Perfect Strangers: The Complete Seventh and Eighth Seasons [DVD]

The seventh season of Perfect Strangers gets under way with the marriage of "Chicago Chronicle" reporter Larry (Mark Linn-Baker) and sexy stewardess Jennifer (Melanie Wilson), whereupon the couple moves out of their apartment building an into a huge suburban house with enormous mortgage payments and a minimum of utilties. This same season, Larry's roommate-cousin, Myposian immigrant Balki (Bronson Pinchot), finally becomes a US citizen, prompting a surprise visit from his mother (also played by Bronson Pinchot!) Back on the job, Larry and Balki begin collaborating on a comic strip about a foreign sheepherder living in Chicago and his favorite sheep Dmitri. In the interests of authenticity, Balki purchase a live sheep, while Larry obsesses upon coming up with dialogue that correctly reflects "a sheep's sensibility." Elsewhere, the boys briefly become door-to-door salesmen, attempt to "exorcise" a ghost from Larry's new house, emulate Laurel & Hardy (for the millionth time!) when they try to build a gazebo, and find themselves stuck in a car trunk while trying to trap a gang of thieves. On his own, Larry is reluctantly appointing temporary king of Mypos, and goes into panic mode when he thinks that Jennifer is pregnant. As for Balki, he takes a trip to Vegas to meet his idol Wayne Newton, and enters into a most confusing ménage-a-quartre when he and his girlfriend Mary Anne (Rebecca Arthur) fall in love with their respective exact lookalikes. With Larry and Jennifer marriage, Mary Ann hopes that Balki will likewise pop the question, but he doesn't seem inclined to do so. Just when this situation is on the verge of being resolved, Season Seven of Perfect Strangers comes to an abrupt end!~Hal Erickson