The Untold Truth Of Punky Brewster

Punky Brewster was one of the premier kid entertainments of the 1980s. But for all its effervescent charm, it wasn't actually the most light and innocent show on TV — especially when it comes to the protagonist's origins. The NBC sitcom starred child actor Soleil Moon Frye as Penelope Brewster, better known as Punky, an elementary-school-age child left to live on her own after her mother abandons her at a shopping mall. She's discovered squatting in an apartment by a photographer named Henry (played by George Gaynes), who takes her in and becomes decreasingly curmudgeonly, thanks to Punky's relentless and undeniable optimism. With the help of her BFF Cherie, her dog Brandon, and a little "Punky Power," the charismatic kid rises to every challenge she meets, thus navigating the joys and pitfalls of growing up. 

Remembered fondly by older Millennials and younger Generation Xers — many of whom adopted Punky Brewster's unique fashion sense, which involves a bright color palette and mismatched shoes – Punky Brewster ranks as one of the all-time great kids' shows. Yet there's a lot to the series that even the most diehard fans might not know about. Here's a look back on the little-known details of peppy '80s favorite Punky Brewster.

The deep and deliberately voiced George Gaynes had been a hard-working character actor since the early 1960s. He'd landed small parts on dozens of episodes of TV shows including Hogan's Heroes, Columbo, and Quincy, M.E., but he didn't really explode into the public consciousness until 1984, thanks to back-to-back breakout roles as Commandant Eric Lassard in Police Academy and as reluctant adoptive parent Henry Warnimont on Punky Brewster. 

However, Gaynes wasn't immediately in contention to land that sitcom dad role. Seasoned television actor Fred Gwynne was gunning for the part as well, which would've marked his third successful sitcom following Car 54, Where are You?, and The Munsters, on which he starred as the Frankenstein's Monster-inspired goofball Herman Munster. Gwynne was eager to be associated with a role besides that of a monster from a 20-year-old novelty sitcom: He attended his Punky Brewster audition dressed in a white suit with a fresh haircut, hoping to look as little like Herman Munster as possible. But then Soleil Moon Frye arrived to read lines with Gwynne and innocently asked, "Aren't you Herman Munster?" Gwynne was so disappointed, he botched his audition.

Shows like Punky Brewster — squeaky-clean sitcoms aimed at an audience of children and tweens — no longer air on the big four networks during primetime slots. They thrive on cable outlets that specialize in such fare instead, like the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. The TV climate was a lot different in the mid-1980s, when the Federal Communications Commission dictated that the broadcast networks use the first hour of primetime television on Sunday nights — 7 PM to 8 PM on the coasts — for news, public affairs, or family-oriented programming. 

CBS had placed 60 Minutes, a perennial ratings juggernaut, in that spot since 1975. "It's been proved that other news shows can't succeed against 60 Minutes," NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff told TV Guide in 1986. Indeed, during the 1983-84 season, NBC tried to compete against 60 Minutes with a newsmagazine called First Camera, which flopped. So, the network opted to counter-program, following the other part of the FCC's dictum and using the early Sunday time slot for kid stuff. Tartikoff placed family comedy Silver Spoons in the Sundays-at-7 spot, and asked the show's producer, David W. Duclon, for a new series to follow at 7:30 PM. This led Duclon to create Punky Brewster.

Punky Brewster's biggest supporter and constant partner in mischief is her close friend Cherie Johnson, who lives in the same building as Punky's foster father, Henry. The character of Cherie Johnson was played by a young actor also named Cherie Johnson — and that wasn't a coincidence. Punky Brewster was conceived by veteran TV writer David W. Duclon, who happens to be Johnson's uncle. "He created the show, but not for me to have a job," Johnson told Mental Floss. "He just thought he'd use my name and that I'd be thrilled."

Duclon was only vaguely aware that his niece had acting aspirations, of which she wasn't quite convinced herself. On the set of Duclon's other '80s show, Silver Spoons, Johnson told Parlé that she watched Ricky Schroder perform and told Duclon that she could do the same, but "didn't give it a thought of being my career." When Punky Brewster entered production and Johnson learned that Duclon had named a character after her, Johnson pushed to play the role. "He said he needed a real actress," Johnson recalled, but after she auditioned seven times, NBC told him to cast her.

On January 28, 1986, NASA launched the space shuttle Challenger. This was almost a routine occurrence, as this would be the 10th time Challenger had gone into space in three years. But this time was indeed different: High school teacher Christa McAuliffe was one of seven Challenger crew members, set to become the first American civilian to visit space. Because of the historical importance and educational connection, countless classrooms around the country tuned in to watch the Challenger launch live. Tragically, a little over a minute after liftoff, the space shuttle exploded, killing all seven crew members. It's impossible to say how many kids watching the moment on TV were traumatized, but the fact that it became a shocking generational milestone is beyond question.

One of those kids left sad and troubled by the event was a fictional one: TV's Punky Brewster. The character repeatedly affirms her desire to be an astronaut when she grows up, so Punky Brewster creator David W. Duclon wrote an episode in which the character processes the Challenger disaster. According to the Los Angeles Times, Duclon also wanted to help kid viewers manage their feelings, and to not give up on their dreams of being astronauts some day. That encouragement is explicitly delivered to Punky in the episode by special guest star Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon.

Punky Brewster was popular enough that NBC sought to expand their spunky, fashion-forward foundling's TV empire. In the fall of 1985, a year after Punky Brewster debuted, NBC's Saturday morning lineup welcomed a new cartoon also called Punky Brewster, although it was sometimes referred to as It's Punky Brewster to differentiate it from its live-action counterpart. While the sitcom is about an orphan living with a sometimes-stodgy old man, the animated series is a bizarre, fantastical adventure with the characters of Punky Brewster added in. A cute, magical, gopher-like creature named Glomer, who comes from Chaundoon, a city at the end of the rainbow, gets lost in the real world, where he meets Punky and her friends. This Punky Brewster lasted for two strange, whimsical seasons.

Not as successful a spin-off was Fenster Hall. NBC aired the pilot as an episode of Punky Brewster in March 1985 without ordering a full series. Such a series would've explored the day-to-day happenings of the titular children's shelter, which briefly serves as a temporary home to Punky herself in early episodes of Punky Brewster. Believe it or not, this would have been a comedy.

Punky Brewster ended a four-year, 88-episode run in the spring of 1988, with its animated Saturday morning spinoff wrapping up a year earlier. And yet the franchise hasn't remained dormant. In 2014, comics publisher Lion Forge's ROAR imprint added a digital-only Punky Brewster book series to its line of nostalgia-stirring adaptations of '80s titles like Airwolf, Knight Rider, and Saved by the Bell. The comic was a collaboration between Teen Titans writer Joelle Sellner and artist Lesley Vamos. Eventually collected and published as Punky Power, the comic serves as a prequel to the 1980s series, focusing on a homeless Punky Brewster (and her puppy, Brandon) as they wander the city looking for a place to live.

In January 2020, NBCUniversal announced that a new Punky Brewster series was in the works. Set to debut in 2021 on the Peacock streaming service, Soleil Moon Frye returns as the title character, now a single mother of three who is still friends with Cherie and still occasionally wears two mismatched shoes. Heart-warmingly, she befriends a girl in foster care who reminds her of her old self.