Balki Bartokomous is a fictional character played by Bronson Pinchot in the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.

Pinchot was first approached by producers Tom Miller and Robert Boyett to play the role of an immigrant to the United States in a show tentatively titled "The Greenhorn".

He initially refused, not wanting to play another character similar to "Serge"— his role in Beverly Hills Cop, who also has an unusual accent.

He reconsidered after returning from a trip to Greece and decided to base the character and the fictional island of Mypos on the people he encountered in the Greek villages.

[1] Balki was born and raised on the fictional Greek-like island of Mypos, where he eked out a living as a shepherd and dreamed of a better life in the United States.

[2] These traits, along with his ignorance of American culture, sometimes get Balki into difficult or dangerous situations, with his cousin Larry Appleton invariably coming to his rescue.

However, Larry soon realizes that for all of Balki's naivety and cultural malapropisms, he is otherwise a very intelligent and courageous man of many talents who often saves the day himself.

It is also described as being something of a primitive, backward place, with Larry once mentioning that the whole country has just one telephone (with call-waiting) and only the royal family has indoor plumbing.

Balki's keen sheep-tending skills, and his fondness for a stuffed sheep named Dimitri are referenced throughout the series.

For example, in the seventh season episode "Dimitri's World", Larry and Balki begin writing a cartoon strip for the (fictional) newspaper the Chicago Chronicle based on his stuffed sheep.

In a season 2 episode (Hunks Like Us), Balki meets his girlfriend Mary Anne Spencer at a health club.