Which late in the series plot development for Sam was worse

[TMC]

Her skipping her senior year in high school or her marriage to Hank?

I've addressed it here before about how Sam was never depicted as being some type of studious bookworm, nerd, or straight A student. This is the same Samantha Micelli who once got a D in chemistry. So how was she of all people, able to get into an accelerated program, when Sam was with all due respect, portrayed as an above-average student at best leading up to that point?

Plus, Sam just strikes me as the type of girl who would want to celebrate finishing high school with her good group of friends at the same time. It just comes across as totally contrived and unrealistic given what we were presented of her character up until that point.

I don't know where to start with her marriage in the final season other than, just like her going to college a year ahead of schedule, it felt like another one of those cases of the writers radically changing Sam's character in a rush. Like others have said, it's a bit hard to stomach seeing a still teenaged Samantha randomly marrying some dork that we, the viewers hardly know such so that the writers could avoid seeing Tony and Angela get married.

[Novera]

What I hated about the Hank storyline was that she was never an outdoorsy type (other than expensive skiing trips) and it felt so artificial. Seriously what were the writers thinking "Lets have the show's bombshell teen turn into a librarian look and marry an outdoor kinda dorky cowboy" Like none of that matches the earlier show, sometimes you have to wonder if someone wanted out of their contract and tried to tank the friggen show!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Novera

What I hated about the Hank storyline was that she was never an outdoorsy type (other than expensive skiing trips) and it felt so artificial. Seriously what were the writers thinking "Lets have the show's bombshell teen turn into a librarian look and marry an outdoor kinda dorky cowboy" Like none of that matches the earlier show, sometimes you have to wonder if someone wanted out of their contract and tried to tank the friggen show!

Alyssa Milano did state that Season 8 of Who's the Boss? (1991-92) was going to be her last either way. I don't know if it was absolutely certain that Season 8 was going to be the show's last (the LA Times article that I linked is from December 1991). But it does make you wonder if they cooked up this marriage arc for Sam as a convenient way to write her out of the show just in case there was a ninth season.

And I thought that Matt, who we see early on in Season 7 was Sam's cowboy boyfriend, who she also planned on marrying. Hank was the pre-med doctor who dropped out to become a puppeteer.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Novera

What I hated about the Hank storyline was that she was never an outdoorsy type (other than expensive skiing trips) and it felt so artificial. Seriously what were the writers thinking "Lets have the show's bombshell teen turn into a librarian look and marry an outdoor kinda dorky cowboy" Like none of that matches the earlier show, sometimes you have to wonder if someone wanted out of their contract and tried to tank the friggen show!

The Hank storyline kind of feels like a slight reworking of the Matt storyline from the season prior, where Sam randomly meets this guy and she suddenly wants to get married despite Tony's reservations. But even the Matt storyline feels artificial, because like you said, Samantha never struck as being an outdoorsy type. She was just a normal, around the way, Italian girl from Brooklyn.

One of the things that I dislike the most about the last two seasons of Who's the Boss? is the way that they handled Sam's romantic life. It seemed like that they kept pairing her with guys who weren't entirely right for her or had something very off-putting about their personalities. So her ultimately winding up with a bland dork like Hank just seemed to be par for the course.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Novera

What I hated about the Hank storyline was that she was never an outdoorsy type (other than expensive skiing trips) and it felt so artificial. Seriously what were the writers thinking "Lets have the show's bombshell teen turn into a librarian look and marry an outdoor kinda dorky cowboy" Like none of that matches the earlier show, sometimes you have to wonder if someone wanted out of their contract and tried to tank the friggen show!

Another thing that I personally hated about the Hank storyline is that how exactly is Samantha absolutely sure that Hank is "the one"? Sam has had ugly breakups with guys before such as Chad McCann (who cheated on her) and Jesse Nash (who abruptly told her that he didn't want to date her anymore). So you would think that based on her history, she would be extra cautious. Even her relationship with Matt the cowboy ended up badly based on the evidence of the "Roomies" episode.

I guess that it also annoys me because Sam for the past eight years, lived with two strong, independent women in Angela and Mona. And yet, with her relationship with Hank, she all but becomes this blindly loyal, almost subservient, clingy housewife, who doesn't at all question Hank's life choices like dropping out of medical school to become a puppeteer. And she never at all took into consideration the fact that as a married woman, Sam would have to by design, become more responsible and not so dependent on Tony or Angela to take care of her first and foremost.

I suppose that it irked me how much the writers pretty much assassinated Tony and Sam's characters by the end of the series. They all but lost their spunky, blue collar, straight out of Brooklyn charm, in order to make them these irritating yuppies in Connecticut.

