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HENRY: What?! I'll be right there! PUNKY: Henry? What's the matter? HENRY: That fire truck was for me, my studio's on fire! HENRY: Everything is ruined. Everything. PUNKY: [voiceover] With the studio gone, we ran out of money. Henry worried so much he got a bleeding ulcer. PUNKY: [voiceover] Just when things were looking bad, they got worse. CHILLINGS: Madam, I am Simon Chillings from the Department of Children and Family Services. CHILLINGS: Sir, I am deeply sorry about your misfortune but in cases like this the guidelines are quite clear. You cannot demonstrate that the child will receive adequate support. Not only that, but your own health is in question. I'm afraid I have no choice in the matter. I am herewith removing Punky Brewster from your custody. PUNKY: Where will I live? HENRY: Fenster Hall. PUNKY: NO! PUNKY: [voiceover] While I was at Fenster, Henry got worse, and he had to have an operation. [Punky listens from the hospital room as Mike talks in the waiting area.] MIKE: Punky may not be coming back home. BETTY: WHAT?! MIKE: Chillings is placing her with new foster parents! BETTY: Lord, that's all Henry needs in his condition is another fight with Chillings over Punky. Now if that happens, he'll never get out of here! PUNKY: [voiceover] Dear Henry, It makes me so sad to see you like this, especially when I know it's mostly all my fault. Don't worry; tomorrow Mr. Chillings is going to find me new foster parents. I don't wanna be with anybody else, but I guess it's the best thing for everybody. I will always remember and love you. Your ex-foster daughter, Punky [Henry begins to cry as the narrative ends.] And now Part 4 of "Changes"... |
 Season 2 Original Air Date: February 23, 1986 Review completed March 5, 2007 "Changes, Part 4" Betty rallies Henry back into fighting for Punky, but he proves to be too late. Chillings has already set up an interview with the Buckworths, a rich family looking to adopt a child for social popularity. The Buckworths are charmed by Punky and quickly decide to adopt her, though Punky is less enthusiastic despite Chillings' satisfaction. As Henry receives the bad news, Punky finds the rich life to be a bad fit for her. Two weeks go by, and Henry makes it out of the hospital, but he's having a very difficult time adjusting to life on his own. Punky is having similar thoughts and drops by to visit, and the two renew their commitment to getting back together. Where do I even start with this one? Well, let's start with the conversations between Chillings and Punky. Every time Punky opens her mouth during these, I end up shocked by how bad the lines are. The line about the right thing feeling wrong is a good summary of all of these; it sounds like it was rejected by a Bon Jovi song and ended up there by accident. No way is there anyone alive who talks like this! And who thought that it was a cute idea to blatantly promote a story idea within the story itself, again? Eddie and Mike got this treatment and it looked horrifically out of place both times. Now Jules Buckworth gets into the act with an, "Everything's more fun with Punky around!" What the crap?! Why do you sound like you're in a #$%#$%&^ toy commercial?! And why did you say that when all Punky's done so far is drop an oyster down her dress? And why do the writers feel the need to promote someone who's been the main focus of the show for the last thirty-nine episodes?! I hate it when this happens; there's ways to make the audience like a character that have nothing to do with outright telling people to like them. The situations of the episode are more mixed, and thank goodness for that. Okay, the depiction of rich life is as cliched as they come, and I've already mentioned the bad initial scenes. At least the end gets it right, not only showing the interaction between Punky and Henry that got the series off to such a strong start, but by staging the set-up for Part 5 in much more realistic terms than what we've seen so far. This episode, as bad as its situations are, does not rate as a complete bomb. The characters actually manage to be better than the circumstances surrounding them, and there's a few things worth mentioning. First of all, there's multiple "villains" in this story, but all of them have specific roles and varying degrees of nastiness. Chillings, in one of the few things that impressed me in Part 4, comes full circle by the end of his scenes; his desire for revenge left over from Part 3 gives way to a genuine regret when he has to break the news of Punky's new foster parents to Henry. After languishing a bit in Parts 2 and 3, Chillings finally makes good... at the end of his role in the story. Oh well, it's better to have a strong ending anyway. Yhe Buckworths end up being the true heavies of the story, with their almost callous handling of Punky, and a less-than-subtle hint of them walking into the interview being dressed like the Munsters. Even then, though, there's some shading; Jules soon shows that his attitude is more out of ignorance, while Tiffany turns out to be the real villain (confirmed in the Part 5 teaser). Also, in an episode filled with badly unrealistic settings, the over-the-top character of Tiffany is played just like that; a badly-needed wink that says, "Oh, you know that I'm a cartoon. But just play along." If only the dialogue writer had had the same approach! If the characters (over the situations and dialogue) save the episode, then Punky and Henry make it worth the time. Punky is written inexcusably bad in the first few scenes, yes. But the final scene of the episode, with Punky and Henry trying to live their seperate lives and deciding that that really sucks, comes across like the kind of feel-good scene that sadly went extinct after the first half of Season One. It sure doesn't start that way though, and viewers watching the original airing must have thought that the series was dead and gone past this episode. George Gaynes makes it work by selling Henry as being a wreck at trying to live alone again. And then Soleil Moon Frye comes in and reminds us that the reason anyone watched this series was to see these two. A lot of my earliest reviews went to some lengths to convey the kind of chemistry that Gaynes and Frye generated; seeing those two acting their scenes out at the beginning made it look like a real family unit with what they said and how they did it. This is the first time since "Henry Falls In Love" that the viewer gets to see that dynamic in action. It made me all nostalgic and then erased my regrets about my increasingly harsh reviews in Season Two. Even still, the great ending doesn't redeem the rest of the episode by itself. If the rest of the material have been even and led up to that closer, Part 4 could have set a high bar for the conculsion of the arc. As is, the closer mainly prevents me from frisbeeing the disc that the episode is printed on. So, while I am indebted to Part 4 for putting a lot of other episodes into perspective, I also must rightly name it the weakest episode of the story. Does it get better? Tune in next week... - Jimmy Vibes |
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TIFFANY BUCKWORTH: I've just purchased the most darling little castle on the French Riviera. JULES BUCKWORTH: It'll make a lovely summer home. TIFFANY BUCKWORTH: We're moving there permanently. [Fade out on Punky's shock.] |