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The mystery and enchantment of the title sequence from Perfect Strangers

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“I watched the intro without sound and from it guessed that the show is about a time traveler from the 1800s who is befriended by a guy who left home for college at age forty seven.” –Charlotte Stein

Thirty-three years (and two days) ago, Perfect Strangers premiered on ABC. The long-running sitcom was instrumental in the development of the channel’s iconic “TGIF” (“Thank Goodness It’s Funny”) juggernaut that dominated television comedy in the late ’80s through the 1990s. The description Stein gave me via Twitter is about as accurate as one can get based on the information presented by the opening title sequence, with or without sound.

But if you dig deeper, there’s even more to discuss:

 

The season one intro begins with stars Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker standing in front of the least popular background choice at the Sears Portrait Studio:

Bronson Pinchot (in the most '80s windbreaker ever crafted) and Mark Linn-Baker (in a sweater over a button down that honestly wouldn't look weird if you wore it tomorrow) standing in front of a background that is basically the same color as when I vomited after eating too much chocolate at Easter one year. The show's title is emblazoned across them in a hideous, yellow font.

The theme music doesn’t waste any time letting you know that you’re about to have a good time. No, a great time. No, a life-changing experience that can only be expressed through the driving beat of a Casio keyboard and a good old fashioned harmonica solo. Our leads get a Brady Bunch introduction, complete with the same shade of blue!

Bronson Pinchot, still in that '80s windbreaker, on a vertically split screen with his name in that same hideous yellow font but on a field of intense blue that clashes with every other color on screen.

Mark Linn-Baker in the same type of set up, but instead of his original sweater, he's in a way more '80s one with diagonal, intersecting slashes of green and gray.

Note Linn-Baker’s costume change here. In the opening shot, his outfit is something you could put on today and wear around town and nobody would bat an eye. Within seconds, that all changes. “Maybe the things I remember about fashion in the 1980s are too broad and extreme,” one thinks when gazing upon Linn-Baker’s solid teal sweater. “Maybe the proliferation of pop culture images featuring dated trends has altered my perception and memory of what people actually wore during that decade.”

And then you see the second sweater and you’re like, “Did someone knit the logo from a medical billing company’s corporate letterhead? You really can get inspiration from anywhere!”

Next, we swoop in on a default Midwestern neighborhood. “Sometimes the world looks perfect,” the theme song’s lyrics explain. “Nothing to rearrange.” And indeed, the scene set before us does appear to be idyllic:

A gray house at the end of a row of houses, all two-story with small front lawns and white picket fences. The gray house has what appears to be a full living room set on the damn lawn.

But right away, I’ve got a few concerns. First, why are two neighbors both dressed in long-sleeved red shirts? What’s going on with that family next door? Do they wear a uniform? Also, is that a full living room set complete with coffee and end tables just sitting on the front lawn?

Though the lyrics tell us that sometimes, the world looks perfect and no change is needed, they tack on a pretty big “however”. “Sometimes you just get a feeling like you need some kind of change.” What’s this change? Well, it looks as though this family’s adult son is finally moving out.

A slightly motion-blurred shot of Linn-Baker's character, Larry, heading down the porch steps of the gray hous. He's got a camera bag over his shoulder and is followed by a woman who is clearly meant to be his mother, as she carries a sack lunch. Another adult man, this one in a sweater vest and button down like he's wandered in from a movie about young Wall Street hustlers hands Larry a garment bag.

Well, at least one of them. Eagle-eyed viewers will note that the other guy is first seen in the aerial shot of the house, sitting on the arm of the law couch in his junior associate sweater vest and tie. Exactly how you dress to just chill on your front-yard sofa.

On the short walk to his car, Linn-Baker (heretofore referred to as “Larry,” his role on the show) collects a cast of interesting characters. For example:

Larry crosses in front of a teen girl in a ponytail and sweatband, wearing a baseball uniform, red Chuck Taylors, and a red baseball cap tucked in her waistband. Larry shakes hands enthusiastically with an old Asian man in a brown cardigan.

Baseball Girl and Extremely Russian Mr. Rogers, that latter of which could easily blend into my family photos. They’re both contributing to the creepy proliferation of the color red. Check out Mr. Rogers’s shirt and Baseball Girl’s uniform, right down to the shoes. What is going on in this neighborhood? Does Baseball Girl’s team have a game today? And everyone in the neighborhood is wearing red to show their support?

