For reasons I can’t divulge here, yesterday Ryan and I were discussing one Mark Linn-Baker, otherwise known as Cousin Larry Appleton from the incredibly important television show Perfect Strangers. We got to poking around Mr. Linn-Baker’s IMDb entry and one thing became clear: he’s gotten older.
Sure, we all have. But people like Ryan (and, oh, me too!) always think of sitcom stars from the 80s in one way: the way they appeared on their shows. Seeing the actor look different is… weird.
Somehow that discussion led to us wondering how the show ended (Wikipedia knows) and thinking about reunion shows. Clearly the Perfect Strangers reunion would be a sad, sad one – none of the actors involved in the show has done anything worth noting since the show ended 14 years ago. (Yes, 14 years ago.)
But cheer up, friends: old sitcoms never die; they just have lots of spinoffs. While Perfect Strangers didn’t have any spinoffs worth noting (yes, I am quite aware of Family Matters) that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have spinoffs now. Come on! The time is right. America is still firmly in the grips of Balkimania™ and Bronson Pinchot’s phone isn’t ringing. Here are a few ideas for spinoffs that I came up with. Please, feel free to add yours.
- Perfecter Strangers: The original show ended with both Jennifer and Mary Ann giving birth (hopefully to Larry and Balki’s children). Why not capitalize on that and show the wacky antics of the next generation of Strangers? And – for a twist – one’s a girl and one’s a boy! Dance of joy, indeed!
- Perfect Strangers Babies: Who doesn’t love babies… and Balki? Urkel stops by one day with an exciting new invention: a time machine! Balki is eager to change the settings until Larry stops him with his classic: “Watch… and learn.” Of course, wacky antics follow and the time machine activates! Both Larry and Balki are thrown back in time to when they were babies and – even better – they’re animated! Join the crime fighting duo (yes, they fight crime in between diaper changes) as they grow up… perfect!
- Get Out of the City!: A Perfect Strangers game show? You bet! Hosted by Mark Linn-Baker himself, this exciting and challenging quiz show focuses solely on the sitcom and its stars. The winner gets, of course, an all-expenses paid trip out of their home city. Get out of it, indeed!
As you can see, there are a lot of possibilities. Now’s the time, ABC, now’s the time!
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music