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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 339124" data-attributes="member: 23">This week I've been rewatching a number of Who's The Boss? scenes in isolation as I reach the point where that scene is "covered" in the British remake.Judith Light is just wonderful. Not only does she absolutely radiate charisma she's a cracking actress which I feel is really important with comedy. She can take the most innocuous line or detail (which most lines and details in this show are) and make it fascinating through a little choice in her delivery or body language. There's so much nuance. As much as I enjoyed watching her in this series when I was young, I don't feel I fully appreciated just how good she is.Katherine Helmond is marvellous as well. Her performance as Mona is fairly broad, but even in these clips I've watched there are little moments of greatness. There's a scene in Samantha's Growing Up where Tony reacts negatively to the dress Angela has bought Samantha and of all present it's Helmond who really sold the emotion of the scene to me through just a small but significant look Mona gave to Tony as she led the dejected Sam upstairs. As far as her broad moments go, Mona happens to be the kind of caricature that works for me.Tony Danza is neither a good actor nor is his archetype the kind that I find appealing. Watching these clips makes me realise I'd find the full series quite unbearable to watch thanks to his hammy performance with its mugging, gesticulating, emoting and frequent looks towards the audience. As a kid I found him endearing, but nowadays his is just not a personality that I'd care to watch for long. It probably doesn't help that I'm watching his scenes off the back of seeing them performed with more subtlety and nuance in the remade version. It could be viewed as impressive that Danza seems overly conscious of the audience's presence and delivers every line with this childlike enthusiasm to try and get a reaction, but  I just find myself marvelling that this is what over a hundred episodes on Taxi has taught him.I realise he's probably a personality rather than an actor. The series is somewhat tailored around that, and he is no doubt the reason many viewers tuned in. His schtick is just not my cup of tea these days.A couple of little international tweaks I've spotted:Angela's First Fight saw Angela order a dry martini, with a fight starting after Teresa spilt a drink on Angela's "Lord & Taylor" clothing. Meanwhile, in Caroline's First Fight our leading lady ordered a double brandy before Teresa spilt a drink all over Caroline's pure white "Harvey Nichols".During Angela's fight Teresa swung at her but missed which led to a lot of hair pulling and rolling round on the floor. Over in the British pub, Teresa landed one on Caroline (explaining the black eye she later had), but the fight itself was too short. The Caroline/Teresa fight felt more realistic, but the Angela/Teresa fight was better choreographed (lack of hand-to-face contact excepted) and overall more entertaining to watch.And some observations about/comparisons between the two series in general:It's always good fun to look at analogous WHB clips (or IMDb) after watching an episode of The Upper Hand to see who played equivalent small roles in different episodes. I immediately spotted Dallas's Fern "Marilee Stone" Fitzgerald as a friend of Angela's in First Kiss (in the UK, the other friend in the same scene was played by Kirsten "I will say this only once" Cooke).Honor Blackman steals every scene in which she appears. With every appearance I appreciate how different she feels from Katherine Helmond's Mona on Who's The Boss?, and how much of a strength this is. When I was young, I struggled with Honor's portrayal simply because I was so used to Mona. Now I realise that while the words are the same, she's giving us something entirely new. The wisecracks sound so very different when delivered by her. If anything, they seem even edgier because of the juxtaposition with her polite-sounding middle class British accent and the smoky voice with its characteristic crackle. And each quip is accompanied by a carefree smile. It really comes across that she's having fun. At this point in my viewing I possibly find Laura even more enjoyable than Mona, but I'm very glad we had both terrific versions, each one perfectly suited to their show.Watching scenes from the two shows back-to-back, Tony Danza's performance makes me thank my lucky stars for Joe McGann's Charlie. Conversely, a number of Diana Weston's lines have only seemed really funny to me when I imagine Judith Light delivering them.Since presumably only around half the Who's The Boss? scripts end up being recycled I'd love to know more about how the scripts for The Upper Hand are selected and their running order decided. I find it interesting that First Kiss was the first season finale for Who's The Boss?, but the penultimate episode of The Upper Hand's first series. The first British series instead closes with Requiem, an episode from the middle of WTB's first season. I know the plot of Requiem, but not specifics, so perhaps all will become clear after I've watched it.</blockquote>

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