Dragnet 1950s classic TV show

Dragnet Early Television Cop Series

Sgt. Joe Friday

It was Thursday, February 26th. It was sultry in Los Angeles.... A radio favorite since 1949 Dragnet hit America's television screens in 1951. Sergeant Joe Friday was a cop in Los Angeles, California. 

One of the first police procedurals, Webb was strict about doing things as he saw them done by the actual LAPD. He reportedly liked to have telephone prefixes and department numbers matched what he saw at the real Los Angeles Police Department. The show was responsible for recruiting new officers. 

Dragnet was one of the first media franchises, radio and television shows, spin-offs, paperback tie-ins and films. This article deals primarily with the early black-and-white episodes. A few of the first television shows displayed the title Badge 714 in the opening credits. You can even watch some episodes right here. Best known as an actor, Jack Webb was also a writer and preferred his roles as producer and director.

A huge fan of jazz music, Webb employed a number of jazz musicians as actors including well known jazz trumpeter Jack Sheldon.

1955 TV Guide Jul 23
Janet Leigh and Jack Webb
Pete Kelly's Blues

What's the definition of a Dragnet? We still hear the term used today.  It can be defined as a  system for finding or catching someone, particularly criminals. 

Oh, being an odd bird myself, I always liked it when Friday said it was "sultry in Los Angeles." Not sure what he meant by that, but whoa, what a way to start your shift. You just waited to hear if the suspect was "sullen and uncooperative."

"This is the city, Los Angeles, California"  

The show was also part travelogue. There was information about how the city was founded, the weather and agriculture, how the area had changed over the years. The statistics he, as narrator, quotes about the city, its population for instance, are factual for the time.

Episodes included visits to motion picture studios, taking viewers onto movie sets. We saw aerial and street views of 1950s LA, the cars. The current viewer is getting a time capsule of 1950s (or 1960s) Los Angeles.

The Dragnet TV show won four Emmy Awards (13 overall nominations). The Dragnet theme is instantly recognizable.  Also in 1955 Walter Schumann won the Emmy for Best Original Music Composed for TV for the Dragnet Theme. Jack Webb personally was nominated for five Emmy awards in the categories of directing and acting.






Meet Joe Friday, he's a cop

Cops, as Webb saw them were stoic, everything was by the book. They handled all that they saw, just getting on with business. Most of the show dealt with the work.

The unmarried Joe Friday lived with his mother. Later he had an apartment. Viewers/listeners knew little about his personal life. His partners tried to fix him up and at least once he had a relationship with a policewoman.

While Frank Smith checks something out on the phone,
suspect Carolyn Jones gives Friday the eye

We saw him occasionally flirt, usually when he was undercover. Women, suspects for instance, would flirt with him. There's a cute scene with a flirtatious young, blonde Carolyn Jones in The Big Girl (later Mortitia on The Addams Family). Buddy shows and cop shows that center around partners often make for good drama. Finding hints of any bromance on 1950s TV can take a microscope.

In one episode a woman's husband has been missing for days. She is scared and complains that maybe they're not trying hard enough to find him. At one point, she comes in and yells at them. 

We hear Friday's thoughts. It's something like, "You can't get mad at people. They're in trouble. And besides, it's against policy." 

Joe kept his emotions in check. He calmly explains to her what they're doing step by step and she feels better. 

You may think of Joe Friday as a homicide detective, but he moved from department to department in order to give us a view of a range of different types of police work. This may have been one of the few things a real LAPD officer wouldn't do, at least not as frequently as Sgt. Friday did it.  

In all incarnations of Dragnet, Friday's partners gave an idea of off-the-job relationships and provided brief bursts of humor. His partners were usually more rounded characters. They often had tales of problems with their wives, in-laws, kids, neighbors, pets and home repair. Their interactions with Friday can be some of the best bits on the shows.

"I carry a badge," Number 714

LAPD Lieutenant Daniel Cooke was the real LAPD technical advisor. He reviewed scripts for films and television shows. Cooke worked with Webb and the two became friends. Lieutenant Cooke's badge number was 714. 

When Dragnet the television show premiered, Webb gave Sgt Friday badge number 714 and made it the logo of the program. It was also a significant prop. Webb presented the badge to Lt. Cooke as a token of thanks.

When Cooke died in 1999, his widow donated the Dragnet Sergeant's badge to
the Webb Museum at the Police Academy in Elysian Park.  I've read that the famous badge is in fact there with a plaque beside it.

Part of this information from a May 1999 LAPD News Release announcing the death of Retired Lieutenant Daniel Cooke


The Big Oskar
1958: Discovery of stolen silver turns out to be more than initially thought. Character actress Amzie Strickland is Mrs. Face.



Just the facts:
1949-1957 Dragnet began as a radio program, "The story you're about to hear is true..."

1951-1959 Its first run on television, concurrent with the radio show. Joe Friday's primary partners are Barton Yarborough (Ben Romero) and then Ben Alexander (Frank Smith).

