A Show that Changed the World: Who's The Boss?

Many years ago, a little show about two disparate families who come together in an un-traditional way, beamed onto television sets nationwide. It broke cultural taboos, ripped into established boundaries, shocked and appalled even the most liberal of viewers with it's genre busting format, and made viewers question their values and faith. That show was not Who's the Boss?. And thus began America's 8-season love affair with yet another shitty sitcom.

The opening credits give you all the information you need to jump right into the show. "There's a time for love and a time for livin', so take a chance and face the wind." Those lyrics ring true for dimbulb main character Tony Danza, played with gusto by the award-winning Tony Danza. He and his daughter, Sam, "face the wind" when they are run out of the city due to poor personal hygene. So they pack up the Good Time Family Van and head to a Connecticut town where they hope all their live-in house cleaner dreams come true. Luckily, Tony spots an ad in the Penny Saver seeking just that. Since he's seen a vacuum before, he figures that gives him just the right amount of experience to get the job done. So he shows up at recently widowed mother Angeler Bower's doorstep, ad in hand, p-cap hairstyle freshly trimmed, and worms his way right into the family's heart.

 Angeler is a successful business woman with a lot of frosted hair piled atop her head. She owns a beautiful, if dirty, country cottage in an upper-middle class Connecticut suburb. Her past is hazy, but her ex just might be buried in the backyard--or maybe she's just divorced. She lives with her son, the Boy, and her mother, Moaner, lives in a lean-to behind the house. Angeler runs her home with an iron fist. Because she is successful, she must not show emotion or humanity of any kind. She towers over Tony and her family like a lone tree in a forest of grass. Her booming voice commands attention, and eventually the affections of Tony himself. Luckily for Tony and her family, the steely demeanor is easily cracked.

Moaner is Angeler's mother and they look nothing alike. She is of average height with fiery red hair and a fiery red personality. She is widowed and takes every opportunity to bed every wealthy bachelor over 60 she can find. She tries in nearly every episode to either get Angeler to bop Tony, or to bop him herself. That's her shtick and she's stickin' to it.

Then there are the kids. Sam, Tony's only child, is a tom-boy with a love of the Mets. The Boy, Angelers son, is an out-and-proud fey boy. Sam likes to pick on the Boy when no one is looking. But the Boy is a whiny baby and runs to Momma, giving Sam the finger every time.

Basically, each episode was exactly the same, just with slightly altered dialogue. The setting was almost always either the living room or the kitchen--or both! Tony would do something stupid and mug for the camera, Angeler would glower and growl in her deepest register, Sam would pout and run up the stairs, Moaner would induce vomiting with tales of her latest conquest, and the Boy would gay it up with just about 15 seconds of screen time per episode. Then, the family would all learn a lesson or two about love and forgiveness and the credits would roll to uproarious applause from the studio audience.

Yes, Who's the Boss? is a show that changed the world. Many shows tried repeating the formula with very little success. All the actors (except the Boy) became super famous, especially Sam when she hit puberty and got pretty. Very little, if any, cleaning was actually accomplished.