Rejoice! You Can Get Punky on iTunes!
July 14, 2008

You might not have known that you wanted the first seasons of Punky Brewster and Swamp Thing to be available on iTunes, but you did. You really did.

Those two series, along with The Weird Al Show, Upright Citizens Brigade: Asssscat! and a few other titles will available on Apple’s iTunes service, courtesy of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Shout! Factory. A compilation of the Comic Relief charity concerts that starred Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams will also get the iTunes treatment.

Possibly the “awww”-est of the adorable-kid-gets-taken-in-by-the-unlikely-surrogate-parent TV shows (Diff’rent Strokes, Webster, Love Sydney) that gave cop and detective shows a run for their money in the 1980s, Punky starred Soleil Moon Frye (later of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch fame) as an abandoned seven-year-old girl who’s adopted by a grumpy building manager, played by George Gaynes, i.e. Commandant Lassard in the Police Academy movies. The series ran through 1989.

The “gee-I-wouldn’t-imagine-releasing-that” quotient is par for the course for Shout! Factory. The distributor’s founders include Richard Foos, who co-founded Rhino Records* stores and label in the 70s, and his brother Garson Foos, also a former executive at the uber-music catalogue label. Time Warner bought half the Rhino label in 1992 and the other half six years later.

Punky’s first season will be priced on iTunes at $1.99 per episode and $24.99 for the season, and will be available Aug. 4, as will Swamp Thing, which was based on the comic-book character and ran from 1990-93. Comedy titles such as Relief are available today.

*Full disclosure: I worked as a summer intern for Rhino in 1997, and have The Big Ol’ Box of 60s Soul and Cowabunga! The Surf Box box sets to prove it.

Posted by Danny King on July 14, 2008 | Comments (0)