But let’s not overlook how prepared Baseball Girl is for any situation. Sweatband, ponytail, and easily accessible cap? There will be no sun in her eyes today.

Larry's mom, I guess, hands him a sack lunch.

Whoops! Don’t forget your sack lunch, Larry.

Please note the (red) car behind him. There are honest-to-god steamer trunks lashed to the luggage rack. I’m going to do the legwork right now and connect these to later events in the title sequence.

As Larry continues on his journey to the car, he encounters a little girl in a red shirt, a basketball playing boy in a red shirt, and—

Larry's family stands beside the car waving him off. There's a boy in a red shirt and track pants, a little girl in a jumper and red shirt, the other characters already mentioned, and a dude with kind of a shaggy mullet-type hairdo and a red plaid shirt. He's wearing sunglasses and leaning back on the fence, as opposed to standing behind it with the rest of the family.

Who is that guy? He stands out from the crowd. He’s not behind the fence. He can’t be caged. Look at that near-mullet thing happening because he can’t figure out what to do with his hair so the cut is kind of growing out. The casual posture. The steely dominance he exerts over his emotions. Those shades.

Is Larry fleeing from a different sitcom that none of us know about?

On the other hand, the lyrics are a little sinister. “No matter what the odds are this time/nothing’s gonna stand in my way/This flame in my heart like a long lost friend/gives every dark street a light at the end.” It sounds like Larry has attempted to escape before. Escape in his red car. From the red neighborhood.

Larry's red Ford Mustang leaves the driveway. In the background, the out-of-focus figure of a woman in a red shirt stands beside a man. Another person in a red shirt is visible on a second-story balcony.

Somewhere else in the time vortex, we find Balki, a simple shepherd. His family is also seeing him off on a grand adventure:

Balki is hugged by a woman in a kerchief, red shawl, and floral print skirt. A girl in a peasant blouse stands to the left of the shot, with another woman. A young man in a turtle-neck sweater and jaunty cap are behind them. An old man with glasses, a newsboy cap, and a scarf stands to the right

This is what I find fascinating. Compare the zany cast of characters Larry is leaving behind in his desperate flight from The Red Land. Now, check out these people. It’s all extras from a community theater production of Fiddler On The Roof. Sure, the dude in the back with the sweater on got here direct from an Irish Spring commercial they were filming on the other side of the same park, but all these other people are vaguely Old World peasants. I honestly expected Extremely Russian Mr. Rogers to pop up again in this scene. I mean, not to give away any spoilers, but it’s possible; Balki and Larry are cousins. At least one of Larry’s parents have to be from Balki’s home country of Mypos. And that is where they got those steamer trunks! I told you I’d connect it!

On the other hand, maybe I’m showing my ignorance of Eastern European sitcoms. Maybe someone in Belarus would look at this and go, “Whoa, they could be extras on Vladislav! or something!”

I imagine that Vladislav! is the Russian-language equivalent of John Mulaney’s short-lived Mulaney, but like, way more popular and successful. It would be on its eighth season if it existed.

My rampant xenophobia aside, I can see why my friend Charlotte Stein described this sequence the way she did. The only indication that Balki is departing for America in the 20th century is the sign on his horse-drawn taxi:

Balki is riding on the back of a horse-drawn cart. The cart is filled with straw, a caged chicken, and an "America or Burst" sign.

And it weirdly doesn’t get clearer from the b-roll shot of the…gas carrier that Balki rides to America?

A shot of a gas carrier ship at sea

Imagine you’re working for PG&E, just cruising along on the open sea, and this Fivel Goes West motherfucker is just blundering around the decks, getting the full tramp-steamer experience:

Balki, dressed in clothes that he probably inherited from my immigrant great-grandparents, standing at a ship railing, nothing but blue sky behind him.

We are one helpful pigeon away from a Linda Ronstadt/Peabo Bryson duet.

Another stock shot of the Statue of Liberty lets us know that Balki’s long journey has come to an end.

Or has it?

A shot of the Lake Michigan shoreline and Chicago skyline with more credits across it.

