diff --git a/doc/source/release.rst b/doc/source/release.rst
index ddf0ecfc52d61..74b68938d62eb 100644
--- a/doc/source/release.rst
+++ b/doc/source/release.rst
@@ -119,6 +119,8 @@ pandas 0.13
     called using the top level matplotlib API (:issue:`4408`)
   - Fixed a bug where calling ``Series.astype(str)`` would truncate the string
     (:issue:`4405`, :issue:`4437`)
+  - Fixed a py3 compat issue where bytes were being repr'd as tuples
+    (:issue:`4455`)
 
 pandas 0.12
 ===========
diff --git a/pandas/compat/__init__.py b/pandas/compat/__init__.py
index eaf2928e4482c..6070c0e9c5379 100644
--- a/pandas/compat/__init__.py
+++ b/pandas/compat/__init__.py
@@ -185,6 +185,10 @@ def u(s):
     def u(s):
         return unicode(s, "unicode_escape")
 
+
+string_and_binary_types = string_types + (binary_type,)
+
+
 try:
     # callable reintroduced in later versions of Python
     callable = callable
diff --git a/pandas/core/common.py b/pandas/core/common.py
index a4206fe26172c..06ca3be455f2a 100644
--- a/pandas/core/common.py
+++ b/pandas/core/common.py
@@ -1612,9 +1612,9 @@ def is_list_like(arg):
 def _is_sequence(x):
     try:
         iter(x)
-        len(x) # it has a length
-        return not isinstance(x, compat.string_types) and True
-    except Exception:
+        len(x)  # it has a length
+        return not isinstance(x, compat.string_and_binary_types)
+    except (TypeError, AttributeError):
         return False
 
 _ensure_float64 = algos.ensure_float64
@@ -2053,8 +2053,7 @@ def as_escaped_unicode(thing,escape_chars=escape_chars):
 
         return compat.text_type(result)
 
-    if (compat.PY3 and hasattr(thing, '__next__')) or \
-            hasattr(thing, 'next'):
+    if (compat.PY3 and hasattr(thing, '__next__')) or hasattr(thing, 'next'):
         return compat.text_type(thing)
     elif (isinstance(thing, dict) and
           _nest_lvl < get_option("display.pprint_nest_depth")):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_common.py b/pandas/tests/test_common.py
index ca119a8e263bf..abed2818cb864 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_common.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_common.py
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 from datetime import datetime
-import sys
 import re
 
 import nose
+from nose.tools import assert_equal
 import unittest
 
 from pandas import Series, DataFrame, date_range, DatetimeIndex, Timestamp
-from pandas.compat import range, long, lrange, lmap, u, map
+from pandas.compat import range, long, lrange, lmap, u
 from pandas.core.common import notnull, isnull
 import pandas.core.common as com
 import pandas.util.testing as tm
@@ -147,6 +147,21 @@ def test_all_not_none():
     assert(not com._all_not_none(None, None, None, None))
 
 
+def test_repr_binary_type():
+    import string
+    letters = string.ascii_letters
+    btype = compat.binary_type
+    try:
+        raw = btype(letters, encoding=cf.get_option('display.encoding'))
+    except TypeError:
+        raw = btype(letters)
+    b = compat.text_type(compat.bytes_to_str(raw))
+    res = com.pprint_thing(b, quote_strings=True)
+    assert_equal(res, repr(b))
+    res = com.pprint_thing(b, quote_strings=False)
+    assert_equal(res, b)
+
+
 def test_rands():
     r = com.rands(10)
     assert(len(r) == 10)