1967-1970 A color revival of Dragnet with Harry Morgan as his new partner, Officer Bill Gannon.

1989 The New Dragnet starred Jeff Osterhage and Bernard White as the detectives. Don Stroud was their captain.

2003 L.A. Dragnet on ABC, starring Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday and Ethan Embry as Frank Smith. The show was produced by Dick Wolf. His successful Law &Order franchise said to have been influenced by Dragnet.

While he wanted the facts, Joe Friday never said, "Just the facts, ma'am." The phrase can be found in the Stan Freberg parody recording. What "You dirty rat" is to James Cagney or "Judy, Judy, Judy" is to Cary Grant, "Just the facts, Ma'am" is to Dragnet.

 

Workaholic Webb had a Dragnet themed wedding cake
when he married second wife, Dorothy Towne
Jack Webb Magazine Photo clipping 8x10 1page

Film versions
Dragnet 1954 film Alexander, and Richard Boone. Dennis Weaver and Ann Robinson. She said in an interview that she'd had a crush on Jack Webb. [In case you were wondering, this isn't the same Anne Robinson who hosted the 2000's quiz show The Weakest Link.]

Dragnet 1966 TV movie initiated the return of series onto TV. Actors included  Bobby Troup, Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin, Gene Evans and of course the introduction of Harry Morgan as Joe's partner, Officer Bill Gannon. (Released 1969)

Dragnet 1987 A campy movie starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks. Harry Morgan is in the film, also Christopher Plummer, Elizabeth Ashley, Dabney Coleman, Alexandra Paul, Kathleen Freeman, Jack O'Halloran. -- *There's a video treat with Hanks and Aykroyd at the end of the article.

The Big Sorrow

In 1951, Dragnet couldn't help but get real. Actor Barton Yarborough who played Sergeant Ben Romero, died unexpectedly at 51 years old. He'd been Joe Friday's first partner on radio and then the television version, appearing in only the first two episodes.

While dealing with their colleague's death off-screen, the Dragnet team put together an episode, The Big Sorrow, showing how the the characters might handle the sudden death of their friend, Ben Romero.

There are radio and TV versions. This was 1951 not the 2000s or even the 1970s. Joe and Ben weren't Starsky and Hutch. The episode is respectful and well done. There would be a handful of references to Ben Romero throughout the original run of the show.

Full Police Honors:
When Jack Webb died in 1982, flags were flown at half-staff at police stations across the city. Police Chief Daryl Gates said the badge 174 issued to Webb for the Dragnet series was retired from service to honor the actor. He was given a police funeral with full honors. 

Police Commander William Booth said, "I am certain that it's the first time that we have had a memorial service like this for a non-officer. ... In our view he dedicated a great part of his profession to maintaining or giving this department a very positive image internationally. 

"He did some things personally for the department. ... A lot of our training facilities at the academy are housed in buildings donated by Jack Webb through the building fund that he established for the department."
Spartanburg Herald-Journal Spartanburg SC and Gettysburg Times Gettysburg PA; December 1982

Actor Harry Morgan talks about Dragnet and working with Jack Webb

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this program is for you, not your children"
 
A memorable line, "What you're about to see is true," was real. Plots were taken from true cases and it was said that Webb offered to pay cops who submitted experiences that could be made into plots for the show.

The topics were quite daring for the time. Don't let anyone suggest that certain behavior or crime didn't exist way back when. In the past as a whole, films and television shows were not enlightened as we are today when it came to how they portrayed characters or cast actors.

On occasions, usually when the theme dealt with harm that came to children, the radio show may have been preceded by a warning about adult content.

On Dragnet they had
all the latest Police Technology
Original Lobby Card

Episodes dealt with gangs, drunk driving, drug addiction, spouse abuse/murder, child abandonment and neglect, child molestation and murder, teen girls lured into pornography/prostitution. A newborn baby was stolen from a hospital nursery. There were corrupt police officers and at least one serial killer. 

In The Big Girl a beautiful woman is robbing and beating motorists. Turns out it's a man dressed as a woman. Their suspect has been living in an apartment building for women.  

Both the 1950s and 1960s series dealt with racism and antiSemitism. 

A 1960s episode The Big Explosion deals with a white-supremacist planning to blow up a building but he won't say where the dynamite is. Friday has to figure it out before there's major loss of innocent life.  

The con men (and women) in these shows are using scams we still have to watch out for today. Burglars scoured newspapers for wedding or funeral ads. When would someone be away from home so they could rob the place? Now we think about bad guys' reading posts on social media.

A Gun for Christmas or The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas
Perhaps the most controversial in which parents are giving their nine-year-old a rifle as a present. Their son finds it before the holiday, opens it and a child is killed. 
 
It shows an aspect of gun violence, guns in the home that are found and used by children. Herb Ellis (as he does here) played Officer Frank Smith a handful of episodes. Ben Alexander was best known for playing Smith.


