The concept isn't new . . . there have actually been a number of fan-made versions of the Perfect Strangers theme song over the past several years. And some are definitely better than others. But it would be hard to find a version as accurate, as carefully crafted and as fun as the newest version presented by The Baggy Pants. Set in Seattle, their version is as accurate an imitation as one could get in any city other than Chicago. We were very fortunate to have the members of The Baggy Pants, Chris Bange, Ian Fraser and Cory Calhoun, answer our questions about this terrific project! But first, if you haven't seen it yet, here is the video:
Perfect
Strangers: Seattle Intro
And
the side by side comparison with the original Perfect Strangers Intro:
P.S. Online: Tell us a bit about yourselves . . . who are you and why "The Baggy Pants?"
Chris: I am an actor magician and clown living in the Seattle area, The Baggy Pants is a Clown based Theater Company that Ian and myself co-founded in 2001. Since then there have been 7 original comedic plays written and performed either locally or touring internationally.
Ian: Chris and I met and started doing schtick in college in Bellingham, WA before we moved down to Seattle. We knew Cory from college as well, and he was our first stagehand for the first ever Baggy Pants show. He's also always done posters and promo material for the company.
P.S. Online: What made you decide to recreate the theme song from Perfect Strangers?
Cory: I’ve always had a
fascination with anyone who recreated anything. "Family Guy"
does it all the time, and Craig Kilborn used to do a bit where he’d have his
staff recreate AP news photos on stage during the show.
But mostly I loved the show as a kid, and after lamenting the lack of its theme song at a karaoke bar we frequent, I realized that we had enough pieces in place to actually try to remake it (Chris has a bit of a resemblance to Mark Linn-Baker, which doesn’t hurt), and Seattle stood in perfectly for Chicago.
Chris: I believe myself and Cory were at a party and were watching the Perfect Strangers intro online and the rest.... as they say .....is geek history.
Ian: I just got a phone call one day telling me that we we're going to shoot it while I was back in Seattle from New York over the holidays. I said, "Cool sounds great!" It was a fun way to spend the day hanging out with friends and wandering around Seattle, and giving a tip of the hat to one of my very favorite shows growing up.
P.S. Online: How did you ever manage to scout out such perfect locations around Seattle? They were brilliant!
Cory: I’ve lived here for nearly a decade, so it doesn’t hurt to know the city ahead of time. I just went through the trailer shot for shot and thought of places we could probably get look-alike shots at. Google Maps with Street View also helped.
Chris: Cory did most of the location scouting-some things happened organically- the revolving doors were at a hotel the Ian was staying at, I work on a boat, but mostly Cory!
Ian: The wind scene was filmed right across the street from the hotel where a nice breeze was blowing. That was handy. We had to wait a couple hours after dark before the Paramount Theatre turned on its sign. Perfect chance for a dinner break though.
P.S. Online: How long did it take you to shoot the entire spoof?
Cory:
95% of it was shot in one day, December 30th 2009. Assorted shots without
the two guys were shot on and off earlier in December, and the shot with Larry
and the newspaper was shot over a week later (after Ian had gone back to NYC to
edit it and insert graphics). A lot of planning went into trying to group
where and when we could shoot everything, since Ian was only visiting for a few
days and we had a short window of opportunity. And thankfully, Mother
Nature cooperated on the day of filming, because it rained for several days
after that.
Chris: Mostly in one day. Cory and I did two other days of shooting due to a faulty camera battery, to get a couple shots. Cory did a couple shots by himself.
Ian: I spent the week after my return to NY playing around with and editing the footage we had until I could get the final shot of Chris with the newspaper which was filmed a week later. Then I just dropped that in, and it was ready to go.
P.S. Online: How did you manage to recreate the title and fonts so spot on?
