https://web.archive.org/web/20070225141752/http://jumptheshark.com/
Other Thoughts:
Just a bad show that stayed on to long. Especially the episode where Larry and Balky find out there are not realted.
When Larry and Balki became more obvious than Xena and Gabrielle.
I think Perfect Strangers jumped the shark when Larry and Balki moved out of their apartment and moved in with Jennifer and Mary Ann.
I loved this show until Larry and Balki moved. Introducing two regular women into the lunacy of Larry and Balki's life ruined it. Actually, the show probably sharked when they got regular girlfriends. The physical comedy between Larry and Balki in the early years was great, hilarious and not commonly seen.
Yeah, I miss Larry and Balki. The slapstick was great in the beginning. Like a male version of Laverne and Shirley. I thought Balki was the only character I ever saw Bronson Pinchot play where he was SUPPOSED to be annoying. Everything else I saw him play he was annoying but I don't think he was supposed to be!!!
when balki and larry married jennifer and mary-anne and they all moved into one house in the burbs
When they moved to the new place. This was the point when it stopped focusing on their place of work, and was more focused on the relationships with the chicks, no longer could deal with the fact that Balki was a stranger to America.
It just stopped being funny after Larry and Balki moved. I think the whole Balki as a foreigner thing was downplayed after that as well. But definitely it was the moving.
Larry SOOOOO wanted to frisk Balchy
Two words -- Bibby Bobkas. The episode when Balki made the Mepos-ian delicacy known as Bibby Bobkas and Larry thought they were going to be rich since they were so tasty, but when they set up the Bibby Bobka factory in the apartment and commenced with the inevitable idiotic comedy of having the pastries explode, flour bags spilling over every 20 seconds, and Larry and Balki's misunderstandings and stupidity, this whole show jumped shark.
Like Happy Days, this was funny for about two years. Then they ruined it. Here, the problem was that PS became a two-plot show every week. The episodes either had to do with Larry having "a plan!" that always backfired, or--worst of all--he'd take advantage of Balki's naivety and deceive him into getting out of his hair prior to some crucial life-changing moment, or he'd cause Balki to drop his guard so Larry could make him give up something he wanted. At this point, the show may as well have been retitled "I Dream Of Balki". The ONLY thing it ever did right in the later eps was to go off the air as soon as the babies were born. And may we NEVER see a reunion TV movie!!!
Since this show recently aired in a Summer stunt on Nick at Nite, I was able to see Perfect Strangers for what it really is. Recontextualized and aired on it's own, without the safety and comfort of the then-ABC primetime line-up, I now see that this was just another steaming stinking pile of monkey crap, courtesy of the Miller-Boyet Sludge Factory. Things are SO different as I get older! What was harmless comedy fare to an otherwise oblivious 12 year old now stares me in the face as historical documentation to the type of soul-less greed and bull**** illustrated in Jerry Stahl's memoir (Permanent Midnight - it's not just about junkies!). The music cues, the 2 blond whores, the assembly line dialogue and catch-phrases . . .no wonder Mark Lynn Baker has tried to redeem himself and beg for his soul back in the theatre! And ol' Bronson Pinchot . . well, his post-Strangers career choices only seem to support the idea that he was a full & complete participant in the bile and runny **** soup that was Perfect Strangers; which is a shame, since he was actually quite good in True Romance.
Why did they buy a house? it totally killed the show.
I think that this show jumped the shark when Balki announced that Mypos had not one, but TWO, count em TWO! cures for the common cold. The first one involved drinking some foul concoction, but he drank too much and slept for a week or something. The second cure involved a plant that only bloomed once every hundred years or something. The side effect was that everyone grew mustaches.
Actually, I jumped ship on this one before it jumped the shark. I don't remember thinking it sucked, I think maybe something else better was on opposite it or something. I realize it was a dumb show probably aimed at kids, but I thought the interplay between cousin larry and balki was very funny sometimes (my wife says I over-use brilliant). The old "watch and learn Balki, watch and learn" "but cousin Larry I..." "Watch and learn, balki, watch and learn" It was funny every time. And, if I remember correctly, their girlfriends were hotties!
How could you not love this show? Mepos! But why'd they have to kill it by putting it in the same evening as "Full House"? And why'd they have to have em all get married?
Well, paint me green and call me gumby-- clearly, PS jumped when they married Jennifer and Maryanne and moved.
Perfect Strangers used to be one of my favorite shows, but the final season was a wreck. I don't think the problem was solely the fact that Balki, Mary Anne, Jennifer, and Larry all moved into the same house because some of those episodes were pretty funny. The real turn off was when Mary Anne and Jennifer were pregnant. Ug...on one episode, Larry was asked how he was enjoying lamaze classes or whatever and Larry said something like "You can only stand so much 'your penis does this,' 'your penis does that.'" Then the final episode where Jennifer forced herself to give birth by flying in that balloon was really absurd.
when you're rolling out the dough just make sure to roll it slow when you roll the dough too quick bibby bobkas make you sick when you put the filling in just make sure you wear a grin when you smile while you bake bibby bobkas come out swell. nuff said
DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!!! It was the best show ever, they weren't gay, and even though it lost a little when they moved, there were still great episodes like the one with the pregnancy root and the one where king Ferdinand dies.
