Perfect Strangers - Perfectly Strange?Growing up I there were some TV shows that, for some reason, I just loved. Perfect Stangers (1986-1993, 8 Seasons) was one of those shows. If you were to ask me yesterday what I liked about it I would say it was most definitely Balki. He was from a made up country (I know, I looked it up in our atlas as a kid, I was convinced it was real), had a strange accent and funny way of saying everything…He was any kid’s best friend. One of the best things about sitcoms then is they didn’t have the adult humor that’s so prevalent in today’s sitcoms and even kid’s movies…Shrek comes to mind.

I caught the last bit of Larry Applegate (Mark Linn-Baker) and Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) on ION television, channel 16 where I am, and was fairly disappointed. Have I grown so much since then? Apparently so. Even as my youthful self I could tell the show went downhill, or “jumped the shark“, when Larry and Balki married their girlfriends from upstairs and moved out of their apartment. It wasn’t long after that the show series ended. It show was no doubt amusing and humorous, but not the highlight of TGIF that I remember it to be.

I long for the days of awesome Saturday morning cartoons (He-man, Merrie Melodies & Bugs Bunny, Voltron) and a “Family Hour” on television that I don’t have to censor or be ashamed of to watch. We don’t watch much TV, with the exception of The Office, but it would be nice to know there’s quality non-trashy TV there for my kid(s). Then again, with the advent and popularization of thing Internet thing, Kaisa and her siblings will watch shows much differently than I did. Which is a good thing, I’m sure.