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ABC Weekend Specials: The Puppy's Great Adventure Rant
Reviewed: 10/18/2026
Tommy Gets Adopted?! YAY! They hate dogs?! BOO! HISS!
Well everyone, I'm finally going to do something I am interested in doing. With Peppa Pig going AI and Hey Duggee pretty much done as a show after Roly dug a giant hole in the garden and got cancelled (no, not really; I'm still reviewing that show), I'm kind of bored. I've decided to do something that is more of a trainwreck and I have not seen a lot of reviews on: animated weekend specials of the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Welcome to the Rant Shack partners, it's time for you all to be held to account like the Disney Afternoon shows would be if copyright wasn't a bigger asshole than Rev. Ash(hole) Taylor. Anyhow, these weekend specials were basically OVA's being put on television because the quality level was television level dependent on a certain year or so. I don't think I need to explain any further than that. It is what it is: a job to keep viewers watching while the emergency continues. Otherwise, on their own, mostly just stuff. Maybe when I start seeing these with a critical eye, I might change my mind about this, but that means it might be worse. We'll see. Okay, so my rules for this will be that the specials will be animated, or animated combined with live action. Ironically, I have already ranted on one of those ABC Weekend Specials already: The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin. The special that used costumes combined with live action. It was just there to suck, and the animated series in Canada was much better, animation production problems aside.
My next choice here will be a lot more of an ink & paint special as it is going to be my sixth Ruby-Spears production, the fifth which came long before a certain blue dweeb made the airwaves. Mega Man, everyone. This next choice is also the second ABC Weekend Special featuring Ruby-Spears as the animation company and is the beginning of multiple specials and an animated television series to boot. Welcome to the Rant Shack: Petey The Puppy and his despressing adventures. You'll see why they are in a moment. I'm only going to do the specials, and not the animated series (as there are two of them) that were released from 1982 onwards. The second special is from 1979 as Petey is going through hell and back to get the parents who adopted Tommy to accept Petey, becauses the adopted parents hate dogs. I'm all set to rip this episode asunder. How does it fare? Let's rant on shall we...?
The Puppy Who Wanted A Boy is written by Sheldon Stark. Sheldon Stark passed away in 1997, and wrote mostly television series. Began with the television special "The Queen Was In The Kitchen" in 1945. Wrote seven episodes of Rocky King, Detective in 1951, eight episodes of The Big Story between 1952-1958, and five episodes of Matinee Theatre in 1957. Also wrote a few episodes of "The Fugitive" in 1964. Plastic Man was his final credits, writing 16 episodes. Get use to Sheldon Stark since this writer does the remaining ABC Weekend Specials of The Puppy OAVs, and Scruffy, which I believe is the spinoff. Plus, a few other productions including Miss Switch! The story is based on one written by Catherine Woolley. Again, I have not read the book, nor am I interested in doing so. The animation production house is unknown.