 

The Big Mother 1952:  
Something we see occasionally in the news, much less these days, is the kidnapping of a child from a hospital nursery. Barney Phillips plays Friday's partner, Sgt. Ed Jacobs. Peggy Webber, who appeared on many television and radio episodes, is featured in this episode as Roberta Salazar. While Webb did employ a variety of actors, as with films and TV shows of the time they were apt to have Caucasian actors portraying ethnic characters. *Some of these episodes may be louder than others.





The Big Crime 1954 
One of at least two episodes of the early Dragnet show that dealt with child molestation. The cast includes character actors Irene Tedrow and Jack Kruschen, who is better known for his comedic roles. 

On a recent, March 2015, episode of The Talk, the panel was discussing child safety and a couple's allowing their 10 and 6-year-old children to walk a mile home from a park unattended. Sharon Osbourne made a good point. Instead of focusing on their walk home, it's important to note that that predators could be at a park.  

And when there was the suggestion that these crimes didn't happen "when we were kids," Aisha Tyler made a very good observation that they probably did happen and we didn't hear about them. Things like this weren't talked about. Along with that, there weren't as many means to publicize incidents when they did happen. Does anyone even talk about latchkey kids anymore?

The more broad issue of child abuse was a theme in several episodes of Dragnet in the 1950s and 1960s.




In a 1960s episode, Friday and Officer Gannon search for a burglary suspect dressed in a bright green cape and Napoleon hat who only steals photos of an old comic-strip hero, Captain Lightning. The teen feels empowered when dressed as his favorite superhero. 

Actor Tim Donnelly appears. You can get a full season on DVD or stream just one episode on Amazon. This is referred to as Dragnet 1967 Burglary: DR-31: Dragnet 1969: Season Three.

Parody: Tonight Show Appearance 1968

Though Webb said he didn't like to make fun of his character, and thus in his view make fun of the police, he did occasionally break that rule. An appearance he made on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson is legendary. Webb and Johnny Carson performed what is sometimes called the Copper Clapper Caper sketch.  

In August 1953 Stan Freberg released the satire novelty recording, St. George and the Dragonet. Webb liked the idea so much that he lent Freberg his own orchestra for use on the recording. The song went to  #1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box record charts.

A variant on the theme was used in the video game Donkey Kong. arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981 Music In Video Games: Studying Play talks about how portions of the Dragnet Theme are altered as game play progresses. B-Flat, E-Flat, etc. "Should Mario grab a hammer, the time during which he wields it, it will be accompanied by a B-Flat Major fanfare." 
  




Technology and the Time:

"Between our frozen dinner
And our bedtime, nine-fifteen
We snuggle watchin' Lucy
On our big, enormous twelve-inch screen
I'm his December Bride
He's Father, he Knows Best
Our kids watch Howdy Doody
As the sun sets in the west
A picture out of Better Homes and Gardens magazine ...."
-- from Somewhere that's green, Little Shop of Horrors a show set in the 1950s/60s

* 1950s technology available to make and watch the first television shows    

Webb knew that most people had a small TV, watching on a 5" to 12" screen. Their reception probably wasn't the best.

"To overcome the small screen size of TV sets of the time, Webb pioneered using a series of quick close up shots between actors.

"'The ping pong dialogue that we used in Dragnet was [because] the small television sets of the time were only about about five inches wide and you couldn't see three people in a master, so he'd break up the sentences.'"

"The result was real life rapid fire dialogue and a production pace that matched it."
-- Quote above by Tom Williams production assistant on Dragnet, from TV Land Moguls 2004

He and everyone creating the show thought about who the audience was and how would they be viewing the final product. Webb's dedication to the police procedural genre and his technical methods of creating his shows made his programs stand apart. He had a distinct style and he stuck to it. Contemporary Rod Serling had positive things to say about Webb in a speech given post-Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. They were both considered icons of the industry.

How does the show look if viewed on our smart phones vs our computers, tablets or current larger television screens? Watching on your phone may give the closest idea of what Jack Webb actually had in mind when he was setting up camera angles for that first series of Dragnet.

* Their intended audience, when the show was made
With any 1950s show, try reading between the lines for the meaning (and sometimes humor). Looking for what they didn't or maybe couldn't say can make these shows even more fun to watch. It can help to catch what they're trying to get across.

Check out this glorious new Westinghouse TV
with electronic magnifier knob


When we were shopping for a 22" television we learned that an LG 22-Inch television is considered a small flat screen TV. It's one of the smallest that some manufacturers make nowadays.

* The stories: Plots, presentation were often influenced by concessions made for sponsors, censors, and/or the network. They also must have had something to do with the actual events, how the situation happened in real life. These shows are windows into the past. This is over 60 years ago.