[Novera]

Originally Posted by TMC

Alyssa Milano did state that Season 8 of Who's the Boss? (1991-92) was going to be her last either way. I don't know if it was absolutely certain that Season 8 was going to be the show's last (the LA Times article that I linked is from December 1991). But it does make you wonder if they cooked up this marriage arc for Sam as a convenient way to write her out of the show just in case there was a ninth season.

And I thought that Matt, who we see early on in Season 7 was Sam's cowboy boyfriend, who she also planned on marrying. Hank was the pre-med doctor who dropped out to become a puppeteer.

I've re-watched the series (I cant count how) many times and the fact I mixed up Hank and Matt says it all. If you ask me about Chad? The ultimate 80s cool name, I'll tell you all about how he tried to get the ring out of the sink... and to this day the I never EVER pour hot butter down the drain (just in case)

[AMackII]

Romance/Marriage with Hank was Sam’s very worst during Season 8

[TMC]

Many of the big storylines in the last few seasons didn't feel organic. The first big storyline development in the series was probably Angela getting fired from her advertisement company and deciding to strike it on her own. The second big one was probably Tony enrolling in college.

I know that there are people who aren't fans of seeing Tony going to college, but I can realistically buy seeing a man like Tony Micelli do that. I don't think that he ever wanted to be a housekeeper forever, he just wanted a way to keep his daughter out of trouble. He was the type who I could see, striving to better himself and his family.

Plus, Tony Danza in real life, is big on education (he has taught English as a side hustle), so it isn't like wanting to promote the importance of education towards children was that out of reach. And if I remember correctly, Tony's character wanted to enroll in college in part, to set a good example for Sam.

But towards the end of the series, the writers were throwing challenges or new plot developments at the characters just for the hell of it. Like when they brought Billy into the show. They just brought Billy on to the show just because. It's like Mrs. Rossini randomly shows up on Angela's doorstep one day with this little kid and tells Angela and Tony that they need to take care of him as if he were a new puppy.

I never once bought Sam and Hank as a couple like I did with Tony and Angela. Heck, Mona's romance with Max (Leslie Nielsen's character) was more believable than Sam and Hank's. Sam and Hank's relationship just comes across as standard puppy love. Maybe they were tying to go with a "Romeo and Juliet" scenario with the feuding families and the misunderstood and/or forbidden love angle. But the whole thing is so rushed and poorly development, that it just rings hallow.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by AMackII

Romance/Marriage with Hank was Sam’s very worst during Season 8

I sometimes wonder if they should've married Sam off with Jesse Nash. Jesse was arguably, Sam's most noteworthy love interest. And even though their relationship ended badly, I kind of feel that there was a loose end to that storyline.



They just made Jesse out to be a villain who just randomly and coldly decided to dump Sam and we never see or hear from his character again.

Sam and Jesse felt more like an actual couple than Sam and Hank or even Sam and Matt. Jesse at least, seemed like a real, multi-dimensional character. And they at the very least, had a history together instead of the way that Sam just rushes into marrying Hank after only knowing him a very short while.

[Novera]

Originally Posted by TMC

I sometimes wonder if they should've married Sam off with Jesse Nash. Jesse was arguably, Sam's most noteworthy love interest. And even though their relationship ended badly, I kind of feel that there was a loose end to that storyline.

I think he was the best bf as well, I always thought it was like them refining Mason into a more interesting b/f with all the dorky stuff removed. I hate it when shows break up couples this way, where it's like "hi, it's over, credits roll" after getting to know the character. Like the infamous Julie episode ditching Mike at the altar (Growing Pains)... because of what happened there I always wonder if it was a similar situation when the same thing happens on another show. Did Jesse (the actor) do something wrong, maybe the writers thought he wasn't right for her, whatever it is - it's so weird when they just ditch someone that quickly after building them up so much.

Sometimes you can even sense the actor being happy about it, like that Mike/Julie thing, I feel like I'm watching a guy get dumped by a girl he can't stand but is acting sad about it because that's what you're supposed to do.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Novera

I think he was the best bf as well, I always thought it was like them refining Mason into a more interesting b/f with all the dorky stuff removed. I hate it when shows break up couples this way, where it's like "hi, it's over, credits roll" after getting to know the character. Like the infamous Julie episode ditching Mike at the altar (Growing Pains)... because of what happened there I always wonder if it was a similar situation when the same thing happens on another show. Did Jesse (the actor) do something wrong, maybe the writers thought he wasn't right for her, whatever it is - it's so weird when they just ditch someone that quickly after building them up so much.

Sometimes you can even sense the actor being happy about it, like that Mike/Julie thing, I feel like I'm watching a guy get dumped by a girl he can't stand but is acting sad about it because that's what you're supposed to do.

