# Bosom Buddies (1980)

> Two young ad agency men in New York disguise themselves as women to share a cheap apartment, setting off broad comic mishaps.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/2446

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 38
- Episode runtime: 25 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Chris Thompson
- Network: ABC
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Peter Scolari, Donna Dixon, Holland Taylor, Telma Hopkins, Wendie Jo Sperber, Lucille Benson, Samantha Fox
- TMDB rating: 6.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080202/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: breezy, farcical, comforting, sunny

## Synopsis

Bosom Buddies (1980-1982) is a US network sitcom created by Chris Thompson for ABC. Tom Hanks plays Kip Wilson, a young ad agency worker who shares a cramped New York apartment with his best friend Henry Desmond, played by Peter Scolari. Because the only apartment they can afford is reserved for women, the two men dress as women, adopting the names Buffy and Hildegarde, and keep up the ruse. The engine of each episode is the constant risk of exposure: a rotating cast of love interests, bosses and neighbors, including Donna Dixon as Sonny Lumet, Holland Taylor as Ruth Dunbar and Telma Hopkins as Isabelle Hammond, keeps pressing them toward discovery. Across two seasons and thirty-eight episodes, the show plays out as a classic multi-camera sitcom with broad physical comedy, mistaken-identity set pieces and a sunny, good-natured tone. Its farcical energy and warm buddy bond recall fans of Three's Company, Some Like It Hot and Tootsie, who will find the same mix of disguise farce and roommate chemistry. Set in early 1980s Manhattan, it captures the ad-agency hustle and apartment-sharing life of its era.

## Shows like Bosom Buddies

- [Newhart (1982)](https://ember.film/tv/2857)
- [Cybill (1995)](https://ember.film/tv/2567)
- [The Odd Couple (1970)](https://ember.film/tv/1706)
- [Three's Company (1977)](https://ember.film/tv/2551)
- [Mama's Family (1983)](https://ember.film/tv/1907)
- [Adults (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/174758)
- [My Two Dads (1987)](https://ember.film/tv/1758)
- [Younger (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55297)
- [Who's the Boss? (1984)](https://ember.film/tv/599)
- [Will & Grace (1998)](https://ember.film/tv/4235)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt