TMC
02-23-2022, 05:19 AM
I don't know exactly when she changed (https://web.archive.org/web/20140405003514/http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/topic/2874131-whos-the-boss/page-4#entry5516462) into a typical boy crazy sitcom teenage girl. It may have been around the time that her girl clique (Marci, Bonnie, Julia, and Robin) were introduced and Sam became fixated with Chad McCann. I've read (https://moviechat.org/tt0086827/Whos-the-Boss/58c741076b51e905f66e6422/Sams-rapid-change) the comparisons between her and Jo from The Facts of Life. Basically, the writers simply couldn't keep Sam a spunky tomboy too long because unlike on The Facts of Life and Jo's clashes with the rich princess types like Blair at school, Sam didn't have that type of luxury on Who's the Boss?
The show was first and foremost, about her dad being placed in such a submissive position to a powerful woman. In other words, there wasn't a specific school setting to regularly contrast Sam against. Consequently, there was nowhere for them to go in terms of keeping her as a standard tomboy.
And in order to keep her school story lines from becoming the focus of the whole show (always showing how her ways conflicted with the upper-middle-class students ala The Facts of Life) which it wasn't supposed to be, she had to bring home giggly typical-teen types (the aforementioned girl clique) to blend with.
Plus, perhaps the producers didn't expect Alyssa Milano to become such a huge teen draw, so it wasn't like they deliberately kept Sam's character shallow and less complex than maybe she shouldn't have been.
The show was first and foremost, about her dad being placed in such a submissive position to a powerful woman. In other words, there wasn't a specific school setting to regularly contrast Sam against. Consequently, there was nowhere for them to go in terms of keeping her as a standard tomboy.
And in order to keep her school story lines from becoming the focus of the whole show (always showing how her ways conflicted with the upper-middle-class students ala The Facts of Life) which it wasn't supposed to be, she had to bring home giggly typical-teen types (the aforementioned girl clique) to blend with.
Plus, perhaps the producers didn't expect Alyssa Milano to become such a huge teen draw, so it wasn't like they deliberately kept Sam's character shallow and less complex than maybe she shouldn't have been.