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Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons, from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean Europe, Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot).
Originally airing on Tuesdays for the short six-episode first season in the spring of 1986, it moved to Wednesdays in prime time in the fall of 1986. It remained on Wednesdays until March 1988, when it was moved to Fridays. The show found its niche there as the anchor for ABC’s original TGIF Friday-night lineup, though it aired on Saturdays for a short time in 1992.
Premise
The series chronicles the relationship of Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) and his distant cousin Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot). Larry, a Wisconsin native from a large family, has just moved into his first apartment in Chicago and is savoring his first taste of privacy when Balki, a distant cousin from a Mediterranean island, “Mypos”, arrives intending to move in with him.
Balki, who was a shepherd on Mypos, interprets what little he knows about the United States by relying on his own (often out-of-context) recollections of American pop culture (“America: Land of my dreams and home of the Whopper”).[1] Balki’s signature is his “Dance of Joy”, a cross between the do-si-do and the hokey pokey that he performs (with Larry) to celebrate good fortune.
After initially gently rebuffing his cousin’s request to stay at his apartment, aspiring photographer Larry decides to take Balki under his wing and teach him about American life; as time goes on, the disparities between the two create many misadventures and growth opportunities. Initially working at a discount store and living in a small apartment, they eventually develop rising careers working for a respectable newspaper, move into larger residences, date two best friend flight attendants, and expand their lifestyle through their various experiences; all while learning to balance Balki’s wide-eyed enthusiasm and Myposian ways with Larry’s real-world ambitions and American pragmatism. Neurotic Larry is frequently as inept as Balki, if not more so, and often gets the pair into situations that only Balki can set right. Major influences on the show include “buddy sitcoms” such as Laverne & Shirley[2] and Mork & Mindy,[3] both of which were produced by the Perfect Strangers team.
Synopsis
Development
The series was the brainchild of Dale McRaven (co-creator of Mork & Mindy) and producers Tom Miller and Robert Boyett. Miller claimed that the series’ inspiration came in the wake of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, when America experienced a wave of renewed patriotic sentiment.[4] Their idea for a comedy about an immigrant in America was initially rejected by all three major commercial television networks operating in the U.S. at the time (ABC, CBS, and NBC).
In December 1984, Bronson Pinchot garnered notice for his role in Beverly Hills Cop as Serge, an effeminate art gallery employee with an unplaceable foreign accent. When Miller and company pitched Pinchot as the star of their immigrant show, ABC signed on to the project, originally titled The Greenhorn. By this time, Pinchot was unavailable, as he had taken the role of a gay attorney in the NBC series Sara alongside star Geena Davis.
Sara failed to find an audience and was canceled by May 1985. With Pinchot now available, Miller and Boyett developed the show in earnest. By November it was retitled Perfect Strangers and comedian Louie Anderson was cast as the immigrant’s American cousin.[5] A pilot episode was put into production, but in the end Anderson was not considered right for the role.
Development was placed into overdrive when ABC President Brandon Stoddard offered the producers a prime tryout slot for the spring of 1986 between the hit shows Who’s the Boss? and Moonlighting on Tuesday nights.[6] After running through several actors for the part of Balki’s cousin, the producers chose Mark Linn-Baker, whom they had recently seen in a guest appearance on Moonlighting. Linn-Baker displayed immediate chemistry with Pinchot[3] and the series raced into production. It premiered on ABC on March 25, 1986.
Season 1 (1986)
The series commences with Larry living alone in an apartment in Chicago. In the pilot episode, Balki unexpectedly appears at Larry’s door claiming to be his distant cousin. Balki soon joins Larry as a clerk at the Ritz Discount Store, located on the ground level of their apartment building. Their boss is Donald “Twinkie” Twinkacetti (Ernie Sabella), an unscrupulous miser who is also their landlord.[1] Twinkacetti’s incessant berating of his two employees (he calls Balki “Turnip” and Larry “Yo-Yo”) is occasionally alleviated by his wife Edwina (Belita Moreno). In the first season, upstairs neighbor Susan Campbell (Lise Cutter) is Larry’s platonic friend.
