Early Starters
Perfect Strangers

If you've heard people saying "Don' be ridikalaus!" in a thick Mediterranean accent, this is where it started.  The guy who says it is Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot), who has left his tiny island of Mypos to seek his fortune in America, "land of my dreams . . . home of the Whopper."  Balki goes to Chicago and looks up his distant cousin Larry (Mark Linn-Baker), who works in a discount store owned by Twinkacetti (Ernie Sabella), a landlord who is sleazy and despicable -- and that's his good side.  Larry lives in an apartment over the store, and his friend Susan (Lise Cutter), a pretty nurse, lives one flight up from Larry.  Now that you've met the players, let's see how Balki plans to make his fortune in America.  "Tomorrow I get a job real fast," he says.  "I'm a professional."  Larry: "Then you shouldn't have a problem.  What's your profession?"  Balki: "I'm a professional sheepherder!"  Will that be a problem in Chicago?  Don' be ridikalaus!  ABC.  Pictured (l.-r.): Bronson Pinchot, Mark Linn-Baker