* Quality of the video and/or audio We're lucky when we can watch full episodes of these black and white '50s shows. Rarely has anyone restored the audio or video. Still they're worth your time. The quality is usually good or at worst, watchable/understandable. 

Limiting ourselves to only free and/or higher-quality restored media really lets other people decide what we see. We miss a lot of history and ideas by only looking at reproductions and restorations.

Pete Kelly's Blues: Another love of Jack Webb's was jazz music.  This was one of his most successful films. Costars included Janet Leigh, Lee Marvin, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee.

This article is part of the Classic TV Detectives Blogathon

Exclusive Dragnet T-Shirt
There's a badge on the back
Image can be moved if you'd like it more centered
Also available a Dragnet frosted beer mug /coffee cup option






Books and Pages of Interest:

The Earliest Detective TV Shows

Selection of Jack Webb old time radio shows, MP3

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Athorized Biograhy of Jack Webb: Stacy Webb was one of Jack Webb and Julie London's daughters. She authorized and collaborated on this book. Daniel Moyer and Eugene Alvarez were primary authors. Tragically, Miss Webb was killed in a car accident before the book was published.

Article about Jack Webb Radio Shows, Pre-Dragnet

My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized But True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb

List Old Hollywood Stars Married Holidaytime; Vintage Celebrity Holiday Weddings, New Years, Is your anniversary the same as theirs?

Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks made a Dragnet music video, City of Crime 
to promote the 1987 film


Merry Christmas (early) from Stan Freberg and the Dragnet team

Piano dance Tom Hanks and James Cagney

Piano Dance: Fun with James Cagney, Tom Hanks, Liberace

Big Tom Hanks Robert Loggia
classic dancing on piano scene

James Cagney did it in 1937. Tom Hanks in 1988. Wild and Crazy Mr. Hanks has had a hankering to do it again and again. He did it with Sandra Bullock on TV in 2013. 

You can do it in the privacy of your own home. Honey Boo Boo & Mama June did it just this year. Bet you know what it is.

Can you believe how long it's been since we first saw the movie, Big? There's a 25th Anniversary Edition DVD set. It wasn't the first movie that Tom Hanks made, but it was the first one that brought him a nomination for an Academy Award. 




Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia are dancing out the song, Heart and Soul. The music by is Hoagy Carmichael and lyrics by Frank Loesser. 

Sometimes the song is identified as The Celebrated Chop Waltz, better known simply as Chopsticks. Do you play these on your piano? By yourself or with a partner, solo or duet?  In 1877 Chopsticks was written by composer Euphemia Allen under the pseudonym Arthur de Lulli. 

Liberace at his home the piano shaped pool

"Please Mr. Music, will you play?" (A little allusion to the ending of A Bit of Fry and Laurie. Hugh Laurie would play piano while Stephen Fry would make and shake his cocktail alongside.)




Liberace had a respect for the classics, including the song, Chopsticks. Unlike the amazing Jerry Lee Lewis, Liberace doesn't get his feet onto the keyboard in this performance. .... But what about Cagney?

"Johnny Boyle was, if anyone can be so credited the creator of the Cagney dancing style at once highly eclectic and uniquely street Cagney, a mix of George M.Cohan (whom Boyle had worked for), semi-ballet and down-to-earth vaudeville hoofing.

"Dancing much more than acting was in those years Jim's greatest creative joy. As he points out In Cagney by Cagey he says he considered dancing 'a primal urge to life at the first moment we need to express joy. 

"'Among the pre-language aboriginals possessing no music and the most primitive rhythm, I suspect dancing became their first expression of excitement. And an extension of that idea is embedded in my belief, quite applicable to myself that once a song-and-dance man always a song-and-dance man.'

James Cagney once said, "I have had highlights in my career like any performer, but inevitably there are some higher than others, and I am pretty sure that there is almost no greater moment for me personally than in the middle of Something to Sing About when I had the great honor, the real privilege of doing that number with Johnny Boyle and Harland Dixon."
-- Cagney by John McCabe



Ruby Keeler, Lee Dixon Ready Willing and Able 1937 dancing on a typewriter keyboard


"My mother told me I was dancing before I was born. She could feel my toes tapping wildly inside her for months."
-- Ginger Rogers

"Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk..." 
-- From the 1977 ABBA song, Thank you for the music, Featured in Mamma Mia



The 1937 film, Something to Sing About, included a routine with giant piano moment for Cagney.

Jimmy Cagney played George M. Cohan in his Oscar winning role in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy. 

When people think about actors who danced, the great dancers of the golden age of Hollywood, some names aren't mentioned as often as others. James

Rita Hayworth piano dance

Cagney isn't remembered as often as I think he should be. George Raft was also a dancer. We too rarely gave credit to the influence and contribution of the African American dancers in front of and behind the cameras. And of course, we should never list only male names.... But I digress, which is one of my specialties.

On a 2013 episode of the Jonathon Ross show Tom Hanks, was surprised with the giant piano. He got to do the dance with Sandra Bullock! 

