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Original Air Date: September 16, 1984 Review completed October 23, 2005 "Punky Finds a Home, Part 1" We meet eight-year-old Punky Brewster (and her puppy Brandon) as she climbs into the abandoned apartment she lives in. Her best friend, Cherie, soon comes to visit, but she accidentally attracts the attention of apartment manager Henry Warnimont as she leaves. He finds Punky and, after fixing her up with some dinner, finds out that's she has been abandoned by her parents. Punky, meanwhile, finds that Henry is a dour old photographer, long widowed and closed off from the world. She decides to stay with him, but splits upon finding that Henry is planning on handing her over to child welfare. A worried Henry, somewhat to his surprise, takes off after her and finds her back at the apartment after a soaking three-and-a-half hour search. However, he finds himself softening and promises the girl that she'll have a home until her mother is found. To begin, the plot: Take the 'family issues' section of your Sociology textbook and blend well with an Odd Couple and season to taste with some kid's sitcom formula. The parts don't sound all that impressive, do they? Yet they come together and, thanks to some good writing and a character-driven approach, really make for a good episode to watch. This is one of those things that's more than the sum of its parts, and we'll see why. The first nice thing to point out about this one is a very nice blending of the serious and the humour. Obviously, by looking at the summary, you can see that there's some heavy themes at play here. We have a heady mix of child abandonment, homelessness, and grief issues to deal with, and you just know that it could easily devolve into after-school special fodder. Not so here. It's obvious from the get-go that creator David W. Duclon is quite willing to treat the subject matter with seriousness and sincerity. We don't have teenage hoodlums or anything really fanciful; just a little girl automatically making what she can of the situation. The characters are aware of the circumstances, but there's more to both the episode and their personalities than that. It's a nice touch. Serious and dreary this is not, though. The writers manage to sprinkle liberally with jokes, one-liners, and a few sitcom conventions for good measure. When Punky first appears on-screen, her first line is a fairly light-hearted cliche. When Henry and Punky first meet, it's tense, but there's also an element of humour kept in. (Particularly Punky's line about looking for an apartment.) All throughout, like the title character, the story keeps a positive spin on things. This is a story that could have easily went for tear-jerker all the way, but the seriousness is broken up quite frequently. It makes for a more realistic feeling when all is said and done, and it's nice to watch too. Bravo to the writers for giving that mix. The main story is solid and well-balanced, but as we said, this is earmarked from the opening moments as a character-driven series. So, how about the characters? Excellent. Because of the aims of the series, the crucial element to it all is well-rounded characters that we can identify with. For that, we have Henry and Punky. Henry, played by George Gaynes ("Tootsie"), is the hard case of the two. He begins the episode somewhat crankily cracking wise on his neighbour and not exactly looking what you'd call warm and friendly. Even for his sympathy for Punky's situation, he's still more content to let the authorities handle things than to address things himself. However, he does soften by episode's end and begins to consider Punky as a permanent addition. However, even as crusty and bitter as he starts, Gaynes really lets you know that Henry is more withdrawn than nasty, and it's not hard to get behind him even when he's being a grump. Punky, meanwhile, is one interesting kid. Played by child actress Soleil Moon Frye, Punky is portrayed as one big testament to the power of positive thinking. That's not to say that she doesn't get scared or discouraged; far from it. However, she's immediately established as being energetic, out-going, and with charisma to spare; the epitome of a charmer. Her weakness is a great neediness that has to be addressed, which is only natural when your parents leave on you, but Henry's quite a help with that little problem. Soleil Moon Frye has a daunting task in trying to bring such a character to life, but she does it, and I'm still figuring that it has a matter of a personality match. It's like she's born to play the role. The willingness to go around in zillions of colours of clothes doesn't hurt either. As I type this, notice that I'm referring more and more to the characters as real people. That right there will give you a bigger indication than anything I could type about how well the pilot did its job. In order for this story to work, it needed interesting characters. For the characters to work, they needed to be portrayed as being identifiable. And considering I just talked about them like neighbours, I think a good job has been done. Really, I don't have much else to say. The sets aren't anything to write home about, and there's no major stylistic things to mention. I like how the episode mostly stands on its own, rather than completely rely on Parts Two and Three to fill in the story, but that's the only other point really worth mentioning. So, there's no flash, and nothing terribly complex here. All this is is a story of how Punky met Henry, in a family-friendly, 80s kind of way. That's why this episode succeeds; it lets the characters do the talking, and leaves the preaching and the antics at home. It may feel slightly cliche at times, but overall, this is feel-good TV, and I like it. - Jimmy Vibes Do the click Special bonus click! The photo montage from this episode. |