The Day My Kid Went Punk Review (1987)

This was funny, but also not too off from how punks were viewed by the older generation at the time. Weird hair color or piercings were definitely looked at ascance in 1987, when this aired as an ABC Afterschool Special.

The "punk" music in this is more like mainstream new wave, so no lost gems like in the Quincy punk episode. The punks are all presented sympathetically, so we also don't get the sensationalized violence and drug use you might expect from 80s punksploitation. The kids are all depicted as just needing a little attention and probably just going through a phase. As silly as it is, it does at least send a message to uptight parents that their kids may look weird, but they're still good kids. In the context of the times, that's actually not too bad.

We do at least get a great cast of 80s character actors including the guy who played the Governor on Benson, Roxie Roker from The Jeffersons, and the ship's doctor from The Love Boat. And star Jay Underwood would go on to play Bug in Uncle Buck, The Human Torch in Roger Corman's (technically) unreleased Fantastic Four, and Sonny Bono in The Sonny and Cher Story.

At the end of the day, this is neither particularly good taken at face value, nor is it super campy fun. It is, however, a decent little time capsule, and at just 45 minutes it's over right about when you're ready for it to be.