Tony Danza is reflecting on the moment he found out Alyssa Milano was the perfect casting choice for his stepdaughter, Samantha, a who is the boss
“(Alyssa) was 10 years old when she came on the show. I found her on a VHS tape that someone sent from New York,” Danza, 74, exclusively explains. Us Weekly while talking about his latest film, Reelection. “We were looking for kids, and these precocious kids kept coming. And I said, ‘I don’t want that. That’s not what you want (for this role).’ And then there was this little girl, and she had a black eye, who ended up being part of the show, and she came in and killed us.”
Danza played Tony Micelli, a housewife and single father on the hit ABC (and later NBC) comedy.which ran for eight seasons from 1984 to 1992. Milano, 53, was cast as his on-screen daughter. Judith Light portrayed Tony’s boss, Angela, while Katherine Helmon she played her mother, Mona. Danny Pintauro he played Angela’s youngest son, Jonathan.
Milano’s character was a real tomboy, that’s why who is the boss he chose to use the actress’ black eye to his advantage in the pilot episode, making it the catalyst for the entire series. After Sam gets flashed for getting into a fight in her New York neighborhood, Tony takes her to the suburbs for a better life. “I thought you loved New York,” says his neighbor in the show’s opening sequence. “I do,” he replies, “but I love my daughter more.”
After nearly five decades in show business, Tony Danza is still finding ways to surprise. His latest comedy, Re-Election, stars the legendary actor as Stan, the father of the emotionally stunted Jimmy (played by the film’s writer-director Adam Saunders), who re-enrolls in high school in an attempt to regain a long-lost career (…)
Plus its top-notch cast and Angela and Tony the relationship whether they like it or not —which became romantic in the line— Who’s the boss? was praised for its willingness to push beyond stereotypical gender roles. Having a male character working as a homemaker while a single mother played the successful, well-to-do businessman was a bold structure for its time, but Danza tells us it was all “by design.” After all, it would be impossible not to center women like Light, Helmon and Milano on set.
who is the boss He was also often praised for never using Tony’s role on the show as a joke, though he certainly wasn’t afraid to highlight his pioneering storytelling either.
“There was one (episode) where I broke up with (Angela’s) date and I have the guy against the wall with a bat, and he’s like, ‘Angela, who is this?’ And she says, ‘Great, that’s my housekeeper,'” Danza recalls of one episode. “He says, ‘Angela, that’s the ugliest woman I’ve ever seen!’ It’s so good.”
Danza remains happy with the work he did on the show, even watching it now. He recently stumbled upon an episode of Season 5, the series’ first on NBC, and was impressed by everyone’s performances, even if he couldn’t hear what anyone was actually saying.
“I was changing (channels) and it was on, so I stayed and watched,” he said, noting that Season 5 was an “interesting year” for the cast because “all bets were off” after switching networks. “But there was something wrong with the audio. So (I watched) without audio. I do (this) with old movies because I want to see the play. And I couldn’t believe it. I loved it. It was so detailed. I knew what was going on without hearing it. I thought it was really good.”
Looking back, Danza says he’s especially pleased with how the show was able to remain universally relatable and watchable for all ages.
“I’m proud of the fact that you can sit down with your family and not worry about the message you’re going to get,” Danza explains. “I worried about the message every week. I was like, ‘OK, wait a minute. There are kids and parents listening to this.’ And I mean, we definitely pushed the envelope with Mona’s (more daring) comments, but most of them, hopefully, went over the kids.”
“I didn’t want a woman, a mother, to be sitting there being embarrassed watching the show because she doesn’t know if (her child) should feel this,” she adds. “So I was very careful with that.”
It was Danza’s last film, Reelectionwhich prompted the career retrospective. The actor plays Jimmy’s middle-aged, emotionally stunted father Stan (played by writer-director Adam Saunders), who is desperate to return to high school to try and win a long-lost race for class president. Jimmy’s obsession with the past plays into one of the film’s central themes of unfinished business.
While eight seasons might seem like enough to make a sitcom feel over, Danza admits that it’s the years after the series ends that tend to bring about a sense of regret. A desire to stay in the sitcom business, he explains, ultimately led him to turn down a role that, in retrospect, might have been a good career fit.
“I was determined to be the funniest guy on TV. I wanted to do another sitcom (after Boss) and they offered me this part in a one-hour series, and I said, ‘(No), I’m going to do a sitcom, that’s what I do,'” Danza recalls. “And now I look back, and I really think maybe that was a huge turning point in what I’ve been aspiring for, what I want to do and what I want out of my career…I think I took a wrong turn.”
Still, Danza says she tries not to look back on her life choices with regret.
“There’s an old saying that if you’re at war with the past, you don’t have a future,” he tells us, a lesson Jimmy eventually learns himself. Reelection. “And it’s absolutely true.”
Reelection now available on demand.