Frequently asked questions about Who's the Boss?

[TMC]

https://web.archive.org/web/20141220....wtbr.com/faq/

: Billy's disappearance

The reason for Billy's departure was mentioned in Seer of Love. Tony and Angela explained, when they were speaking with a psychic, that Billy's grandmother, Mrs. Napoli, had completely recovered from her hip surgery and that she was able to take care of him again.

:: "Bower" house location

Fictional

3344 Oakhills Drive, in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Real

13 Onandaga Street in Rye, New York. Ever wonder how the "Bower/Micelli" house looks today? Several WTB?R members have seen the house firsthand. Visit the WTB?R Gallery to see some snapshots WTB?R member folle and I took.

Note: Tony Danza is not the driver in the opening credits sequence as they go from the Triborough Bridge into CT.

:: Filming locations

In Season 1, the show was filmed at Universal City Studios. Subsequent seasons were shot at Sunset-Gower Studios (ABC Television Center), in Hollywood, California.

:: Final season

Ratings

There are many reasons why the show tanked in the ratings in year 8. The money was already made with the number of reruns and ABC had other programs to champion. The show was no longer a priority for ABC. The ratings began to decline in Season 7. Marty and Blake lobbied for Tony and Angela to wed. They believed this could have led to a Season 9 and even a baby to keep things going. But as mentioned earlier, the Company would not allow this to occur. They cited the fate of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in low-rated reruns as an example of where a final episode doomed the syndication. Tony Danza also expressed that he was vehemently against having Tony and Angela marry, because it would have, in his eyes, changed the purpose of the show. Instead, the writers had Sam get married in the two-parter, Better Off Wed.

Scripts

Season 8 had to be virtually rewritten since the wedding for Tony and Angela was nixed. Allergic to Love had a twist as Tony has a reaction to the Lapidus plant (David Lapidus wrote the show.). The story with the grandmother was truly bizarre. The marriage of Hank and Sam was extremely hasty and none of the episodes (or characters) fit very well but by this time it was the 1990s and sitcoms were picking up by this time in terms of raunchiness.

:: Grover's disappearance

Grover the dog was first featured in Guess Who's Coming Forever? He was last mentioned in A Trip to the Principal.

:: Live studio audience

Except for two major instances, Who's the Boss? was filmed in front of a live studio audience. Two episode arcs were shot on-location, when the cast went to Malibu for the two-episode story on Michael Bower's remarriage (Custody) and the 2-episode trip to Mexico, where Angela loses her job (Angela Gets Fired). Other snippets, such as the street scene in SAMSCAR and the parking lot-based teaser in Selling Sam Short were also filmed on location, most likely shown to the audience via a monitor during tapings. Marty and Blake were the final editors and it is possible some laugh tracks were added, but the show was most always shot in front of an audience.

:: Nanny connection

Several episodes of The Nanny were virtual recreations of Boss scripts. The show benefited from WTB? vets in its production. On a related note, Fran Drescher, the star of The Nanny, had two guest parts on Who's the Boss?. She played Carol Patrice in The Heiress and Joyce Columbus in Charmed Lives (the pilot for a WTB? spin-off). Also, Judith Light and Fran Drescher are good friends.

The Nanny also seemed to recycle some of the old WTB? sets. For example, Maggie's bedroom has the exact same layout as Tony's bedroom, with new wallpaper.

:: Original title

Who's the Boss? was initially slated to be called You're the Boss.