Each week, we will be taking an in depth look at some of the best sitcoms and comedy shows from both the UK and the USA.

Today we will be looking at a comedy that originally aired in the mid eighties – Punky Brewster

Opening Sequence / Theme Tune

About the Show

Summary of Plot

Punky Brewster is a show about a girl named Penelope “Punky” Brewster. She is abandoned with her dog, Brandon, in a supermarket by her mother. She doesn’t want to stay in an orphanage, and finally befriends Henry Warnimont who adopts her. –IMDb

Number of Seasons / Episodes

4 Seasons

Characters:

Soleil Moon Frye – Penelope Punky Brewster

George Gaynes – Henry Warnimont

Cherie Johnson – Cherie Johnson

Sandy – Brandon the Wonder Dog

Susie Garrett – Betty Johnson

Trivia

• en the Challenger shuttle, which had history teacher Christa McAuliffe on board, exploded the executives at NBC knew a lot of children would be devastated by her loss as the shuttle launch was shown in many schools. A script was immediately written in which the character of Punky had to come to terms with what the shuttle explosion meant.
• Melissa Joan Hart was one who originally auditioned for the part of Punky Brewster.
• The program-producing unit of the NBC network produced the first two seasons. When it was cancelled, the show was sold to Columbia Pictures Television for $60 million. Columbia produced the latter two seasons (though there is a one year interval between them) without NBC’s involvement.
• During the whole run of the show, Henry’s bedroom is not shown, the Johnsons’ apartment is shown only once, and Margeaux’s house is shown only once.
• Although not officially an adaptation, Punky Brewster contains many story elements in common with the novel Silas Marner, in which a miserly old hermit whose only friend is an elderly woman adopts a precocious young girl who was abandoned by her parents.

Classic Clips

K.O Kid

Punky Brewsters Workout