Is it the biggest toy piano there is? Would you paint the floor of your hall like this? Need painted stair ideas? Black and white is a way to go.

Are there other movies where they did a dance like this? Chickens tapping out on a toy piano is really something kind of different. :-)



Links to Books, Related Pages of Interest:

The popular Winfun Step To Play Giant Piano Mat allows you and your kids to play, get exercise, have fun and make music at home.

Cagney by John Mccabe 

James Cagney the making of Yankee Doodle Dandy, George M. Cohan's life story

Remember Bosom Buddies, Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari 

In 1975, Elton John was the Pinball Wizard in the movie version of the rock opera Tommy. He wore some big boots and played a big keyboard

We have taken broken, discarded pianos, recycled and re-purposed these old instruments

Tour FAO Schwarz: A Walk-through
The oldest toy store in the United States


Cameo appearances by the Giant Piano
Lego Statue of Liberty and Batman, Saying Hi to Hello Kitty

Dressing Male Stars in Old Hollywood; Provide Your Own Clothes; Hollywood actors rebel against high wardrobe costs, The Internal Revenue Service, Tricky Tax Deductions in the 1930s ...


Wedding dolls: Mattel Princess Grace Kelly, Prince William and Kate {being revised}
Some FAO Schwarz History and favorites:
The Old Sales ledger
The big teddy bear
Pferd the Horse, the Duck
Barney Google and his horse Spark Plug
Nutcrackers, Wizard of Oz
Tonner Hollywood Dolls


Q: What's your favorite thing at FAO Schwarz?

Favorite TV Buddies, Partners and Roommates

TV Buddies, Partners, Roomies

Characters on television shows often mirror what we're doing in real life, particularly if it can get a laugh and/or stir up some drama. Who are your favorites?? Are they listed below? Cohabitation, people choosing to have roommates, living together to help our paychecks go a little farther. Here are some famous Tom Hanks movies and some TV show buddies, partners and sidekicks.

Best Inanimate Object, 2001 (when your buddy isn't technically alive):

The 6th Critics' Choice Awards in 2001 had a special award, Best Inanimate

Wilson Cast Away Volleyball replica

Object presented to Wilson the Volleyball who, can we say co-starred with Tom Hanks in the film, Cast Away. The awards are bestowed annually by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. 

Was I the only one who found myself caring about that 'character,' about that volleyball thanks to the way Tom Hanks interacted with it in the movie? I don't think so. 

I also liked Turner & Hooch, a film Mr. Hanks made with a drooling French mastiff whose real name was Beasley. The dog was no relation to Mrs. Beasley the bespectacled doll belonging to Buffy on the 1960s-70s show, Family Affair.

To my knowledge they've never before or since given the Best Inanimate Object Award. But what other Objects might deserve to be nominated or win this award for films in other years??  

What are your favorites?

This post was inspired from the previous one on the show Bosom Buddies. What's your favorite Tom Hanks film? Big was made in 1988, less than a decade after Bosom Buddies went off the air. Same with Dragnet in 1987 which he made with Dan Aykroyd. 

He was Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, Woody in the Toy Story films, Paul Edgecomb in The Green Mile, Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks and in Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle, he and Meg Ryan paid homage to An Affair to Remember. If you're talking about favorite and exemplary Tom Hanks performances, you could go on and on.

Bosom Buddies trading card
(TV Classic) 1991 Pacific
I Love Lucy #6

What have been your favorite buddy or roommate shows? Some are harder to work into the category. Buddy cop shows are an important part of the genre. Famous partners and sidekicks? My friend told me not to forget The Lone Ranger and Tonto.  :)

Do you include those with siblings and cousins? How about the those where a child is living with his or her dad and dad's friend or dad's brother or.... 

Think of shows like My Two Dads with Paul Reiser and Greg Evigan and Stacy Keanan. 

The Jon Cryer/Ashton Kutcher sitcom, Two and a Half Men is particularly notable since it costars Holland Taylor. She plays the mom of Cryer's character and the former character Charlie Harper played by Martin Sheen. 

Famous Dynamic Duos:

• Dave Starsky and Ken Hutchinson on Starsky and Hutch
• Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Jeeves & Wooster
• William Bodie and Raymond Doyle on The Professionals 
• Kip Wilson and Henry Desmond (Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari) Bosom Buddies
• Paul Gross and David Marciano as Fraser and Vecchio on Due South
• Joe Friday and partners Ben Romero through Bill Gannon, Dragnet
• Felix Unger and Oscar Madison (Tony Randall and Jack Klugman) on The Odd Couple
• Andy Taylor and Barney Fife, The Andy Griffith Show
• The Skipper and little Buddy Gilligan, Gilligan's Island
• Yortuk and Georg Festrunk; Steve Martin and Dan Ayrkroyd on Saturday Night Live, Two Wild & Crazy Guys
• Lenny & Squiggy on Laverne & Shirley
• Pete Malloy and Jim Reed on Adam 12
• Batman and Robin
• Sheldon and Leonard on Big Bang Theory
• Captain James T. Kirk and Mr Spock on Star Trek
• Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) and Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) on I Spy
• Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) and Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) on Perfect Strangers
• Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing and Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani on Friends
• Illusionists Penn Jillette and Teller 
• Dwayne Wayne and Ron Johnson on A Different World
• Captain/Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and Captain/Major Roger Healey (Bill Daily) I Dream of Jeannie
• Young Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie, Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey
• Are your favorites included on the list?
  
