Punky Brewster - Origin of The Name

Origin of The Name

NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff named the series after a girl he had a crush on in his own childhood: an older tomboy named Peyton "Punky" Brewster. Before the series aired, NBC tracked her down (by this time, she was married to a lawyer in Connecticut and named Peyton Rutledge) and secured her permission to use her name for the lead character. Rutledge was even hired to do a cameo in one episode as a teacher at Punky's school (in the opening scene of the episode titled "The Search", aired November 10, 1985) so that both the real and fictional Punky Brewster could be on screen at the same time (the teacher even comments "Punky Brewster? Strange name!"). She is credited at the end of the episode as Peyton B. Rutledge.

The dog that follows Punky around is named Brandon, after Tartikoff himself. His real name is Sandy. Sandy originally shared the role with his brother, but they decided that Sandy was better for the role.

Cherie Johnson co-stars on the show playing Punky's best friend, who is also named Cherie Johnson. There actually is a reason that they have the same name. This reason is that when the characters for the show were originally written by Cherie's uncle, he decided to name a character after his niece (Cherie). So, when Cherie found this out, she mistakenly thought her uncle was giving her the role. But when her uncle told her that wasn't his intention, she decided to try out for the role anyways. Ironically, she received the role.

Susie Garrett, who played Cherie's grandmother, Betty Johnson, was actually Cherie Johnson's real grandmother.

In the season one episode "Yes, Punky, There is a Santa Claus", Henry mentions that Margaux has a little brother named "Bradford". Though, in all the other episodes, Margaux doesn't appear to have a brother again.