“Aha!” you’re thinking. “Not only are the credits over, as indicated by the fading theme song, but the show takes place in Chicago.”

You’re half-right. Because even though the music seems to be ending with a wistful harmonica solo, we’re following a Greyhound bus down a three-lane highway. It’s kind of like that episode of Rick and Morty where they see the commercial that follows the spokesperson back to his house and films him making a sandwich. It feels like they forgot to end title sequence where it was meant to end. We’re just voyeurs now.

Who’s on the bus?

Balki on a bus that still had windows you could open because the 1980s were like that.

Of course, it’s Balki! Don’t be ridiculous. We already know that Larry has a sweet-ass Mustang. So, where’s he at in his journey?

Larry is driving and looking incredibly tense. Like, to the point that I'm working if they actually made him drive on the Chicago expressway while someone filmed him from the passenger seat.

Look at the terror on that man’s face. Usually, driving scenes are filmed with the actor in the car on the back of a flatbed truck or something, but this dude appears genuinely terrified. Did they make him actually drive on the Dan Ryan while some PA filmed him from the passenger seat? Or worse, did they make him take the local, all-exits route? That’s fucking Thunderdome, man.

Or maybe this is just more of Mark Linn-Baker’s superb acting (no, seriously, watch My Favorite Year or listen to A Year With Frog and Toad, the dude is gifted as fuck) and he’s portraying Larry’s anxiety at nearing freedom from the Red Village at last. He’s so close to the finish line, closer than he’s ever gotten before. But what’s that in the rearview mirror? Oh, it’s only a rust-colored Dodge Dart. His fear is at a fever pitch now, but if they haven’t followed him this far, they probably aren’t following him.

A shot of the highway with a "Welcome to Chicago" sign over it.

Safe at last.

The credits finally close out with a bookend of the opening shot, clocking in at a whopping one minute and twenty-nine seconds. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. And maybe that’s because of the sheer amount of creative energy that had to go into making them. There is a backstory here. And if there isn’t a backstory here and I’ve read way too much into it due to all this marijuana, the fact remains that there were enough side characters to spark even the possibility of those storylines in my head. In fact, there are more side characters in the season one opening than there are regular side characters in all of season one combined.

So, there you have it. I bet you’re feeling particularly foolish for having read this far, but trust me: you can’t possibly feel as foolish as I do for writing it.

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40 Comments

  1. Shannon Watkins
    Shannon Watkins

    Crying laughing at my desk. Oh sweet Lord. Please do all the ’80s sitcom openings!

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  2. Teri B.
    Teri B.

    I laughed so loud at “Extremely Russian Mr. Rogers.” I agree, do all the 80’s sitcom openings! Or at least some of the more interesting shows.

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  3. Pansy Petal
    Pansy Petal

    I found this more entertaining than I did the sitcom! Thank you for the laugh!

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  4. Becky
    Becky

    LOL!! The all-exits route truly is the Thunderdome! Oh, and that guy with the shades? He looks like a ne’er-do-well younger brother.

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  5. catnews
    catnews

    This was great even though I never watched the show. I loved the line “Is Larry fleeing from a different sitcom that none of us know about?”

    Please do more!

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  6. Iona Lovell
    Iona Lovell

    Ahaha this was an excellent thing to read on a Wednesday! There’s so much back story!

    But to be pendantic – the movie where Fivel gets lost on a steam-ship and sings “Somewhere Out There” with his sister is _An American Tail_ not _Fivel Goes West_ – b/c _Fivel Goes West_ was the sequel and took place in a very racist and super dated portrayal of the Wild West… (says the adult who watched both vhs’ till they got jumpy).

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  7. Christina K
    Christina K

    Perfect Strangers was one of my mother’s favorite shows when I was a tyke, so I remember it semi-fondly. But from my current, almost-2020 perspective, Baseball Girl rings my Russ-dar harder than anything else. She reminds me of my nieces in St. Petersburg and it’s weird.

    This write-up is fantastic and I feel like this credit sequence says SO MUCH about the US in the mid-80s.

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
    • Dove
      Dove

      Do Russian ladies know they must always be prepared to keep the sun out of their eyes? XD

      March 28, 2019
      |Reply
  8. Sara
    Sara

    This is the greatest thing I’ve ever read, ngl.

