Perfect Strangeness
Balki Bartokomous, how could you do this to me???
Explanation: Well, the short explanation is that I had a conversation with Evil Jeremy yesterday and that shouldn't happen just as matter and anti-matter should steer clear of each other, and the bad guy in Time Cop should avoid touching his time-traveling self from the future.
The longer explanation is as follows. Evil Jeremy was trying to sell me on hockey, as he is known to do, and I mentioned that hockey people are just silly, citing the fact that Michael J. Fox and Dave Coulier insist on playing hockey at every opportunity in whatever sitcom they happen to be on. As you would imagine, he mentioned Steve Carrell as well. I said, "Like Tony Danza and tap dancing" to which he replied "and Bronson Pinchot talking with a funny accent." Naturally, I responded "Of course, don't be ridiculous!" at which point we agreed that Bronson Pinchot should give up his old voice for good and stick exclusively to the Balki accent. Then a little research on Perfect Strangers turned ugly fast.
As you may recall, Larry and Balki had a coworker named Harriet who eventually was paired with the loveable police officer from Die Hard as part of a spinoff series called Family Matters. Therefore, as far as I'm concerned, Balki Bartokomous is directly responsible for the existence of Steven Urkel. This is sad, sad news. There is no Dance of Joy in me today, folks.
Special Blog Bonus: Evil Jeremy also discovered that the original unaired pilot featured Louie Anderson as Cousin Larry.
How messed up is that? You can read more about the pilot here. In the meantime, here's a clip from the show:
