Punky Brewster

Synopsis

Penelope "Punky" Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye) is a warm, funny and bright child. Her father walked out on her family, then her mother abandoned her at a Chicago shopping center, leaving Punky alone with her dog Brandon. Afterwards, Punky discovered a vacant apartment in a local building.

The building was managed by Henry Warnimont (George Gaynes) - an elderly, widowed photographer with a grouchy streak. Punky hit it off with young Cherie Johnson (played by Cherie Johnson, the niece of series creator David W. Duclon, and the only performer on the series who used her real-life name for her character), who lived in Henry's building with her grandmother Betty (Susie Garrett). Betty worked as an RN at the local Cook County Hospital. Henry discovers Punky in the empty apartment across from his, and hears her story.

The relationship between the two blossoms, despite red tape from social workers (who ultimately rally to Henry's side). As their day in court approaches, the state forces Punky to stay at Fenster Hall, a shelter for orphaned and abandoned children, which makes her realize how close she has grown to Henry. Finally, their day arrives, and the court approves Henry to become Punky's foster father. Later on, Henry legally adopts her.

Punky's other friends are geeky Allen Anderson (Casey Ellison) and stuck-up rich girl Margaux Kramer (Ami Foster). During the NBC run, Punky's teachers were regularly seen; in the first season, cheerful Mrs. Morton (Dody Goodman) and in the second season, hip Mike Fulton (T.K. Carter). Mike formed a close relationship with Punky and her friends, and was also portrayed as a social crusader of sorts.

Also in the first season, Margaux's socialite-mother (Loyita Chapel) appeared on a recurring basis - as did kooky maintenance man Eddie Malvin (Eddie Deezen). Eddie disappeared after the first several episodes.

Beginning in 1984, NBC aired the sitcom on Sundays. Because the show had many young viewers and was scheduled after football games (which tended to run long), six fifteen-minute episodes were produced. This was done rather than joining a full-length episode in progress, so as not to disappoint children watching the program.

Season 2 (1985-1986)

The second season's February 2, 1986 episode, introduced the first installment of a five-part storyline. In the five-part episode "Changes", Henry's downtown photography studio was destroyed in a fire, and it seemed for a time that he would not be able to recover from its aftermath and resume his career. As a result of his stress, Henry ended up hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer.

During this time, Betty and Cherie made arrangements for Punky to stay with them until Henry recovered. Everyone's stability was halted when bureaucratic social worker Simon P. Chillings (guest star Timothy Stack) showed up, found out about Henry's condition, and deemed the worst: he found Betty unsuitable to care for Punky, because she was a single woman with long working hours, already raising her granddaughter. Chillings also felt that Henry was unfit to be Punky's legal guardian in the long term - due to his health, age, and uncertain financial future. Chillings made Punky a ward of the state yet again, and she returned to Fenster Hall.

Punky's efforts to escape from Fenster included a trick pulled by Margaux, in which she dressed up and pretended to be Punky. Despite advocacy from Mike Fulton, Chillings placed Punky with a new foster family: the fabulously-wealthy Jules and Tiffany Buckworth (Robert Casper and Joan Welles), the latter of whom did not take kindly at all to Punky's working-class playfulness. Things gradually returned to normal: Henry, back on his feet following surgery, opened up a glitzy new studio at the local mall; in the process, he reunited with Punky. At the conclusion of the story arc, Henry officially adopted Punky.

Andy Gibb guest-starred twice on Punky: once as himself, hosting a pre-teen beauty pageant; and once as a music instructor hired by Henry for Punky, who persuades the young man to go out for a recording contract. They run afoul of a con artist instead; Henry, correctly suspecting this man is up to no good, proclaims his own intention to break into the music business. When the con man repeats the same words to Henry that he said to the music teacher, he is exposed as a fraud; the teacher thanks Henry by giving Punky several free lessons.

The final episode of the second season was notable for centering on the very recent, real-life Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Punky and her classmates watched the live coverage of the shuttle launch in Mike Fulton's class. After the accident occurred, Punky is traumatized; her dreams of becoming an astronaut are crushed. She writes a letter to NASA, and is visited by special guest star Buzz Aldrin. Although the episode received high ratings, NBC cancelled the show soon after.

First-run syndication

After two seasons, NBC saw that Punky Brewster and its principal Sunday night stablemate, the four-year-old Silver Spoons, could not compete as strongly as they hoped against CBS' juggernaut 60 Minutes, and cancelled both programs. Like many cult-favorite sitcoms of the time, Punky Brewster was revived for first-run syndication (as was Silver Spoons). Production on Punky went undelayed, and its third season began shooting on schedule. While the show was in production throughout the 1986-87 season, it did not return to the air via first-run syndication until October 30, 1987. Beginning on that premiere date, Punky was packaged such that new episodes would air every weekday (usually late in the afternoon on independent stations). The entire third season (1986–87) aired in the five-days-a-week format through December 7, 1987.

