Perfect Strangers: Season 03 (1987)

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Season Three of Perfect Strangers finds aspiring young photographer Larry (Mark Linn-Baker) and his cousin-roomate Balki (Bronson Pinchot) landing new jobs at the "Chicago Chronicle", with organization-freak Larry working as a cub reporter and zany Myposian immigrant Balki ending up in the mail room, where he takes orders from the misanthropic Mr. Gorpley (Sam Anderson). New to the series this season are Eugene Roche as "Chronicle" editor Harry Burns, F.J. O'Neill as publisher R.T. Wainwright, and Jo Marie Payton-France as the newspaper building's eternally sarcastic elevator operator Harriette Winslow. Also, Belita Moreno, seen during the first two seasons as the wife of Larry and Balki's obnoxious employer "Twinkie", resurfaces in Season Three in a brand-new role, as the "Chronicle"'s hypersensitive advice columnist Lydia Markham. The new journalistic setting opens up a whole new slew of story possibilities, including the time-honored routine in which Larry and Balki break into the publisher's office late at night to retrieve an embarrassing missive, another wherein the boys "star" in a commercial for the "Chronicle", and still another which finds our heroes handcuffed together on the very evening that Larry must make a good impression on the publisher. Back in their apartment, Larry and Balki continue to recycle old two-reel comedy bits, notably in the episode in which they offered to install the plumbing for their stewardess neighbors Mary Anne (Rebecca Arthur) and Jennifer (Melanie Wilson). Guest stars this season include such familiar faces as Jeff Corey in the role of the "Chronicle"'s chief stockholder, Holland Taylor as the paper's sexually predatory Sunday magazine, Kimmy Robertson as a clerk in a store where Balki goes on a riotous shopping spree, and the inescapable Ted McGinley as Larry's insufferable brother Billy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi