I must admit to being gobsmacked when I excitedly told my friends that Adam Scott’s latest and final instalment in Adult Swim’s Greatest Event in Television History series was the recreation of the opening titles of ’80s sitcom Bosom Buddies and all I got were looks of total and complete incomprehension.
To be fair, Bosom Buddies did only run for two years from 1980-1982, with limited dips in the syndication pool since (most recently in 2011 on Me-TV) but it was the show that gave Tom Hanks a leg up to his current stellar movie career and made Peter Scolari a staple of sitcoms including Newhart once the show ended its run.
And its premise, which saw two men, Kip Wilson (Tom Hanks) and Henry Desmond (Peter Scolari) forced to dress in drag as Buffy and Hildegard respectively in order to live in a cheap womens-only building (the only rent they could afford) was a classic, recalling Tootsie and of course Some Like It Hot.
It also had a killer theme song, “My Life” by Billy Joel, although the singer didn’t actually sing on the titles of the show, that honour falling to an anonymous singer who has long been rumoured to be rumoured to be Hanks with the rest of the cast on backup (although that is likely one of those delicious apocryphal showbiz tales).
So while it may have flown a little lower on the sitcom radar that some other shows of the era such as Cheers, Family Ties, Alf and The Wonder Years, it is still a classic of its time and more than worthy of this homage from Adam Scott, who roped in stars like Paul Rudd (Prince Avalanche), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live), Mo Collins (subbing in for Holland Taylor) and Parks and Recreation writer Aisha Muharrar to take part alongside him.
There are also a host of pleasingly unexpected cameos and a mockumentary hosted by Survivor‘s Jeff Probst, which beautifully sends up the now almost obligatory making-of behind-the-scenes videos.
If this is the last hurrah for Greatest Event in Television History series then it is a brilliant note on which to finish … and funny … hilariously, nostalgically, wonderfully funny.
Enjoy!
And if you want to contrast and compare with the original titles, here they are in all their classic ’80s glory …