How could you not love this show? Mepos! But why'd they have to kill it by putting it in the same evening as "Full House"? And why'd they have to have em all get married?
Perfect Strangers jumped the shark when ABC put it on the same night with shows like Full House and Family Matters. It had been on since '86 and just couldn't stand up to the other shows. Oh, and by the way, Step-by-step was the other show on that lineup.
I don't think this show ever jumped. I thought Balki & Larry's chemistry was always great from birth to death of the program. Even after they moved out & got married, their humor took on new prospects & situations. Tell me a show that never "evolved".
I remember quite fondling convincing my mom I was too sick to go to school and staying home to eat chicken noodle soup and watch Perfect Strangers. The show was much better than the movie Balki did with John Laroquette...what a horrible, horrible movie.
Funny show, but when Cousin Larry and Jennifer shacked up it was too much. Come on. I know hot girls can dig not so good looking fellers, but Larry was just an idiot. In general I got sick of Balki too.
Who are you people trying to kid, Balki and Larry were TV first gay couple! It is common knowledge that about that time ABC was developing a sitcom about a gay couple and got scarred off from it, and the outcome was Perfect Strangers. Have you ever noticed that every show ended with a "big ole'hug" between the two. Did you see the Christmas show, which at the end, the two stood in the window of the apartment and were shoulder to shoulder as the snow fell, after they sweetly exchanged presents to each other. Sweet and romantic! HELLO! I think the girls were only there to "beard" the true relationship that was implied. Hell, even in the first season they only had ONE bedroom! After season two, the same apartment suddenly got another bedroom. The sexual chemistry was the real reason the show was great. That why once they "married" those girls, the show lost something. However, even when they did marry the important thing to Larry and Balki was really each other, not the women. Yes, friends, they were GAY! And that is okay, the only sad part is that ABC didn't let them be who were were created and cast to be. Maybe they need to do a reunion where Larry and Balki divorce and raise their kids together and buy a mini-van!
I can't believe nobody has brought up the fact that the show's characters switched jobs. They used to work at some shop run by Ernie Sabella, then six shows later they're at this newspaper. Most shows have one annoying character, and just as Family Matters had one in Urkel, so did the show that bore it, and the loon in this show is Lydia. She was supposedly an advice columnist at the paper. Please, I tolerated Balki over Lydia, and that's a stretch! Never mind the talentless broad that played her (is she supposed to be Rita Moreno's estranged sister or something?) but the bottom line is (if this is printable) Lydia ruined the show because she was a big time ****. The barnyard has spoken.
I only watched this annoying piece of drivel a couple of times when my small children whined to watch it. I remember the Bibby Babka episode and it was NOT funny. However, it jumped for me when Larry sees Balki in his pj's and asks "what are those" to which Balki replies "Spiderman payamas" with his stupid Euro-trash accent. PULEEZE - we should NEVER be subjected to seeing grown men in character pajamas or Underoos.
I suppose I'm with the majority who feel the show jumped when "our heroes" finally married, but at the time I felt it was a good, genuinely funny family show, even after the marriage and move. It was only with the sudden proliferation of Miller-Boyett shows that I began to see their outfit for the sausage factory it really is. Every Miller-Boyett show follows a distinct, easily recognizable pattern. (Just in case their alleged target audience finds them too hard to follow). There's always one strange/annoying character with a catchphrase (Balki, Kimmy from "Full House," Urkel)and there were always cute kids, babies, or dogs in varying combinations (in the case of "Perfect Strangers", Balki was kid/baby, annoying sidekick, and pet all in one). Taken individually, none of the Miller-Boyett shows are necessarily bad--but together, they tend to wear the viewer down by constant repetition of the same tired formulas.
I agree that this show was on a lot longer than it should have been. However, a lot of credit needs to go to the writers who came up with the skit where Larry tries to teach Balki the 5 W's of reporting (Who, Where, What, When, & Why). This is second only to Abbott and Costello's original Who's on First? sketch. I laughed my ass off.
OK, I too think "Perfect Strangers" peaked with the marriages of Balki and Mary Ann, and Larry and Jennifer. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing; there were still some entertaining plots during the final (abbreviated) summer 1993 season. However, what I'm objecting to is the implications made about Larry and Balki's alleged "homosexual" relationship. The two men were cousins, if you might remember! Sure, they may have shared hugs once in awhile (men DO hug each other, even though I prefer to hug only the opposite sex!). But I don't seem to remember an episode where Larry put on a slow-dancing record, invites Balki over, the two begin to slow dance in a very close embrace and then pan outside the apartment window at night. No, the two weren't homosexuals. Also, I might add, just because the two shared a bedroom doesn't mean they shared the same bed; they might have had separate beds, for crying out loud! Again, Larry and Balki were not, WERE NOT homosexuals. Otherwise, why would they get married or even be interested in Jennifer and Mary Ann? Oh, the horror of it all!
This is one of those shows that warned you away at first glance, like a cobra with its hood raised. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid. And more stupid. If you base a show's premise on one of the actors having a goofy accent, it ain't gonna last. But PS wasn't all bad; anything that unites America in wanting to beat the ever-loving **** out of Bronson Pinchot has to have something going for it. I like how you repeated the character for Beverly Hills Cop, too, Bron..... And where are you now? Just wonderin.
