e.phemera: Perfect Strangers

Perfect Strangers ran on ABC for eight seasons between 1986 and 1993, but I didn’t remember it being on that that long when it aired in the UK. Checking my Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy, I found I was right. It only ran for half that time here. I recall it was usually on at around half past five on a Saturday evening.

Here’s the opening titles:

This scene feels like it’s a realisation of something that Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker did as a party piece, or whilst goofing between takes.

But they’re both clearly gifted physical comedians:

The show also spawned it’s own spin-off, Family Matters, starring Harriette Winslow, which ran for nine seasons. This makes it the second-longest running sitcom to feature a predominantly African-American cast, beaten only by The Jeffersons.

In 1997, CBS paid ABC $40 million for the rights to Family Matters (and a sister show called Step By Step), then promptly cancelled the both after one more season.

I’ve never seen Family Matters, I don’t think it ever aired in the UK, but the first two seconds of this title sequence have me sold already. And yes, that is Al from Die Hard.

Balki and Cousin Larry
Balki and Cousin Larry
Buy My Books
  • Proctology: A Bottom Examination
    Proctology: A Bottom Examination

    For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…

Follow
Most Read
  • Re-Casting Keanu
    Re-Casting Keanu

    Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…

From The Archive

Sign up for my FREE newsletter