Who’s the Boss?
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
The premise was the whole ad campaign: Tony Danza, a former ballplayer, moves into the Greenwich home of Judith Light’s advertising executive as the housekeeper, and America tuned in to watch the gender roles swap and then settle into a comfortable groove. Danza does his best work as a man whose masculinity never needed to be fragile, and Light plays Angela Bower sharper than most of the scripts deserve.
The kids carried more than they got credit for. Alyssa Milano as Samantha and Danny Pintauro as Jonathan held the floor against veterans, and the Pointer Sisters theme song still starts a room reaction thirty years late. The later seasons lose the friction that made it work: Tony softens into the furniture, the show warms past its own premise, and the will they or won’t they with Angela finally gets answered and deflates.
Seasons one and two are the classic sitcom shape, a culture clash with jokes attached. After that it becomes a family you visit out of habit.
Our score: 6.5/10.
