|
|
Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"When good conscience overcomes better business, Kip hugs his boss, only to have her ponder if this was a "moment" they were having. 'I've heard of these,' she says, then after a long awkward pause, 'How long do they usually last?'" --from the review ------------- Sidebar :: ------------- Pros: Finally available on DVD; a good look at Tom Hanks at a time when he was funny and could still fit his head through the office door. Cons: Original Billy Joel theme song absent; quality of DVD transfer merely "passable"; Absolutely No DVD extras (horrors)! If Only Her Character's Lines Were As Funny! One of my favorite quotes of Donna Dixon was her rumored response to the obligatory 1980's offer, for the latest TV starlet to pose nude for a girlie magazine. The offer was around $500,000. The reported response from Miss Dixon: "It's nice to know either one is worth $250,000, but the answer is still NO." Funny and cool, all at once! Scolari Got Work Faster Than Hanks? You couldn't tell by looking at their recent star credits, but there was a time when Tom Hanks was struggling with horribly bad films like "Joe Vs. The Volcano," and Scolari was the sitcom superstar. In fact; he starred in Bob Newhart's simply titled Newhart, from season three straight to its season eight finale. Not that Hanks and Scolari have any bad blood; the latter is now seen quite frequently alongside Hanks, whenever comedy is required. Look for Scolari as the host of "his own show" in Hank's That Thing You Do. ----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Bosom Buddies
Click picture to order this DVD Review by TechtiteAs always, a review of The Show and the DVD extras. The Series: What's in a theme song? If you saw Bosom Buddies as it originally aired, you would know. While Billy Joel's "My Life" was hardly written for this sitcom, it might as well have been. So what if these guys are deceiving a ladies-only apartment building because the rent is dirt cheap? As the song says at the opening of the show, "Keep it to yourself, it's my life!" Well, forget that for now, because apparently either a music studio was too greedy to give the rights, or more likely, a film studio was too cheap to renew the rights to the theme song at all. At it's core, however, this DVD set is meant as a fitting salute to what is, to this critic, one of the best 1980's TV sitcoms to ever air. The story is simple: Kip (Tom Hanks) and Henry (Peter Scolari) nearly slept through the demolition of their horribly cheap apartment complex, and need a new place to live ASAP. They notice that office friend Amy lives dirt cheap in a well kept apartment complex. The catch; it is an exclusively female apartment building, for no other reason than to provide good sitcom fodder. So the men dress as women to get a cheap loft. The first joke of many; each man chooses the other's female name, on-the-fly. One is called "Buffy." The other: "Hildegard." The only person who knows their secret is Amy, played hilariously by the late Wendie Jo Sperber. What does Amy have to gain out of this scam? Simple: she has the biggest crush on Henry, and this makes him just a walk away from her apartment. The arrangement is not as amusing to Kip...until he takes a gander at Amy's roommate, Sonny, played to the hilt by the soon to be wife of Dan Ackroyd, Donna Dixon. One look at Sonny in the series premiere, and you won't wonder why Kip was willing to wear dresses to live near her; you'll more likely wonder why we didn't see Donna in at least half a dozen sitcoms after this one. Then there was Holland Taylor as their boss, Ruth: just before Romancing the Stone, and awhile before Two and a Half Men. In the episode titled "Gotta Dance," Kip has a chance to get closer to Sonny when he's able to give her a spot in a major ad campaign. Except boss Ruth is ordered to hire someone else. When good conscience overcomes better business, Kip hugs his boss, only to have her ponder if this was a "moment" they were having. "I've heard of these," she says, then after an awkward pause, "How long do they usually last?" Sure; these days, Tom Hanks in a comedy adds to the sales pitch. Young people may not even remember when Tom Hanks did comedy. Not only did he do comedy; his comedies were years ahead of their time. To look at 1984's Bachelor Party, you'd swear it was inspired by a Farrelly Brothers comedy years later, and not, quite possibly, the other way around. In Bosom Buddies, you'd have another milestone. In any other case you would've had a sitcom quickly become a cartoon caricature of its former self, as it became too obsessed with overdone "men in drag" jokes. Instead; the show allowed Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari to shine all by themselves, to such an extent, that by season 2 the men-in-drag subplot was abandoned entirely. My favorite episode...? In the aptly titled, "How Great Thou Art?" Henry wants to surprise Kip with his own art gallery showing. Only some snobby coffee-house-quality "art experts" spoil the show. When Kip asks one of them what they think of other paintings on display, one critic praises a painting of a giant red dot. Says the snooty art expert: "It reduces experiences to its most elementary esthetic! It's quite profound in its simplicity! It's...it's..." Then Kip shouts, "It's the flag of Japan!" Such was the dry, wonderful wit of Bosom Buddies...and I loved every minute of it. If there was an ironic Achilles' Heel for Buddies, it's how it tried to be more than a one-joke sitcom. By all accounts it could've lasted as long as Full House, as it took one or two running gags and just spread them out like so much cheap taffy. Yet Buddies tried to be something more...and lasted two seasons. On the other hand; it's this attempt at uniqueness that has kept loyal viewers wanting this two-season wonder on DVD all these years. Anyone who watches these DVD's can see why.
The DVD Extras!: Bad news abounds. For one thing there's the memorable opening song "My Life," which is gone, because someone didn't want to bother and/or pay for the license right. The replacement song sings of wanting to be like Jean Paul Getty or whatever. Trivia buffs will tell you that this was the originally intended theme song for the series, as it is clearly played in instrumental form during the original closing credits. All I can say is: they replaced this original song for a reason, and frankly, the reason was: it sucks. If not for this error, you'd have a pretty flawless DVD set, of an otherwise flawless 1980's classic. One more thing: 19 episodes are squished onto just 3 discs. How did they fit nine hours onto three discs? By getting rid of anything "unimportant." Like audio commentaries. Or any extras at all. To be fair: these days, Tom Hanks is apparently too much of a primadonna to offer audio commentaries for his movies, so you can imagine how he probably left skid marks from providing commentary for a TV series. That's not an insult to the series as much as how Hanks apparently feels situation comedy is so "beneath" him by now. All we can say is; if you want shows like Married...With Children as-is, get them on DVD today. It's only a matter of time until they replace the original theme song with something sung by Spongebob Squarepants. You've been warned.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
