Critics and fans remember the 1980s situation Comedy, Perfect Strangers, as the story of an impressionable immigrant (Bronson Pinchot as Balki) dropping in on his neurotic long lost American cousin (Mark Linn-Baker as Larry Appleton). Pinchot’s character was not only sweet and silly, he also had the catch phrase of the decade (“Don’t be ridikulus!”).
Balki is memorable because he was different and cute. Linn-Baker’s Cousin Larry was more like us or the people we know – always in a rush, in a constant state of anxiety, always scheming to get ahead (“I have a plan!”) and rarely getting there. But calling Linn-Baker a straight man to Pinchot is like calling Groucho a straight man to Harpo. Linn-Baker was no straight man and many of the show’s funniest moments belong to him.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
In Larry Appleton, neurosis had a visage – a face so changeable that Lon Chaney would have lusted for it. There was no upper lip to speak of -- "It’s hard to laugh with one lip" (The Break-In) -- which made Larry look vulnerable, except when he was scheming, when it made him look deranged. It was a face that said, “I'm a loser. I've always been a loser. If there was a contest for losers, I'd be a winner.” (Happy Birthday, Baby).
A wonderful Linn-Baker moment occurs in the episode, “Karate Kids” when he remorsefully tells his cousin that he’s ashamed of something he’s done because he’s really a good person. Balki hesitates and Cousin Larry’s face collapses into such an expression of exquisite hurt that the audience could almost believe he’s been struck.
There was the manic face, too, that could have doubled for Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.” The wild-eyed leer of greed, ambition, or any other expression of human avarice, that clearly said, 'I’ve temporarily lost my mind and am quite capable of inflicting bodily harm, so move or die.'
A classic example of the Larry-gone-mad face occurs in the episode, “Babes in Babylon” in which Larry, overcome by gambling addiction, tries to find the chips that his cousin has prudently hidden from him. In his frenzy, Linn-Baker’s eyes gleam with obsession as the almost non-existent upper lip curls into a feral snarl. “Heeerreee’s Larry!” he cries, all but frothing at the mouth. It’s a decidedly un-straight-man like moment.
Audiences never knew whether Linn-Baker would morph from neurotic Larry to normal Larry to devious Larry and back again.
Cousin Larry didn’t need to speak to make audiences understand what was going on in his always neurotic mind, but he also had some of the funniest dialogue in the series.
That Thing You Do With Your Mind
Whether whining with enough intensity to set the audience’s teeth on edge (“I tried to deceive you and I’m slime.”), or careening wildly over the edge of normalcy into full-blown neurosis, (“I don’t think that’s paaaahhhsible”), Linn-Baker delivered Cousin Larry’s dialogue with classic comic timing.
“I have to have coffee to cope, to exist... I need it to... to... what do you call that when you make up things in your mind? Think!” (The Rent Strike)
A Great Comedy Team With No Straight Man
Relegating Mark Linn-Baker to straight man does this versatile actor a disservice. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen Perfect Strangers, watch again and pay attention to the character without the accent, too. This was a comedy team that starred two comedians, and no straight man.
