Synopsis
Abandoned street kid Punky Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye) lives in an empty apartment withher dog Brandon until the building supervisor (George Gaynes) discovers her. Gruff old sort thathe is, he takes her in. Subsequent episodes see Punky’s adventures with friends, in school, and soforth.
Take Diff’rent Strokes, dump Willis, replace Gary Coleman with Soleil Moon Frye,and voilà, instant sitcom. Don’t worry about coming up with new jokes, however. In fact, youb…rely need to worry about jokes at all. The studio audience is obviously stoned out of itscollective gourd, and giggles every time an actor moves. Nostalgic fare only for the most severlycritically impaired.
Audio
The soundtracks is mono, and it gets the job done, but only just. There is some minor buzzon the dialogue. The sound quality is good enough, however, that one can listen without wincing.The actual writing is another story entirely.
Video
These episodes are from 1984-5. I’ve seen I Love Lucy episodes from 1951 that lookbetter than this. The image is soft, and the grain and artifacting levels are terrible. The blacks andbackgrounds frequently disintegrate into vertical patterns of red and blue. And what’s this withred shadows? The animated episodes look pretty grainy too.
Special Features
Each of the four discs has an episode of the cartoon. The animated series is a typicalSaturday-morning offering (in other words, dreck). Scattered over the discs are interviews withcast members Cherie Johnson and Ami Foster, exec-producer and series creator David W.Duclon, and writer Barry Vigon. Not a peep from the series’ star. The menu’s intro is scored andanimated, while the menu itself is scored.
Closing Thoughts
Not every television show that every aired deserves to be immortalized. Some deserve to beforgotten. This is one of them.
Special Features List
- Cast and Creator Interviews
- Cartoon Episodes