Airing in the coveted timeslot between Who’s the Boss? and Moonlighting, Perfect Strangers was an instant ratings hit in the spring of 1986, with five of the six episodes landing in the weekly Nielsen top 10 highest-rated programs.[7]
Season 2 (1986–87)
For its second season, Perfect Strangers was moved to Wednesday nights at 8:00 p.m. as a lead-in to the new ABC sitcom Head of the Class.
Susan’s character was phased out early in this season. Larry began dating Jennifer Lyons (Melanie Wilson) and Balki began dating Mary Anne Spencer (Rebeca Arthur), after meeting them through a local gym.[8] In later episodes, it is revealed that both women are flight attendants who live in Larry and Balki’s building.
Seasons 3–4 (1987–1989)
The start of season 3 in late 1987 found Larry and Balki in a new, larger apartment where Balki had his own room instead of sleeping on a fold-out sofa.[9] External shots depict a new apartment building. The characters never referred to the move, and Jennifer and Mary Anne were still co-tenants in the new surroundings.
Larry acquires a reporter job working out of the basement of the Chicago Chronicle, a fictional metropolitan newspaper, and helps Balki get a job in the Chronicle mail room. They are overseen by demanding city editor Harry Burns (Eugene Roche). Burns is phased out of the show by the end of season 3; the paper’s publisher, Mr. Wainwright (F.J. O’Neill) is introduced later in season 3,[10] and takes over as Larry’s boss after Eugene Roche leaves the show. Mr. Wainwright appears through season 7. Balki’s immediate supervisor is mail room head Sam Gorpley (Sam Anderson, who had portrayed a bank clerk in the season one episode “Check This” in which Balki opens his first bank account). Gorpkey is a rude and greedy boss to Balki and does everything he can to fire him. Gorpley never warms to Balki (he sometimes calls him “the Mypiot”) insults him regularly and wants to fire him. Lydia Markham is the Chronicle’s thin-skinned, multi-phobic, and very successful advice columnist; she is played by Belita Moreno, who had previously played Edwina Twinkacetti in the first two seasons. Although Larry physically remains at his typewriter in the basement, he joins the investigative team of Marshall and Walpole (loosely based on the famed Washington Post duo of Woodward and Bernstein) in season 4. Larry’s relationship with Jennifer matures as well.
Working as an elevator operator is Harriette Winslow (Jo Marie Payton-France). Her husband Carl (Reginald VelJohnson) is introduced in the fourth-season episode “Crimebusters”, in which the couple moves into Larry and Balki’s apartment building.
In March 1988, midway through the third season, ABC moved Perfect Strangers from its successful Wednesday-night slot to Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. before Full House. This was a key development in the formation of the ABC Friday-night comedy block that later became known as “TGIF”. Later moving to the 9/8c slot on Friday nights in the fall of 1989, Perfect Strangers remained an anchor of ABC’s Friday-night programming until it was unsuccessfully moved to Saturday nights in February 1992.
Seasons 5–6 (1989–1991)
In the fall of 1989, after two seasons on Perfect Strangers, Harriette’s character was given her own spin-off series, Family Matters. Joining Perfect Strangers in the TGIF lineup, Family Matters eventually ran longer than its parent show. Harriette was not seen again on Perfect Strangers, although an early Family Matters episode explained that she had been fired as the elevator operator, only to be re-hired as chief of security at the Chronicle. Carl became a main character on Family Matters.
