David W. Duclon, ‘Punky Brewster’ Creator, Dies at 74
David W. Duclon, the creator of Punky Brewster who also produced a handful of hit sitcoms, including Silver Spoons, Family Matters, The Jeffersons and Laverne & Shirley, has died. He was 74.
Duclon died Wednesday morning in Franklin, Tennessee, after a long illness, his daughter Danielle Duclon announced.
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Born Warren David Duclon on April 27, 1950, in Rockford, Illinois, he first made his way into Hollywood in 1972 as a writer and assistant producer on ABC’s The Odd Couple, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.
As Duclon continued his career in television, he clearly had a knack for sitcoms. He joined ABC’s Happy Days, starring Henry Winkler and Ron Howard, as a writer in 1976, as well as ABC’s Laverne & Shirley, starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, that year. He also served as a producer on the latter.
Punky Brewster, which debuted in 1984 and ran for four seasons on NBC and in syndication, followed a young girl named Penelope “Punky” Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye) who is abandoned by her parents and ends up in the care of a widowed photographer (George Gaynes).
Duclon earned two Emmy nominations for the show, for best children’s program in 1986 and 1986.
(Peacock released a reboot in 2021, which saw Punky all grown up with kids of her own. Duclon executive produced the series that only ran for a season.)
With Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye, Duclon developed NBC’s Silver Spoons, which ran for five seasons from 1982-87. That show followed Ricky Stratton (Ricky Schroder), a spoiled rich kid who lives the life that many kids dream of — but still suffers from the problems that many teens do.
Duclon also wrote eight episodes of ABC’s The Jeffersons and served as an executive producer on that Norman Lear series and wrote and executive produced for ABC’s Family Matters.
His other credits included Boys Will Be Boys, On Our Own, Built to Last, Guys Like Us, Malcolm & Eddie, Eve, Working Stiffs and Makin’ It.
In 2017, he wrote the book Once Upon a Christmas: Part One of the Unlikely Life of David Duncan.
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