B. Balky B.!!!! Balky gets offered a record deal and makes the most god awful video ever, but soon discovered the voice used was not his own (shades of the brady bunch Johnny Bravo episode), while cousin Larry gets into the act as Grand Master Cousin Larry. And of course they cant live with being fakers so they stage a live show in witch balky raps the producer out as a shady and evil lip sink bastard... that's when it JTS.
I enjoyed this show as a kid, even though I realized Balki was a poor man's Latka Gravas. The show definitely, clear-cut jumped when they moved in with those two boring, annoying girls. It probably jumped earlier when I realized how HOT Larry's girlfriend was, and how no girl like that would ever put up with his idiocy...let alone his ugly mug. The interaction between Balki and Larry was great though. My favorite episode was when Larry was hypnotized, or he had amnesia or something..and he had an important meeting, so Balki taught Larry how to speak and such, which meant Larry starting talking like Balki at the meeting. Larry said "Hallo, ma name eez cohzin Lahree App-lay-tone"...FUNNY!
Yes, damn Ted McGinley had to ruin this show when he played Cousin Larry's brother.
In some ways, this one might have jumped pretty early on, but it still managed to have hilarious moments, until the guys moved out of the apartment, and into the house with the girls. True, Balki was a bit much to take at times, but Larry's reactions were classic, some of those facial expressions..I think this show was best during the first couple of seasons, when they were still working at the discount store, but the first year or so at the Chronicle wasn't bad either. It's amazing to me, how early in the series(very beginning of the first official season),Jennifer and Marianne started making appearances, and how the writers decided to have the guys date only them, for five years.. I kind of liked the girls, and used to think Jennifer was hot, but it might have been more interesting to have the guys date around a little more or maybe, eventually just have Larry and Jennifer or Balki and Marianne hook up, rather than having them all end up married, moving into a house. The final, official season '91-'92 just sucked, they moved into the house, and all of the comedy was suddenly gone. It seems once Miller-Boyet began to pump out a bunch of mediocre shows(Full House, Family Matters, Step By Step)they slowly had to bring Perfect Strangers down to that level as well. I actually remember seeing Bronson Pinchot on Arsenio Hall around that time, and he even put the show down himself, claiming that no one wathced anymore. I also noticed that there were some shows during the '91-'92 season, that seemed to be a little too reminiscent of Laverne & Shirley, especially the one where they think their house is haunted. Oh well, even though it began to repeat itself, and could be incredibly cringe worthy at times, this one did have some great moments. Oh My Lord!
Perfect Strangers jumped in one of its last episodes where Larry and Balki played their own infant sons in some sort of fantasy/dream sequence. This episode was just plain stupid.
I only watched one episode of the guys at the new house and that was enough for me to quit, and I had loved it since the beginning. I agree that the show would've been funnier if they did not have steady girlfriends so early on. Time to slam some idiots who wrote comments above. 1) Bronson Pinchot was in Beverly Hills Cop before Perfect Strangers; the commercial for the pilot of PF even had people saying "I liked him in Beverly Hills Cop". 2) This was never meant to be intelligent comedy; it was meant to be slapstick geared towards a family audience. Not every show has to be Frasier, which sucks ass, incidentally. 3) Okay, let's get it straight once and for all: Larry and Balki were not gay. If they were not engaging in gay activities or outwardly admitted to be gays, then they were not gay. Why, you may ask? Because this is FICTION!!!!! In real life, sure, you can go ahead and assume two guys are gay even if you have no concrete proof and you might be right. But, on a TV show, claiming that two fictional characters are gay when all you have to go on is a couple of hugs and living arrangements, makes you a ****** for putting too much importance on things that aren't real. It also means you're probably gay yourself, and you're just using your own twisted view on reality to see things that aren't true, or you just want to make yourself feel better by trying to convince others and yourself that there are more gays than there really are. By you calling Larry and Balki homos, you're spoiling the show and making me sick. If these guys were gay, then the show would've been called "Perfectly Strange."
When Cousin Larry and Balchi married the blond flight attendants. Balchy is a complete rip-off of Latka from Taxi! Also, don't you just hate the name "Larry Appleton"?
Can anyone believe that this guy succeeded in Hollywood? Uh, wait a minute - that was a dumb question. He does the same accent in movies and on TV. Moronic. Has anyone seen the show in which he plays a live-in robot? A Tabasco enema would be more entertaining - and refreshing than this putz.
Have to agree with the poster who said Balki is a poor man's Latka. My brother saw about 2 minutes of this show early on, made that observation, and refused to watch it ever again. If you're going to do a wacky foreign character, come up with your own interpretation. Don't do a carbon copy of somebody else from another sitcom.
