It's Punky Brewster
It's Punky Brewster | |
---|---|
Voices of |
Casey Ellison Ami Foster Soleil Moon Frye George Gaynes Cherie Johnson Frank Welker |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 26 |
Production | |
Running time | 30 mins. |
Production company(s) |
Ruby-Spears Enterprises NBC Productions |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Original release | September 14, 1985 – December 6, 1986 |
It's Punky Brewster is an animated spin-off of the live action television sitcom Punky Brewster. It was animated by Ruby-Spears Productions.[1]
Synopsis
The series featured the voices of the original Punky Brewster cast as their respective characters. A new character, Glomer (voiced by Frank Welker), was added as the "leprechaun gopher". He came from Chaundoon, a city at the end of the rainbow and possesses various magical powers. One such power was the ability to transport Punky and her friends, Margaux, Cherie, and Allen, and at times her dog, Brandon, to any part of the Earth instantly. Some episodes included Glomer having to correct his own mistakes, as when he plays around with magic and transforms Henry into a statue of Julius Caesar. It's Punky Brewster is the series' unofficial name; on the title card and in TV listings, it was simply called Punky Brewster.
In season 2, shows 4 through 13 had a first-run episode and a repeat from the first season. The series was canceled in September 1987 but returned in replays in October 1988 after NBC's live action pre-teen show 2 Hip 4 TV was canceled. Selected episodes were syndicated as a revolving feature of DIC's Maxie's World in 1989.
Episodes
Season 1 (1985)
No. | Title | Original air date |
---|---|---|
1a | "Punky To The Rescue" | September 14, 1985 |
Punky persuades Henry into taking a photography job over a Florida swamp. She and the gang tag along (thanks to Glomer) and she thinks Henry may get caught by a swamp monster. | ||
1b | "The Quartersize Quarterback" | September 14, 1985 |
Glomer gives Allen the abilities of a professional football quarterback. | ||
2a | "The Gold Rush" | September 21, 1985 |
Glomer accidentally sets Bad Barney, an evil leprechaun, free from a plate. | ||
2b | "Phar Out Pharaoh" | September 21, 1985 |
Glomer takes the kids to ancient Egypt to return a necklace Margaux has. She is mistaken for an Egyptian princess. | ||
3a | "Pretty Ugly" | September 28, 1985 |
Just before a fancy party at the Bigelow estate, Glomer turns Margaux's face into a glomley one. | ||
3b | "Glomer's Story" | September 28, 1985 |
Punky recalls the day she met Glomer. | ||
4a | "Brandon The Dialogue Dog" | October 5, 1985 |
Glomer gives Brandon the gift of gab. A magazine writer sees this and tries to get rich off him. | ||
4b | "Winning Isn't Everything" | October 5, 1985 |
Punky and her pals scheme to win a TV set at a department store contest. | ||
5a | "Punky Wise And Pound Foolish" | October 12, 1985 |
Punky buys a baseball glove with the money she was supposed to use for Brandon's license. He is locked in a pound and subsequently sold to a rodeo clown. | ||
5b | "Christmas In July" | October 12, 1985 |
It is summer, and Punky is eyeing a skateboard. She has Glomer take everyone to Santa's workshop, but she causes an accident which causes it to snow all over the world! Glomer must track down Santa, who is vacationing on a tropical island, and get him to set things right. Since his elves are also on vacation, Punky is conscripted to help him, and she learns how hard he works. | ||
6a | "Return To Chaundoon" | October 19, 1985 |
The rainbow gateway to Chaundoon appears. Glomer takes Punky with him only to find everyone asleep due to the town clock being stolen. | ||
6b | "A Small Mistake" | October 19, 1985 |
Glomer's beverage makes the kids shrink. | ||
7a | "Halloween Howlers" | October 26, 1985 |
Glomer spends Halloween with Punky and the kids. He turns everyone who doesn't give him a treat into a jack-o-lantern. | ||
7b | "The Perils Of Punky" | October 26, 1985 |
Glomer transports the kids into an adventure movie. | ||
8a | "Glomer Punks Out" | November 2, 1985 |
A sleazy record producer wants to sign up Glomer's musical act. | ||
8b | "Louvre Affair" | November 2, 1985 |
Glomer fools around and turns Henry into a statue of Julius Ceasar, which is sent from Chicago to Paris. Problems worsen when the the Louvre's curator declares him a forgery, and Punky must save Henry before he is smashed to pieces. | ||
9a | "Growing Pain" | November 9, 1985 |
Pepperoni pizza makes Glomer grow. Punky tries to find a way to reduce him before the National Guard is deployed to Chicago. | ||
9b | "Double Your Punky" | November 9, 1985 |
While Punky is at a school picnic. Glomer creates a clone of her from a photograph to keep him company at home. But it is obnoxious, and he accidentally zaps the real Punky back into the photo. When the two Punkys finally lock horns, it's Brandon who sniffs out the real one. | ||
10a | "Spellbound" | November 16, 1985 |
Punky is in Washington, DC for the National Spelling Bee, where Glomer zaps a bee with the ability to make people spell out words. | ||
10b | "The Shoe Must Go On" | November 16, 1985 |
Glomer makes Cherie a pair of shoes that help her to dance. School diva Leonora Crump wants them for herself. | ||
11a | "Switchin' Places" | November 23, 1985 |
To impress a girl, Allen switches bodies with Glomer. | ||
