Bronson Pinchot starred as Balki on “Perfect Strangers,” one of the original sitcoms that anchored ABC’s legendary “TGIF” programming block. Balki, a distant cousin of newly minted Chicago resident Larry (Mark Linn-Baker), moves in with his American relative. Larry teaches Balki the ways of ’80s America, which for Balki means lots of enthusiastic misunderstandings about the pop culture of the day — and hilarity ensues. In 1993, Larry and Balki did their last “Dance of Joy,” as “Perfect Strangers” wrapped its successful eight-season run.
After “Perfect Strangers,” Pinchot transitioned into another sitcom, “The Trouble with Larry,” but the show was quickly canceled, and his other CBS sitcom, “Meego,” met a similar fate. Throughout the ’90s to the 2020s, Pinchot made guest stops on shows like “Step by Step,” “NCIS,” and “Ray Donovan,” and he had parts in zeitgeisty movies like “True Romance” and “The First Wives Club” — but he took a serious career pivot when he left Hollywood behind for the small town of Harford, Pennsylvania, where he fixed up old houses and worked on developing his own home decor brand. His knack for home design became the subject of his own renovation show, “The Bronson Pinchot Project,” on the DIY Network.
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In 2012, Pinchot told “Good Morning America” of his new career and lifestyle, “I never did love Hollywood, I just loved the work.” Unfortunately, Pinchot has run into some financial problems, filing for bankruptcy and putting his Harford home up for sale in the mid-2010s.