  

Tom Hanks film-inspired T-Shirts, Gifts, Postage, Toy Story, more
Customize  Get cozy. Change font style, size, line breaks. Color choices.... 

Life's a Drag! Paper Dolls (Characters from TV and Film)

Some who are included: Katharine Hepburn from Sylvia Scarlett, Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari from Bosom Buddies, Robin Williams Mrs. Doubtfire, Tyler Perry in Madea Goes to Jail, Jude Law from Rage, Milton Berle from Texaco Star Theater. 

Many more actors who appeared in drag of course could not included from Monty Python to Max von Sydow in Gran Bollito and the pair most often compared to Hanks and Scolari, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the film, Some Like it Hot. Would we count Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love?

Toy Story 3 - Team Photo Tshirt by Disney

Related Pages of Interest:

Bosom Buddies Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari star in the 80s classic series

Who lived in the Narrowest House in New York City? Edna St. Vincent Millay William Steig, Margaret Mead. How about John Barrymore or Cary Grant?

Mermaid Baby Names 

Bosom Buddies Saving Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari

Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari are Bosom Buddies

"It's kind of ridiculous because we're turning into best friends. ... At times we look to each other for guidance and suggestions and bona fide help about what we're doing with the show and our feelings about it." -- Tom Hanks interview, Rome News-Tribune, November 20, 1981

Bosom Buddies starred then relative newcomers Tom Hanks as graphic artist

Buffy and Hildy beside Henry and Kip
Bosom Buddies

Kip Wilson and Peter Scolari as copywriter, Henry Desmond. It ran two seasons 1980-1982. 

The best friends disguised themselves as women in to live in the only place they could afford, a women-only apartment building, The Susan B. Anthony Hotel. 

They're known as Buffy and Hildegarde (Hildy) and the girls' brothers, Kip and Henry when dressed in their regular attire.

Kip and Henry have the kind of friendship that many of us hope to have in our lifetime. Any Tom Hanks fan should just love this show and appreciate the chance to see how great he was so early in his career.

Kip is an aspiring artist and Henry is an aspiring novelist. Henry's got a story going about their experiences. In one episode Kip gets an art show at a local gallery. Plots revolved around friendship and family relationships, growing up, stereotypes, and even business ethics. 

Enjoy the 1970s and '80s references. In the episode Water-BalloonGate. Kip and Henry mistakenly drop a water balloon on a car belonging to former President Richard Nixon. They're questioned by the Secret Service and Kip vows go give up practical jokes.

Kip lustily devours a chicken in The Rewrite

"It would be too bad if Bosom Buddies got lost in a comedy avalanche because there's more talent and cheek evident here than in six or seven cookie cutter comedies put together." Pulitzer Prize winning television critic Tom Shales.
-- Wilmington Morning Star-News November 17, 1980

When the show aired Scolari and Hanks were in their twenties. Peter Scolari was planning to get married. Tom Hanks was married with two children. He said that when his young son watched the show he used to ask why Daddy was wearing Mommy's clothes. 

We now know this same young man as actor Colin Hanks, today in his thirties, married with two children of his own. Yes, Mr. Hanks is a grandfather. (That's nothing, Mick Jagger became a great-grandfather in May 2014. Now we can all really feel old.)  Colin Hanks was Alex Whitman on the show, Roswell, Travis Marshall on Dexter and Gus Grimly on the new FX program, Fargo. We saw him in the film Orange County.

"I've done stuff in drag before," Tom Hanks admitted. "Every actor has drag credits. I did Juliet at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival." He wasn't overly worried about being typecast in the future.
-- The Nashua Telegraph, December 27, 1980


Supporting Cast

The entire cast is talented and funny. It's a real ensemble show featuring Telma Hopkins (Isabelle) and Donna Dixon (Sonny) and in season one, Lucille Benson (Lilly Sinclair) live at the Susan B. Anthony. 

Hopkins is immediately recognizable from her other television work (Gimme a Break! and Family Matters) and from her singing career. 

The guys are known as Buffy and Hildy's brothers

Originally Telma Hopkins was part of Tony Orlando and Dawn. She'll be on Martin Lawrence's FX show The Partnership. In the Bosom Buddies episode One for you One for Me, when Henry is released from a spell in jail, she makes a joke about Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree. Isabelle says, "I don't know, it just popped into my head."

