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Original Air Date: September 15, 1985 Review completed April 9, 2006 "The KO Kid" "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler drops by to speak to Punky's class about the importance of education, but what Punky needs more is a few good boxing tips. School bully Moose McGuirk has been extorting lunches out of the usual gang, and when Punky decides to stand up to it, she ends up with a black eye and a challenge. She realizes that she can't just let Moose go unhindered, so she decides to catch Hagler at the gym to get some boxing lessons. Unfortunately, all he can end up teaching is that Punky can't box. Punky stands tall in the face of annihilation, though, and a embolded crowd forms to stand behind her. Moose slinks away, not willing to take 20-on-1 odds. First, though, let's cover the up-front changes. The title sequence has been re-done, now including clips for all throughout Season One and a few new ones that will pop up (including a sneak preview of a treehouse... see the next episode for more on that). And, even better, there's more credits. Susie Garret and Cherie Johnson now get to jump to the opening credits rather than get relegated to the back, and the credits prove T.K. Carter to be reprising his role from "Fenster Hall". Well, sort of. Otherwise, the font used is the same mulit-coloured kiddie squiggle (which will, sadly, only last a few more episodes) and the music is the same. Excellent. The other change; the cartoon clip used at the end of the titles is now in the style of the Punky Brewster animated series that debuted while the last season was airing. Let's pick out the more noticeable change out of all of that, and that's the new cast member. Mike Fulton, of course, made his debut on the ill-fated "Fenster Hall" pilot. There's no way of knowing whether he was originally intended to jump over to Punky or not, but with the pilot not generating a new series, someone in writing got the idea to slot him in as Punky's fourth-grade teacher. I have no idea how, exactly, a social worker can become a teacher in a year (I don't think they're interchangable...), but we'll overlook that. The writers don't even bring it up, and that's a smart move, really. Now, some of you may wonder about why, if this is Mike's first episode as teacher, there is nothing identifying him as such before he's just shown teaching. Good question. I'm somewhat wondering myself how that's supposed to work; if they'd just ignored the events of "Fenster Hall" and just pretend that he was always a teacher, it might have worked. Unfortunately, they don't leave it alone, and his work there even figures into "Changes"! Granted, this is one of those things that comes up more when you're watching through the series on the DVDs; perhaps the writers weren't really thinking of that back in the day. Speaking of Mike's continuity, the impressions are back. Joy. Granted, not being familiar with the geniune article, I can't really judge how Carter is at apeing Howard Cossell. However, that kid with the ridiculously overblown reaction shot was a good indication of things to come; we're going to get a lot of these impressions, and occasionally as a substitute for real jokes or character. However, enjoy these first few episodes, because they'll be kept down a bit for now. For that matter, Mike is played slightly more seriously in this episode, and it works quite to his advantage. We'll get to one exception, but overall, we could have used more restraint with him, like in this episode. Let's go on to another new face, albeit a more temporary one. "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler is our guest star de jour, and though you can tell that he's acting out a routine, he comes across quite naturally, and with just the right hint of grandeur to properly show off. Mike comes off as a bit of a dork next to him, but it's tough to look particularly tough next to a champion boxer. Particularly when you're trying to float a thin Mohammad Ali impression. And our other prizefighter of the episode soon makes her debut here, little Moose McGuirk, who gives me great amusement for, if nothing else, sharing a last name with the coach from Home Movies. As for how Amy Dolan does with the role... eh, all right, I guess. Unfortunately, as we'll see later, the writers were more than a little reluctant to let Moose really rampage, so we have a pretty restrained bully. From what we do get, Dolan goes as far as she can to look menacing and willing to kick faces in, so mission accomplished there. The first bit of beating in the show is something that I admit is pretty well done, going by the movie-makers philosophy of, "Don't show what you can't do". As we'll see a little later, direct violence is pretty much out, so the scene is played out with a push, a drag, and a bunch of sounds through a bathroom door. A bunch of nasty sounds, I might add. The next thing to hear isn't so pleasent, though. Mike, why in the name of Apu do you not expect fighting at a school?! And his line, "I won't teach at a school that allows fighting" is both whiny and incorrect. What, you think there was a teacher there cheering it on? Duh, the fight took place with no one around, and it started a few feet outside of your classroom, you jackass. If anything, he should have been the one to hear everything and intervene. For that matter, it's the middle of the afternoon, why's he running to Punky's house to drop her off? Doesn't he have a class to teach? But if Mike stumbles like a marathon runner on his twenty-eighth mile at this point, the rest of the characters pick up the slack. The ultimate moral out of this act is a nice surprise. I can appreciate the irony of a show not willing to show violence teaching when such is necessary, but it's presented in a nice manner. The timing between Henry's initial reaction and his "hit 'em with your best shot" speech seems perfect, and it's easy to understand Henry's panic when you recall that he's never faced Punky getting hurt before. So now Punky has to train, and never mind about how Punky would find out where Hagler would be training in the first place. Instead, it's montage time *groan*. Then again, Hagler finally gets some time in his natural element (including some punch flurries at the camera), and Soleil gets to clown around a bit, including a shadow boxing/shadow puppets sight gag I liked. Now for the fight itself, and I cite Allan's Don King-style promotion (and hair-do!) as highlight of the episode. Oh, that is good stuff. Also, credit for not having Punky suddenly develop fighting ability in the day or so since we last saw everyone. Let's face it, even for this show, Punky one-punching Moose into oblivion would've looked right friggin' silly. As for the fight itself... *snicker, chortle, guwaff*. Oh, man. I've written about this sequence a couple of times before, mostly in the form of "but it's not as bad as...". But it has to be given the once-over here, because it is absolutely silly how it was staged. Let me describe what happens: Punky charges straight in, ready to start swinging (which is an awful tactical move, but it's understandable in Punky's case). On the other side of this; a bully who has girlhandled Punky in the past and has a significant size advantage. What would you do? I'll bet it is the WORST, most telegraphed push since Sid Vicious stopped wrestling. Seriously, you could clearly see that Soleil had her arms braced to take it long before it actually comes, and Amy Dolan is so obviously holding back that she barely moves. And the way that Soleil gently "falls" to the ground doesn't help. I realize Punky doesn't have an effects budget or much call for stuntpeople, but if they're not going to let people actually fight, do they have to substitute something that hilariously bad? I'm not even blaming Amy and Soleil so much; it's not like it's a real requirement for them to know how to fake-fight. But couldn't the writers have thought of another way around it? A brief headlock, a smurf kick, a trip? Anything? Well, at least it ends realistically. Sometimes it really is the thought that counts. On the end result of it all, this was a decent enough episode, but as you can see, the writing needed to be more consistent. Watching Marvelous Marvin breeze around the screen was pretty cool, and seeing Punky make a stand in a less cartoonish way was nice. I'll go far enough to even recommend this one; just have a few MST3K-minded friends ready for the episode's major slip-ups. The episode nearly KOed itself, but it turned around and made a decent bout out of it. - Jimmy Vibes |