TWO FOR TUESDAY: "PERFECT STRANGERS"

Two of my crossover companeros from the Facebook forums have turned their attention to 'Perfect Strangers' lately.....

Matt Hickman:

From the inserting facts of this episode - The pilot’s name is Captain Hogan. This is an in-joke referring to the earlier Miller / Boyett series, 'Valerie' (which became 'The Hogan Family'), in which the husband / father was an international airline pilot. http://www.perfectstrangers.tv/episodeguide64.htm
Perfect Strangers Online - Episode Guide - Episode 64: Come Fly With Me

For Toobworld Central, this was a perfectly acceptable crossover. For those who think they can hear a difference between the voice-over from 'Perfect Strangers' and the voice of Josh Taylor, who played Michael Hogan in the three incarnations of the sitcom that began as 'Valerie', that can be splained away.

First off, the difference could be caused by the equipment, which could have distorted his voice over the intercom. And secondly, he could have had a cold.....

Since 'Perfect Strangers' and 'The Hogan Family' were at the same point on the Toobworld timeline, then Captain Michael Hogan was already a widower.

Tony MacKeand:
Just saw 'Perfect Strangers' episode "Games People Play" where Balki and Larry are on a game show 'Risk It All'. When the 'Risk it All' commode cab (a toilet on wheels) is introduced, the game show hot explains it’s an American Imperial Whisper Flush supplied by Cunningham Hardware of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Crossover then with 'Happy Days'.

So it may seem odd that a hardware store in Milwaukee would be a sponsor for a game show taped in Chicago. But 'Risk It All' could have a national viewership, or at the very least it could be pulling in strong numbers in that general region. And so it would be considered a wise investment by the current owner of Cunningham's Hardware.

And who could that be?

Thirty years on from when 'Happy Days' began, Howard Cunningham may have passed away. But at the very least he should have been retired by that point in the 1980s. Besides, he strikes me as being a bit too cheap to lay out for the product placement.

And it can't be Chuck Cunningham. He disappeared from the show in more ways than just a casting cutback. Once he was gone, there was an episode in which Howard gave thanks to the Lord for his two wonderful children - and he was O'Bviously only referring to Richie and Joanie.

(It's always been the position of the Toobworld Dynamic that crazy-eyed Joanie killed her older brother and successfully got rid of the body. Then she made it look like he ran off with their father's earnings from the store, thus earning Howard's ire. And so he was disowned... all the while his remains were buried under Marion's flower beds.)

"I'm going to kill you, Chuck!
Redjac commands it!"

Why did she do it?  I think it was due to Chuck constantly dribbling that basketball under her window.  It was like the Chinese water torture and it drove her mad.  MAD, I tells you!

Since I think it unlikely we'll ever see Joanie Cunningham Arcola in Earth Prime-Time again, despite getting her own spin-off, I doubt we'll have to consider her as the source for the Whisper-Flush toilet-mobile. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if her murderous crime of fratricide wasn't finally uncovered (perhaps in a very Hitchcockian twist) and she's now spending the rest of her life in a very secure home for the criminally insane.  (Always remember what Barney Stinson warned about the "crazy-eyes".)

Where was I?  Oh yeah - who's running the store?

So that leaves Richie Cunningham to run the hardware store. Viewers might have expected better things for Richie's future than to be stuck running his dad's hardware store, but Life isn't always fair, not even to the main characters in popular sitcoms.

And by this point in time, Richie Cunningham, Jr., son of Richie and Lori Beth, would probably be running the store himself.

RICHIE CUNNINGHAM, JR.?

BCnU!