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Original Air Date: December 2, 1984 Review completed January 8, 2006 "Dog Dough Afternoon" After overhearing a conversation on the cost of raising children, Punky worries that Henry won't be able to afford her. So she takes a trip to the Midvale Bank and Trust to get a loan for the $80,000 it would take. The bank manager doesn't like that idea so much, but she does give her another one; to start a dog grooming business. Demand is good, but keeping it from Henry proves to be not as successful. Still, he can't stay mad after hearing her reasoning. Right off the bat, something very nice to note is an evolution in the relationship between Betty and Henry. Yes, they still gripe at each other, and that part is still fun to watch, but there's a deepening familiarity between the two that shows here. Almost like, hmm, they've found common ground or something. In any case, it's a step towards having more of a story arc through the episodes, something yours truly can definitely appreciate. We'll start to see more and more of these two bonding over the common cause of child-rearing, and even come to a point with it towards the end of the second season. The evolving relationship shows very well in the talk about the cost of raising children; it fills in some past as well as allowing us to see more of Henry than as Punky's escort. We still have the little niggle of Henry coming up with the Pointed Moral and Calm Reassurance at the end, but that's just one of those things about kid's TV that you have to accept, and it's nowhere near as intrusive as in my favourite little stretch there... Allan, in a surprise, also gets some nice time in here. From his first appearance (an attempt to scare Punky and Cherie with a devil mask that had me calling out jokes about Mexican wrestling), it almost looks like the writers are determined to restraint the character. Yes, he's still a goof, and he has a few lines that kind of sound like Ralph Wiggum with a few more IQ points, but he gets something more approaching actual character this time out. This fortunately starts a nice trend for him; Casey Ellison and the writers make a great team on this guy when they're not having him do overly-stupid giggles and nothing else. If I had to point out a specific trait that's helped his character immensely, it's self-assurance; there's a few gags in the episode that depend on Allan himself being convinced that he's clever. The example is Allan's job application for the dog grooming business; he's just clever enough to get the concept, but not enough to figure out that he's ripped himself off on the money end of things. Nonetheless, he charges in, convinced that he's right. It's a lot better than just having him act confused all the time, by leaps and bounds. Punky in the bank is a half-and-half kind of sequence. On the one hand, the send-up of the banking system is something that bores the heck out of me. Yeah, yeah, even a eight-year-old can figure out the odd point about lending to people with money. Uh-huh. On the other hand, anyone else love the way Punky can just walk into the bank manager's office and, at the end of it, have him talking with her like a friend? Awesome. Even better, it actually gets referenced in later episodes. If you really wanted to hunt for negatives, you could try arguing for 'unrealistic' on Punky being able to barge her way in in the first place, but as I've pointed out twice before, Punky does not depend on realism. As far as the main part of the episode goes...hey, looks like they've figured out how to use the montage sequence. That device is as much a part of Punky as sun-shaped things and mismatched socks, so it's a good thing they figured out the pacing for it. Also, the extended sequence of Punky trying to hide the dogs inspires more than a few chuckles, especially with the way it ends up looking like Punky makes the whole thing up off of the top of her head. Better yet, it didn't make Henry look dumb to keep missing everything, since everything was kept quite well away from him until the fateful bark. The overall theme of money is kind of an interesting one for a kid's show; how many even bring up the subject, let alone handle in a mature way? Then again, I suppose that that isn't a surprise on a show that's already covered child abandonment issues so straightforwardly. I don't really have any other comment, myself. I've never really seen a child worry about money quite this much, but how many kids are aware of financial reality anyway? Or for that matter, should be? Henry's moral at the end seems to agree with me, and I'll bet every child star out there would agree quite heartily as well. The performances add to all of these proceedings by being uniformly understated, and overall the characters are all natural as heck. Pretty much everything in the episode has the tone of easy and almost improvised conversation; this isn't one where you hear a lot of laboured lines or significant speeches. (Well, the moral at the end, but we'll wave that off.) I can't spotlight one particular actor myself; they all do fine. I just hope no one on the set had a dog allergy or anything. So, for a one-off plot, this sure fits in well, doesn't it? Moving ahead, at least two parts of this episode will figure into the "Changes" multi-parter, and the character dynamics created will keep going throughout as well. So, it plays well with others, and makes for an enjoyable viewing without mucking around with the major series themes too much. Just right. - Jimmy Vibes Do the click |