By the syndicated run, the storylines had clearly started to mature. Many more of Punky and Cherie's friends were seen (although most only made a handful of guest appearances each), with Margaux becoming their comic foil and source of friction. Early in the third season, Allen moved away to Kansas with his mother, following his parents' divorce. As Punky herself embarked on junior high, her avant-garde day-glo and multicolored attire, along with her pigtails, segued into more traditional teenage styles, and her declaration of, and reliance on "Punky Power!" gave way to the realization that intelligence, common sense and a strong will can get one out of any problem. More of her dalliances with boys entered the stories, with the ones she chased and those that tried to pursue her. Punky's spunk and vivacious attitude toward life did remain though, thanks in part to the sunshine brought in by the most important man in her life, her adoptive dad.

Henry's photography studio at the mall continued to see much success, so much that by the end of the third season he received an offer from the magnate of Glossy's, a photo studio franchise, for a $100,000 buyout of Warnimont's, which also included the offer of Henry becoming manager of the Glossy's location. Henry accepted, but soon found that his creativity and business style was not being appreciated by his new employers. He quit Glossy's, but then decided to give into Punky's and Cherie's dream to run their own teen hangout/burger establishment, and invested into another mall property which ended up being splashed with as much color and originality as Punky's bedroom. All involved, which even included Betty and Margaux, unanimously decided on christening it "Punky's Place." Into season four, much of the action continued to take place at the mall, with Henry, Punky and her friends' efforts to keep their new restaurant afloat and the many teenage misadventures which passed through at Punky's Place.

From December 10, 1987 through April 24, 1988, reruns from the third season aired in the weekday Punky Brewster first-run syndication package. On April 27, 1988, new episodes resumed for the fourth season, and ran every weekday for exactly a month until the series finale aired on May 27, 1988.

The final episode, "Wedding Bells for Brandon," features Brandon falling in love with Brenda, a golden retriever who belonged to one of Henry and Punky's neighbors. Their whirlwind romance culminated in a wedding ceremony in the courtyard, which was mostly attended by other neighborhood canines.

Main

Recurring

Fenster Hall

The final episode in Season 1, titled "Fenster Hall" (aired March 31, 1985), was a failed attempt to create a spin-off of Punky Brewster. It was originally a one-hour episode, but was cut into two shows for syndication. This crossover episode marked the debut of Mike Fulton; T. K. Carter was the intended star of the Fenster Hall spin-off. Mike's history as a longtime resident of Fenster was explained, since he had been an orphan from birth and had been shuffled around to many foster homes before permanently staying at Fenster from the time he was seven. Now as the chief boys' counselor, Mike was saddled with helping new, tough street kid T.C. Finestra (Billy Lombardo) fit in with his group of regular charges, after an incident in which T.C. broke into and stole from the bedroom of Punky Brewster. Punky had a confrontation with T.C. after following him to a shady lair kept by street thug Blade (James LeGros), who had taken T.C. under his wing and was teaching him how to rob. It was there in which Punky learned of T.C.'s situation, and brought him home to Henry before it was decided that he would be better off at Fenster.

The primary focus of the episode was on Mike and T.C.'s learning to trust and look out for each other, while many other denizens of Fenster were introduced who would have also comprised the cast of the spin-off. Mike's boss was Rita J. Sanchez (Rosana DeSoto), and his other boys, who he treated as if they were his own sons, were aspiring heavyweight boxer Lester "Sugar" Thompson (Martin Davis), sweet little Dash (Benji Gregory), nerdy intellectual Lyle (Gabriel Damon), who supposedly did Mike's tax forms for him; and huge, hulking Conan (B.J. Barie). When Fenster Hall did not transpire as a regular series by the time of NBC's 1985-86 upfronts, T.K. Carter then continued his role as Mike Fulton on Punky Brewster the following season, now serving as Punky's fourth grade teacher.

It's Punky Brewster

It's Punky Brewster!, an animated spin-off with the original cast appeared on NBC on Saturday mornings. The cartoon was produced by Ruby-Spears. It ran from September 14, 1985 to December 6, 1986, for a total of 26 episodes. However, through reruns, it remained in the regular Saturday-morning lineup through the 1988–89 season. The series was later syndicated by Claster Television as part of a package featuring the DIC series Maxie's World (the "lead" program), and Beverly Hills Teens.

DVD releases

All four seasons have been released on DVD in Region 1 by Shout! Factory, as well as separate discs that consist of six to eight episodes of the series. All season releases also contain episodes of the spin-off cartoon, It's Punky Brewster.

Mill Creek Entertainment also released three "Best-of" collections of the series.

In Region 4, Umbrella Entertainment has released the first two seasons on DVD in Australia. These releases do not contain episodes of the animated It's Punky Brewster.