MovieChat Forums > Bosom Buddies (1980) Discussion > 1 Or 2

1 Or 2

posted 18 years ago by PlanoRB
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In watching these first season episodes again on DVD, I think I can say with confidence that I lean towards season two actually being a little bit better. Anyone agree?

Season one had it's moments, "Macho Man", "Kip And Sonny's Date", "Beauty And The Beasts", "How Great Thou Art", and "The Hospital", but there was also a lot of poorly executed, corny writing.

One example of this is in "Amy's Career". Most of the episode was actually pretty well done, but then it just fell apart in one of the final scenes; when Amy managed to depress the whole clan at the Susan B. in less than 30 seconds.

With the second season(for the most part), it seemed like they toned down the corny life lessons, and injected a little more humor into the mix. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against shows that have a little subtance or feeling, but it has to be done well, and the first season just missed the mark; more often than not.

That's why it surprises me that the show was actually given the ax after such a relatively strong season. Episodes such as "Other Than That She's A Wonderful Person", "One For You And One For Me", "All You Need Is Love", "The Slightly Illustrated Man", and "Who's On Thirst?" should have been enough to buy it another season. I realize they toned down the drag aspect, but how long was that sort of gag really good for anyway? The show needed to rely on other things if it was going to survive.

[–] ruggedrascal 18 years ago

Agreed, season 2 was better. By playing down the drag stuff and playing up the stuff that worked -- mostly Kip and Henry's chemistry -- they made the show smarter and funnier. And moving Kip and Henry's workplace to their own advertising business allowed them more freedom to improvise and do wacky commercials, and so on, than the cramped office at the advertising agency. They also got rid of the only weak character, the Lucille Benson character (nothing against the actress, but the part was a generic "wisecracking old lady" part that the show didn't need). And by letting the other characters in on the fact that Kip is Buffy and Henry is Hildy, it allowed characters like Sunny to get a little smarter and sharper.

I think the problem was that the show had been sold as the adventures of two guys in drag, and when they downplayed that, audiences didn't know what to make of it any more. If it had been just the adventures of two wacky advertising guys from the beginning, it might have done better. Also, there's a tendency to assume that when a show gets re-tooled, it's gotten worse -- because re-tooling usually does make a show worse. I don't think critics and audiences realized that Bosom Buddies was a show that actually got better through re-tooling.

So yeah, I hope season 2 comes out on DVD, because that's where the gold is.