History Series / BostonCommon

* TheStoryteller: Boyd almost always had a story about one of his and Wyleen's strange backwoods relatives in Virginia.[note]'''Joy''': Is there a family member you ''don't'' have a story about?[/note]

* TheStoryteller: Boyd almost always had a story about one of his and Wyleen's strange backwoods relatives in Virginia.

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Considering how easily charmed she was by Boyd, Joy's relationship with Jack definitely falls under this. [[spoiler: Heck, her defense of Jack's personality to Boyd in "Virginia Reeling" (Season 1, Episode 6), isn't exactly convincing, either, and one wonders if even she is questioning why she's going out with Jack, not Boyd. According to Joy, ''her own mother prefers Boyd''.]]

The series's first season aired in two parts, with the first six episodes airing on Thursdays as part of NBC's "Must See TV" block from March 21 to April 25, 1996, and the remaining three episodes airing on Sundays (August 11, 18, and September 8) after the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. For its second season, the show was placed in the 8:30 PM Eastern time slot on Sundays, paired with ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''. The second season began on September 15, one week after the first season ended.

* BloodOnTheDebateFloor: It doesn't get physical, but it does get personal. DC and Wyleen have their freshman president debate at the Student Union in "The War Room" (Season 2, Episode 6). Unfortunately, their campaign managers, Boyd and Jack, are standing alongside them. The two (as in, Boyd and Jack) begin attacking each other, totally taking away from the candidates; it gets really ugly when one student asks DC and Wyleen what qualities that each of them possess that their opponent doesn't:

* CelebrityResemblance: In the ColdOpen to the Season 1 finale, "Everybody's Stalking" (Episode 9), Leonard wins a $25 gift certificate from Joseph and Sons Market for being their 25th customer on their 25th anniversary. He also has his picture taken for an ad in the newspaper, and on billboards. After the titles, he is seen in the Student Union being recognized by many people. Boyd pretends not to know Leonard, and asks him if he were in the movie ''CitySlickers'', before saying he was thinking of JackPalance. Boyd is making a reference to the ''City Slickers'' character Ira Shalowitz, played by Academy Award nominee (Best Supporting Actor for 1992's ''Mr. Saturday Night'') '''David''' Paymer, younger brother of '''Steve''' Paymer, who played Leonard. If you've ever seen the Paymer brothers side-by-side, you'd definitely think they were twins. And no, at no point in ''Boston Common'''s run did David Paymer make an appearance.

* CreditCardPlot: "Extra Credit" (Season 2, Episode 17) sees President Cross introduce a credit card program to the university, which, much to Boyd's horror, Wyleen applies and is approved for. Unsurprisingly, she goes nuts, and maxes out the card in ''two days'', purchasing a cappuccino maker, a fancy stereo, and a dog that she puts a pink sweater on, among other things. After President Cross refuses to waive the interest rate, Wyleen goes down the street and gets ''another'' credit card, with half the interest rate of the university's card, intending to use her new card to pay off the university card. This leads Boyd and Tasha to invite other credit card companies with lower interest rates to set up shop in the student union, forcing Cross to drop the credit card program. At episode's end, Wyleen was able to take back the stereo, keep the cappuccino maker, and sold the dog to Leonard, where it immediately made itself at home on Leonard's bed, much to his dismay.
* CurseCutShort: In the ColdOpen to "The War Room" (Season 2, Episode 6), Boyd brings a TV and a VCR on a cart to Jack's classroom. Inside the VCR is a VHS of the first debate between JohnFKennedy and RichardNixon in 1960, which also happened to be the first-ever televised presidential debate (as well as the moment the election turned in JFK's favor for good). Jack begins playing the tape for his class; at first, things are fine, as Nixon is seen speaking about farmers. Suddenly, the audio changes into a GagDub done by Boyd and Tasha, with Boyd's audio appearing over Kennedy, and Tasha's over Nixon:

* DecidedByOneVote: In "The War Room" (Season 2, Episode 6), Wyleen runs for freshman class president against arrogant classmate DC, recruiting Boyd to be her campaign manager. [[spoiler:While running, Wyleen is also studying for an important midterm, which happens to be on the day of the election. Wyleen is so busy studying that she ''forgets to vote for herself'', and loses by a final margin of [[ApatheticCitizens 7-6]]]].

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Considering how easily charmed she was by Boyd, Joy's relationship with Jack definitely falls under this. [[spoiler: Heck, her defense of Jack's personality to Boyd in "Virginia Reeling" (Season 1, Episode 6), isn't exactly convincing, either, and one wonders if even she is questioning why she's going out with Jack, not Boyd.]]

* CelebrityResemblance: In the ColdOpen to the Season 1 finale, "Everybody's Stalking" (Episode 9), Leonard wins a $25 gift certificate from Joseph and Sons Market for being their 25th customer on their 25th anniversary. He also has his picture taken for an ad in the newspaper, and on billboards. After the titles, he is seen in the Student Union being recognized by many people. Boyd pretends not to know Leonard, and asks him if he were in the movie ''CitySlickers'', before saying he was thinking of JackPalance. Boyd is making a reference to the ''City Slickers'' character Ira Shalowitz, played by Academy Award nominee (Best Supporting Actor for 1992's ''Mr. Saturday Night'') '''David''' Paymer, younger brother of '''Steve''' Paymer, who played Leonard. If you've ever seen the Paymer brothers side-by-side, you'd definitely think they were twins.

