Alyssa Milano Reveals Inspiration Behind 10-Year-Old Sam onWho's the Boss?as Show Marks 40th Anniversary (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Alyssa Milano on ‘Who’s the Boss?’ in 1984.Photo:ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

Four decades afterWho’s the Boss?premiered,Alyssa Milanois looking back at her “formative years” on the beloved sitcom.

Milano was just 11 years old when she was cast oppositeTony Danza,Judith Light,Danny Pintauroand the lateKatherine HelmondinWho’s the Boss?, which premiered on Sept. 20, 1984. At a recent press event ahead of her Sept. 16 Broadway debut starring inChicago, PEOPLEshowed Milano several photos from her early days on the show to see what the 51-year-old actress remembered.

A young Alyssa Milano in a 1984 ‘Who’s the Boss?’ promo photo.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

“So, this is the first season where I had just come from theater. So, you can tell I’m not yet a sitcom kid,” Milano, who got her start at 7 in the national touring production ofAnnie, recalled of the image above.

“I’m very demure,” she added of the photo — referencing TikTok starJools Lebron’s viral catchphrase.

Milano said she was told early on to “sitcom kid it up a little bit,” advice she said influenced the next photo (below).

Milano said she wasn’t given much “outward say” in shaping her character’s style. “But a lot of Sam was based on who I was as a kid,” she explained, “which was someone who loved sports, a tomboy, someone who loved her family, tough, scrappy, and everything that kind of went on in my adolescence.”

“Like, I remember when I started developing breasts, I walked in the next week and there was a script called ‘Sam’s First Bra,’ ” she continued. “So it was like, everything that happened in my life, they wrote it in the show.”

Milano has remained close with Danza, Light and Pintauro over the last 40 years. HerWho’s the Boss?costars, she said, became like family over the show’s eight-season run on ABC.

Judith Light, Katherine Helmond, Tony Danza, Danny Pintauro and Alyssa Milano in a 1984 ‘Who’s the Boss?’ promo photo.Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

“No one else understands that experience but us,” she told PEOPLE.“It was a really special cast.”

Milano added that she’d just spoken to Danza — who last appeared on Broadway in the original cast of the 2014 musical adaptation ofHoneymoon in Vegasand wraps hisSinatra & Storiesperformances at New York City’s Café Carlyle on Sep. 21 — just days before her own debut inChicago. (Milano even caught his Sept. 18 performance!)

Danny Pintauro, Tony Danza and Alyssa Milano in a 1984 ‘Who’s the Boss?’ promo photo.Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

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“Tony said to me, ‘I wanna be on Broadway again so bad,’ ” she recounted. “I was like, ‘You’d be a greatBilly Flynn!’ ”

Here’s hoping for a reunion that would surely be packed with the old razzle dazzle!

Who’s the Bossis now streaming on Hulu.

source: people.com