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Original Air Date: December 1, 1985 Review completed January 8, 2007 "Milk Does A Body Good" When going out back to play one day, Punky and Cherie spy the new girl, Julie. They barely have time to invite the nervous girl into the treehouse before her dad comes out and leads her back inside, seemingly cross at her for taking them up on the offer. As it turns out, they are new tenants in the apartment building, but no ones knows anything about them, and Cherie notes that they moved in with practically nothing. To get to know them, Henry and Betty invite the girl and her dad for dinner one night. Julie gets along well with the girls again, but several odd facts come up during her conversation, like how she hasn't ssen her mom for some time. Finally, the strangeness comes to a head when the girls see a very familiar-looking picture on a milk carton. Julie races back him with it and shows her father. Henry and Betty are alerted to the situation by the girls, and after some debate, they are about to notify the authorities when Mr. Whitney comes over to seek help in finding Julie. After some searching, Mr. Whitney insists a little too hard against police involvement, Henry confronts him about the milk carton. Mr. Whitney confesses that he is a fugitive; on the run for kidnapping his daughter in the face of a custody order in his wife's favour. Meanwhile, Punky eventually finds Julie in her treehouse, where she wants to seek asylum. The girl informs Punky that her real name is Jennifer, and she's been on the run with her dad for far too long. Punky convinces the girl to come back to her dad, noting that her situation with two parents wanting her is far better than her own situation of no parents wanting her. As Jennifer comes back, she provides the final impetus for Mr. Whitney to turn himself in. I should note right out of the gate that this episode provides an early role (in the part of Julie/Jennifer) for Candace Cameron, the girl who would later go on to be D.J. Tanner on Full House. Here, she's all of five years old and barely recognizable compared to who she would become. How does she do? Eh, alright, I guess. I know people who like her performance, I know people who don't, and I don't know what to think. I'll note, in the interest of fairness, that she probably had little or no experience at this point, so at least some lack of fundamentals can be written off. Interestingly enough, the opening graphic for this NBC show being presented In Stereo is kept on the DVD copy. I don't have a way to test if that's true or not, but I don't think so. Hey Betty, long time, no see. I just realized: We didn't see Betty Johnson in "Love Thy Neighbour" OR "The Gift". And while "Love Thy Neighbour" didn't really need the help, maybe "The Gift" did. It's true that Betty plays mostly a comic role in this one, but she's a good one. In fact, the comic interludes are extremely well-timed in this one, whether they serve to break up the story in meaty but digestible checks or just to show kids messing around. I'm not going to go so far as to say that all the jokes are great (that cardboard clipart cow doesn't look much like a picture, now does it?), but they have a clear purpose as transitional bits here, as opposed to having to be segments in their own right. Another good structual thing about this episode is how it handles its adults. I was just re-reading DVDVerdict's review of Season Two recently (I don't have the link handy, it was a saved file), where one of the chief complaints story-wise throughout the disc is that the grown-ups do way too much. Sometimes, it's an all-too correct statement, but this episode does provide very good reasons for the adults to do the work. This isn't just building a racecar or something; this gets into matters of state and federal law. It's just something you can't expect kids to be able to take on. For that, "Milk Does A Body Good", I thank ye. And hey, who remembered that Punky was basically an orphaned girl? In one episode, she's gone from being the embodiment of righteous indignation to being a nine-year-old girl. Good. I made no secret during the last review that Punky's extreme role-model bit was just a bit grating, so seeing some of the vunerability that made the character in the first place is interesting. The context is even better; rather than have Punky just do the equivalent of "You HAVE to", she actually lays out some personal example to convince Jennifer of the good part of her situation. So, the good part of kidnapping a child, you say? Yep. This is an episode that isn't terribly shy about its theme; at one point, Henry even comes right out and accuses Mr. Whitney of kidnapping his own daughter. Now that's heavy stuff. Oddly enough, it didn't take an ad campaign ("Just Say No") or a complete "what the hell did that come from?" upside ("The Gift") to emphasize the situation, just an examination of father and daughter on the run. It's almost like the writers felt that the characters and their motivations would be strong enough to carry the story. What do you know; they're right. Granted, we never see the consequences of Daddy turning himself in, but this is a kid's show. Besides, even with the pace at lightning quick, this episode is full already. Let's see, what I didn't like... the music, once again, is a little heavier than I go for, but part of that might be that I haven't been watching much 80s TV lately. The actor playing Mr. Whitney does good for the most part, but his voice cracks like crazy towards the end, and not all due to the emotion of the part. Candace, I will admit, does seem a bit wooden during her big acting moment of the episode, where Jennifer reveals the truth to Punky. I'm not aiming to put this episode up for an award or anything, but "Milk Does A Body Good" does well. It handles its subject matter with just the right touch, its actors with everything they deserve, and it will leave you wondering to the end, "just why did that little girl just steal their milk"? Solid episode, and that's just what the series (and I) happens to need at this point. - Jimmy Vibes |