Punky Brewster/Trivia

• Channel Hop: From NBC to first-run syndication in the final two seasons.
• Contest Winner Story Pitch: The CPR episode ("Cherie Lifesaver").
• The Danza: Cherie Johnson as...Cherie Johnson. This came about as Cherie's uncle, David W. Duclon, who created the show and served as executive producer, was going to name a character on the show after his niece, while the real Cherie thought she was actually going to be on the show. After she understood what happened, she tried out for the role anyway...and won it.
  • And there's Eddie Deezen as Eddie Malvin.
• Fan Nickname: Soleil Moon Frye's high school years were painful for her because of the one given to her by jealous classmates: Chunky Boobster.
• I Am Not Spock: Anytime someone mentions Soleil Moon Frye, she's always referred to as "Punky Brewster". Probably either because they can't pronounce her real name or because "Punky Brewster" is much easier to remember. It just flows off the tongue.
• Name's the Same: "The Perils of Punky" was the title of both an episode of the live action series and the cartoon.
• The Other Darrin: The Brazilian dub has one when it re-broadcasted on Rede Bandeirantes, but the rebroadcast didn't last as long as the old dub did which it aired on SBT.
• Real Life Relative: Both Soleil Moon Frye's real life brother, Meeno Peluce, and George Gaynes' real life wife, Allyn Ann McLerie, made guest appearances. In addition, Cherie Johnson's uncle, David W. Duclon, was the program's creator and executive producer.
• Screwed by the Network: Worked around after a while. Much like what would later plague FOX shows King of the Hill and Malcolm in the Middle, the time-slot for the show was impacted by overruns of NFL coverage. After a while, NBC eventually commissioned a handful of 15-minute episodes as insurance.
  • At least one non-O&O local NBC station (WPTZ, Plattsburgh, NY) regularly ran a local news show that preempted it.
    • Our NBC ran it regularly, but no station in our area ran the syndicated show.
    • Zig-zagged: During NBC's first set of replays of Season 2 of the cartoon, episodes were trimmed to accommodate bumpers featuring the casts of some of NBC's family-friendly prime-time sitcoms.
• What Could Have Been: Originally, T.K. Carter was supposed to star in a spinoff show, Fenster Hall, named after the orphanage Punky was trying to avoid before meeting Henry. The premise would have been that Mike was working for Fenster as the chief boys' counselor after staying there at age seven due to being orphaned since birth and being shuffled around various foster homes. The other regulars would have been Mike's charges: tough street kid T.C. Finestra (Billy Lombardo), aspiring heavyweight boxer Lester "Sugar" Thompson (Martin Davis), huge, hulking Conan (B.J. Barie), sweet little Dash (Benji Gregory), and nerdy intellectual Lyle (Gabriel Damon); as well as Mike's boss, orphanage administrator Rita J. Sanchez (Rosana DeSoto). Unfortunately, NBC passed on the spinoff and Carter was instead made a regular.