Fans will be getting reacquainted with 'Perfect Strangers'
By Jefferson Graham - USA TODAY

When we last left Balki and Larry on Perfect Strangers, the boys were both married with babies on the way.

ABC, which ran Strangers for seven seasons, announced in May 1992 that the sitcom with Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot would return sometime in the '92 - '93 season.

The series' final six episodes will begin to air Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET / PT.  They've been ready since last July.

"We're so happy," says Bill Bickley, who with Michael Warren is executive producer.  "We're so glad to finally get these shows seen."

A recap on the show: Pinchot played Balki, the immigrant from Mypos who came to America to live with his cousin Larry (Linn-Baker).

When they return, their wives (played by Rebeca Arthur and Melanie Wilson) will be about nine months pregnant; it's been more than a year since they said they were expecting, but who's counting?

Originally, ABC ordered 13 episodes to finish out the series, but the network reduced it to six, saying it wanted to give its 9:30 show a fair tryout.  That show, Camp Wilder, has since been canceled.

"Six was a nice, even number that brought us to a total of 150 episodes," Warren says.  "It looked better on our wrap party coffee cup that, say, 152."

"It was very strange and very sad going out this way," Bickley says.  "But on the other hand, it beat getting canceled after the fact and not getting to say goodbye to one another.  This way we could all get back together and share the experience of the show coming to an end."

Meanwhile, viewers can see more of Pinchot in the fall, when his new series The Trouble with Larry premieres on CBS.  On this sitcom, he plays a long lost -- and presumed dead -- husband who returns to wreak havoc on remarried wife Shanna Reed's (Major Dad) new life.

Linn-Baker has been acting in plays, and is set to direct an episode of Larry.

As for the final Strangers, it's a look back at the good times Balki and Larry had, with lots of clips.