To the prior posters who felt the need to debate whether Larry and Balke were or were not gay....DUH. The CHARACTERS were not WRITTEN that way (yes, it IS FICTION, after all.) They dated women, got married and seemed quite happy about it. This does NOT mean, however, that there wasn't a sweet homoerotic energy between the two (IF a viewer wishes to perceive it way...NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT :D) and a relationship that could easily translate to a gay relationship on television today. We are still waiting for THAT series...the next step after Will and Grace, perhaps. Bronson Pinchot has a decided "edge" to his portrayal of Balke (this character was created during or shortly after his portrayal of Serge in Beverly Hills Cop) that could easily be construed as gay. And quite honestly, for some reason I always thought that Bronson WAS gay in real life....but I really don't have much to go on there....I don't think he has ever come out in the media or anything...I agree with the prior poster that those who assume these were gay characters have some personal agenda there...I mean, the characters were not WRITTEN that way.....as if they were closeted.....even to themselves...this was NOT that psychologically complicated of a show...it was a frothy, rather mindless comedy from the late eighties-early nineties..for gosh sake. The characters were not written, in my opinion, with a political agenda to make them "between the lines" gay....as if gay America was supposed to figure that out...sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.....in today's television landscape it is obvious when a character is or is not gay or straight or somewhere in between because the dialogue and characterizations will tell us...it is a different landscape than even ten years ago.....A "gay Perfect Strangers" might fly today, I think.
While it may have not been such a crash hot idea for Balki and Larry to marry Jennifer and Mary Anne and continue the sitcom until they had children, it still never deteriorated to the extent that most sitcoms do and it remained much more intact than some of the present sitcoms in their early stages are. And I loved the characters of Jennifer and Mary Anne
Perfect Strangers JTS at the beginning of the 5th season, right after it gave birth to the awful Family Matters. Why? because Harriete Winslow was no longer on the show! Her character was excellent on PS and it should have stayed there and not get destroyed in that Urkel Series. Definitely the leaving of Harriete.
Without a doubt, the show jumped when Balki and Larry moved in with their two bimbo twits and got married. The show was rooted in the Odd Couple/Laverne and Shirley-esque form of great roommate pals, and it fell to pieces once that framework was drastically revamped. I was a loyal and die-hard fan up until that day -- then I dropped it the episode they moved into the house like Jesse Helms would a bill that would actually help people.
First off, the above post of a "tabasco enema" was about the funniest frickin' thing i have ever read on this site! I'm reading all of these posts, and i realized that as a kid, i watched this show religiously. Now, at age 25, i cannot remember one goddamn episode. this show had absolutely no staying power. I personally think that Balki was Larry's mail-order bride..."cousins" my red ass!!
Honestly, this was a funny show. Bronson Pinchot was great in the show and carried Mark Lynn Baker throughout the tenure. However, not even Pinchot could prevent the sitcom from jumping the Shark as Balki and Larry married the blonde cousins (don't remember their names and don't care) and then what made the show more MORONIC was having the couples have the kids on the same day and another episode having Balki and Larry act like babies. After the marriages, the show sucked worse than any other show that was on at the time.
The only person I ever knew who thought this was funny was my brother. The occasions on which he thought it funny he was stoned. very stoned.
perfect strangers NEVER jumped the shark! I loved this show from beginning to end. Mark and Bronson had great chemistry together.. wonderful acting they didn't force things they just let it flow.. i disagree with the person who said they were gay.. they were not gay.. like i said before perfect strangers did not jump the shark! hey everyone lets do the dance of joy :)
Hehe, this used to be a GREAT show, back in the heyday of "TGIF." Honestly, I don't know why my mom and dad hated this show, but my brother and I LOVED it! I watched this show from the time I was 4 until I was 10 1/2. Ya gotta love Balki, he was the funniest thing about this show. Just proof that some guy with a crazy accent can make something great. You better believe that I was almost dumbfounded when he showed up as an uptight/near-crazy businessman in the horrendous TV-movie "The Langoliers." I was so excited when I was getting ready to watch it, I was like "It's Balki! Balki!" But then I realized how dumb the movie was.
When Larry and Balki move from their apartment to a house with their respective wives, Jennifer and Mary Ann.
Never jumped! Got on the skis the last season when they were married and in that big house but NEVER, NEVER jumped. ("Because I have..." "Ohhhh, God..." "A PLAN!") Even some of the last season episodes had the spirit from before (the giant crib). The "WIN IT ALL" game show episode, where Balki wants to do all the stunts the whole way through and Larry ends up sticking them with doing all the stunts in 90 seconds, was definitely an 80's classic. I lived for this show in its original run... Somebody needs to pick this up for a full time syndication run. When this happens, I will be the first to say "Now we are so happy we do the dance of joy!"
Okay, just had to comment on what I will always call my favorite show of all time, even though I recognize now that it was far from brilliant . . . I will never love another program as I loved this one. I actually thought it got better as it aged, even when the p-plant episode aired on Jan 18,1991 and it was a virtual retread of the Mypos Cure from Season 1, even when they married and moved to the house with Jennifer and Mary Anne (I nearly cried, thinking it would jump, but it didn't!), even when those precious final eps aired in the summer of '93. PS forever!
This show, for me, got really bad really fast. I was just a kid when I watched it, so looking back it was a stupid show, but I enjoyed it at the time. After they moved, though, it got really jacked up. One show, where the girls were both pregnant, was so bad I actually got up and went to bed, rather than watch it. And for a little kid to do that, it must have been REALLY bad! That was the last episode I ever watched (although I don't think it was on long after that, anyway.)
