Tom Hanks Was Convinced His Career Was Going To Be Killed By Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I.

Long before Tom Hanks won Oscars, he starred in an underrated sitcom called "Bosom Buddies." The short-lived series, which saw Hanks play a man who dressed in drag to live in an affordable women's apartment building, ran for two seasons on ABC before being canceled. It also aired opposite Tom Selleck's "Magnum, P.I.," a head-to-head that had Hanks fearing for his show's future.

"We are on ABC, Thursday nights, 8.30 after 'Mork and Mindy,'" Hanks recalled in an interview with SiriusXM. "We were on TV already for about four weeks, and then this thing comes on CBS, Thursday nights at 8 o'clock, about a good-looking cop with a mustache, driving a Ferrari and flying a helicopter in Hawai'i." Hanks recalled the buzz for "Magnum, P.I." at the time — even before a single episode had aired. He noted that it even landed on the cover of TV Guide, a coveted achievement for publicists in the 1980s. "Peter [Scolari] and I just looked at each other... We are toast," Hanks said of their reaction to the hype surrounding "Magnum, P.I."

Ultimately, "Magnum, P.I." proved far more successful than "Bosom Buddies." The Selleck-starring series ran for eight seasons and is now regarded as one of the defining shows of the 1980s. However, "Bosom Buddies'" short run at least helped pave the way for Hanks' future success. Still, the actor felt "Bosom Buddies" was in trouble from the start.

Tom Hanks knew that "Bosom Buddies" faced an uphill battle to stay on the air from the start. In the aforementioned interview, he recalled filming the series at the Paramount lot while "Laverne & Shirley," "Happy Days," and "Taxi" were still on the air — and let's just say "Bosom Buddies" didn't enjoy similar levels of support. The contrast was impossible to ignore, particularly for a young cast trying to find its footing in a crowded TV landscape.

"We were like the ugly stepchild," Hanks recalled with a smile. "We were on video, and they were on film... There was a strike by the Actors Guild in 1980, the Screen Actors Guild, that postponed us, so we lost a couple of weeks of work, a couple of paychecks that would have been nice at the time. And we had a show that was on TV, and no one was paying attention to us."

Despite the show's short run, Hanks said that working on "Bosom Buddies" was great fun, as he developed a close relationship with Peter Scolari. Even if the sitcom struggled to find an audience, it left Hanks with lasting friendships and lessons that carried far beyond its brief time on the air.