Tom Hanks is one of those actors no one can possibly not love. Why? Because he excels at everything. Acting in comedy movies? Yup. Acting in dramatic movies? Yup. Acting in Romantic Comedies? Yup! Voice over work in animated movies? Yup. Producing? Yup. Hosting Saturday Night Live? Yup!! Ok not every movie is great, for every “Apollo 13” there’s a “Joe versus the Volcano” (anyone remember that?), “Bonfire of the Vanities” or “Money Pit”. But he’s been in a ton of great movies and need I mention won two Best Actor Oscar’s? I’ve been a fan almost since the start, seeing “Splash” in theaters way back when. It was awesome. Then there was “Big”, which was also awesome. After that we had “A League of Our Own”, “Dragnet”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “Toy Story”, “Castaway”, “Catch Me if You Can”, “Polar Express” and this is just to name a few! I even saw “Punchline”, anyone remember that either? It was awful, but I digress. Tom Hanks is great because you;d never guess how funny and/or good an actor he can be but he really is!
One thing that is often overlooked is his TV appearances. Oh yeah, Hanks started out on TV doing sitcoms and TV movies like most people do. The funny thing about these is that with almost all of them you can see that Hanks is a cut above the usual guest actors on these shows. It’s no shock he would soon launch into bigger and better things. Here is a look at them, and I am referring only to episodic TV not talk shows or SNL appearances.
Love Boat
According to IMDB his first appearance, after a horror movie which Cinema Snob reviewed, was an episode of Love Boat. I guess not every episode was top tier celebrirties, as Tom Hanks was not at the time.
Bosom Buddies
Let’s jump ahead a little and talk about the show which still haunts Tom Hanks. Actually I kid, he’s usually a good sport about this memory. If you don’t know in this show Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari have to dress up as women. And yeah, that’s it. Ok ok the reason they have to do that is because they are trying to live in a “women only” building that is cheap. Yeah I don’t think this idea would fly today, for several reasons! Anyway it did manage two seasons, so I guess it did decent. This was a Miller-Boyett show and I’ve discussed them before. Yeah, you can tell by the opening this is from them. Just watch:
And here’s a clip. Here we see Hanks acting with guest actress Rita Wilson. Wonder whatever happened to her?
Mazes and Monsters
Ok not a sitcom but did air on TV. I had no idea what this was but this clip shows that Tom Hanks has real acting potential as he works a lot harder than this lousy TV movie deserved. Yeah this aired in 1982 and is, sad. I read the description online it kind of made me curious and found it on YouTube. I skimmed it but it’s really depressing, and I’m kinda glad I missed out on this one. I could go on why it’s not fair to gamers or the mentally ill, but I’ll leave it at that for now. I guess in the 80’s f you had mental problems there was no hope! Anyway, here’s the clip.
Happy Days
Yeah I’m pretty sure I never saw this one. And when I watch the clip, it’s not that surprising. Tom Hanks plays a black belt karate expert who has nursed a grudge against Fonzie for years. Now, he wants his revenge. Yeah it ends like you’d expect.
Taxi
I love this scene, it’s probably my favorite Taxi scene (after “What does a yellow light mean”). We finally get the backstory for how Jim became the derelict he would become. Turns out he was a straight arrow once upon a time, until one of his friends offers him a pot brownie. The clip misses the ending but we do see Hanks as one the friends. And he is just funny as hell in a role that didn’t really need to be.
Family Ties
Ah, Family Ties. He was already kind of too good for this show. He appeared as Uncle Ned two times, and here is a clip from the first appearance in an episode I don’t really remember :
As for the second, yeah we all know this one right? In this episode we learn that Ned has a drinking problem which leads to a final confrontation where he back hands Alex! This is a great scene because it’s real disturbing. I love the acting, from Hanks breaking down to Steven’s deadly serious “get out of my house” line you will get chills. I even like how when Steven says this Elyse at first wants to argue, but her son was just slapped onto the ground, so she stands by her husband. This is one of my favorite scenes of anything ever, and I do admit I brought it up once before. But couldn’t leave it off so, enjoy it again. I want to someday see present day Hanks and Michael J.Fox discuss this scene.
So after Family Ties he launched into movies, and that was it for his TV appearances, right? Well, here are two slightly more recent exceptions :
30 Rock
I never watched this show so I have no idea what this is all about. But here it is anyway :
Life with Bonnie
This show was soooooo boring. It was a Bonnie Hunt show that was supposed to be a blend of sitcom and talk show but it failed at both, in my opinion. But it did manage to land a Tom Hanks cameo which at the time was not easy. Maybe he did it as a favor to his “Green Mile” co-star (and yep, another great movie I didn’t mention!)
Finally, I wanted to leave with a clip from SNL. Yeah I said it was excluded but hwo could I not mention that he has hosted this show like nine times, and guest starred a few others, and is always a riot. I used to love his “Mr. Short Term Memory” sketch. He is always a joy every time he’s on. Hanks proved a couple years ago that he can still be goofy. Not only was this sketch a hit, but the character spawned a prime time animates special (that didn’t actually in air prime time but I digress). This is David S Pumpkins
And no I didn’t forget “Philadelphia” or “Saving Private Ryan” I just didn’t actually see those films. Not sure about “Turner & Hooch” either, I may have. Anyway. who doesn’t love Tom Hanks? Comment on your favorite Tom Hanks role below.
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