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TRIVIA

Premiered on the same night as The Cosby Show, and ended on the same night as Growing Pains and MacGyver.

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After the show's seventh season, Alyssa Milano tried to break out of her contract to pursue an academic career, but she was refused to be let go from the series.

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1500 girls auditioned for the role of Samantha Micelli.

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The original ending for the series, as proposed by the writers, was for Angela and Tony to get married. ABC executives, however, balked at this ending and were supported by Tony Danza, who was against having Tony and Angela get married in the series finale. So the series ended with Tony and Angela breaking up but with Tony appearing on Angela's doorstep to apply for the housekeeper job in a scene that is almost identical to the opening scene in the pilot episode.

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The exterior shots of the home used in the opening sequence as well as various points throughout the show's run is in real life located on 13 Onondaga St., Rye, New York.

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At the end of season three, the producers of the show decided to spin-off the Mona character into her own series. As a result, the season ended with a two-part episode where Mona moves away in order to run a hotel with her brother while Tony and Samantha move into Mona's loft apartment. However, due to the fear that Mona's departure might harm the success of the show, the plans for the spin-off were squashed by ABC executives and a tag sequence was added at the end of the two-parter which featured Mona returning home and Tony and Samantha moving back into Angela's house.

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Tony Micelli played baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals.

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ABC originally planned to cancel the show at the end of the seventh season but the producers were able to convince the network to renew the show for an eighth season. As part of the deal to renew the show (and to revive fan interest) it was decided to base the entire eight season around Tony and Angela finally becoming a couple. When ratings for the eighth season failed to increase, the show was cancelled.

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The pilot episode was filmed in October 1983 but held back from ABC executives for nearly a year due to the producers of the series being afraid that the show would be rejected by ABC executives if pitched as a mid-season replacement series.

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Mona was originally intended to be Angela's older sister, but producers were unable to find an age appropriate actress they liked for the part. As a result, they decided to redevelop Mona to be Angela's mother instead.

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The character "Tony Micelli" was ranked #23 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" (20 June 2004 issue).

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This was Judith Light's only foray into comedy; every other project has been a drama. She has said in interviews that while she tutored Tony Danza in dramatic acting he helping get her comedy chops up to speed.

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Alyssa Milano stated in an article during the Eighth Season that she found playing the character Samantha for so long, so creatively frustrating that she chopped her long hair into a shorter style as a way to give her a new fresh look.

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Episode #115, (Living Dolls) was never shown during the series' original prime time run and instead premiered when "Who's the Boss" first entered syndication. The episode, which was meant to be a pilot for a new ABC series Living Dolls (1989), was pulled from the schedule, due to last minute casting changes to the series. Several months later, a second episode (episode #123, "Life's A Ditch") was filmed to serve as a pilot for "Living Dolls", which aired on the same night "Living Dolls" finally premiered.

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German network RTL showed a German version of the show called Ein Job für's Leben(1993) ("A Life-Time Job"). The scripts and every single joke of the original's 1984-1985 season were translated, but it was canceled after one season. "Ein Job für's Leben" was preceded by a British version, The Upper Hand (1990), starring Honor Blackman, which fared somewhat better despite also being a direct translation instead of an adaptation or reinvention. It was canceled in 1996.

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In Who's the Boss?: Car and Driver (1987), it is revealed that Tony's middle name is Morton.

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Tony DanzaJudith Light and Katherine Helmond are the only cast members to appear in all hundred ninety-six episodes of the series.

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Tony Danza, Alissa Milano and Danny Pintauro are all of Italian ancestry.

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Katherine Hellmund plays the matriarch in two long running sitcoms about Connecticut. Soap was set in Connecticut and so was Who's the Boss, both comedies of the 1980s that she starred in.

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Episode 8.24, Who's the Boss?: Savor the Veal: Part 3 (1992), is not the only series finale Frances Bay has appeared in. She was also in the finales of Happy Days (1974), and Seinfeld (1989).

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Season 1 is the only season to be released on DVD.

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Intimate Agony, A Story About Herpes, was a TV movie Judith Light starred in right before she started Who's The Boss. After Who's the Boss Light would star in Phenom; Law and Order, and Transparent.

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Though Who's The Boss was a well reviewed and highly rated sitcom, Living Dolls, it's spinoff about a bunch of girl models at an agency, is considered one of the worst sitcoms ever.

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Taxi and Who's the Boss star Tony Danza was hired by the Salkinds to replace Christopher Reeve in Superman 3; when Reeve decided to boycott the film because the script had so many silly elements; and was basically a glorified sitcom vehicle for Richard Pryor. Reeve rescinded at the last moment and the rest is movie history. Danza playing Superman would have undoubtedly made a bad movie even worse.

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Alyssa Milano was one of the founders of the modern Me Too Movement.

QUOTES

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Tony: Hey look at this nose. I fractured this nose three times and I can still smell.

Samantha Micelli: Yeah! I broke my finger twice and I can still dial.

Mona Robinson: I once fractured my pelvis.

Tony: Yeah, and she can still walk.

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Tony: Ay-oh! Oh-ay!

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Samantha Micelli: Now dad remember. Smile, be polite, and whatever you do don't tell the pig joke.

Tony: That one is the real ice breaker.

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Angela: Well, we got on a plane you know swish, swoosh.

Tony: Yeah, well, it sounds like something happened in between the swish and the swoosh.

Angela: Well, we went to Las Vegas, and we got married but I thought we got the marriage annulled the next day?

Angela's first Husband: No. These are just the papers that divided up the garbage collection. Angela, we're still married.

Mona Robinson: [bursts into laughter] And to think all of this time that you were married to Michael you were a bigamist.

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Angela: Did it seem to you like Jan and Steve might be a good match?

Tony: What? Angela are you kidding me? All they said all night was hello, goodbye, and ehh I'm choking.

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Mona Robinson: [when Frankie Fitzgerald tries to out bid her daughter to purchase Tony as part of a neighborhood auction] Angela, I know what's good for you... Buy him!

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[repeated line]

Tony: Angelaaaa...

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Tony: But here's the thing... Uhm... Did I ever tell you how terrific you are and how happy I am with this job?

Angela: I feel a "but" coming on.

Tony: Nonono, no buts. HOWEVER...

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