Strange pairings in TV Sitcoms are nothing new. Series like The Honeymooners would have the sort of violent buddy’s of Ralph and Ed, The Flintstones would have Barney and Fred, and of course The Odd Couple would have Oscar and Felix. But in 1986 a new duo would be added to this list and Friday night TV viewing would never be the same. Cousin Larry and Balki would become a hit power couple for viewers who would fall in love with the quirky pair and their misadventures trying to make it in Chicago. The series would become a favorite for a number of fans not only in the states but eventually around the world and would spawn a spin off that would become just as big a hit for ABC. On this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten our destination is America or Burst as we look back on the sitcom classic, Perfect Strangers.
Perfect Strangers was created by Dale Keith McRaven, the man behind the classic series Mork and Mindy. McRaven had written for a number of TV’s legendary shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl, Gomer Pyle and Laverne and Shirley just to name a few.
McRaven along with Thomas Miller and Robert Boyett came together to make the series which was originally inspired by the 1984 Olympics. All three men thought it would be a good gimmick about seeing what culture shock of an athlete from another country would play out like as they dealt with the weirdness of mid 80s America. From there the story was changed to one about a man who was living alone in a big city who gets a surprise guest in the form of his odd ball cousin, that he never knew, arriving on his doorstep.
The series followed Larry Appleton, a young man who has just moved to the big city of Chicago from his Wisconsin home he shared with a large family. One day his cousin Balki Bartokomous appears, also having taken the plunge to move to a new place away from his large family. Only Balki’s journey was a bit longer, taking him from the island of Mypos to the states. Larry is shocked and surprised when this shepherd appears and is reluctant for him to stay, which is Balki’s goal.
Eventually the two become roommates and close friends. They even wind up becoming co-workers and then co-creators of a comic strip. The series follows the two as they make their way through crazy situations, relationships, and eventually each of them getting married to two other best friends and having families of their own.
Perfect Strangers would start out fairly different from what would eventually be on screen when it came to the two lead characters. Firstly, the show was turned down by CBS, NBC, and ABC when it was pitched to them. What changed the mind of ABC was when, thanks to his turn as the very memorable Serge in Beverly Hills Cop, Bronson Pinchot caught the eye of the producers. When they came back to ABC stating they would try and get him as one of the leads they said yes.
While the creative team knew they wanted Pinchot for the fish out of water cousin, Pinchot was actually reluctant about taking the part because he felt it would be typecasting him as a guy with a silly accent. At the time Pinchot was starring in another series which would wind up being cancelled and so he went ahead and joined the production. He even went so far as to being the one to come up with the name Balki which was taken from the nick name of his sisters dog. Pinchot would actually be the one to choose Greece as the location of Balki’s home, he elaborated about Balkis origin story in an interview for cryptirock.com on April 21, 2023, when he said quote
“To find the character, I decided I would lock myself into a bungalow at a hotel near Santa Barbara. When I was there, I would not allow myself to come out until I had the character. That’s what I thought I needed to do and I was there for two to three days. One day I woke up, and there were these weird slip-on shoes that I had actually purchased in Greece that were woven leather and they were blue. They were sitting on the floor, I woke up, looked at the shoes and went, “Ohhhh!”. That is how the character came to me and then I let myself go out to get something to eat.”
But it wasn’t Mark Linn-Baker who would be in the unaired pilot opposite Pinchot. The late Louie Anderson was cast as “Cousin Louie.” The pilot was shot and after viewing the footage it was decided that the two didn’t mesh as they had hoped for. The creative team brought back Baker who had auditioned previously and worked well opposite Pinchot. So a new pilot episode was shot. It’s funny both of them had the same Alma Mater, Yale university.
The original first season of Perfect Strangers would actually only be 6 episodes as it was used as a mid-season replacement at the decision of ABC. These episodes were shot in record time with the first episode hitting airwaves only a week after rehearsals.
Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot had a fantastic chemistry and had a blast making the series. Which shows and is one of the main reasons for the show’s success. It was also boosted along by starting out on Tuesday nights as the lead in for Moonlighting. A show that, in the mid-80’s, was part of the crown for ABC. The first truncated season was a hit with both Balki and Larry working at a department store.
The following season would see not only a change of night in the show airing as it would move to Wednesday. But, it would also see Larry and Balki each get a girlfriend in the guises of Mary Anne and Jennifer, played by Rebecca Arthur and Melanie Wilson. The characters who were also flight attendants would become regulars on the series and would stick through the rest of the series run.
Season 3 would see the show move to the legendary TGIF block for ABC. The 3rd season was actually a big one in a lot of ways for Perfect Strangers. This season would see the duo of Larry and Balki move jobs to the Chicago Chronicle, something massive for Larry who has had dreams of being a reporter and photographer.
Unfortunately the two were starting in the basement and mailroom…but we all have to start somewhere, right? But thanks to the building being huge there was the need for an elevator and an elevator operator. That elevator operator would be Harriette Winslow played by Jo Marie Payton France.
Harriette and her husband Carl Winslow’s names should be very familiar to fans of 80s sitcoms. So as you guessed, they would get a spinoff series that would become another legendary sitcom called Family Matters. Family Matters would be the only spin off from Perfect Strangers and would start in 1989 and run until 1998 after being picked up by CBS from ABC for its final season. Family Matters would actually have a longer run than Perfect Strangers at a total of 9 seasons.
At one-point Balki and Larry were supposed to show up in the pilot for the series, but it never happened. Neither of the cousins would actually appear in Family Matters.
During the 3rd season ABC decided to try and recreate their success of TGI Friday with Saturday night programming. Perfect Strangers was moved to Saturday night, and it was a disaster. Ratings dropped on the show which was one of the heaviest hitters on Fridays. It was moved back to its original slot not long after.
At one point the series tried to add a kid character to the mix. But, those of us who remember Cousin Oliver know how much of a bad idea this is. This was in guise of Alisan Porter, Curly Sue herself, who was a young girl who lived in the cousins apartment building. She lasted one whole episode.
As the series progressed Larry and Jennifer would get engaged and Balki and Mary Anne would soon follow…after a number of will they or won’t they’s. Both couples would get married, with Balki and Mary Anne actually heading back to his home in Mypos to meet the family.
The cousins would show that all those dances of joy got them in synch more than they thought as we discover both couples are having babies. I’m way too amused that Balki’s son is named Robespierre, the name of the guy in charge of the French revolution. I’d love to know if this was Pinchot’s idea too.
Speaking of the signature dance of joy Pinchot and Baker created the dance after the writers just told them to “do the dance of joy”. They knew how good their physical comedy talents were and just let them loose. Balki’s now classic catchphrase “don’t be ridiculous”was a happy accident. In the pilot, Pinchot was supposed to badly lie to Larry about not having a color TV. The original line was him responding to the question by lying saying “yes” then just yelling in shock “BLUE!”. Pinchot decided to ad-lib the line and it a got a huge laugh…the rest as they say is history.
Season 8 would, like season 1, be a truncated season with only six episodes. In the two episodes being a two-part storyline ending with the two couples having their babies.
The finale was an emotional one, with Baker and Pinchot doing one last dance of joy for the audience which you can watch on YouTube when it was shown on Entertainment Tonight. Bronson Pinchot started crying when they were asked by the audience to do it one last time. The duo would, after filming episodes, take questions from the studio audience and more often than not, they’d always be asked to do the dance. After 8 seasons with this being the last time it hit hard.
People may seem surprised at the enduring love and fan base Perfect Strangers has a few 30 years after its last episode aired. But you really shouldn’t be. The show rested on the shoulders of its two leads, Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker who had a chemistry that’s hard to find. Returning to the show I forgot just how hilarious these two were and the sheer amount of physical comedy they brought to the show. They both said they insisted on doing the physical bits in one take, as they felt the best reaction from the audience would be the first attempt. In fact they would get annoyed when new directors would come on and ask them to do it again, since they felt it was not needed.