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  9. Tami Marie Alexander
    Tami Marie Alexander

    Okay, seriously, bitch — Jenny? — if you and I are not destined to meet and become friends, the Universe is conspiring against us. You make a “Rick and Morty” reference in the same post that you talk about “My Favorite Year” and my brain is about to implode. Like, how have we lived so close for so long and yet our paths have never crossed? Well, get ready — I’m about to step outside my Comfort Zone and will be attending the writer’s group monthly get-together on April 13. I’m curious to see if it will create a rift in the space-time continuum. I just have to make sure you’re actually real, not a figment of my imagination or a character I made up in a book I started writing and was forced to put aside when another one grabbed hold of me. Seriously, woman. This is just getting weirder and weirder.

    March 27, 2019
    |Reply
  10. Xebi
    Xebi

    I’ve never heard of this show but now I seriously have to watch it. Even if it’s only the opening sequence.

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
  11. Larissa
    Larissa

    I loved this show. I wonder which came first, American Tail or Perfect Strangers?

    To the Google!

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
    • Dove
      Dove

      I assumed the movie came first but apparently, the sitcom beat it to release by several months!

      March 28, 2019
      |Reply
  12. Anon
    Anon

    I am doing The Dance of Joy over this post.

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
    • Is the guy in the shades on the lawn Jim Carrey?

      July 3, 2023
      |Reply
  13. Jules
    Jules

    I now very much want a reboot where we learn that Larry has been living in a 1950s hold over Russian spy prototype US town. The reboot will involve Larry finally, after decades, hearing the trigger word that had been programmed into him as a child. Hearing this word causes him to trigger a modern day Red Scare and reignites the Cold War. He has no idea what is happening and, with Cousin Balki at his side, heads back to Red Town to figure out what is going on while his red clad family and red clad neighbors all try to act like everything is normal. The American’s meets Truman as a sitcom.

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
  14. Jessica
    Jessica

    Thank you so much for this! I watched this show so much as a child, and even then, I recognized how weird and garbage-y it was. But I guess with limited options, everyone just watched whatever crap was doled out in front off them, no alternative streaming choices or anything, networks had total control. TV was so messed in the 80s, everything had such a naive, “family-friendly” feel. Also, even as a child, I could never figure out why Jennifer was with Larry.

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
  15. Gretel
    Gretel

    I have no idea what this show is about, so when you linked it on Twitter, I interpreted it as follows: the dude leaves his wife, children and parents behind to go work in the city or follow his dreams to become an actor or some other bullshit.
    Then cut to an Italian dude who can’t stop staring into the fucking camera for no reason, giving me a creeptastic expression as if to tell me “Yes…exactly…you know what’s coming, girl…” and I’m terrified of asking what he’s talking about. So Italian dude goes to the US to start a new life. The American Dream.
    They both end up living together because life sucks and cities are expensive. They don’t get along because one is a middle-class uptight boring dad and the other is an enthusiastic Italian with tennacity. And the jokes are centered around Italian dude’s Italianness, like he cooks some tasty dishes and the other scoffs disgusted because it’s non-American processed food and his BS is framed as funny. Alternatively the dishes are some BS like goat feet or donkey balls in salsa and American dude shows him the true way: cheap fastfood burgers and lukewarm fries.
    And the whole series is xenophobic and racist and while Italian dude’s heritage is ridiculed, his sense of family and unity gives him a moral advantage but ultimately the series wants him to become as “American” (meaning white Anglo-Saxon) as possible.

    Here you go, that’s my impression. I have no idea how right or wrong I am. XD But I hope I gave you at least a chuckle.

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
    • Anon
      Anon

      You are about as off as one can get! lol

      I know at least the first season is on DVD, but I don’t know if it’s streaming anywhere. I recommend you watch. It’s a sweet, funny show. But basically, Balki is Larry’s cousin from a made-up country probably in the Mediterranean somewhere and Larry never knew he had cousins there, so Balki shows up at Larry’s door and ends up living with them. Farcical comedy ensues.

      March 28, 2019
      |Reply
      • Jenny Trout
        Jenny Trout

        Farcical comedy in which the American proves to be naive and inept, and the simple country mouse displays a greater understanding of life.

