Bosom Buddies is notable for being the first big break for Tom Hanks, then 24, and paired him with relative newcomer Peter Scolari, then 25. They played Kip Wilson and Henry Desmond, respectively — two pals who assume female alter-egos named Buffy and Hildegard in order to live in an affordable women’s hotel in New York City. The show was conceived almost by accident by Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, the duo behind a raft of 1970s hit sitcoms including Happy Days, Mork & Mindy and Laverne & Shirley.
Bosom Buddies premiered in November of 1980, and ran for two seasons, with a total of 37 episodes to its name. But those 37 episodes were enough to skyrocket Tom Hanks’ career and showcase quite a different side to his work than we see nowadays.
When show creators Thomas Miller and Robert Boyett first pitched the idea for the show, they had intended for it to be the male counterpart of Laverne and Shirley, on which they had also worked. They pitched the series as a buddy comedy originally, and described it to executives as “a sophisticated Billy Wilder kind of way.” When asked to explain what they meant, they mentioned the Wilder directed film Some Like It Hot. This caught the attention of ABC who bought the show under the condition that the characters would be in drag, sending Miller and Boyett into a panic as that was not their intended pitch.
They did get their wish for a regular buddy-comedy eventually though. In the premiere episode of Season 2 the men’s ruse was exposed, but they were still allowed to live in the complex despite their lies. This change shifted the show into a much more benign buddy-comedy, similar to Laverne and Shirley like Miller and Boyett had originally planned. But given that the show just barely squeaked by cancellation going into Season 2, it didn’t last much longer afterward.
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