A Look Back into the '80s and Who's the Boss?

In the '80s I did it all. The crimped hair look, the two pony tails, the pony tail off to the side, I wore legwarmers, scrunch socks, spandex, parachute pants, corduroy pants, jean jackets, high-tops (pink, white, red, blue and multi colored), beads, slap bracelets, jellies, big hair bows, plastic charms, hoop earrings and I carried a trapper keeper to school.

The New Kids on the Block were my world and I owned every piece of memorabilia I could get my parents to buy. If my little sister wanted to get revenge on me for anything, she knew she could just mess with my fan stuff. I still wonder if my Best of The New Kids on the Block tape is floating somewhere every time I look down a sewer.

Besides doing all the fun stuff kids do, I also watched television. The '80s had a lot of great programming that were not riddled with "reality" shows. How could you not love television in a decade that featured Punky Brewster? Punky was abandoned with her dog, Brandon, in a supermarket by her mother and adopted by her new found friend Henry Warnimont and wore really funky clothes. I also stayed up all night waiting for Saturday morning cartoons that are still in my opinion far above anything they show on television now.

Yet, nothing compares to the all time classic of the decade, Who's the Boss? Was it Angela who owned the house and paid Tony's salary or was it Mona who forced Angela into hiring Tony to begin with? Was it Tony since he actually got someone to pay him to clean in a T-shirt? Or was it Samantha because without her Tony would have never moved out to Connecticut and there would be no need for a boss? It was obviously Jonathan since he got to spend his teenage years around Samantha, although it was later revealed that Tony was more of his type. You have to love a captivating title and this show's name trumped it all. What is greater than an open ended question as a title?

What makes it so great is the unconventionality of the whole premise. An employee, an employer and their kids plus Mona formed a family. Who needs a worker's union with those job conditions? The show didn't have a traditional workplace. That was obvious when Tony walked in on Angela naked and in return she envisioned an uncomfortable Tony naked for revenge. Had anyone in the '80s heard of sexual harassment? At least the show had an ending like all work place endings: the lowly employee marries the boss and gets half of everything. They left us with one pending question; who gets to hire the next maid?