Shortly after the sixth season opened, the producers attempted to add a child character to the show. Tess Holland, as played by Alisan Porter (who had starred on ABC’s short-lived Chicken Soup the previous fall), was introduced as the troublemaking-but-immensely-cute little girl who lived upstairs from Larry and Balki. Tess appeared in the season’s second episode, “New Kid on the Block”, when Balki agrees to babysit her, causing an uproar both at home and at the Chronicle. While Porter was supposed to be on full-time, and even credited in the opening title sequence of the episode, she was suddenly dropped, never to be seen again. The experiment of adding a child to the cast was partially influenced by the network as well since ABC’s TGIF lineup wished to incorporate the child-and-preteen demographic into its audience. While the content of Perfect Strangers could often appeal to the family as a whole, it had never had children in the regular cast. A similar infusion happened a few months later on sister show Going Places, which had also started with a more adult tone.
While Larry and Jennifer’s romance blossomed, Balki and Mary Anne’s relationship moved more slowly: the pair would get very close, but then back off after fleeting moments of passion, then drift back into affection. Many viewers’ predictions came true near the beginning of season 6, when Larry proposed to Jennifer,[11] after feeling competition from her old flame who was trying to woo her back. Jennifer accepted, and in the season finale, they set a wedding date.[12] As the 6th season (1990–91) closed, it was clear that despite Larry’s impending marriage, his and Balki’s relationship would somehow remain a focal point of the show.[13]
Season 7 (1991–92)
In season seven’s beginning (which premiered in September 1991), Larry and Jennifer’s marriage meant that Perfect Strangers would move in a different direction. Larry and Jennifer move into a large Victorian house, then discover that they cannot afford the rent without additional roommates: Balki and Mary Anne.[14] At midseason, Balki and Larry receive a promotion at the Chronicle, drawing weekly editors of the comic strip based on his stuffed sheep, Dimitri.[15] Gorpley and Lydia make occasional appearances throughout the season, but are gradually phased out as they have little relevance to Larry and Balki’s new career paths when they moved up from the basement to the top floor.
With Larry and Jennifer happily married, the series turns toward Balki and Mary Anne’s relationship. In the season’s last several episodes, Mary Anne stops seeing Balki and moves out of the house.[16] In the April 1992 season finale, Balki and Mary Anne resolve their differences and suddenly marry; the episode and season conclude with the couple on their way to an extended honeymoon in Mypos—and with Jennifer telling Larry that they are expecting.[17]
Season 8 (1993)
The first episode of season eight picked up several months after the end of season seven, by which time Jennifer is visibly pregnant. Balki and Mary Anne returned from Mypos, revealing that Mary Anne was also well into a pregnancy. For the eighth season, the Chronicle storylines were phased out, with the series shifting its full attention to the home life of the characters. The series ended with a two-part episode “Up Up and Away”, with each heralding the birth of a baby (first Robespierre, son of Balki and Mary Anne, and then Tucker, son of Larry and Jennifer). The last scene segues in and out of a musical montage of memorable scenes from the series to the tune of “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole. The closing credits showed the cast bowing before the studio audience with Mark Linn-Baker saying, “Thank you all for being with us. Good night.” Though it was not shown in the episode, co-stars Pinchot and Linn-Baker then did the “Dance of Joy” for the studio audience one last time.
Bronson Pinchot – Balki Bartokomous
Mark Linn-Baker – Larry Appleton
Melanie Wilson – Jennifer Lyons (later Appleton) (seasons 2–8)
Rebeca Arthur – Mary Anne Spencer (later Bartokomous) (seasons 2–8)
Belita Moreno – Edwina Twinkacetti (seasons 1–2); Lydia Markham (seasons 3–7)
Ernie Sabella – Donald Twinkacetti (seasons 1–2)
Lise Cutter – Susan Campbell (seasons 1–2)
Jo Marie Payton-France – Harriette Winslow (seasons 3–4)
Sam Anderson – Sam Gorpley (seasons 3–7)
Recurring cast
F.J. O’Neil – Mr. Wainwright (seasons 3–7)
Eugene Roche – Harry Burns (season 3)
Jim Doughan – Jimmy, the Security Guard
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