Donna Dixon worked to break the stereotype of the dumb blonde, bringing more wit and substance into her portrayal of Sonny, a nurse and the girl who Kip adored. Dixon has been married to actor Dan Aykroyd for many years. Aykroyd himself was part of an iconic double act with John Belushi both on vintage Saturday Night Live and in The Blues Brothers.





Wendie Jo Sprerber's character Amy works with them and lives at the hotel. She was responsible for helping them to find that apartment and come up with the idea to live there. 

Her film and television credits include I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), 1941 (1979), Bachelor Party (1984), Back to the Future (1985) and Love Affair (1994). Sadly, Ms. Sperber died of breast cancer in 2005. She was the founder of weSPARK Cancer Support Center.

At work, their boss is Holland Taylor (Ruth Dunbar). She's well known as Margaret Powers on The Powers That Be, Judge Roberta Kittleson on The Practice and Evelyn Harper in Two and a Half Men. I like her so much. In this world where some folks still think life fades at 40, it's important to show that we can be fun, sexy, strong and smart at that age and beyond.

Ms. Taylor wrote the solo play Ann, based on the life and work of Ann Richards, 45th Governor of Texas. Taylor played the character on Broadway in 2013. 

At The 67th Tony Awards in 2013, Holland Taylor was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Coincidentally that same year, Tom Hanks was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play as Mike McAlary in Nora Ephron's final play, Lucky Guy. Peter Scolari was also in the show, playing the character of Michael Daly.

Themes, Reaction to the Show, TV Land Award

In a season one Bosom Buddies episode, Beauty and the Beasts, Henry has an epiphany after seeing himself as a less than attractive woman. This was similar to what actor Dustin Hoffman talked about going through in the movie, Tootsie, playing an actor who dresses as a woman to find work.  

"I was shocked that I wasn’t more attractive," Hoffman admitted in an AFI interview. "It suddenly occurred to me after doing Dorothy for a while that if I'd met her at a party, I'd never so much as condescend to talk to her, because physically she was a write-off. 

"It's a shallow attitude, certainly, to judge people by the way they look. And I think that is what started to make me sad."

Rita Wilson guest stars

-- from an American Film Institute interview with Dustin Hoffman

Commendably, when an episode called for a deaf character, the show hired a deaf actress. Nanci Kendall appears in Reunion.

Guest stars included Penny Marshall, Adrian Zmed, Joe Regalbuto and Bob Saget. Jerry Hardin and K Callan play Kip's parents. 

A rumor went around when the show was on the air that Tom Hanks was really the son of comedian and actor Buddy Hackett. 

When Penny Marshall was on, Kip is interviewing her for a public access tv infomercial. She tells him that being on a sitcom can be exhausting even if you are part of a team, but he wouldn't know anything about that. Then she asks if they're making some kind of cult show or something. Kind of prophetic.

Probably the most interesting guest star is in the episode, All You Need is Love, where Hanks met his future wife, Rita Wilson. They'd marry in 1988, after reconnecting while working on the 1985 film Volunteers.

The overriding theme of the show is friendship, between the characters in the ensemble cast but especially between the two leads, Hanks and Scolari, Kip and Henry. What do you think, Bosom Buddies fans? Does this fall into the bromance category?

"Scolari revealed that they have considerable input on the scripts and hinted that early scripts didn't please them entirely. 'The character responses were too extreme,' he explains. 'We both felt the roles could have been a little subtler. We're pleased now, a sort of qualified contentedness. We get the chance to work the hell out of the scripts.'"
-- The Nashua Telegraph, December 27, 1980

"Both Hanks and Scolari come from the same type of ensemble school of acting.... And a major factor in developing their friendship has been that they have almost the identical system

Kip gets a pep talk

of working, Hanks said. 

"'The way we get going during rehearsals is very much the same. We have the same technique, the same sort of background and very much the same sort of training - which has helped quite a bit.

"'So Peter and I are Bosom Buddies which shames me, shames me, to say,' he kibbitzed. 'But it's pretty much the case.'"
-- Tom Hanks interview, Rome News-Tribune  November 20, 1981

Sunday, April 25, 2010 TV Land scored record-breaking numbers for its eighth annual TV Land Awards hosted by Tim Allen, attracting nearly 2 million total viewers. It was the highest-rated and most-watched TV Land Awards since 2004. .... Among the awards presented, The Legend Award to Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner and the Anniversary Award to the cast of Bosom Buddies.

"In New York recently promoting Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid the ingenious film spoof he directed and cowrote with Steve Martin... Carl Reiner was scolding ABC for axing such comedies as Taxi, Barney Miller and Bosom Buddies... Reiner recalled, 'In its first season Dick van Dyke was up against Perry Como and it got terrible ratings. If it was on now it would have closed up in a minute. Today you get six shots and you're dead. ... 

