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Original Air Date: April 29, 1988 Review completed May 12, 2008 "Going To Camp" Punky and Cherie are finally making their first trip to camp, over a very reluctant Betty and an annoying Franco Grenolli. Margaux meets them there by helicopter, and Betty beats them there by car (much to Cherie's dismay). Their roommate, Marcie, informs them of the annual tradition of the T-shirt raid, in which the boys exchange their shirts for the girls in the confusion of the raid as an invitation for the kissing rock. Punky doesn't want anything to do with it, but ends up being the only one having a good experience out of it. I hyped this up slightly a while ago as being both an example of later continuity and a teaser between the seasons. I want to note that I did so before Season Four had been released and with me having never seen anything beyond "Unhooking Henry". I can't really label this episode as terrible, thanks to some redeeming bits, but I think I over-inflated its value way too much. The writing team's interpretation of a camp episode didn't help too much either. Let me lay the main thrust of the review out right at the top: This episode plays out like a really cheesy movie from the 70s. It might even be the 60s for all I know, because I was born in 1983 and wouldn't know the real 60s from the real 70s if they came up and said hi. Whatever the interpretation, I mean that it comes across as material that had aged badly before its original air date, never mind on a spring day in 2008, and the original material was the kind of thing you would have excused on the basis of time and budget more than anything. I was exposed to this type of material as a little kid reading 200-some-odd-page junior novels, the kind you'd find in school libraries courtesy of the book clubs. The kind of things that I'd find lying in a box fifteen years lately and look at funny. Heck, I just realized a few months ago that I still had a few of those and picked one up out of curiosity. I remember my face taking on a "I just drank sour milk" quality at around page 100. That's the equivalent of about two minutes of screen time, which is entirely accurate in this case. It took about two minutes to get really bored and start browsing Starmen.net instead of watching. B-b-b-blatant plug. Okay, you get it, the plot Let me bring up the things I liked about this episode before I go back to laughing at monkey postcards. I'll even dig out point-form because there's just no going back to episode-paralleling prose after all this. - Hah, gotta love that phone conversation at the beginning that's a convenient excuse for George Gaynes to be off for the episode. (See also "Passed Away At Punky's Place." And if you're wondering, he probably would have been shooting Police Academy 5 at the time.) - Betty was really annoying in the first scene. But then she pops up in the cabin and goes from being a bit annoying to the greatest thing you'll see. She'll steal every scene she's in for the episode. - She even gets an extra point to mention the slowly-rising Pepto Bismol bottle, because that scene had the most perfect timing ever. - I'll admit to liking one thing in the "Hick-a-doo-la" montage: Margaux fainting into the loving arms of... the floor. If you don't watch "Family Guy", let me substitute "Benny Hill" or any other show with an overly wacky montage sequence as part of the proceedings. - Hah, that is a really fake rock. Is it plaster or canvas-covered? It will actually turn out to be plaster, because Cherie would not be able to slide on it if it were canvas. - Betty to the rescue... again! - Whoa. I'm not usually judging guys, but Billy there is pretty butt-ugly. This is funny because this is a typical example of what the girls are after in this episode. My god. - Okay... do I ask how the guy version of Punky has such a strong resemblance, or do I ask how they resisted giving him different coloured shoes? Either way, at least it gives me a one-liner. That's somewhat entertaining, right? I've noticed a pattern here, and so did the forum over a week ago. Pompone (currently holding the title of World's Frenchest Punky Fan) had made a topic about his first viewings of Season Three and his shock at finding out just how "great" the younger actors had become. Now I'm reviewing an episode where most if not all the memorable moments belong to the older actors, which also inadvertently serve to show how messed up the kid's timings were. Not something I would have picked up on my own, at least not easily, but it's hard to ignore now. So, in summary, I liked Betty in this episode. Good night! - Jimmy Vibes |