Balki and Larry's move was an indication this show was starting to overstay its welcome. I saw this show on TVLand last night and it's interesting how the face of modern-day primetime network television has changed in just the last fifteen years. "Perfect Strangers" reruns are probably not very much in demand today because it is very rated-G. If some of you aren't old enough to remember, I think you should know that "Perfect Strangers" was very popular in it's day and everyone in my eighth grade class watched it. Today, if network primetime television wanted a show like "Perfect Strangers" to be relatable and popular in the year 2003 market, the two 27ish men would have to be potrayed as: emotionally immature; still dressing up like 17 year olds; borderline alcoholics; commitment-phobic; addicted to internet porn and violent video games; and making as many homophobic remarks about their own living arrangment as everyone else does.
Bravo to the poster above who said PS reruns are not in demand due to its G-ratedness! I agree with most of what you said -- the show did not treat sex as a punchline the way today's shows do. Hell, the guys didn't share bedrooms with their girlfriends until -gasp!-THEY WERE MARRIED! What's up with that? I will submit, however, that Larry and Balki WERE emotionally immature: Larry still thought he had to lie to impress a woman, and Balki was so clueless about Mary Anne's wanting to marry him . . . still, the show was so sweet. And funny: While a lot of the stunts were a little too well choreographed, some of the lines still hold up today. "Say Chuck, you got a blueprint for your brain? I'm building an idiot." "I am not lying. I am merely reshaping the facts into a greater truth." "You think Cheese Whiz is a natural phenomenon?" "This man could blow us up. We should never have let him tie us to this chair!" And many more.
Too many people are hard on this show. It was simple and funny in the beginning. Larry and Balki were like Lucy and Ethel, always getting into impossible scrapes. I loved the episode when they moved the piano up the stairs. It was the only show worth watching during that dreadful Friday night lineup (Family Matters, etc.). Sure, thinking back, I should have been out instead of watching this crap, but anyway .... Oh, and yes, the show truly jumped the shark when they got married. Suddenly, it was like the Brady Brides or something.
I know way too much about Perfect to be taken seriously here, but I'm correcting some people who are basing their negative opinions on misinformation. Slam me if you will. 1) In the oven-mitt-man episode, when Larry and Jennifer got back from Lamaze class, his alleged "penis" quote was actually: "You know, the last faint was a fake faint. I just didn't want to talk to the Bickleys. I mean it's always 'our fetus this' and 'our fetus that.' How's Balki doing; has he come out of his room yet?" 2) It was "Fresh Young Balki B," not "B. Balki B." Although I can't vouch for the music (to paraphrase Larry in the Wayne Newton ep). 3) No one has commented yet on "same actor, different character" (weird) for Lydia! She played Mrs. Twinkisettie in the early episodes at the Ritz Discount. Edwina, maybe? Hmmm . . . she wasn't very good at playing that character either. 4) Whaddya mean, they "found out they weren't really related"? That never happened, I'd bet my bottom dollar, although there are at least 2 eps that I know I never saw. If anyone else knows, please explain. 5) All right, that first Christmas ep in '86 WAS a little bit gay. So was Balki's first broken heart -- I can't watch either of those without cringing. I wonder why Balki never dated before? I mean, he was foreign, not eleven years old. 6) The catchphrases got a little old too. The original lines remained good until the end. 7) When there was only one bedroom, Balki slept on the pull-out sofa bed in the living room. There were several episodes that showed this happening. At one point, they did sleep in it together, because Gina was in Larry's room, 9 3/4 months pregnant. 8) The show where Bronson Pinchot was a "live-in robot" was Meego, and he was an alien, if that's what you're referring to. Yeah, it sucked. So did The Trouble With Larry. Oh, well, PS rules. :)
When they moved into the house, it definitely sucked. It just wasn't funny, period. The show, however, started out great. They need more shows that had silly catch phrases, shows nowadays need to be so "mature" that they deal with 16 year olds having sex and NO foreign characters with accents, because it's stereotyping. I think that's what made Perfect Strangers somewhat PC, is that he was from a fictional country, with a fictional accent. Whatever, Cosin Lahdy, don't be ridiculous.
I was going to say that Howard Stern and Three's Company are the gayest shows ever. I stand corrected.
This sorry piece of crap jumped the shark while it was still inside the brain of the ABC TV executive who thought it up. It was sad, sad day this show began. Why did this show stay on the air, inflicting pain on us all, while classic shows including thirtysomething and My so called life were axed in the same period? This is a great example of what happens when the right powerful people at a network like a show. No matter how crappy it is, the show stays on FOREVER (see also Family Matters). All the highly praised slapstick was lifted entirely from other older funnier shows, you get points for emulating, not for photocopying. THIS SHOW SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!!!!!
Perfect Strangers jumped when Larry and Balki would do the "Dance of Joy" every single episode. It was funny at first, it got old pretty quick.
I loved this show a lot when I was five or six. My brother and I would live and die by it. "Balki is on! Put on Balki!" we would cry in our adorable 80s-children voices, and mother would park us in front of the tube and shut us up for half an hour. Now I realized it's just one of those silly things us 80s kids wax nostalgic about because we don't clearly remember it, but upon seeing it again now that we are adults we wonder "what the hell were we thinking?". Like glam rock and mon-chichis. Nick at Nite recently started rerunning Perfect Strangers and I had one of those sad moments when you realize you really were a dumb, easy-to-please kid once upon a time and one of your fondest memories is nothing but a sham. And is it just me, or does it seem unlikely that Balki could live in American for two or three years and STILL not know English? I've known people who don't speak a lick when they moved to this country and were surprassing Balki's hold on the language in about a year.