11b | "How The Midwest Was Won" | November 23, 1985 |
Glomer takes himself, Punky, Brandon, and Allen to Chicago in 1803, where a fur poacher, Pierre LePelt, tries to prevent the city's development. | ||
12a | "Any Wish Way You Can" | November 30, 1985 |
The wish spell Glomer intended for Punky hits Margaux instead. She wishes to be Queen with the others being her servants. | ||
12b | "The Bermuda Tangle" | November 30, 1985 |
In the dead of winter, Glomer takes the kids to a tropical island then loses his powers after getting hit in the head with a coconut. | ||
13a | "Unidentified Flying Glomer" | December 7, 1985 |
A pet groomer pursues Glomer after seeing him chasing a bird. | ||
13b | "Fish Story" | December 7, 1985 |
To help Punky win the role of a mermaid in a school play, Glomer turns her into an actual one. |
Season 2 (1986)
No. | Title | Original air date |
---|---|---|
1a | "Little Orphan Punky" | September 13, 1986 |
A social worker removes Punky from Henry's home and puts her in a home where little girls are being used as slave labor for a candy factory. One of Glomer's spells to free her backfires, resulting in her being stranded atop a TV tower during a thunderstorm. It is up to Henry to rescue her and prove his worth as a foster father. | ||
1b | "Punky's Millions" | September 13, 1986 |
Henry and Punky compete on a game show and are told they can win millions if they spend $1 million in a week. When Henry falls ill, it is up to Punky and her pals to be the big spenders. | ||
2a | "Punky, Snow White And The Seven Dwarves" | September 20, 1986 |
Glomer brings the characters from the "Snow White" story out of the book. | ||
2b | "Punky The Heiress" | September 20, 1986 |
Punky's aunt and uncle use her to embezzle an heiress' fortune. | ||
3a | "Fair Feathered Friend" | September 27, 1986 |
Glomer is jealous of a little bird Punky is nursing back to health. | ||
3b | "Be My Glomley" | September 27, 1986 |
A female glomley may be the key to Glomer's return to Chaundoon. | ||
4 | "All In Henry's Family" | October 4, 1986 |
Henry visits his eccentric sisters, bringing Punky and Cherie with him. | ||
5 | "Call Me Ms." | October 11, 1986 |
Punky is tired of being treated like a child, so Glomer turns her into an adult. | ||
6 | "Punky P.I." | October 18, 1986 |
Punky opens a detective agency at school. | ||
7 | "Mississippi Mud" | October 25, 1986 |
Glomer takes the kids to a turn-of-the-century riverboat in Mississippi. | ||
8 | "Punky's Little Acre" | November 1, 1986 |
Margaux makes a mess of things at Punky's pen pal's farm. | ||
9 | "Camp Confusion" | November 8, 1986 |
It's Camp Tumbleweeds vs. Camp Towering Pines in athletic competition. | ||
10 | "Bright Eyes" | November 15, 1986 |
Cherie's deaf friend, Danny, wants to keep a lost puppy. | ||
11 | "Mother Of The Year" | November 22, 1986 |
Tensions arise when Glomer creates a glomley-fueled mother for Punky. | ||
12 | "Allen Who?" | November 29, 1986 |
Glomer grants Allen's wish of never having been born. | ||
13 | "Caught In The Act" | December 6, 1986 |
After Henry spots him in the kitchen, Glomer gives him amnesia just before an important photography assignment. |
Cast
- Soleil Moon Frye - Punky Brewster
- George Gaynes - Henry Warnimont
- Ami Foster - Margaux Kramer
- Cherie Johnson - Cherie Johnson
- Casey Ellison - Allen Anderson
- Casey Kasem - NBC bumper announcer
- Frank Welker - Glomer, Brandon (barking; speaking voice in "Brandon the Dialogue Dog")
Additional voices
- René Auberjonois
- Vince Edwards
- Pat Fraley
- Alejandro Garay
- Linda Gary
- Patty Glick
- Renae Jacobs
- Christina Lange
- Katie Leigh
- Joycelyne Lew
- Tress MacNeille
- Mea Martineau
- Janet Mays
- David Mendenhall
- Scott Menville - Chucky
- Lilly Moon
- Pat Musick
- Denise Pickering
- Hal Rayle
- Josh Rodine
- Neil Ross
- Shavar Ross
- Eddie Deezen
DVD/VHS releases
The series is available on DVD as part of the Punky Brewster DVD releases.[2][3][4] Each season also contains a certain number of episodes from it as a bonus feature. Due to music rights issues, "The Shoe Must Go On" is the only episode not released on DVD in the season box sets released by Shout! Factory; a song featured in that episode was "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer, the theme to Beverly Hills Cop. It may be possible that this is the music that Shout! Factory had some issues with.
The show was also released on VHS in 1985, and several different tapes were made.
Popular culture
- The series was parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "But Not In That Way" (aired February 8, 2009) with Soleil Moon Frye reprising Punky Brewster, Henry Warnimont voiced by Seth Green, and Glomer voiced by Tom Kane.
- Susie Garrett, who played Betty, and T.K. Carter, who played Mike, are the only regular cast members of the sitcom that didn't appear in the series.
References
- ↑ ""It's Punky Brewster" (1985) - Company credits". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
- ↑ "Punky Brewster DVD news: It's a Punky press release". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 2006-05-05. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
- ↑ "Punky Brewster: Season Two : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
- ↑ "BBC - Comedy Guide - Punky Brewster". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2005-01-26. Retrieved 2016-02-21.