Punky Brewster, Nostalgia, and the 90’s
Like millions of others, I’m a child of the 80’s and the 90’s. I’m on the tail end of Generation X, and a proud part of the latchkey and MTV generation. I remember Saturday morning TV and when Music Television had music on television. My cultural and pop-cultural references, my musical and movie tastes, and even my occasional cynical and sarcastic demeanor are all rooted in growing up during a time where we were often guided by the beginnings of MTV and a host of movies and TV shows. We were a generation that wasn’t influenced by social media and were allowed to make mistakes and learn life lessons without every moment on display across the internet on countless social media outlets. And quite honestly, I feel for kids growing up today. Everything is on display and so many are chasing internet notoriety, regardless of how they achieve it.
In a sense, Soleil Moon Frye’s Hulu documentary offers a glimpse of what it would have been like if our lives were on display during those days. It was a candid view into what she and her friends from LA to NYC experienced. It offered interviews with other child stars, actors, and musicians such as Stephen Dorff, Danny Boy O’Connor, Mark Paul Gosselaar, and Brian Austin Green (just to name a few), as they cracked open the vault of Soleil’s video and journal archives.
The entire film was a 72 minute trip down memory lane. It brought back long lost memories and emotions as they chronicled their lives and shared stories. And while I grew up far from LA or NYC, I couldn’t help but to feel a connection to their stories as like many of us, we grew up watching them unfold from a distance. It also triggered a wave of old personal memories of the ups and downs of adolescence, and showed that regardless of where you are in the world, we all experience all very similar things in life.
For anyone who grew up during this time, I’d highly recommend watching it, even if you weren’t a fan of Punky Brewster. The interviews, stories, and archived footage serve as a time capsule for the late 80’s and early 90’s as she weaves from her early Hollywood days through her days in NYC. It also serves as a reminder that even though on the surface we can seem ok, there is often an undercurrent of sadness as the film chronicles those who they lost over the years.
When it was all said and done, it was a nostalgic ride that left me thinking about those days in my life and how far I’ve come. It was a reminder that we should all look back and catalog our memories and find some way to enjoy and grow from them.
