Credits Director : Various Starring : Bronson Pinchot, Mark Linn-Baker Our Score :

By Clint Morris

Its about as stale as the block of cheese at the back of my ‘second’ fridge – they were made around the same time I believe – and yet the vintage sitcom “Perfect Strangers” still goes down reasonably well (the cheese does too – you just have to cut off the green bits). I dare you not to laugh in at least one spot!

(As I write this I’ve got that darn annoying theme song playing in my head, but I’ll continue in the hope that I don’t go completely mad)

Debuting in 1986, “Strangers” saw Wisconsin-native Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) receiving a rather unwelcome gift on his doorstep: distant cousin Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot), who has left his home of Mypos (some fictional island in the Mediterranean) for the ‘freedom’ of America. Like “Mork & Mindy”, the show then proceeds to take the piss out of Balki’s introduction to our culture – stressing just how different everything is in America from Mypos.

In the first season, Larry gets his cousin a job at the Ritz Discount Store, located on the ground level of their apartment building. Most of the action takes place in the store. A character named Susan, who lives upstairs, is introduced – and funnily enough disappears by the time the second season starts.

In the second season, the boys meet their long-time loves, Jennifer Lyons (Melanie Wilson) and Mary Anne Spencer (Rebeca Arthur), at a gym. The two would be permanent fixtures of the show for the next umpteen years. The season 2 opener is actually probably one of the better episodes – it has the boys running around like headless chickens as a friend of theirs, staying in their apartment, is about to give birth [at any minute].

Like any sitcom of the 80s, “Strangers” has really dated – the jokes don’t play as funn as they did, the writing seems far less smart and imaginative than most of today’s sitcoms, and by-and-large, it’s not a show that has any sort of ‘edge’ to it (like most sitcoms today do). Still, there are some good laughs to be had – even if they’re sporadical – over the course of the two-season set.

Of the two stars, Bronson Pinchot went on to become the biggest star – but then, so he should’ve, he had the hardest task of both. Granted, he merely played the same character from the series in any film he did (including “Beverly Hills Cop 3”, reprising a character he played from the first film) or popped up in something for about 5 minutes (as he did in Tony Scott’s “True Romance”) but he kept much busier than co-star Mark Linn-Baker who, I kid you not, has so much time on his hands post-“Perfect Strangers” that he’s regularly posting “Wall” messages on my MySpace site.

The lone DVD extra is a 7-minute clip featuring “memorable moments” from the show.