I'm not so sure I agree the show 'jumped the shark' as you say. I know tons of people in the city I live in (which has 69+ thousand people in it) and many of them watched and thoroughly enjoyed the show as did I. Who can forget Balki's catch phrase? Me? Well of course not don't be ridiculous. So maybe they got married and had kids. They do that on other shows, take a look at 7th heaven. The mom in that show had twins. They also moved. In the beginning of that show they're staying at a place the church is allowing them till they find something. Things like that are designed to happen. :]
Perfect Strangers jumped on day one. What a horrible show. The idea was pure cheese. I cant believe I used to watch this TGIF crap. Every episode was absurd in how Larry and Balki would go about their situations with bad timing and generic dialogue. Cousin Larry was the ultimate wuss. Just the way he acted and was developed as a character from the first episode was jump worthy. Larry was a constant pud. I cant believe him or Balki would bag those blonde babes. Bronson Pinchot should find God or something because he sucks. The only cool things he ever did was True Romance and Risky Business and that was as a third banana. Balki was pure repetitive schtick. the sad thing was everyone seemed to like him. Kids at the time would copy his stupid accent and words and I have actually seen a few lame-o's doing the dance of joy. Whats even sadder is Bronson Pinchot has made a career out of playing flamboyant foreigners. How one trick pony is that? Balki wasnt even the horse he rode in on. I'm pretty sure he did the gayer Balki role in Beverly Hills Cop before PS (hahaha PS)It was ironic to see Bronson in a direct to video Laurel and Hardy movie since the antics of Larry and Balki were directly ripped off from them. I even remember an episode where Cousin Larry and Balki were dressed like them. This was so fluff. There were tons of horrible shark worthy moments in the show. The idea of Balki and Larry getting married, and having kids and living together at the same time. Balki and Larry recording some kind of Do the Bartman ripoff video. Wasnt there a Perfect Strangers cereal and cousin larry and balki dolls?Actually come to think of it, there was a horrible episode involving a box of cereal. Oh well I'm done. The show sucked. It was funny to see Cousin Larry in an episode of Full House.
I really like this show until both Jennifer and Mary Ann showed up. I kept thinking they were the same person--two blond airheads who never had a clue that the guys like them. I could not stand either woman because 1. They were too good looking for these guys, it was not realistic, 2. Their characters fit the stereotype of the dumb blonde, and 3. They made the guys act very stupid when the "blondes" were present. I liked the show better when Larry kept striking out with women and Balki was out doing Larry on everything. Also, I never thought the show was "gay" because they were related (distant cousins). If they were just roommates and were not related, then I would be suspicious of them been closet case gay guys.
Perfect Strangers is another in a long line of "flavor of the month" shows in which some network exec gets the brilliant idea of building a television show around a movie character or pop culture icon, in this case, Bronson Pinchot's "Sergio" character from Beverly Hills Cop. Fortunately, ABC put this show into their "TGIF" lineup, ensuring that only kids and losers with nothing else to do on Friday nights would be its target audience. Pinchot and Mark-Linn Baker were terminally annoying, and the show was completely unfunny. Baker has somewhat redeemed himself by turning more to dramatic roles in recent years, such as on Law and Order a few years back, but it'll be a long time before I forgive him for this fetid piece of excrement.
This show was OK until season two when the moved. Clearly these were "Gay" characters but since you couldn't do that they were straighten up for TV. A couple of things. The boys NEVER shared a bedroom. In season one Larry slept in the bedroom and Balki on the living room pull out sofa. The problem with this series was a lack of focus on the scripts. For instance Larry moves from Wisconsin (appleton is a city in Wisconsin get it. Oh that is so funny - NOT) and he is a dedicated photographer working in a second hand store to get money while he awaits his big break (ala THAT GIRL) Balki shows up without anywhere to go or any skills other than molesting sheep. Now in season Two the boys are in a new apartment, each with a bedroom and suddenly Larry has forgotten his life long photographers dream to become a WRITER? DUH??? Balki is stuck at the second hand store. It would've been better to leave him there. Then Jennifer and Mary Ann are health club instructors. Remember that is how they met. The girls get the boys to sign up. Larry tries to work out and over does it. Jennifer "Do you think I only like Jocks?" Well maybe not but a hot looking dish like Jennifer DOESN'T, on this planet or any other, date a slighty more butch version of Richard Simmons (hairplugs included). No never a girl like Jennifer, no suddenly a flight attendant, who can get boinked in 6 continents DOESN'T fall for pudgy, bit tits Larry. Harriet was funny but an elevator operator. This is 1989 that job went out in what the 40s. OK maybe a few survived into the early 70 but come on.
Marriage definitely made this show jump. But even more annoying, though not directly contributing to a jump, is the incessant "sentimental" laugh track that is played every time an emotional scene is played out (ie: Balki crying over losing a girlfriend, a long goodbye, etc.). This type of scene is usually accompanied by a laugh track which consists of the audience shouting in unison, "AWWWWWW"! Obviously, this juvenile tactic is not just confined to "Perfect Strangers", but they were one of the first to abuse it, along with "Full House" which I believe was produced by the same producers. It's bad enough that a laugh track has to tell people when to laugh. Now it has to tell people when to feel sad, happy, blue, proud, :-(, :-),.... Well, you get the idea how far we have fallen when we are emotions are continuously manuvered! The shame of it is, "Perfect Strangers" is a great sitcom that didn't need to resort to this tactic. But it comes from the Politically Correct crowd that decided that sitcoms should be completely devoid of any hint of controversy, that everything in the world is perfect. Well, all I can say is, the dumbing down of American TV was accelerated with the advent of the "syrupy", "sentimental" laugh track! And we are all worse off for it!
