Television Show Review: Punky Brewster, Season One Box Set

Punky Brewster is the coolest little girl I can think of. Seriously.
 
Punky was my idol when I was a kid. I wanted to be her friend, I wanted to wear her clothes, I wanted to be her; from the mismatched shoes, to the sun sprite hair ties and tattered colorful clothing. Punky was the walking billboard of cool in the big 80's.

Who Is Punky Brewster!?
 
Punky (short for Penelope) Brewster was an orphan; her mother abandoned her in a shopping center.
Now with nowhere to stay she picks herself an abandoned apartment room and her and her very intelligent puppy Brandon move in.

Punky is quick to blow her cover when Cherrie Johnson (another little girl who lives in the building with her Grandmother) is seen leaving the room, and is spotted by the manager, Henry Warnimont.

Even though she is a handful Punky bursts with personality and Henry falls in love with her. The rest is Punky history!
 
So here it is, Punky Brewster season one, in order.
 
1. PUNKY FINDS A HOME
This is the beginning of a three-part episode. This is the episode when the world is introduced to Punky. The show starts off with her climbing through a window in an abandoned apartment room. Here she hangs out with her friend Cherrie who also lives in the building. When Cherie is spotted leaving the empty room, Punky is discovered by Henry, the buildings manager.

-A 5 star episode
 
2. PUNKY FINDS A HOME PART 2
 
Henry does not know what to do with Punky so he calls the Division of Children and Family Services. After she begs to not go, Henry promises that she can stay with him till they find her mother.
Things don't go as planned though seeing how Henry has already called the DCFS, and they will be on their way to get Punky shortly.

Miranda a social worker comes to take Punky away to the orphanage. Punky is taken from Henry and is brought back to the orphanage, where she verbally battles a bully while trying to make room for her things.
-Another clear cut 5 star episode

3. PUNKY FINDS A HOME PART 3
 
In this episode Henry fights the courts to get custody of Punky, up until they find her mother. While Henry battles with reasons on why he cannot have Punky, Punky herself is fighting the system in trying to escape the orphanage to run away back to Henrys house.
After a long, and heart-warming battle in the courts, the judge grants Henry permission to raise Punky. Horray!
 
-5 stars

4. PUNKY GETS HER OWN ROOM
 
Punky up until now had been sleeping on Henrys couch in the living room.

Punky notices an empty room that Henry calls his study. While Henry is away Punky will play.

With the help of Cherie and the buildings goofy maintenance man they transform the room into a giant colorful Punky approved room. Henry flips out in disapproval that she had changed his study. The room he told her she was not allowed to go in. Henry though comes to his sense and realizes that Punky does in fact need her own bedroom.

-A 5 star yet again
5. LOST AND FOUND
 
Punky manages to get Henry to go to the supermarket with her to go shopping for food. When Henry disappears in the back to get cuts of meat from a friend of his, Punky panics thinking that Henry has also abandoned her, like her mother did.
 
Punky goes back to Henrys by herself and starts packing, however when Henry comes through the door in a frantic panic and sees Punky packing he lets her know that he is never going to abandon her, and that he was in the back room getting meat, and lets her know how worried he was that he could not find her.

-4 stars

6. WALK POOL
 
When Henry teases Cherries Grandmother Betty for not being able to handle walking the children to school everyday, she tells him to do it. He gladly accepts thinking that walking a group of children to school is an easy task that requires proper discipline.

With 5 children all with different personalities Henry has a hard time keeping them in order. This was a fun episode, where Henry takes quite a beating, and ends up apologizing to Betty for saying that she simply has no control.

-5 star

7. GONE FISHIN'
 
Punky tells Henry that she is bored, so he tells her a story about Big Al, a fish in the local lake that he almost caught once. When she hears this tale she immediately wants to go fishing. She brings along all of her friends, whom grow extremely bored when they don't catch anything.

Here you will meet with some faces that you will see pop up in every other episode. Margo the rich snob, and Allen the geeky, yet adorable blond haired little boy.

-This episode for me was even a little bit lagging and boring. I felt just as bored as the kids.

2 stars.

8. TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME
 
The majority of this episode focuses on Henry trying to obtain tickets to the National League Championship Series game between the Cubs and San Diego Padres. After losing contest after contest, and supposed friends hanging up on his on his quest to get tickets, Henry finally obtains a pair for him and Punky.

