Surprise! There are no tricks for you this year, but we got you a treat instead. Yup, Adam and I have a bonus episode for you, where we discuss the Punky Brewster Halloween episode. No, not that Punky Brewster. Or even that Punky Brewster. No, we’re talking about the Punky Brewster cartoon, which was also known as Punky and It’s Punky Brewster. Airing concurrently with the live action NBC series, with the actors voicing their respective characters, Punky Brewster followed the gang as the went on adventures with Glomer, who was an interdimensional leprechaun or something. What can I say? It was the ’80s, and everyone was coked up! Anyway, Glomer is voiced by prolific voice actor Frank Welker, who’s giving about a 7 on the Slimer Scale here.
Before we can talk about this cartoon spinoff, however, I guess we’d better talk about the original Punky Brewster series. It debuted on NBC in 1984, and it was a special sort of creation, in that then-NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff had his fingerprints ALL over it. For example, “Punky” was the nickname of a girl he’d had a crush on as a young boy, and he actually got her permission to use her name for the character. Then, Punky’s dog, Brandon, was named after Tartikoff himself. Anyway, Soleil Moon Frye played the titular role of Penelope “Punky” Brewster, whose mom abandons her at a grocery store, so Punky and Brandon start squatting in a vacant apartment. When the cantankerous building manager, Henry Warnimont, discovers what Punky’s doing, he’s having NONE of it! But she quickly wins him over, and he decides to take her in. And they manage to complete each other’s lives. However, it’s also the ’80s, so they had to tackle every downer of a topic imaginable, from the red tape of the adoption system to the reason you have to remove the door from a refrigerator when you put it out for the garbage man. People fondly remember the show about this spunky little girl in wacky clothes, but it was often akin to This Is Us, but with a live studio audience. The show would only last a total of 4 seasons, split between runs on NBC and in first-run syndication, but Punky would go on to become one of the most recognizable pop culture figures of the decade.
So, striking while the iron was hot, the Punky Brewster cartoon spinoff debuted on NBC Saturday mornings in the fall of 1985. Given the lead time required by animation, it must have been greenlit shortly after the live action series premiered. It would run for 26 episodes, across 2 seasons. 26 episodes of Punky and her friends, chasing around a space beaver that sounds like Slimer. Sounds awesome, right? RIGHT?
Since this is a special episode, we don’t get into all of the usual segments, like Show Doctors, but we do reveal something coming up in the near future of Remember That Show? If that sounds interesting to you, then check it out here, and get a dose of Punky Power!
NOTE: My setup for this ep was…unorthodox, so the sound on my end ain’t the best. That said, it’s half the length of a regular ep, so you’ll deal lol.
