A Very Special Boxing Episode, Throwback Thursday: Punky Brewster and Family Matters

For a review of Boxing Trope terminology, see this master post. This post contains spoilers, but for 80s/90s sitcoms, so…

Boxing Tropes litter the retro TV landscape, especially sitcoms. You weren’t a male character unless you somehow proved or hilariously disproved your masculinity in the ring. By the ’80s when sitcoms like Punky Brewster and Family Matters came around, these were tried and true Tropes.

Punky Brewster & Marvelous Marvin Hagler in “The K.O. Kid.”

I’m throwing back to these two first, somewhat at random, but also because they feature iconic characters who aren’t as typical of earlier sitcoms. They’re not Peter Bradys or Fonzies (nerdy or super cool white, straight guy). We’ll get to them later. Plus, both shows at least initially try to use boxing to send out a message about bullying–still a salient issue today.

A Very Special Boxing Episode, or everyone’s favorite TV trope

Chachi takes the ring in the “Glove Story” episode of Happy Days. Is his hand in an ice bucket? Looks beat.

Television and we the loyal viewers, in turn, love the tropes. We watch our beloved regulars get prettied up and boogie at the school dance. We set the DVR for the holidays episodes. We have also grown to accept TV (and movie) character cues: That character is smoking a cigarette  because he or she is stressed out/pensive/badass. That hacker character’s desk is a mess, but he can break through the firewall  of anything that runs on electricity! And boxing is the ultimate shorthand.

“Let’s Stay Together”

The red tones. The Al Green. The ugly t-shirt. The non-existent cigarette brand, nah-no-filters. The laconic exchange. The inscrutable resentment. The disparaging “Punchy.” The slow-spin-turn.

Matchless.