Milk Does a Body Good

"Milk Does a Body Good" is the twelfth episode in the second season of Punky Brewster.

Summary
Henry invites new neighbors Richard Whitney (James Staley) and his daughter Julie (Candace Cameron Bure) over for dinner. Punky, Cherie, and Julie are making a cake for after dinner when they see Julie's picture on the back of a milk carton, which says that her real name is Jennifer Bates, and that she went missing from Lawrence, Kansas. Jennifer runs to her apartment and shows Richard the milk carton. The next thing Richard knows, Jennifer has run away, but Richard refuses to let anyone call the cops.

Punky finds Jennifer in the tree house. Jennifer's mad at her father, but Punky tells Jennifer how lucky she is to have him. She then comes back in with Punky, and asks Richard why her picture was on the milk carton. Richard admits that after he and Jennifer's mother Roberta got divorced, she got custody of Jennifer and had cruelly been trying to cut Richard's visitation rights as much as possible in an effort to hurt Richard by keeping him out of Jennifer's life, and Richard loves Jennifer too much to be kept out of her life. Richard knew that Roberta and her new husband were planning to move to the west coast, meaning he would hardly ever get to see Jennifer again, and he ran off with Jennifer so he could stay in her life. Richard decides to call Roberta and tell her where Jennifer is.

Trivia

 * The name of this episode comes from the slogan for Milk.
 * This episode focuses on missing children as from the 80s until the 00's missing children would be put onto milk cartons before being replaced with the Amber Alert.
 * Candace Cameron Bure who plays Julie/Jennifer would later go on to play Donna Jo "DJ" Tanner in "Full House" & it's own sequel "Fuller House".

Cast

 * Soleil Moon Frye as Punky Brewster
 * Cherie Johnson as Cherie Johnson
 * George Gaynes as Henry Warnimont
 * Susie Garrett as Betty Johnson
 * T. K. Carter as Mike Fulton
 * Ami Foster as Margaux Kramer
 * Casey Ellison as Allen Anderson
 * Sandy as Brandon "the Wonder Dog"
 * Candace Cameron Bure as Julie Whitney / Jennifer Bates
 * James Staley Richard Whitney/Bates