        March 28, 2019
        |Reply
      • chad
        chad

        hulu on 9-14-2020

        September 14, 2020
        |Reply
  16. Courtney
    Courtney

    That. Was. AWESOME.

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
  17. Kate
    Kate

    Thank you for this examination and analysis. It was exactly what my day had been lacking. Absolutely marvelous!

    March 28, 2019
    |Reply
  18. Jenny (but not Jenny Trout)
    Jenny (but not Jenny Trout)

    OMFG I forgot how weird that show was. I’ll read your recaps all day, but I don’t think I could make myself watch the show again. Same with all the TGIF stuff. Although Jaleel White – the guy who played Steve Urkel on Family Matters – totally georgous now, especially without the god aweful glasses and whiny voice.

    March 29, 2019
    |Reply
    • I didn’t believe you, so I googled “Jaleel White now” and…

      Whoa. Um, hi there!

      March 29, 2019
      |Reply
      • Jenny (but not Jenny Trout)
        Jenny (but not Jenny Trout)

        You can check out Jaleel White in the Psych episodes High Top Fade Out and also Let’s Doo-Wop It Again. And Cheech Marin is a guest star in the second. 🙂

        March 30, 2019
        |Reply
  19. Rachel O'Riley
    Rachel O'Riley

    So good. You can spin comic gold from the unlikeliest sources….
    Am I the only one who heard that music and had a flashback to “Too Many Cooks”?

    Upcoming analyses I’d like to see (If there’re no rights issues): Bosom Buddies, Benson, Falcon Crest and/or Dynasty.

    March 29, 2019
    |Reply
  20. Jenny!

    “Fivel Goes West Motherfucker!”

    I can’t…

    April 3, 2019
    |Reply
  21. Jellyfish
    Jellyfish

    I came here to tell you all about this kind of amazing AV Club interview with Bronson Pinchot, which is totally worth a read even if you don’t care about him or his work or celebrities in general. https://www.avclub.com/bronson-pinchot-1798218088

    April 7, 2019
    |Reply
  22. Shanti
    Shanti

    “At least one of Larry’s parents have to be from Balki’s home country of Mypos.”

    Is this canonically established in the show? Because what if Larry’s aunt did a Europe trip after undergrad, fell in love with a Myposian shepherd, and decided to stay?

    This would explain why Balki can speak pretty decent English but Larry knows literally nothing about Mypos.

    April 9, 2019
    |Reply
  23. I’m humbled. I’ve been writing a Perfect Strangers snark-review blog for three years now and I’ve yet to write anything half as funny as this post.

    April 19, 2019
    |Reply
  24. Thomas
    Thomas

    I found this post only after googling “who was jean shorts guy on boat in opening credits of perfect strangers”

    Despite laughing out loud over a dozen times while reading (there are unconfirmed reports of a couple snorts too) I am still searching for answers…

    Please Jenny, please get us some answers.

    September 10, 2019
    |Reply
    • Lindsey M.
      Lindsey M.

      YES! Same!

      I Googled “Guy on boat intro Perfect Strangers” to see if he is the SAME sunglass wearing douche by the car in this first version of the intro! I was wondering if he was possibly a son of a producer or an inside joke type thing that most people wouldn’t notice. Very weird to have two cool guys in glasses in both intros?

      Thoughts? Have you found any answers since you posted??

      October 16, 2019
      |Reply
  25. Gigi
    Gigi

    I stumbled upon this because for an inexplicable reason my husband and I started watching this show, and we’ve become obsessed with Larry’s brother in the sunglasses. He is a gem and we were so upset his scene was essentially cut from the next seasons. Of all pieces to cut to shorten up the intro- why pick the best thing about it?
    Anyways, great blog

    January 9, 2021
    |Reply
  26. Not guy in sunglasses
    Not guy in sunglasses

    I love that so many of us are here looking for more info about the guy in sunglasses. Watching this with my kids now and he has become a regular family reference. Have also guessed relative of someone in production. Are there too few of us for the internet to do it’s thing?

    January 29, 2021
    |Reply
  27. Daniel Zubiate
    Daniel Zubiate

    I thought baseball girl was hot. Anyone know who she is, or if she went on to do any substantial roles?

    February 2, 2021
    |Reply
  28. JT
    JT

    Who is baseball girl? Does anyone know?

    August 7, 2022
    |Reply

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