Perfect Strangers never ever, jumped the sharkie!!! Its the most golden, brilliant, sitcom out there and I wish there were more like it. I hope someone airs this again in reruns, like TValdn or Nick-at-Nite. They took it off. PLEASE SAVE BALKI AND LARRY SOMEONE, AND AIR THEM AGAIN!!! I need my daily dose of vitamin Balki. BOO BOO BOO, to anyone who cuts this show down, and BALKI AND LARRY WERE NOT YOU KNOW WHAT!!! If you don't like the show, don't watch it plain and simple. I hope this show comes back and airs in reruns forever, and maybe gets a movie, or maybe a new PS will come out. ROCK ON BALK AND LAR WE LOVE YOU!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SOMEONE SAVE THEM, AND GET THEM BACK ON AIR WHERE THEY BELONG!!!! THANKS!!!
Sure, everyone knew it got worse when they moved into the house with the blondes--a house, I might add, that bore more than a passing resemblance to the set in Mark Lynn Baker's Noises Off. But there was a pretty brilliant Honeymooners bit once they moved that had me in stitches. The show was great for what it was.
Come ON! Perfect Strangers was the best sitcom of the 1980's and we all know it! Don't even pretend like you don't know how to do the dance of joy! Don't even pretend like you don't know what a po po polupado poppitypoo plant is! ("I just realized what your problem is...you're bippity boppity booing instead of poppity pooping." Aw, COME ON!!!) Don't tell me a little part of you didn't cry out in protest when you saw Balki get shot in True Romance! "Yeah, I got a package here for Lar-wy Aplee-toon?" "I'm Lar-wy Aplee-toon."
Perfect Strangers, this was a good show but there so many subtle homoerotic things going on. I mean it seemed like they were always grabbing onto one another with their physical humor and also there was that one episode when they were snowbound in that cabin with those two hot blonds and they did nothing about it. One could reasonably conclude that they were gay.
Although I've been a fan of this show since the age of about 3, I have to say that the episodes lost something after Balki and Larry married Jennifer and Mary-Ann, and moved into that ugly house. The chemistry between Balki and Larry in the early episode back in the apartment were hilarious. Reading through all of these comments brought back memories of so many episodes. Anyone remember the one where Larry and Balki got themselves stuck in that sleeping bag? Or the one where Balki and Larry are locked in that store after closing hours? ("Engine...caboose...engine...caboose..." and then that huge doberman is standing behind them, and Larry is completely oblivious) I still await the day when the show is picked up by CTS, Prime, or Toronto 1 here in the GTA. Sigh...
The show went downhill like all the other TGIF shows, but this one at least started out before those others. The only reason I even remember it is because as a kid people said I looked like Balki. Which I guess is not a compliment.
The episode where Balki gets a checkbook contains one of the funniest lines in the history of tv. Belke lacks the understanding of how a checking account works but is bound and determined to write checks for anything and everything. When "cousin" confronts him about this Balki simply tells him that "I've got checks," in a way that only Bronson Pinchot as Balki Bartochamuis could do. After that it was all downhill.
Yeah, I was young, but my mother and I enjoyed watching this show so much...the slapstick humor was enough to have us in tears just about every episode. (One moment of perfect humor was when they were trying out their skis and ended up getting the skis tangled up...I can still see it and get a little giggle from the memory.) Yes, it was stupid, but it was supposed to be stupid. Then they moved in with those chicks. We stopped watching.
When Larry and Balki moved into that house with Jennifer and Mary Ann the show became shall I say, not funny anymore. Jennifer and Mary Ann became pregnant and most of the original supporting players were gone. Once the show entered the 90's, it was downhill.
I never knew that Balki's homeland was Mepos; I always thought it was "Meatballs." I always thought he was supposed to be from some silly made up country. I was ready the Golden Girls page and realized that Rose was from Minnesota. I have no idea what I used to think she was saying instead of St. Olaf, but I thought she was foreign too. I was a pretty dense kid (born in 82).
I infrequently watched this show with only mild amusement until, I saw an episode in which Larry and Balki volunteered at a hospital and had to change the bedding of an unconscious patent. This I had scene in a"Laverne and Shirley" rerun. Then I realized that many of the other gag done in Perfect Strangers were ripoffs of the same. Actually the best thing to come for this show is that "Family Matters" was spun off from it... and that's not saying much is it
Jumped with "I Do": Balki and Larry marry and co-habitate with Jennifer and Marry Anne. The show was decent in a "fish out of water" humour sort of way, and Larry's kinetic energy and compulsive lying kept otherwise stale and re-done humour vibrant. Balki was a poor man's Latka Gravas but again, the physical humour and language barrier made it appealing and sweet for a while. Still laugh at the recollection of some episodes, such as Larry's amnesia: "My name is La-ree Apple-ton." lol.
