I know this isn't going to get much fanfare but thirty years ago today, Perfect Strangers, one of my favorite shows of all time premiered. It's the story of a naive, but good-hearted immigrant from the fictional island of Mypos named Balki Bartokomous coming to America to live with his cousin Larry Appleton. It's the classic fish out of water premise played to comedy perfection by Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker. Plus it had in my opinion, one of the best opening theme songs... ever...
One of the main sources of comedy was the miscommunication between the two cousins. Here's a perfect example.
Another source of comedy was their attempts to woo their dates Jennifer and Mary-Anne. Here they are trying to impress them at the gym.
And after they overdid it at the gym, even more hilarity ensued.
Their attempts at dating got them into increasingly sillier and sillier situations. Like the time they pretended that they could ski, but ended up trapped in a log cabin.
Or when they went camping and got stuck in quicksand.
Music was a semi-big part of the show too, and is probably the reason why it hasn't had a proper DVD release or is in syndication or on Netflix.
But when they came up with their own lyrics, like the Bibbi Babka Ditty, it's just too hard not to laugh.
It was always Cousin Larry's plans that got them into trouble, and at the end his plans always blew up in his face.
The show always veered into silliness which is one of the reasons I still love it. Boochi, boochi, boochi!
And that time they thought they were karate masters after one lesson.
Like I said, it's sad the show isn't really available anywhere except for these clips on YouTube, but I absolutely remember it very fondly. It's most famous legacy may be spinning off Family Matters which introduced the world to ultra-nerd Steve Urkel, but give me the Dance of Joy any day!
And how about that uplifting theme one more time!
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