A ‘Buddy’ Returns to TV : Tom Hanks’ Ex-Sidekick Peter Scolari Scoffs at Career Comparisons

By just about any standard you can think of, Peter Scolari is a whopping success. He’s been acting on TV for the past 16 years. He’s had hit shows and Emmy nominations. He’s well paid, has a home in Ojai, a wife and two sons. He has an offer to star in a Broadway musical. His new sitcom, “Dweebs,” gets its second airing tonight on CBS.

Only there’s this one problem--one of his dearest friends, actually: Tom Hanks.

See, Scolari and Hanks started out together, as absolute equals, 15 years ago as the cross-dressing stars of the memorable ABC sitcom “Bosom Buddies.”

When the show ended in 1982, Scolari did a few bad films but worked mostly in television sitcoms--most notably on the long-running “Newhart” as Bob Newhart’s pretentious TV producer.

Hanks, meanwhile, has become the biggest movie star going, winning Oscars the last two years.

The comparison has been unavoidable--and irksome.

“Oh, there have been moments when I’ve been irritated and offended,” said Scolari, who plays a socially inept computer genius in “Dweebs.” “I remember when it became an issue, this almost forced comparison between me and Tom. He’d done ‘Big’ and was on the cover of Time and all this, and we were out golfing together one day and I said, ‘Gee, thanks, pal of mine. Now I go anywhere and everyone says, ‘Wow, Tom’s got an Academy Award nomination for a comedic role, and you’re just on “Newhart.” ’ “

The fact that he was happy working on “Newhart” and that he garnered four Emmy Award nominations there didn’t seem to count for anything, he said.

“It was really unsettling for awhile that people try to use Tom’s success to belittle mine, or characterize it as somehow less significant. Which is all nonsense anyway. This thing about actors and their success is all well and good, but hopefully there is a research chemist somewhere in the world doing actual important work.”

Maturity--he’s now 40--and the responsibility of parenting two sons have softened the blow to Scolari’s ego. As has Hanks’ graciousness: He has paid tribute to Scolari and “Bosom Buddies” backstage at the Oscars and in TV interviews.

“A lot of this has to do with circumstances of fate,” Scolari said. “But at the same time, you look at what Hanks has done--in the work, I mean, not with all this other fame crap and comparisons that we’re focusing on. But you look at his work and it’s unbelievable. He’s tremendous. And I can say to him that when we did ‘Bosom Buddies’ back in 1980, ‘You weren’t the better actor.’ And it’s kind of wonderful and freeing to look at what he’s done with the work and be able to say that I hope I can grow and develop as he has. I like chasing that accomplishment, that level of talent and growth. And that has been a real relief for me the last few years.”

Scolari had actually decided-- vowed, to use his word--not to do television again, at least for this season, so that he could chase his acting growth on stage in New York. In the past year, he had performed in two short-run musicals there, and he said he has an opportunity to take over the lead in the Broadway production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” when Matthew Broderick steps down later this year. (It depends on whether “Dweebs” flies.)

But Peter Noah, the executive producer of “Dweebs,” couldn’t find anyone to play the brilliant but socially inept Warren Moseby, the head of a wacky computer company who jumps on a trampoline for inspiration and never finishes a sentence out loud. The less-famous and less-costly actors he’d been auditioning couldn’t hack it, Noah said, so he got permission from CBS to search for a bigger star.

“Peter is someone I’d admired for a long time,” Noah said. “And I realized that what we needed for this part was a truly gifted comic actor. Someone who can fill this guy out without any of the traditional ammunition. I started to think it was impossible, but Peter is so skilled, so physical, he can simultaneously play both the surface bumbling inarticulateness of the guy while at the same time showing the poignancy of a guy who is imprisoned in his own psyche. I was so grateful that he was interested because I can’t imagine anyone else doing it. I had this whole speech prepared to try to persuade him--that he may not have a lot of lines, but he looms over everything.”

*

It didn’t take much cajoling. Scolari scrapped his theater plans and took the money for a role that he finds challenging. He plays the feared boss of three other computer wizards/agoraphobics--all hiding behind their PCs--who hires a beautiful and socially-slick technophobe. Farrah Forke, formerly of “Wings,” plays the fish-out-of-water lead--her character is the only one comfortable talking, so obviously she gets the most lines--determined to bring these lost millionaires out of their virtual reality and into the world of real human interaction.

“When I read the script and this guy’s halting speech made odd sense to me, I thought this would be fun, and something I have no idea how to do,” Scolari said. “To try to give enough away without words so that the audience knows what he’s thinking--maybe, sort of, but not entirely, just by going on intuition--that’s fun.”

Does the pressure of being the known commodity, whose last series flopped (CBS’ “Family Album” in 1993), as well as being the other guy from “Bosom Buddies,” ever weigh too heavily on him?

“Yep,” Scolari said, “that community theater in Omaha sure looks good to me right now. But I honestly love this show. If we get our asses shot off or become a hit, obviously those will affect our moods, and mine particularly, but I’m finally much more balanced about the business right now. I now realize that if you’re a good guy in this business, you’re going to get punched in the nose every now and then. . . .

“Look,” he continued, “I remember back when we were taping ‘Bosom Buddies’ one day and we were so young, Tom and I, and I came in with the newspaper and said, ‘They’ve taken American hostages in Iran.’ And the gravity of that just blew us away, because while we’re on some studio lot, slapping on the hose and trying to be as stupidly funny as we can, we’re trying to think about and kind of dedicate our performance to these people blindfolded in some tiny cement cell.

“It’s all so absurd. It amazes me I ever take it seriously. But then again, I swear, if you mention that Tom Hanks guy one more time. . . .”

* “Dweebs” airs at 8 tonight on CBS (Channel 2).