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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 338861" data-attributes="member: 23">At 94 episodes The Upper Hand is quite a commitment, but if the first episodes are anything to go on it could be the exception that proves the remake rule. Just to put that to the test, I opted to watch the Pilot of its antecedent back-to-back with the "remade scene-by-scene" first episode:Who's The Boss? was a series with which I found myself keeping regular appointments in the mid-to-late Eighties. I remember it airing on a Sunday teatime at around 5. I have no idea how many people watched. I suspect it was the kind of series I could talk about with some schoolfriends (though I have no specific memory of doing so). Some of our parents might have been aware of it, but would probably think of it as a series that occupies kids while dinner preparations are underway. Still, at a time when we had only four channels and networks were extremely picky about which imports made it to air, Who's The Boss? did extremely well to be shown here in what I remember as a consistent, regular time slot.  Diff'rent Strokes or ALF filled the same sort of function. It was never prime-time popular in the way Cheers or The Golden Girls were, nor did it never felt that way. To me, both felt like a less expensive, generic kind of affair. Entertaining and good fun. Comforting to watch in a predictable and formulaic kind of way.Incidentally, Who's The Boss? was my introduction to all the actors in the cast. Both Taxi and Soap were both before my time and I seem to recall any repeats of both series were shown very late at night, way past my bedtime. And we never had American daytime soaps here. And so for many years, all the actors involved were associated primarily with this series (and, to a degree, most still are). Indeed, I didn't see Judith Light in anything outside of this until the late-Noughties when I suddenly realised the Sue Ellen-esque mogul's alcoholic wife on Ugly Betty was big-haired Angela from Who's The Boss?A bit of digging round has unearthed <a href="http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=10098" target="_blank">this useful titbit of information (from just last year)</a> about the background of Who's The Boss? and one of its many international translations:While I casually watched The Upper Hand when it first aired, I was perhaps too familiar with Who's The Boss? A large part of me felt the remake was pointlessWatching <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVNSouJZw0c" target="_blank">the Who's The Boss? pilot</a> back-to-back with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4weI7biThFA" target="_blank">the first episode of The Upper Hand</a> perfectly shows how the tonal differences come across. And it's quite fascinating.</blockquote>

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