"Reiner who in the 1950s worked with comedians such as Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on the legendary Your Show of Shows has now become something of a guru to young comics such as Steve Martin, whom he also directed in The Jerk. 'At this stage I think I know why something works and why it doesn't.'"
-- Lawrence Journal-World, July 4, 1982




Would you like the DVD set to supplement viewing the shows on MeTV? Maybe you want to have friends over and introduce them to the series and/or you're in the mood to do a little binge watching. 

The original Billy Joel My Life theme song couldn't be used due to licensing restrictions. Some scenes seem to be missing here and there (not sure why) but the show is still charming, entirely worth watching and re-watching. The new theme song is Shake Me Loose by Stephanie Mills.

On a Thursday in May, 1982 ABC aired the last episodes of both Bosom Buddies and Mork and Mindy.

Bosom Buddies Cast Hanks & Scolari
Signed 8x10 Photo Certified Authentic PSA/DNA

Hanks and Scolari

In 1984, Tom Hanks starred in the films Splash and Bachelor Party, movies that launched his incredible film career. In the early 1990s he made history when he won Academy Awards for Best Actor back to back in 1993 for Philadelphia and 1994 for Forrest Gump. This had been done once before by Spencer Tracy in 1938 for Captains Courageous and 1939 for Boys Town.

Peter Scolari, remembered for playing Newhart's manipulative boss, Michael Harris on Newhart 1984-1990, received three consecutive Primetime Emmy Nominations for his work on that show. He appears on the HBO series, Girls. 

Raymond Burr fans may think they remember him from a Perry Mason TV movie, and they're right. Scolari appeared in Perry Mason: The Case of the Glass Coffin in 1991. Lovers of magic will like this episode in particular. Foodies should look for him in an episode of Chopped on The Food Network.

Hanks and Scolari have worked together several times since the Bosom Buddies days. In 1996, Scolari appeared in That Thing You Do! In 2004, The Polar Express and The Lucky Guy in 2013. 

In 1993, the pair was reunited for an installment of a Showtime anthology, Fallen Angels called I'll Be Waiting. "It's very hard to reunite somehow without carrying around a lot of cachet from those heady years of TV. .... I must say we picked up right where we left off. 

"You can't be the only two guys on a TV series for two years without developing a gestalt sort of communication that really hangs in there over the years. It was just one of the real added pleasures in the whole experience, working with Peter."
-- The Sunday Gazette, August 2, 1993

"In watching the reruns of Bosom Buddies one begins to wonder why the show didn't go on and on. The plots for the most part are inventive well written and played to the hilt by Hanks, Scolari and the supportive cast. Even when an episode missed the mark the playing saves the day. .... 

"Together they were a dream sitcom team and Bosom Buddies is one of those rare treats which is even better the second time around."
John N. Goudas and Daniel Kohan, syndicated columnists 
-- The Times-News - August 29, 1987

"Bosom Buddies clearly is one of the Shows That Got Away, shows that were good enough to deserve longer runs than the network gave them." 
David Bianculli, Television critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
-- The Toledo Blade - September 5, 1984

Perhaps the two biggest pluses on the series are the fellows in the tacky frocks; Tom Hanks is the tall one, Kip and Peter Scolari as the short one, Henry. Both were recruited from the New York theater and though they hadn't been teamed before they go together like chicken and Shake 'n Bake." Tom Shales
-- Wilmington Morning Star-News November 17, 1980

I was looking to see if there were still apartments that rented solely to men or to women and couldn't find any. Housing for women seems to be university, transitional or emergency housing, a shelter of some sort or maybe the YWCA.

There could definitely be a Bosom Buddies inspired fancy dress party. Some 1980s fashion verges on what we could now think of as Star Trek evening wear.

The cast, the silliness, improvisation, poignancy, the relationships and oh yes,  the sometimes sunglasses-worthy 1980s fashion and hair makes Bosom Buddies a winner. It's a very fun buddy show but it's even more. Bosom Buddies is well written and can boast a stellar cast. I think you'll love this feel-good show.




To show the impact of the series, on an episode of Adult Swim, Adam Scott and Paul Rudd did "an homage" to Bosom Buddies. Guest stars included Tom Hanks and Billy Joel performing My Life. It was billed as The Greatest Event in Television History.

Please Note: as of November 2014, looks like Bosom Buddies is no longer on MeTV. Keep looking for it on this and other networks and get the DVD set if possible.

This review is part of the Summer of MeTV Classic TV Blogathon hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Check out the complete schedule.  

Piano Dance: Fun with James Cagney, Tom Hanks in Big, Liberace

The WeSpark Cancer Support Center in Sherman Oaks, CA


Angela, Bea, Peter and Tom

Some people confuse the Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Joanne Woodward movie Philadelphia with the Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart film Philadelphia Story. 

There may be some who confuse the tv show, Bosom Buddies with the song from Mame. So here are Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur -- on the same page alongside Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. Four famous Bosom Buddies together at last.....