They played off each other perfectly and brought that physical comedy chops but they also brought to life two characters with a lot of heart. The core of Perfect Strangers were these two men who were from completely different parts of the world and different backgrounds, but were family, nevertheless. They grew together and supported each other in their hopes and dreams, and in the end they succeeded together.
Perfect Strangers had hilarious writing and fantastic actors, not just with Pinchot and Linn Baker, but also with Wilson and Arthur who held their own with the two cousins.
Over the 8-season run there were a number of familiar faces who would share the stage with the Perfect Strangers cast. Holland Taylor, Ted McGinley, Wayne Newton, Carl Lewis, Doris Roberts, and Leslie Jordan would be just a few of the names to be part of the series.
The Perfect Strangers opening sequence and theme song became iconic as well, with fans on YouTube even recreating it in their hometown of Seattle years later. The song, Nothings Gonna Stop Me Now was sung by David Pomeranz. It was written by Jesse Frederick and Bennett Salvay who also wrote the majority of TGIF tv show themes, like Fullhouse and Step by Step. A fun fact about Pomeranz was the fact his record, Born For You – His Best and More was one of the best-selling records of all time in the Philippines.
The same year the series ended; Pinchot would co-star in the Quentin Tarantino penned True Romance. He’d follow this up with Beverly Hills Cop 3, returning as Serge along with a turn in the Stephen King mini series The Langoliers. Pinchot has been consistently working in film and television over the years but has also done a ton of audio books including being the voice of the Christopher Farnsworth President’s Vampire book series. He also was the ill-fated principal in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Recently Pinchot appeared in the HBOMax series, Our Flag Means Death.
Mark Linn Baker has also consistently been working in film and television since the series ended. This included turns on The Blacklist, The Electric Company, and Blue Bloods. He recently even joined the Marvel universe as Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk’s father Morris Walters.
I find it very amusing that both Mark Linn Baker and Bronson Pinchot both played memorable murderers who took on Bobby Goren in Law and Order Criminal Intent. It just makes me twistedly happy.
Currently Perfect Strangers is available to stream on FreeVee…which means ads but hey at least you can stream it. But for some insane reason season 1 does not seem to be available to stream anywhere.
Like I said, Perfect Strangers is beloved by fans and continues to be. So much so that one industrious fan actually created an online video game where you could run with Balki as the theme song plays through images from the show gathering stars to make your dreams come true.
While it may sound sentimental, I think the reason the show has stood the test of time and has so many people who love it, is at the heart of the show is finding common ground between two seemingly different people. Larry and Balki, while they are family, find a friend with each other.
Balki with his fumbling of the language and his strange catch phrases is an adorable fish out of water. And even though Larry grew up in the here, he’s just as much at a loss as Balki is, trying to find his path and follow his dream of making it in the big city after being in a house filled with siblings. The two need each other and help, and sometimes hinder, one another. Perfect Strangers is really about finding common ground with your fellow man and realizing we’re all really just trying to make it through a crazy world.
So should Perfect Strangers be remade? I don’t think you could recreate at all what this show pulled off without it feeling ham fisted and just nowhere near as charming. Mark Linn Baker and Bronson Pinchot just had a magic that those old school duo acts had, and you can’t really recreate it.
Now would it be interesting to see the two of them return to the roles to see where Balki and Larry find themselves down the road? That might be a treat to see. I could imagine Balki with a successful line of wool based clothing he’s designed, world famous with his House of B collection. Cousin Larry is a writer who just snagged a Pulitzer Prize who hasn’t seen him in a while, walking through the door because he needs a suit for the awards ceremony.
I’m giving you this for free Universe. Go make it happen and the fans would do their own dance of joy.