This is Day 3 of this, so in the words of Lt. Rasczak, “Rico, you know what to do!”
(courtesy of wtbr.com)
Show: Who’s The Boss
Business: The Bower Agency
Outlook: If you were born before 1990, then you already know the drill. Tony Micelli’s a former baseball player who accepts a job as a housekeeper in CT in order to give his daughter a better life. In the 80s, America had seemingly caught Male Housekeeper Fever (Pfizer would later develop a pill for that).
Tony’s employer was Angela Bower, a New York advertising executive who bordered on neurotic. In the third season, after being fired from her job, Angela starts her own company, The Bower Agency. While we rarely see her at work in those years, she manages to keep her Jaguar and house in Connecticut, so I guess she didn’t completely suck at it.
Verdict: The Bower Agency is still around and thriving. Angela’s son, Jonathan, was an early adopter of the Internet, as he didn’t have friends and was trying to learn more about his latent homosexuality. Going to work for his mom, Jonathan helped take the company into the 21st century.
During the first decade of the 2000s, The Bower Agency became a strong boutique ad firm, as the bigger ones were failing. At the moment, The Bower Agency’s biggest account is the Lifetime Network, and was the inspiration behind AMC’s recent series The Pitch.
Show: What’s Happening!!/What’s Happening Now!!
Business: Rob’s Diner
Outlook: What’s Happening!! followed friends Roger, Dwayne and Rerun as they got into typical high school adventures, from cheating on tests to bootlegging Doobie Bros concerts. They spent a lot of time hanging out at Rob’s Diner, the local teen spot and workplace of comic foil Shirley. The show would only last 3 seasons, due to Rerun’s offscreen antics and suspenders addiction.
All was not lost, though, as the show was brought back 6 years later, in syndication, as What’s Happening Now!! At this point, not only is Roger a writer, but he and Shirley are also the new owners of Rob’s Diner. He runs the place with his wife Nadine, while Dwayne’s a computer programmer and Rerun sells used cars.
Verdict: Rob’s Diner was destroyed during the LA riots. I mean, the show was set in Watts! After the diner was destroyed, Roger experienced a bit of a mental breakdown. His wife left him for a detective in Georgia, while his best employee moved to Detroit to get into radio. Once he got himself together, he sold his house to a local junk man, and moved to New York. Last anyone heard, he was a funeral director in Brooklyn.
Any blog post that begins with a line from Starship Troopers gets an automatic +20 points in my book….
The Bower Agency was one of those deals where you knew they had clients and were successful, but most of the accounts were discussed and sometimes scored right there in the Bower household. How many times did Angela invite potential clients over and have to either conceal or explain her male live-in housekeeper, later live-in friend with benefits as Mona let the cat, or a dirty joke, out the bag and hilarity inevitably ensued? I’m almost inclined to assume that the physical NY offices of The Bower Agency was just a front for some organized criminal enterprise. Wouldn’t be shocked if they were laundering money for a huge cocaine smuggling ring. This was the 80s!!
I bet Shirley wished she had invested in a 401K. I mean how many years did she put in at Rob’s Diner with no retirement plan in place? Sorry, but at some point she could have talked to Chuck or something…
If only Roger let Dee run the financials, Rob’s Diner would have survived the riots and expanded into a chain. Since the O.G. What’s Happening!!, Dee Thomas showed a knack for making money (i.e.: blackmail, extortion, but still…).
Classick – always spotting the horrifically insane but oddly likely criminal and homicidal realities of 80s & 90s family sitcoms