Cast[]
Main cast[]
Cast of Who's the Boss?
- Tony Danza as Tony Micelli
- Judith Light as Angela Robinson Bower
- Alyssa Milano as Samantha Micelli
- Danny Pintauro as Jonathan Bower
- Katherine Helmond as Mona Robinson
Guest appearances[]
Delta Burke appeared in the first season as next door neighbor Diane Wilmington. Betty White also appeared in the first season as television host Bobbie Barnes. Comic James Coco was a frequent guest, beginning in season one as Tony's father-in-law Nick Milano, visiting from New York. People have credited his appearances on Who's the Boss? as a prime example of his comedic abilities on TV, despite the fact that he was not a regular and had never starred in a successful TV series of his own. When Coco died in February 1987, prior to the conclusion of season three, his character was written out as having died as well (with a funeral episode and tribute).
By the fall of 1990, with Samantha beginning college and Jonathan in high school, Who's the Boss?, like other series getting on in years, added a new younger cast member. Producers brought in five-year-old Billy (Jonathan Halyalkar), an orphan from the Micellis' old Brooklyn neighborhood whose grandmother left Billy in Tony's care. He moves in with the Bower family in season seven. Billy was a comic foil to Tony, but also attempted to get into the mix in other characters' storylines. He only lasted that season, however. In the E! True Hollywood Story about the series, Katherine Helmond remarked that Halyalkar was a gifted performer, but had difficulty catching up to the pace of the acting and timing the senior cast members had long established with each other. He was written out of the show at the end of the season. In the beginning of season eight, it was briefly explained that Billy had returned to live with his grandmother.
Frank Sinatra made a guest appearance in a 1989 episode, as well as Ray Charles, Mike Tyson and Thomas Hearns. Leslie Nielsen played Max, who was engaged to Mona in a 1988 episode. Matthew Perry played Benjamin Dawson, a roommate of Samantha's in a 1990 episode. Robert Mandan guest-starred in two episodes, as a CEO and love interest for Mona; Mandan and Helmond had previously starred as husband and wife in the comedy-drama Soap.