2:10 mark, but watch the entire clip, unless you hate fun)
Filed under Buffy & Hildegarde, Count Bleh, Good Humor
‘Saved by the Bell’ THE FINAL SEASON
This is it, folks. We estimated it would take us about two days to get to this point. Instead it’s taken 3 weeks. But, nevertheless, we’ve arrived. And the end. Well, the beginning of the end.
6:14pm, Season 5, Disc 1, Episode 1: ” The Fight”
00:10: Well, right out of the gate we have to compliment the DVD menus for this season. MUCH improved.
01:49: My school never had the “pool on the roof” gag. I kind of regret that. Feel like I didn’t have a proper high school experience.
02:32: Fun Fact: Elizabeth Berkley turned 44 during this season.
Whooo Isss It??? It’s ‘Bosom Buddies’, Finally Getting the Recognition It Deserves!
We were pleased to encounter some well-earned commendations for Bosom Buddies this week, from two relatively varied sources. First, in the AV Club‘s truly excellent Primer on 1980s sitcoms, they list Buddies as one of the cult hits from the decade that played with traditional sitcom conventions. Article scribe Todd VanDerWerff continues:
Bosom Buddies, which debuted on ABC in the fall of 1980, has a reputation as one of the worst shows of all time in some circles, but it’s actually a surreal work of near-genius and the only good show to ever emerge from the Miller-Boyett factory. Miller-Boyett assigned a young writer named Chris Thompson to work on a TV spin on Some Like It Hot, and he cast Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari in the lead roles…Thompson, who would go on to work on The Larry Sanders Show, filled the series with strange sight gags and mostly abandoned his central premise as soon as he possibly could. The show allowed Hanks and Scolari to improvise freely, often leaving the script for far funnier, stranger tangents.
Some might question the rank of “near-genius,” but we’re here to defend it. We recently used Blizzpocalypse as an excuse to revisit the series, and it’s impressive how well it holds up. And, as a bonus, there are jokes that I didn’t get upon first viewing that, with the benefit of age and wisdom, I now understand (although, there are still others I didn’t get then and don’t get now). However, we’re not exactly sure that we’d qualify the program as “surreal;” certainly, the premise that Hanks and Scolari, in the roles Kip and Henry, were required to dress in drag in order to maintain residence at a “hotel for women” was somewhat off-beat for the time, but, as the writer mentions, since the show was loosely based on Some Like It Hot it’s not exactly a novel premise. But VanDerWerff is right on when he notes that they wisely jettisoned the drag plotlines, in favor of letting the talented cast (including Holland Taylor, Wendie Jo Sperber, Donna Dixon and Telma Hopkins) utilize their immense chemistry and crack timing in more successful, less gimmicky storylines.
(we urge you to go over to the AV Club and read the comprehensive essay as soon as you finish this post. You’ll need to set aside a good 20 minutes, more if you want to watch the accompanying videos (primary source materials), but it’ll be worth it. And be certain to also study their 1970s sitcom Primer, either before or after (however, we do take umbrage with the 80s Primer’s criticism of the shows that comprised TGIF. Certainly, those sitcoms don’t represent the best the decade had to offer, but they have their redeeming qualities. However, that’s a defense for a later post.))
Continue to see what a certain The Office star also has to say about the show…
And Speaking of Brooklyn and Snow, It’s the Danza Moment(s) of the Week!
Keeping with today’s Brooklyn theme (not to be confused with today’s ripping people off theme, or today’s “and speaking of” theme, or yesterday’s robot theme), check out the first few minutes of the Who’s the Boss? pilot, as Tony and Samantha pack up his windowless child molester van old, beat-up blue van and depart the Universal Studios backlot Brooklyn. As a bonus, we’ve included the original opening credits, which feature additional footage of the iconic van’s journey to the Bower home in Connecticut (no footage of the cast? How bold! Perhaps, an homage to the Taxi opening?)
Vodpod videos no longer available.In addition, keeping with today’s snow theme, here’s a short clip of Danza from Taxi that can serve as your go-to video the next time a blizzard rolls through:
And speaking of ripping people off, was this Taxi clip perhaps the inspiration for the Bosom Buddies cabin episode? Makes you think.
Filed under Buffy & Hildegarde, Local Flavor, Makes You Think, Rip-off, Who's the Boss?
Cabin Fever
We’re snowed in on Long Island and going rather stir crazy. This would have been the perfect opportunity for our long-gestating Saved by the Bell marathon, but, unfortunately, we recently brought all five seasons back to Brooklyn for that very occasion. It’s like Gift of the Magi, but with Screech instead of a comb.
So hopefully we’ll take this predicament as an opportunity to write, reflect, and ponder the nature of man. In other words, let’s turn snow into snowade. And thanks to our mother’s refusal to pass up a discount and our father’s love of soup, we have enough provisions to last through another dozen Snowreckonings. Certainly, we feel more prepared than Kip & Henry.
[Part 2]
While we tend to side with their conclusion about the nature of man, Community might disagree. What do you think?
YOU DECIDE.
The Shape of a Nostalgia Corner to Come
Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari, aka Buffy and Hildegarde, reunite at the TV Land Awards, airing this upcoming Sunday April 25.
(thanks to #1 Yahoo! News fan Steve for the tip)
Filed under Buffy & Hildegarde, Nostalgia Corner
Monday Friday Nostalgia Corner: Hanx For the Memories
I wasn’t able to post to Nostalgia Corner last Friday because my day was just NUTS (okay, so my mom was visiting and I spent my scant free time writing about The Office clip show)! So here’s a belated but still relevant edition.
As we all know (and have probably watched) by now Conan O’Brien closed out his tenure as host of the Tonight Show last Friday with guests Will Ferrell, Neil Young and Tom Hanks. Vulture already noted that Hanks, a frequent late night visitor and guest on Conan’s second Tonight Show, also holds the distinction of appearing on David Letterman’s last show as host of Late Night. But I would like to focus less on Hanks’ propensity for appearing on sign-offs, but rather on his relationship with Conan O’Brien. Conan often still seems like the young guy, the gawky, redheaded kid, but the truth his he’s being holding court in late night for 17 years, and he’s actually known Hanks for over 20 years, as O’Brien was a writer on SNL in the late 80s when Hanks was the go-to host (hosting five times in five years, on pace at the time to shatter all hosting records). They even discussed this on the show last Friday, with Hanks revealing that he called Conan and his fellow writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel the “boiler-room boys.” And the two sketches that Hanks is probably most associated with – “Mr. Short-Term Memory” & the “Girl Watchers” – were written by O’Brien, and Conan even appears in Hanks’ most memorable monologue “The Five Timer’s Club” (although Conan identifies himself as “Sean”). But, for today, we’re going to highlight Hanks’ monologue from his third hosting stint in October of 1988, a bit that includes Conan’s first appearance on SNL (in denim vest!). The ties that bind:
It’s true, Tom Hanks is the nicest guy in Hollywood. Maybe in any wood. And possibly the funniest. Chris Rock once said that if Hanks had “grown up with less education, he’d be the greatest comedian who ever lived,” and I believe it. I think it’s high that time Hanks attached himself to a straight-up comedy and showed these kids how it’s done (Bosom Buddies: The Movie???).
Bonus viewing: Conan lauding Hanks on Inside the Actor’s Studio.
Bonus social networking: follow Hanx on Twitter.
Filed under Buffy & Hildegarde, Nostalgia Corner, Saturday Night Live, Talkies
Jumped The Snark 