PERFECT STRANGERS was an OK ABC sitcom that was appropriate for TGIF. It was silly and over-the-top and most of the plots were recycled from LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY and I LOVE LUCY, but it was watchable. The shark jump occurred when Larry and Balki married Jennifer and MaryAnne. There is no way in life that two girls who looked like that could ever be interested in Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot.
Now I was 6 when this show was on TGIF and hugely popular. In my 6 year old eyes, this show could do no wrong. About two years ago (2003), nick at nite started to air reruns late at night. I was so excited, I had to stay up and watch. As I was watching, however, I don't know why the show was so addicting in the first place, especially the episode where larry and his dad are trapped in the flooding basement and larry just wants his dad to be proud of him. I don't know, i just thought the show should have stuck with slapstick, silly humor, and stayed away from attempting serious stuff.
There was an episode after Larry and Balki were married and in their new house. Does anyone out there remember the episode where Balki and Larry ate the Myposian Root, and they acted like maniacs? I mean they REALLY were crazy, almost to the point where I wanted to turn it off. Totally stupid.
I could not believe some of the comments about "Perfect Strangers" that I've been reading on this web page, particularly the negative ones. The only way I could react was to laugh out loud! Granted, this may not have been the most innovative TV program of its day, and some of the humor may have been a bit sophomoric. However, I admire this show for what it was--just a good, clean, fun, family-friendly situation comedy about an eccentric foreigner living in Chicago with his distant cousin. I don't think "Perfect Strangers" jumped the shark until near the end of its run when Larry and Balki moved out of their apartment and married their girlfriends. I think this changed the premise of the show enough that you could tell its days were numbered.
This show started out with a lot of potential, the first season and a half were pretty well written. When the show began, you had an uptight Larry Appleton, trying to show his cousin, Balki, the American way. There aren't too many shows that have ever made me laugh out loud, but this one could. The problem was, I'm guessing that the ratings went up once the regular girlfriends, Jennifer and Mary Anne came aboard, and they ended up playing it safe, sticking to the same format for the rest of the series. The girlfriends were fine at first, but the show really would have been better off to let the guys date around a little, and Jennifer and Mary Anne's character's were never really developed enough to care THAT much about them. The other problem was that by as early as the fourth season, the producers had taken the things that had originally warmed us to the show, and pushed them to the extreme; Larry wasn't just uptight, he was bordering on insanity, and was just pathetic where Jennifer was concerned; Balki wasn't just naive, he became stupid, and they also took some of the nice guy image away from his character as time went on. From season four on, everything was extreme, and a fairly cookie cutter type of pattern began for the show- Larry wants to impress Jennifer, he schemes, the scheme fails, he has to listen to Balki say "I told you so". Like I said, this was funny at first, but for something that showed so much promise in the beginning, this direction for the rest of the series' run was just a little disappointing. It's almost like the show began as a comedy more written with adult humor in mind, but with each season(especially once the whole TGIF thing started), it seemed to be geared more and more towards a 12 and under audience(which I happened to be for most of the run). Don't get me wrong, however, even though the show was dumbed down, it remained entertaining, even at it's worst, that is up until the season where they all moved into the house, what happened? It was almost like they wanted the show to get axed.. Even Bronson slammed the state the show was in on the Arsenio Hall Show in '92. It was doomed by that time, and the 1991-1992 season turned out to be it's final full season. It was ashame, but by that time, I wasn't surprised, and I didn't really care anymore. As years have gone by, and I've been able to catch a few(and I do mean few) episodes in syndication, I can say that the show brings back pleasant memories from childhood. I now see what potential it had in the early years, and how it was dumbed down.. I guess when you think about it, considering the team that the show came from, "Miller/Boyett"("Full House", "Family Matters", "Step By Step") we're lucky that it managed to be as good as it actually was for a time.
It was hard for a show like this not to jump the shark relatively quickly. The basic concept (innocent foreigner discovers America; American discovers he has much to learn from the old country) is interesting, but is much better for a movie than a television series. Can you imagine what would have happened if "Moscow on the Hudson" had been picked up for a sitcom? To carry the Robin Williams analogy a bit farther, "Mork and Mindy" quickly ran out of "Mork Discovers ______" and "Mindy Learns ___ Because Of Mork", and became simply a showcase for Williams to run through cocaine-driven, manic routines. In this case, the premise degenerated into "let's see what idiot food or custom we can come up with for cheap laughs this week. After all, we can't let America look inferior!" The show's very stupidity exemplifies what is wrong with mainstream American society and its obsessive need to prove itself #1 best at everything.
Somewhere late in the show's run (after they moved into that house) there was an episode where Larry writes a play about a Wheat farm during the great depression that is loosely based on Larry's ambitions. Sure enough; this play is given a shot at a community theatre, and even "sure-er" enough, Larry becomes a control freak with all of the actors involved. So now he, Balki, Jennifer, Mary Anne & even Lydia are forced to perform it. Meanwhile earlier in that show, Balki remembers being beaten as a kid by a school bully for his lunch money thanks to the trigger word "Bridge". Sure enough, that gets put into the play and the proverbial sh*t hits the fan. This I feel is one of the last truly funny moments this show had before it really got bad. There's a clip of it on Youtube somewhere (What don't they Have?) if you wanna judge for yourself.