The rest was due to Holland Taylor. She and the guys played off each other beautifully.
Kip ‘Buffy’ Wilson: She certainly gives credence to those rumors Eva Braun made it out.
A lot of it is Tom Hanks but the cast was pretty amazing.
Tom’s career is a great as it gets.
But Peter had a long career popping up all the time.
Holland Taylor (The Boss) is still working and is a top character actress. A big part of both the Practice & Two and Half Men. The agent (I think) in Romancing the Stone and so much more.
Wendie Jo Sperber was comedy gold. Lots of great roles in her sadly short life. (Died age 47 from Cancer)
And hey, Donna Dixon was gorgeous and married Dan Aykroyd. They’ve been together 35+ years now.
I was just a kid when that show was on, but I remember thinking something similar.
However, there was one episode where Scolari did an imitation of Colombo (Peter Falk, that is), and he nailed it. It’s one of the best episodes of any show, ever. I think the writers wrote to Hanks’ strengths more than Scolari’s, and made him more often the butt of jokes.
And, yes, the show did have an amazing cast. Something was missing, because that show should have been more successful than it was.
He was a great juggler. Interestingly, I was taught to juggle in high school by a guy named Steve, who became a world-class juggler himself-- he was with Cirque de Soleil for a number of years, and then a busker who made about 80k a year in the 90s traveling around and busking. He was in New York on the warm ends of the theater season, New Orleans for Mardi Gras, etc. Steve knew Peter Scolari, and was impressed by his juggling. Steve could juggle 7 flaming torches while riding a unicycle, no lie, and he was impressed by Scolari.
From what I hear, he was a nice guy, too. Not something you hear about successful actors a lot.
He will be missed.
My favorite Scolari role was in the obscure sitcom “Dweebs,” which only lasted a few episodes. He played a Bill Gates-style tech startup CEO named Warren Moseby–a brilliant guy but socially awkward guy with a severe attention problem and a trampoline in his office. It was kind of a precursor to “The Big Bang Theory.”
I remember that show! I liked it, too. I thought it had potential.
I must have been at the right age when Bosom Buddies was on. I was 13/14 and Donna Dixon was the new Farrah Fawcett for me. I always thought Tom Hanks was funnier, but the chemistry between him and Scolari was real. Also, the Billy Joel theme song also was in my wheelhouse.
I think I still own Bosom Buddies on DVD. I ought to try to find the discs and watch them on the computer. Nobody has ever put the good scenes up on Youtube. I’d really like to see the 2nd season episode where the boys are almost killed in an elevator accident and have, shall we say, different reactions to the experience. The episode also contains a great exchange between Holland Taylor and Peter, while trying to get a cat to “act” for a commercial for diet cat food:
Holland: Laugh if you like, but feline obesity is the 2nd leading killer of house cats.
Peter: What’s #1? Buicks?
For some reason the two episodes that stick in my mind from Bosom Buddies are the one in which the guys are trapped in a cabin by an avalanche, and the one in which the guys imagine what would happen if they tell the truth - one scenario ending with them clicking their heels and chanting “there’s no place like home”
I saw Peter playing the wizard in “Wicked” on Broadway about 5 years ago. He was excellent, even though his identity went right over the head of 99% of the audience.
Bosom Buddies was before my time, but he was really good as Wayne Szalinsky in the Honey I Shrunk The Kids TV series. Probably helps all the confusion between him and Rick Moranis.
R.I.P.
Nice little article in today’s LA Times about Hanks on Kimmel talking about Scolari.