For me, this episode was like the one before. Boring, and it dragged on with nothing fun or comical about it.

-2 star episode

9. PARENTS NIGHT
 
Punkys snobby classmate (and for some unknown reason 'friend') Margo, tells Punky that foster parents don't love their children as much as real parents do. Punky who remains calm at first tells Margo to bug off, and that Henry loves her just as much as any real parent would. Things go south though when Henry cannot make it to Punky's Parent teacher night. Punky now begins to think that Margo may be right.

Henry has to convince Punky that what Margo said was just not true. Foster parents love their children just as much as biological parents.

- A 5 star touching episode

10. VISIT TO THE DOCTOR
 
Henry gives Punky his lucky nickel that his father gave to him when he was a child. He tells her that the nickel will make her unafraid of anything, and she really needs it right now because she is deadly afraid of getting a booster shot.

When Punky looses the nickel though, she becomes more afraid of how mad Henry will be, than she is of the booster shot.

-4 stars

11. GO TO SLEEP
 
This particular episode is mainly spent in the living room. Henry is awaiting an important Opera on television to be aired. However Punky makes this defeat nearly impossible because she refuses to go to sleep. Instead Punky wants to stay up watching monster movies. Basically the entire episode is a battle for the remote.

For me it was a boring episode with not much of a plot involved.
-2 stars

12. MISS ADORABLE
 
Margo tells Punky about a beauty pageant. Margo then insists she will win because she is much prettier than Punky and her friend Cherie. She also tells Punky that she never made her mother proud because Punky never won anything.

So Punky joins the pageant to try and make Henry proud, and Cherie joins to make her Grandmother proud.

Punky who is helped by Cherrie's grandmother feels uncomfortable wearing all these girly frilly dresses, so Betty goes out of her way to 'Punkyfy' her outfits. As messy and mismatched as she looked Punky was still adorable. However she does not win the pageant.

-A 5 star too cute for television episode.

13. DOG DOUGH AFTERNOON
 
Punky and Cherie overhear Henry and Betty (Cherie's Grandmother) talking about how much money the girls cost. They both feel really bad about it, so they put together a dog washing business and try to earn money while Henry is not home.

Soon the girls are overwhelmed with wet dogs in the house and they make a huge mess. When Henry comes home things go really crazy. When Punky explains that she overheard him saying how much she cost, he feels terrible for being mad at her for trying to make money.

-Another 5 star episode

14. BYE BYE, MY
 
Punky's favorite doll My's head has come off, so she asks Henry to fix it. Instead he throws it away and goes out and buys her another one. However he did not quite comprehend what he had done until it was too late.

He actually threw away the doll that her mother had given to her. In his quest to dump dive to get her 'MY' back, Punky realizes that it's okay that her 'MY' is gone.

-5 stars

15. YES PUNKY THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS
 
Punky is sad that she will be spending Christmas without her mother, and she wishes for her mother for Christmas. However when the school bully tells her that there is no such thing as Santa, she is deeply depressed.

When Henry goes to the school dressed as Santa and hears Punky's wish to see her mother, he goes on a quest to find her mother.

-5 stars all the way

16. YES PUNKY THERE IS A SANTA PART 2
 
This is quite a magical episode, and possibly one of my favorites.

Punky who believes her mother is coming home, decided to wrap her up a present for when she gets there.

Henry gets a bunch of leads on where Punkys mother may be, he goes out on an endless quest to find her, only to come up empty handed each time. When he gets a promising lead that ends up not to be her mother on his way home feeling hopeless a blizzard strikes.

He ends up going into an old antique shop where he exchanges a few words with a very wise old man. When the old man offers Henry a free music box to give to Punky instead, Henry declines and thanks him for his hospitality.

The next day though when Punky opens her gift, she opens the very same music box that Henry declined to take. The music box belonged to Punkys mother; Punky knows this because her initials are on it. The same one her mother owned. Punky also notices that the gift she wrapped for her mother is gone...
-5 stars

17. PLAY IT AGAIN, PUNKY
 
Henry gets Punky piano lessons and she is really bummed out by it because she finds it boring. However, when hunky Tony Glen turns out to be her piano teacher she is more than happy to begin her lessons.

When Punky hears the way he sings, she goes out on a quest to make him a famous singer. Things really turn out bad though when she discovers that the agency was just a huge scam to rip people out of money.

