Which of Sam's friends did you like the best?

Julia cause she was so dumb :rofl:

Originally posted by RurryMicelli
Julia cause she was so dumb :rofl:

:rofl: I know she cracks me up. I loved it when she thought Jonathan was Sam's brother :rofl:

robin... she was the typical popular girl

Robin, with Julia coming in a very close second. :lol:

Originally posted by little insomniac
Robin, with Julia coming in a very close second. :lol:

:wave:

I like Julia, and Bonnie was hilarious as the show progressed. I loved her in SAMSCAR :lol:

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
:wave:

I like Julia, and Bonnie was hilarious as the show progressed. I loved her in SAMSCAR :lol:

She had me going there, too. :lol: :lol:

Bonnie

Originally posted by little insomniac
She had me going there, too. :lol: :lol: Oh yeah I liked Bonnie too.

I like them all! Who was played by whom & can some1 post a pic of each girl?

Tiff7

Bonnie

Nicole Eggert played Marci and Shana Lane-Block played Bonnie. The others I'm not sure about.

Hey RurryMicelli, Lil Micelli & Angela Micelli-luv your avatars!!!!! :D

Tiff7

Have a gr8 weekend y'all!

:yeahthat Marci, because, well its Nicole Eggert :eyes:

i want to see more of angela/sam mother talk
then sam having teenage friends
we never see if jonathan have friends have over for a birthday party

I wonder if it was a big missed opportunity to not have Charlie Briscoe (Leah Remini) featured more often. We never saw or heard of Charlie before Season 5, but we're told that she used to run with Sam back when they were growing up in Brooklyn. Basically, Charlie is only introduced to give the short-lived Living Dolls spin-off, a tenuous connection to Who's the Boss?

I kind of wanted to see more episodes of Charlie and Sam, with Charlie's more street-smart, rough-around-the-edges character contrasting Sam's more straight-laced, "suburbanized" character. In essence, they could've been an updated, female variation of Eddie Haskel and Wally Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver or The Fonz and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, where Sam is a foil to Charlie's "tough girl" character.

I voted Marci, but I may like Bonnie better. I was initially thinking of how I didn't like that they changed Bonnie's character and gave her Julia's dimness.

I was watching the "Working Girls" episode (https://www.tvmaze.com/episodes/62726/whos-the-boss-5x21-working-girls) from Season 5 on GAC Family the other day and that's when something occurred to me. It's kind of surprising that nobody ever appeared to give Sam grief over what her father did for a living. I mean, Tony pretty much cooked and cleaned the house for some rich lady in the suburbs. I mean, isn't that on the surface, pretty demeaning and emasculating for a supposedly proud and macho guy like Tony Micelli? I mean, he went from playing in the major leagues to essentially, becoming a male version of Hazel. And it's also kind of surprising that none of Sam's friends seemed to ask questions about why her dad (let alone, her) was living in Angela's house when he wasn't exactly her spouse or even boyfriend (at least prior to Season 7 or so).

I was watching the "Working Girls" episode (https://www.tvmaze.com/episodes/62726/whos-the-boss-5x21-working-girls) from Season 5 on GAC Family the other day and that's when something occurred to me. It's kind of surprising that nobody ever appeared to give Sam grief over what her father did for a living. I mean, Tony pretty much cooked and cleaned the house for some rich lady in the suburbs. I mean, isn't that on the surface, pretty demeaning and emasculating for a supposedly proud and macho guy like Tony Micelli? I mean, he went from playing in the major leagues to essentially, becoming a male version of Hazel. And it's also kind of surprising that none of Sam's friends seemed to ask questions about why her dad (let alone, her) was living in Angela's house when he wasn't exactly her spouse or even boyfriend (at least prior to Season 7 or so).

I think they took care of that in the last scene of the slumber party episode. Samantha had lied about what her did for a living, so she'd fit in with "the 'in' girls," but she eventually told the truth that her dad was a housekeeper, and she was proud of him.

I voted Marci, but I may like Bonnie better. I was initially thinking of how I didn't like that they changed Bonnie's character and gave her Julia's dimness.

Bonnie appeared to replace Marci as Sam's primary friend when Nicole Eggert left to do Charles in Charge. And even then, Bonnie's role was deemphasized later in the series when they wanted to focus more on Sam's love life. I'm assuming that Tonya Crowe (Robin) couldn't appear as much after a while either due to her gig on Knots Landing.

I think they took care of that in the last scene of the slumber party episode. Samantha had lied about what her did for a living, so she'd fit in with "the 'in' girls," but she eventually told the truth that her dad was a housekeeper, and she was proud of him.

Then again, there was that later episode (https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/1528039547/ay-oh-oh-ay-the-whos-the-boss-podcast/daddys-little-montague-girl) where Sam wanted to get into that fancy private school like her friend Marci and she while applying, still appeared to be embarrassed to tell people what her father did for a living. Tony tells Sam to write down that he's a housekeeper since it's the truth. Instead, Sam writes down that her dad was once a professional baseball player.

I always liked the friends in the earlier seasons because they were such fun "80's teen girl friend" tropes and I found it a bit sad when they phased them out later on. I think they had Bonnie back in the last season or two, but they gave her just a few lines and she seemed really subdued. So many 80's shows did this, the main kid characters would have really iconic/memorable best friends and they'd just ditch them after a season or two.

I voted Marci, but I may like Bonnie better. I was initially thinking of how I didn't like that they changed Bonnie's character and gave her Julia's dimness.

BONNIE WAS DUMPED WHEN SAM BECAME MORE MATURE…AND THEN MARRIED A VENTRILOQUIST…THAT SHOW DIDN’T KNOW WHAT IT WAS DOING (https://popculturereferences.com/five-friends-of-kids-on-family-sitcoms-who-became-cast-members-and-five-who-were-eventually-dropped/)

https://popculturereferences.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/bonnie.jpg

Shana Lane-Block’s Bonnie was a fascinating best friend for Alyssa Milano’s Samantha Micelli on Who’s the Boss? because it really seems like a case of her just sort of outlasting Sam’s other friends. Sam’s best friend initially was Marcie, played by Nicole Eggert, but then Eggert got Charles in Charge, so she was gone. On her first day of the seventh grade, Sam and Marcie befriended three popular girls, Julia, Robin and Bonnie. In their initial appearances, the girls would all appear together, but one by one, the actors all got other gigs (Robin was played by Tonya Crowe, who has already been on Knot’s Landing since Season 2 of that show, but her character’s part got beefed up a lot after this episode of Who’s the Boss? and Julia was played by Angela Lee, who became a cast member on The Hogan Family as Willie’s girlfriend). So soon Bonnie went from being friend #4 to Sam’s best friend.

They remained friends even after Sam went to college, but as the show wanted to mature Sam, Bonnie was eventually dropped (there was even an episode where Sam and Bonnie reconnect and have a crazy night that showed how much more mature Sam was now). Sam then abruptly married a guy who dropped out of medical school to pursue a career as a puppeteer, though, so…the show really had no idea what it was doing.

One thing that I found surprisingly refreshing is that even though Robin, Bonnie, and Julia (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GirlPosse) are introduced as being part of the "in-crowd" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InWithTheInCrowd), they aren't depicted as stereotypical "mean girls" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlphaBitch) like you would normally expect in a teenager narrative. I mean, in any other sitcom or film, Robin would likely be set up to be Sam's antagonist.