Every time we turned around in the mid-1980s, Punky Brewster's spirit lifted us right off the ground. And now the 7-year-old orphan's campy TV adventures are captured on DVD. "Punky Brewster: The Complete First Season" ($34.98) proves to be eminently rewatchable two decades after it first aired. The sitcom follows the adventures of the indomitable Punky Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye), who is abandoned by her mom outside a store. Only in the world of laugh-track-lined, '80s TV can such an unfortunate kid bounce happily about the streets of Chicago, but that's exactly what the ever-optimistic Punky does, alongside her puppy, Brandon. She is taken in by grumpy building landlord Henry Warnimont (George Gaynes), and the new foster parent and child develop a heartwarming, life- affirming relationship. The series is nothing close to high art and is absolutely crammed with eye-rolling verbal gags and cutesy sentiment, but it racks up major points for nostalgia and absurdity. The laugh-track audience, which explodes in exuberance over the dopiest of jokes, is a riot in and of itself, especially when it triggers after jokes that would now be considered politically incorrect. The "audience" even claps and cheers when Punky and some pals cruelly lock a group-home security guard on the outside of a window ledge so Punky can escape. Still, it's possible to appreciate the series in more than a mocking, "Mystery Science 3000" fashion. The themes hit harder than they have any right to and speak to children's deepest fears of abandonment. "Punky" was never afraid to turn from humor to peril on a dime or a commercial break. In today's context, Henry seems like something of a slumlord. At first, he ignores a vacant apartment that Punky takes for her own. Punky seems a bit too trusting of adults, and her actions may have put plenty of bad ideas into the heads of kids. The four-disc package includes the 23-episode first season of the "Punky" series, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1988, and selected episodes of the trippy, animated "It's Punky Brewster." Other extras include interviews with Cherie Johnson, who played Punky's gleeful next-door-neighbor pal, Cherie, and Ami Foster, who was snobby rich kid Margeaux. Missing in action is Moon Frye, who may have been too embarrassed to check in. She shouldn't be. "Punky" is a cultural icon.