It also kind of reminds me of the end of Three's Company, where they rushed Janet into a marriage just like Sam on Who's the Boss? as a means of giving her character some type of closure. And like Hank on Who's the Boss?, Janet's eventual husband, Phillip was very bland and square to the point in which you immediately wonder what she saw in him.

Heck, Tony might as well have been Mr. Bradford from the Three's a Crowd spin-off of Three's Company. Tony pretty much acted like the obnoxiously meddlesome father-in-law once Sam and Hank get married.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Novera

What I hated about the Hank storyline was that she was never an outdoorsy type (other than expensive skiing trips) and it felt so artificial. Seriously what were the writers thinking "Lets have the show's bombshell teen turn into a librarian look and marry an outdoor kinda dorky cowboy" Like none of that matches the earlier show, sometimes you have to wonder if someone wanted out of their contract and tried to tank the friggen show!

I also just remembered that Tony "solved" Sam and Hank's residency troubles by having them move into Mona's garage apartment while Mona would move into Sam's old room. But it would've been pretty out of character for Mona to go along with it after the initial shock wore off.

I mean, why would such a self-indulgent and vain person like Mona Robinson be so willing to let her freeloading, surrogate granddaughter and her dorky, loser of a husband take her apartment without a fight?

This goes back to how much the writing seemed to deteriorate in the last few years of the show. They never really wanted to go deep into the consequences that Sam had to face for wanting to get married at such a young age.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Novera

I think he was the best bf as well, I always thought it was like them refining Mason into a more interesting b/f with all the dorky stuff removed. I hate it when shows break up couples this way, where it's like "hi, it's over, credits roll" after getting to know the character. Like the infamous Julie episode ditching Mike at the altar (Growing Pains)... because of what happened there I always wonder if it was a similar situation when the same thing happens on another show. Did Jesse (the actor) do something wrong, maybe the writers thought he wasn't right for her, whatever it is - it's so weird when they just ditch someone that quickly after building them up so much.

Sometimes you can even sense the actor being happy about it, like that Mike/Julie thing, I feel like I'm watching a guy get dumped by a girl he can't stand but is acting sad about it because that's what you're supposed to do.

I could've also realistically seen Sam end up with Scott, her classmate who she helped on their French test in the "In Sam We Trust" episode. Even though you could say that they helped each other cheat, Scott still seemed like a realistic, down-to-earth, well intended but flawed person. That was much different than a goofy himbo in Hank. And Alyssa Milano I believe, did have a decent amount of chemistry (no pun intended for those who have seen the episode) Jim Calvert, who played Scott.

[TMC]

I just saw the "Sam Accelerates" episode yesterday on GAC Family, and the whole thing just comes straight out of the blue. They do try to explain that Sam worked hard to become a better student, but I don't think that the explanation is that good enough.

You're basically insulting the audience's intelligence to make us want to believe that a girl like Samantha Micelli, who not to long ago, got a D on her chemistry test (and could've gotten an F for bringing a crib sheet into the classroom) is suddenly good enough to graduate from high school a year ahead of schedule.

Again, what was exactly there to gain by moving Samantha up and ahead in grade and get her in to college earlier than expected? It's like the writers figured that they couldn't mine anymore stories about Sam in high school and being a teenager even though Alyssa Milano still was one in real life.

This goes back to one of the biggest issues and problems with the later seasons of Who's the Boss? Why was there such an urgency to make Sam's character grow up?

A big reason why I think that so many young people resonated and connected with the character that Alyssa Milano played because she just seemed like a normal, everyday, imperfect, down-to-earth girl. Why would you all of a sudden want to junk all of that relatability out of the window?

[TMC]

Originally Posted by AMackII

Romance/Marriage with Hank was Sam’s very worst during Season 8

I hate to repeat myself, but I was watching Who's the Boss? today on GAC Family, and it reminded me just how horribly rushed Hank's introduction and his wedding to Sam was. Hank is first seen for a brief scene in Sam's dorm room in the episode "Who's the Boss?" (yes, that's the actual name of the episode). That was the 14th episode in Season 8, the final one.

We don't see or hear from or about Hank again until the 17th episode of that year, "Better Off Wed". If anything, you would be forgiven if you completely forgot that Sam had been dating this guy from her college. As a matter of fact, Hank's character isn't really established until the first part of "Better Off Wed" even though we had seen him once before and Tony had already met him.

So approximately, it's about four weeks in-between Hank's introduction and Hank and Sam going off to elope. Can you see just how the whole thing was rushed and felt like it came together at the last minute? To the viewers' eyes, Sam had only been seeing Hank for an episode and a half before they decided that it was time to get married.