One of my favorite shows growing up was “Punky Brewster”. Punky was a girl really named Penelope played by Soleil Moon Frye. Punky was abandoned by her mother in a supermarket along with her dog. In an attempt to stay out of the orphanage Punky befriends an older man named Henry who takes Punky in and treats her as his own child.
I remember dressing up as Punky Brewster one Halloween. Punky always had her own mismatched colorful style, and one of the coolest bedrooms in the world with clouds and flowers painted on the walls.
Recently Season 3 of the show was released on DVD and I had a chance to sit down and watch a few episodes. When I got the DVD word go out amongst my friends, and we actually had a DVD watching party where we watched a good bit of the season together.
For the most part Punky Brewster is a show about growing up. Each episode like most sitcoms of the time attempts to teach children a positive lesson about life, and all of the characters always end up happy at the end of the thirty minutes.
I did catch one episode that disturbed me however. In the episode Punky’s fat cousin comes to visit. The child is not that overweight, but arrives in a sweatshirt that says “I break for Doughnuts” on the front and “Blimp on board” on the back. She is also carrying a duffle bag that says “Feed Bag”. During the show we discover she is unhappy about her weight and they all go on a diet with her, after a few days she has gained 2 pounds. In the middle of the night Punky discovers she has gained weight because her cousin has been sneaking into the kitchen at night and eating what looked like a meal for 40 people.
As a “fat kid” I was incredibly offended by this episode. This is why kids who are overweight were ridiculed so hard back then, because other kids thought they ate for 40 people. In the end Punky’s cousin returns 3 months later at half her size, which is also a pretty unrealistic weight loss.
Beyond that one episode I really liked watching Punky. Your kids may enjoy looking at how people dressed and acted in the early eighties and it can be a fun walk down memory lane for parents.