On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show. This year, I will be splitting full seasons into two posts. Here's a look at Season 7 (Part 1) of Perfect Strangers!
PERFECT STRANGERS: SEASON SEVEN
1991-1992
24 episodes
Season seven is the last full season of Perfect Strangers and its clearly a show that's gotten pretty tired. There are some attempts to spice up the stories with Larry and Jennifer finally marrying and them moving to a new house. But the plots feel tired and the actors look a little tired and the result was this season grading out as the lowest scored season for me. There's a couple attempts to break form like there was in Season Six, but it isn't as effective. The show was moved from its long-time Friday home to Saturday nights during this season.
Starring
Bronson Pinchot as Balki Bartokomous (24 episodes)
Mark Linn-Baker as Larry Appleton (24 episodes)
Melanie Wilson as Jennifer Lyons-Appleton (19 episodes)
Rebecca Arthur as Mary Anne Spencer (15 episodes)
Belita Moreno as Lydia (7 episodes)Mark Linn-Baker as Larry Appleton (24 episodes)
Melanie Wilson as Jennifer Lyons-Appleton (19 episodes)
Rebecca Arthur as Mary Anne Spencer (15 episodes)
Sam Anderson as Sam Gorpley (5 episodes)
F.J. O'Neil as Mr. Wainwright (5 episodes)
F.J. O'Neil as Mr. Wainwright (5 episodes)
Balki hosts a bachelor party for Larry against Jennifer's wishes and they both get very drunk after Gorpley spikes the punch.
Season seven of Perfect Strangers kicks off with the wedding arc for Larry and Jennifer and it's a little bit more of an "adult" episode with the drunkenness and the stripper, but it's all still pretty chaste. Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker play drunk decently well and are funny together in that scene. The episode grinds to a halt though when it has an extended and unfunny scene of Larry trying to cover up a tattoo with a joke that was done much better on I Love Lucy nearly 40 years prior.
RATING: 6/10
122. The Wedding (9/27/91)
Larry ends up in jail with Balki on his way to his wedding with Jennifer.
It's pretty fitting for this show that an episode about Larry and Jennifer's wedding turns out to be almost entirely a Larry and Balki plot. I know they are the center of the show, but it seems like this could have been a two-parter with this episode as Part 1 and the actual wedding as Part 2. I don't usually say that because I often think two part episodes are bloated. But this really feels like two distinct, albeit connected, plots. The actual wedding scene is quite sweet and funny because of the setting and Balki's officiating. Although I still think Jennifer could have done better.
RATING: 8/10
123. This New House (10/4/91)
Larry agrees to buy a house with Jennifer knowing that he can't afford it.
Naturally an episode that follows a wedding deals with a new house. After six seasons in the same apartment, Larry and Balki finally move out with a sweet (and thankfully short) sentimental moment at the end of the episode. It is completely unsurprising that the show found a way to keep Larry and Balki together. A show that has a premise this thin can't really afford to split up Balki and Larry as co-habitants. This episode is pretty middle of the road highlighted by one funny scene between Bronson Pinchot and Melanie Wilson.
RATING: 5/10
When the visiting King of Mypos dies in Larry's arms, Balki insists that Larry is the new King of Mypos.
This is such an absurd episode and the premise is a little off-putting if you think about it too hard. Why would the King be coming all by himself to Balki and Larry's house? But that being said, it is fairly funny in execution. Obviously the episode is a parody of Weekend at Bernie's (as evidenced by the title) but it has some funny moments from both Larry and Balki. If you can get past the rationale of the episode, you can just have fun with it. Though I would like to mention what a stupid character Lydia is. She exists solely to give a vampy line or two in each episode she's in and that's about it.
RATING: 8/10
125. Fright Night (10/25/91)
Balki becomes convinced that there is a ghost in the new house and tries to convince the others.
While the previous episode was somewhat absurd but enjoyable, this one is just completely absurd. Perfect Strangers was always sophomoric but it rarely traveled over the line of complete camp and silliness. It does in this episode. The episode could have been successful just with ghostly scares and the reactions of the four main characters. But instead, it uses fantasy elements and that cheapens the whole episode. It makes it dumb instead of funny. This was a tough one to get through.
RATING: 1/10
126. The Gazebo (11/1/91)
Larry and Balki try to build a gazebo together in the backyard, Laurel and Hardy style.
This is another form busting episode of Perfect Strangers like their Honeymooners parody in season six. This episode is an extended parody of Laurel and Hardy, done in black and white. I think the reference was less dated than it is now but it's basically an old fashioned slapstick comedy so it still works for the most part. I don't like this as much as the Honeymooners episode but I think it's well done and I appreciate the attempt to do something different. Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker are game performers for something like this.
