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Original Air Date: March 3, 1985 Review completed March 12, 2006 "Gals and Dolls" On the morning after a sleepover, Punky, Cherie, and Margaux are greeted with the news that Dollyland is opening today, with new Butter Lettuce Babies coming out. Henry bravely fights the mob, but only manages to get one doll for the three children. By virtue of picking names out of a hat, Punky gets ownership of the doll, but jealously about the decision tears apart the girls' friendship and even gets the adults bickering. After the parents manage to check themselves, they help the kids mend feelings as well, and they decide to share the doll. Maybe I'm a grump, but the whole 'ketchup sisters' thing almost begs for something to happen. There's only so far you can go with foreshadowing before it becomes a red flag showing where the plot is going to go. "So, they're Ketchup Sisters; what ironic thing will happen to break them up?". If memory serves, this is the first appearance of Margaux's mother since "Miss Adorable", and the last one for quite some time. Too bad; the writers do a good job with her in this episode, merely setting her inherent nastiness aside in light of a bigger goal, rather than have her just suddenly get along with everyone. Her subplot... well, I don't know quite what to think of it. It seems improvised, like someone looking through a late draft of the script thought, "Y'know, why couldn't Mrs. Kramer get the dolls?" Then again, anything that shows Loyita Chapel's amazing willingness to play along and that gives us a nice bugeye from Henry can't be all bad. Having lived through the original wave of Cabbage Patch Frenzy, the main plot of the episode makes me chuckle more than a little bit, knowing full well that the girls probably aren't making up much of their reactions. Seriously, the younger folks out there (anyone?) would probably be amazed to know just how hot the things were; it makes the rioting and crazy EBay prices for XBox 360s look sane. Given all that, I'm not really sure why Henry has to play the cabbagehead (sorry) and have everyone else explain the whole deal behind "Butter Lettuce Babies" to him. Surely, anyone watching this show during its first airing would have gotten the reference immediately; heck, I figured it out almost immediately, re-watching the things in 2005. One thing that strikes me as interesting; with all of the easy jokes they go for in this episode, I'm a little surprised that nobody ever pointed out the irony of an effectively adopted girl adopting a doll. Maybe the writers couldn't think of a nice way to make the joke, maybe they decided to leave it as a subtle thing (on Punky Brewster?); who knows? At any rate, the subject is left alone. Not a good or a bad thing, just something I thought of. Just to break with the play-by-play a little more, I have to cite Henry's reactions in this episode as a high point. George is playing Henry in high-grump in this episode, and that gets me every time. Of particular interest is his excuse for getting out of a Dollyland visit crumbling in front of his eyes; Henry's quick and alarmed reaction totally makes that scene work. Another general thing that comes up in this episode (and that's going to get me hung from a streetlamp by the fandom) is Brandon's reaction shots. A lot of fans like them, and I do in moderation. But there's an awful lot of the things in this episode, using the device to the point where you wonder why the dog is doing more acting than the humans. Seriously, I counted at least five big Brandon reactions in the first five minutes, all of them in scenes with at least four actors hanging around. I love the dog, really I do, but give it a rest already! It's not cute when you cut back to him every few seconds. The doll is... er, something else, I can say that. It's definitely an imitation, though this being 1984 when the episode was shot, I doubt any of the production crew wanted to risk life and limb to try and get a real one. And wisely, full shots of the face are hard to come by during the episode. Really, I only bring it up because I had a flashback to Cherie having an actual Cabbage Patch Kid in "Miss Adorable", and I'm laughing myself sick. I don't mind the imitation, but it's kind of funny to think that they went with it when at least one of the cast actually has a genuine article. (Or NBC's prop department, but that doesn't make it any less funny.) And now, it's grungy nit-picking time; I don't normally point out things like this, but this is something that's always bugged me. Take a good look at the scene where Punky's playing cards with Brandon and Dorinda Mae (the doll) in front of the couch; notice anything odd about the scene? It's that it's the single most obvious instance of using a partial set in all of Punky Brewster; the lighting is obviously a spotlight pointed directly at the game, and something about the floor and the blanket placement screams, "We're hiding a raised set". I know Punky was a low-budget, mid-80s family sitcom, but it is not hard at all for directors on any budget to disguise this type of thing. I know I've done a lot of chainsawing so far, but I just need to point out one more thing before I give a rundown of the reat of this thing. Margaux just seems a lot nastier in this episode than usual, and it may be part of some of the "why are they friends?" reaction back in the day. (Some of Punky's lines to the effect of "I expect it from Margaux..." don't help much either.) The thing is, though, is that it seems perfectly in-character to me, as Margaux isn't one to forgive easily and wouldn't be happy getting "cheated" out of such a prize. And Margaux's quick resolution to her feelings upon hearing the solution doesn't bother me either. What bugs me is Cherie's reaction; it makes Margaux seem incredibly harsher as a result. No, Margaux isn't being very nice, but that's the point. Now, end chainsawing, because this episode does a very big thing right, and that's the strong moral. So far on the site, I've given the impression that I'm against moral television, and I am against things that go to ham-fisted lengths to prove their points. However, this episode is a good example of how to do it right; the consequences of jealously are shown in a very realistic way, and the counter-points to the moral (ie. why Punky would be justified in just being a jerk right back) are actually presented without making them look ridiculous. Even looking at the end parts of the episode with my hypercritical eye, I am impressed. The little things bug the juice out of me, but the episode does the big things right. It all comes out to a passing grade, I guess, but it won't make it onto any of my top ten lists or compare to the previous two. (Though, admittedly, that's a very tall order.) It holds its own, though; that's all that really matters. - Jimmy Vibes |