--> '''Boyd:''' [''gasps, turns towards Jack''] Oh, so it's personal, huh? Well, I'll tell you one thing: at least I don't tell my secrets to a male prostitute! ''Hello, is this on?!'' [''chaos breaks out, and Wyleen leaves, humiliated; Boyd calls after her, to no avail, and realizes he's gone too far'']

* The next day, Jack and Boyd apologize to each other.

The next day, Jack and Boyd apologize to each other.

-->Cookie: And the play I've chosen is... The Tea Ceremony.
-->Cross: That's an inspired choice. What other plays were you considering? Death of a Stapler, perhaps, or My Fair Paperclip?

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Sherman (Fred Applegate) was never seen again after the pilot, and he was the one who hired Boyd. Two episodes later, it was revealed he had been fired by the university ''for trying to choke a student''.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Sherman (Fred Applegate) was never seen again after the pilot, and he was the one who hired Boyd.

Virginia-born comedian Anthony Clark played Boyd, with Hedy Burress playing Wyleen, Traylor Howard as Joy, Steve Paymer as Leonard, Tasha Smith as, well, [[TheDanza Tasha]], and, except for the pilot episode, Vincent Ventresca as Jack. In the pilot, the role of Jack Reed was played by Patrick Fabian. Sam Anderson played university president Wesley Butterfield until near the halfway point of season two. At the two-thirds mark of the second season, Tony Award-winning Welshman Roger Rees joined the cast as Butterfield's replacement, uppity Harrison Cross, and the role of university president became more prominent in the show, as Boyd and Cross began to clash on just about everything.

** At least one of these stories was taken from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QOuU30FabM Clark's set at the 1995 HBO Young Comedians Special]]. [[spoiler:Boyd tells Joy about how his parents forced him to give up his pet cow because he tried to make it eat hamburger. This was a part of Clark's set. Too bad the series didn't last any longer; it would've been interesting to see how the writers could make Clark's story about reporting an Irish girl who wasn't a U.S. citizen to Immigration and Naturalization Services after she dumped him into a Boyd tale.]]

* BirthdayEpisode: "This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco..." (Season 2, Episode 3). [[spoiler: In the episode's first minute, Tasha gives Jack a birthday card to give to Joy, as it's Joy's birthday the following day. This makes Jack realize that [[ForgottenBirthday he's forgotten about the occasion]]. Jack reluctantly recruits Boyd to throw a SurpriseParty for Joy, though at a cost: Jack will get Boyd a ski weekend at the university's condo on Mt. Killington in Vermont between Christmas and New Year's. The party must be thrown that night, as Jack as a lecture he can't get out of on Joy's birthday night. The two meet up that afternoon, and quickly put everything together (the party will be held at Jack and Joy's apartment), and invite guests. There's just one problem: they forget to have someone "go shopping" with Joy and accompany her back to the apartment for the party. Joy's having her own little party with Leonard, who's just lost his job because the university has cut his funding, and the two get drunk in the library, staying in the library until past Midnight. Joy finally returns to the apartment, where everyone's left, and Jack and Boyd are cleaning up. She greets ''Boyd'' with a "Hi, honey", and Jack with a "Hi, Jack" (the "Hi, honey" to Boyd got the StudioAudience riled up for a few seconds), before saying she's kidding. She notices the boys cleaning up, and asks what's going on. Boyd and Jack respond with a meek "Surprise!".]]

* MockingMusic: Used at the end of "Hope Springs a Leak" (Season 1, Episode 7). [[spoiler: Boyd, Wyleen, and Leonard are all at the Pritchetts' apartment, each one moping about a different situation: Boyd is upset that Joy still hasn't told Jack about her and Boyd's kiss; Leonard is distraught that the woman he slept with has suddenly gone back to her husband (Leonard was oblivious to the fact that this woman was [[WrongNameOutburst yelling out her husband's name while they were making love]]; he thought she was yelling, "Faster!", when she was actually yelling, "Lester!"), and that his salary has been cut by 20% to help pay for the education of a rude Russian student who cares nothing about actually going to class; and Wyleen is angry over the fact that her singing career has ended before it's even started, thanks to bad booking by Tasha. Each character punctuates their stress with one last line (Boyd: "I can't stand waiting."; Wyleen: "I can't stand Tasha!"; Leonard: "I can't stand myself."), and then, Dean Martin's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" begins blaring from the street. The trio all look toward the window to the left of the apartment's counter, before staring off into space again. Ironically, the song had been used in the ColdOpen to punctuate Boyd's happiness over finally kissing Joy during his dream]].

* ButtMonkey: Leonard. Pretty much every time he went to the Pritchetts' apartment to discuss some problem, they made as many jokes about him as possible.

* TheDanza: Tasha Smith as Tasha King.
** D.C. Douglas as D.C., Wyleen's chief rival.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Pretty much the only place to watch the series is on the YouTube account linked above. It doesn't air in syndication in the United States (it's unknown if it airs in syndication anywhere else in the world). Since the show is pretty much forgotten, it will never likely see a ''legal'' DVD release (some of those Websites that sell "complete series box sets" of shows (you know, the ones that they clearly recorded off of TV?) have all 32 episodes for purchase).

* TheOtherDarrin: The role of Jack being recast after the pilot (Ventresca replacing Fabian).