-4 stars

18. HE FALLS IN LOVE
 
When a high school flame of Henrys comes into town, Punky thinks it's a great idea for them to get together and get married, so Punky could have a mother figure in the house. However when Punky overhears them arguing over Punky, she gets really upset. She overhears Maggie (the high school flame) saying how they should put Punky into boarding school when they get married.

Punky decides to pack her bags and leave with Brandon so she does not get in the way of Henrys newfound love.

19. HE FALLS IN LOVE PART 2
 
While Punky is on the run she meets up with a homeless boy named Zack. The two get to talking and Punky realizes that he too is an orphan on the run.

When Punky falls asleep, Zack calls the phone number on Brandon's dog tag, and Henry comes to get Punky. While they are there they also try to convince Zack to go back home, seeing how he too is a runaway.

-4 stars

20. MY AGED VALENTINE
 
Punky punches her classmate Conrad after he plants a kiss on her cheek. When Margo hears the news she tells Punky she should be glad someone likes her, and that if she doesn't want a boyfriend now, it means she is headed for a lifetime of loneliness.

When she has a dream involving her and Henry being two old folks together in the apartment, and she is alone with just her and Henry, she begins to think Margo is right.

For me, this was just another episode where Punky falls gullible to what Margo says.

-4 stars

21. I LOVE YOU, BRANDON
 
This was an extremely sad episode; a car hits Brandon and he might die. The majority of the episode is spent inside the vet's office. Punky prays and prays for Brandon's recovery, and things don't look good when the vet tells Henry to tell Punky to say goodbye to him.

I too found myself praying for the dog and I even shed a tear or two.

Where there is life for Brandon, there is death for another dog in the vet. It was a sad episode, like I said.

-5 stars

22. PUNKY BREWSTERS WORKOUT
 
Even after Henry tells Punky no to touch his new video camera she does anyways. She decides to make a workout video with her friends, and ends up breaking the camera. However when Henry gets home, he drops it, and he thinks he was the one who broke it.

Punky now battles a guilty conscious on whether or not to tell Henry it was really her fault.

-5 stars

23. GALS AND DOLLS
 
When the release of the new Butter Lettuce Babies hit the stores, Henry goes out on a quest to buy Cherie, Margo and Punky a doll. He returns home with only one doll though because there were no others left.

A huge fight occurs between the girls over the doll, seeing how they now have to share her. The parents have to intervene to get them to all realize that friendship is more important that objects.

-5 stars

24. FENSTER HALL PART 1
 
When a boy breaks into Punky's room and steals her jewelry box, she follows him.

When she catches him he does give the box back, and they begin conversation. His name is TC, and he tells her that he is homeless, and that a man named Blade takes care of him.

When Punky hears this she urges TC to come with her, and that Henry will adopt him; like he adopted her.

TC follows Punky back to her house, where Henry offers TC some dinner. TC accepts. After dinner, Henry then ends up calling the orphanage for TC.

While in the orphanage he plays a tough guy roll, not wanting to take orders or get along with the other kids.

When TC learns of a new upcoming charity event, he runs away and tells Blade that he missed him and tells him all about the orphanage. Blade tells him he has to go back, so they can steal the money from the charity.

-5 stars

25. FENSTER HALL PART 2
 
TC is about to steal the money, but he has a change of heart because he has become close to Mike one of the orphanage workers. However Blade pays them a visit and breaks into the orphanage to get the money. TC struggles to not let him have it.

This episode was actually really scary. Blade stood true to his name while he flashed a knife at Mike and TC.

-5 stars

And that is a wrap. 


I enjoyed season one of Punky Brewster. Now at 25, I enjoyed it in the same manner that I did when I was 5. She's a spunky fun character with a hard to miss, over bubbly personality.

What is excellent about Punky Brewster season one, is that each episode teaches right from wrong, and even though it is a show, Punky Brewster is also a learning lesson for young children.

Punky Bewster was played by Soleil Moon Frye who can also be seen in Sabrina the Teenaged Witch episodes.

Punky Brewster began airing in 1984 and lasted to 1986.
 
It was a pleasure having Punky around while she lasted.

EXTRAS-
 
This season's box set also includes interviews by some of the characters, and you will notice, they look much older now. There is an interview given by Cherrie Johnson and Margo (Ami Foster). There are also Punky Brewster Cartoons included in the set.

This is a box set that any Punky Brewster fan cannot miss. It's the introduction of Punky and all of her quirky and loveable friends. A must have DVD set.