RATING: 7.5/10
127. Citizenship Part 1 (11/8/91)
Balki's mother visits to celebrate Balki on the day he is taking his citizenship test but she is upset he is becoming an American citizen.
This is an odd episode because of the very odd performance from Bronson Pinchot as Balki's mother. There's an awful lot of real cringey moments and while I have enjoyed Pinchot and some of his impressions throughout the series, this is a bridge too far for me. It's just so stupid and overblown. I think the show would have been better served by getting a name guest star (Carol Kane?) to play the role. I'm sure there are fans that really enjoy this but yikes, I found it super annoying.
RATING: 1.5/10
After Balki returns to Mypos with his mother, Larry travels to Mypos as well to try to bring Balki back.
We have heard so much about Mypos since the very beginning of the series and now in the seventh season, we finally get to see it. I have mixed feelings about it. It's fun that the show is finally sharing the world with us but it might have been a place best left to the imagination (and the opening credits). There is less of "Mama" in this episode so that's a plus, but there still is some of Bronson Pinchot's over the top second character. Maybe I would be less negative about a trip to Mypos if there was a better story attached to it (and springing for more with the sets!)
RATING: 3.5/10
129. Wild Turkey (11/22/91)
Balki, Larry, Jennifer and Mary Anne have their first Thanksgiving in their house and Larry finds a deal to bring home 58 turkeys to sell while Jennifer loses her wedding ring.
The first and only Thanksgiving episode of Perfect Strangers, this episode is pretty frenetic. There were some funny moments. I'll admit I laughed out loud when Balki told Mary Anne that "GP" did not stand for ground pepper and instead meant "goat pancreas" while they were cooking. I thought the scene where Balki and Larry end up at another family's Thanksgiving was not as funny as the writers clearly thought it was and it went on much too long.
RATING: 6/10
130. Dimitri's World (11/29/91)
Balki is asked to publish his cartoon for the company newsletter in the Chronicle and enlists Larry to help him with the writing for it.
This episode follows a tried and true course for Perfect Strangers. Larry gets involved in something Balki wants to do, he messes it all up, Balki gets rewarded and then Larry manages to once again fail upwards. It's a pretty tired plot by this point in the run of the show, but I do always enjoy seeing Balki in the right and Larry in the wrong. It's also one of the few episodes that deals with the office in recent times as the attention seems to be much more focused on the home life (understandably since Jennifer and Mary Anne are better characters than Gorpley and Lydia).
RATING: 5/10
Larry tries to stop a burglar from stealing his new car radio and sets up a stakeout with Balki.
A lot of the physical comedy episodes between Balki and Larry have to do with pretty elaborate stunts. This one keeps them confined to a tight space but it plays very similar to one of their other physical comedy episodes. I think the pacing of this episode is pretty good because if it was just about the alarm or just about them being locked in the trunk, I don't think it would have worked as well. There's also a really funny sight gag featuring a blow up doll towards the end of the episode. It's a solid entry.
RATING: 7.5/10
132. Door to Door (12/20/91)
Larry and Balki get a job as door-to-door salesmen and Larry tries to find a shortcut by selling most of it to one wealthy woman.
Larry and Balki as door-to-door salesmen is a funny concept for them that we haven't seen yet in the six plus years of Perfect Strangers. However, I think this episode would have been better suited if it had actually been an episode about them being door to door salesmen. Instead, it veers more into the familiar territory of them getting increasingly in a jam, this time at a rich woman's house. It pales in comparisons to some of the similar episodes with a lot more physical comedy partly because they spend so much time dabbling in the door to door salesman idea without any payoff or execution.
RATING: 2.5/10
133. Two Angry Men (1/3/92)
Larry and Balki both end up on a jury together and Larry tries to hurry things along to go on a vacation with Jennifer.
Who would have guessed when Larry and Balki sit on a jury together that they would have opposite opinions? Obviously that's sarcasm because that's the plot of every jury-themed sitcom episode from the 50s until now. I guess they all work about the same. I can't think of a jury/court themed sitcom episode that really worked and became a classic. I can think of a few duds and this isn't one of them. It just hits all the usual notes: the reading of the initial vote to discover that someone is going to hold out, the tired jurors, the bickering among them. It's perhaps one of TV's most predictable plots and it's not surprising that Perfect Strangers doesn't attempt to do anything different.
RATING: 4/10
Tomorrow: The Friday Five - The Top 5 TV news stories of the week!
Next Thursday: A look at Season Seven (Part 2) of Perfect Strangers!
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