Friendship Can Be a Real Drag
Whenever My Life by Billy Joel comes on the radio, rather than replaying the images of a music video in my head, I can’t help but think of the opening credits of Bosom Buddies. The television show Bosom Buddies ran from 1980 to 1982 on ABC. Who knew back then that co-star Tom Hanks would become the award winning actor he is today? In case you’ve forgotten pre-Oscar Tom Hanks (winning for both Forrest Gump and Philadelphia,) he was the star of 80s classic comedies like Bachelor Party, Splash, Big, Turner and Hooch, The Man With One Red Shoe, and The ‘Burbs. Bosom Buddies was such a great 80s show; it told the story of Kip, an illustrator (Tom Hanks) and Henry, a copyrighter (Peter Scolari) two single guys working in advertising who are friends and roommates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKyyHBy6JQ When the apartment building they are living in gets demolished—hit by a wrecking ball while they are asleep in their beds (because that could totally happen) – Kip and Henry are in desperate need of a new place to live. Their friend Amy (played by Wendie Jo Sperber, who was in everything in the 80s) tells them they should move into her building at the Susan B. Anthony Hotel. It’s perfect! It’s beautiful! It’s dirt cheap! But there’s only one catch: it’s a hotel for women only where men are not permitted beyond the lobby. Ok . . . so the premise requires some suspension of disbelief. Naturally, Kip and Henry transform themselves into Buffy and Hildegard, thinking that their experience living at the hotel will someday make for a great book.
The other tenants of the apartment building know Buffy and Hildy as Kip and Henry’s brothers. Week after week, hilarity ensues as the men try to hide their true identity from apartment manager Lily (Lucille Benson) as Kip flirts with his crush Sonny (played by Donna Dixon, also in everything in the 80s) and Henry tries to avoid advances made by Amy, the only one in on the fact that the guys are posing as women.