Then came Niagara Falls, a comedy about a working-class family's reaction to their gay son and his lover arriving unexpectedly for his sister's wedding.
Finally, confronting his demons, an award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation allowed him to complete Adam And The Experts, his first play dealing with AIDS.
In 1995, David Milch, executive producer of NYPD Blue, having seen a reading of What Are Tuesdays Like?, invited Bumbalo to write an episode for his series.
The success of his NYPD Blue episode led to a staff writing position on American Gothic.
The play was produced by David Milch and starred Wendie Malick, Dan Lauria, and Dorian Harewood.
Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic said of the play "it is a wonder ... the talents of Victor Bumbalo—the comic charm, the moral courage, the range of characters—are in perfect accord.
Outside of his theatre work, Bumbalo also appeared in an ad campaign for "Orgy of the Living Dead," a theatrical reissue package created by Europix International in the early 70s combining the films Kill, Baby, Kill, The Murder Clinic, and Malenka under new titles and in abbreviated edits.
Bumbalo appeared in the trailer and promotional ads as "John Austin Frazier", a man who was driven to insanity as a result of viewing the triple feature of "Living Dead" films.