Abbi brought her BFF Ilana to her hometown of Wayne, Pennsylvania in the March 23 episode of Broad City. And with a visit to her childhood house, fans got to meet Abbi's dad on Broad City , portrayed by none other than Tony Danza. Recently, Danza was seen as Joseph Gordon-Levitt's aggressive dad in the 2013 movie Don Jon, but the television star looked like he was having a blast letting loose as Abbi's dad on Broad City. Plus, the actor fit right in as his character hilariously complimented Abbi and Ilana and their madcap antics, which shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise since he is an advocate for strong women. Danza recently told Huffington Post Live, "Once you have daughters, you can't help but be a feminist."
As a person from a Philadelphia suburb, I loved actress Abbi Jacobson having her Broad City counterpart visit her home turf — with plenty of Will Smith/Fresh Prince references courtesy of Ilana, of course. Besides Jacobsen's ties to Philly, Danza, who is best known for his notable and lovable TV characters on Taxi and Who's the Boss?, has his own connections to the city of brotherly love. According to Philly.com, back in 2010, he was a teacher in Northeast High School in the city for the A&E series, Teach , and he has returned every year since then to perform in the school's talent show.
That fun-loving side of Danza was put on display when he and Abbi shared an elaborate handshake at the train station, and when he made breakfast with Ilana and Abbi toward the end of the episode. (Oh, how visions of Danza in the kitchen of Who's the Boss? danced in my head.) While the episode didn't really focus on Abbi's relationship with her dad, some gems about Abbi's childhood life were revealed, like the fact that her parents told her they were getting a divorce by their trash cans so she'd get over her love of playing with trash. (Spoiler alert: It didn't work.)
Just like Ilana's parents — portrayed by Susie Essman and Bob Balaban — before him, Danza gave insight into how the hilariously crazy Abbi came to be. Hopefully viewers don't have to wait until Abbi visits home again to see him on Broad City. Not only will her childhood bedroom be turned into an infrared sauna by then, but the Brooklyn-born Danza probably wouldn't mind making a trip to New York City.
Images: Comedy Central (2)