Cory: The opening title was recreated by dropping a JPEG of the cover of the Season 1 DVD into Adobe Illustrator. I traced the letters so I had a clean vector image, and filled it with color. I converted that into a layered Photoshop file, which Ian worked his magic with and dropped it into Final Cut Pro. I turned the logo into 4 layers: the word "Perfect," "Strangers" with the T missing its cross, then the cross, and finally the word "Seattle."
As for the fonts for the actor and producing credits, I actually did a screen shot of the original intro, pulled Bronson Pinchot’s name from the credits and turned it into a JPEG in Photoshop, and used an online program that can "read" any image and tell you what fonts it might have! Sure enough, it gave us a matching font.
Ian: Once I got the font from Cory, I just made the titles in LiveType and then layed them right on top of the original video to get the placement right. Also, a special thanks to Greg Condon who I work with who helped me over a PC/Mac compatibility issue with the main titles.
P.S. Online: What was the overall budget for the project?
Cory:
Just under $100, but it could’ve been cheaper. The trailer Ian rode on
as Balki leaving home was rented from U-Haul for $30 (for the whole day, but we
only had it for 3 hours!); The woman who drove the carriage pulled by the horse
Ian patted on the head hustled us out of $25 for the privilege; another $35 in
parking tickets. All costumes and props were either already owned or made
by us. We actually got onto an Argosy Cruise Ship for 10 minutes, since
Chris worked as a server on one of the boats at the time.
Chris: Maybe a hundred bucks all in and fender bender for Tina (not sure how much that costs?)
Ian: Tina arrived at
Cory's in the morning apartment to help us out with the shoot, and as she
parked, somebody backed up right into her. Bummer of a way to start the
day, we hopefully had enough fun later to make up for that. Hopefully the
guy's insurance will cover that.
P.S. Online: How do you hope your
video will impact the world (or at least YouTube?)
Cory: Personally, at first I just thought it would be cool with as much detail as possible since virtually no one else had done it or would even expect it, and it hopefully might bring us all to the attention of assorted creative types who might help us further our respective career paths…but really, it’s just cool that we’re makin’ the people chuckle. There oughta be more chuckling.
Chris: Just a reminder to the people of the interweb what a brilliant show Perfect Strangers was -- and it should be rewatched regularly -- perhaps even a New Perfect Strangers Series should be out there?
Ian: I really just
wanted to make people smile. There've been other guys who've put up
versions of the intro in the past, and that always made me laugh. Balki
and Larry are great creations, and if it gets people checking out their old
clips, that'd be swell. They did some amazing bits on that show.
Everyone watch the one with the skis, and I still know the bibbibabka song by
heart. In a magical world, maybe this tribute video will inspire the
studio to release the rest of the seasons on DVD. And if people started
making Perfect Strangers intros in all of their home cities, that'd be pretty
neat, too.
P.S. Online: Any other theme
song spoofs or video projects coming in the near future?
Cory:
I think the next one we’re going to try is "The Facts of Life,"
followed by the more obscure but still extremely awesome "Blacke’s
Magic," a short-lived one-season comedy-mystery on NBC starring Hal Linden
and Harry Morgan as father & son magicians / detectives / con men.
Ian: Some folks have suggested Bosom Buddies. That one has lots of juggling and physical bits in it that would make it quite a challenge. Also, somebody commented in jest that we do a full episode of Perfect Strangers, but that might be a blast. The trouble would be picking the right one.
P.S. Online: Do you have a website we can promote? Also feel free to plug anyone and everyone who worked on the project!
Cory: More video projects of mine can be found my Whimsicalguy1 YouTube Channel. I’m at Facebook and a short documentary about me can be found at Sean Roach Media.
Chris: The Baggy Pants website and a shout out to David at Bulldog News in The University District, Seattle, WA should do for a start!
Ian: Just want to make sure to thank Galen Joseph Osier, who shot a lot of the stuff we used, and is a fine Seattle actor who deserves lots of roles. Tina Hafzalla, without whom, the day would've been not as fun, and our crosswalk would've been empty without. And finally, the doorman at my hotel who let us play in the revolving door.