Opening Moment #1: The opening features still pictures of all the scenes in the special with voice credits. This one does have a spooky wavy logo that was scarier than the vampire rabbit in the open coffin. I'm going to ignore the scenes because they are clearly not 1:1 with the previous scenes as per other Ruby-Spears specials. They were intended for padding and it make the animated series seem better when they really are not. The music in this opening sequence is way too peppy considering the impending dread that is about to befall on our main character. Another note: I will not be review the host segments featuring Wilie Taylor and his wooden puppet named Lester. I mention this now because the cut I'm using is the original television airing of this special on ABC and is not based on the home video version like in the previous three specials I have done already. I think you can guess how the routine goes without me saying it. Wilie says something, Lester says or does something dumb and we react with laughter or shock. It's the old "straight/idiot" routine you see in comedy. Only the jokes and punchlines are G-rated. As for Wilie Taylor: He did appear on the Canadian show Bizzare, which IMDB does not show in their database. Rowan & Martian's Laugh In is the only real credit of any importance, back in 1972-1973. The Kids Are Alright in 2019 is his most recent credit, although he was supposed to be on Adam Sandler: Love You on Netflix in 2024. Mostly cameos in television obviously. (Note From The Future: I found the home video version of this special, so I didn't need to see the ABC cut of this one either. My apologies.) The voice credits for this special are as follows:
[1.] Petey The Puppy is voiced by Bryan Scott this time around. Bryan Scott Mancini started on Playmates as Eric Barnett in 1972 and was in mostly movies and cameos as a child actor. Mostly known as Kidd Video from that series and Billy in Spider-Woman. He'll be also voicing Petey in "The Puppy's Amazing Rescue" in 1980. Motorama and Desire And Hell At The Sunset Motel are his final known acting credits, and would do ADR until Club Dread in 2004. Tommy is voiced by John Joseph Thomas. Dolly is voiced by Nancy McKeon, who was a child actress at this point and started with Starsky & Hutch as Vikki Mayer in 1977. She is a regular on the ABC Weekend Specials as she'll be Dolly for the remainer of the OAV's and voice Scruffy in that special. She also voiced Amelia Matilda Daley in Miss Switch's OAVs. Most of her work is cameos, but was Jo Polniaczek in The Facts of Life from 1980-1988 and Annie O'Donnel in Can't Hurry Life in 1995-1996 (also a producer for 19 episodes). She also was Inspector Jinny Exstead in The Division from 2001-2004 (directed a few episodes as well.). Panic in 2021 as Jessica Mason is her most recent credit.
[2.] Additional voices are provided by Hettie Lynne Hurtes and Scatman Crothers. Hettie debuted on The Filthiest Show in Town (which I betcha it isn't even close even) in 1973. She got into voice acting a couple of years later with The Tiny Tree and Jabberjaw, along with the Scooby-Doo Show in 1976-1978, and Captain Caveman and The Teen Angels in 1977-1980. Her most notable voice work was in Tarzan, Lord Of The Jungle in 1976 as Thea/Thia/Queen Nemone. Most of her other work is cameos as a reporter or an announcer. She did break out as a star in 2025 as Hazel Wilson in Queen Mom Rules. I Am Ryan, 33 Days among others are her most recent credits and is currently working on three projects: Dragged Off, 12 Hours and The Roundest Egg. Scatman, according to IMDB: Scatman Crothers was born Benjamin Sherman Crothers on May 23, 1910 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Songwriter ("Dearest One"), actor, composer, singer, comedian, and guitarist who, after high school, appeared in nightclubs, hotels, and films, and on television. He made many records, including his own compositions. He joined ASCAP in 1959, and his popular-song compositions also include "The Gal Looks Good", "Nobody Knows Why", "I Was There", "A Man's Gotta Eat", and "When, Oh When". He played drums and sang in a bebop combo in Chicago in the early 1940s, dabbling in bebop, the new jazz style being pioneered by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. In 1946, Crothers took over from Leo Watson as drummer of Slim Gaillard's Trio in 1946 after settling in Los Angeles. He made a bunch of records starting in 1947. In 1948 he was introduced to Phil Harris, a radio star and regular on Jack Benny's program. He and Harris--like Crothers a native of Indiana--immediately hit it off. Together Crothers and Harris recorded a song called "Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy," which they introduced on Harris's NBC radio show The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Crothers recorded two more hits later that year: "On the Sunny Side of the Street" and "Dead Man's Blues." He became a regular guest on Harris's show, and the pair continued to collaborate on records and in films for years to come. Scatman Crothers died at age 76 of pneumonia and lung cancer at his home in Van Nuys, California on November 22, 1986. Rock Odyssey as Jukebox was his final credit in 1987. Cartoon characters: Eugene The Genie in Paw Paws, Jazz in Transformers and George "Meadowlark" Lemon in Harlem Globe Trotters in 1970-1971. He was also Scat Cat in Disney's The Aristo Cats.
[3.] The Father is voiced by John Stephenson. Joan Gerber, Allan Melvin, and Frank Welker also provided additional voices. Those are the ones who did voices on TaleSpin I should note.
We begin this one somewhere in Glen Oaks as the Glen Oaks Public Home For Boys, which is basically a male-only orphanage run by a woman. Zoom in as a squirrel is on a tree in the foreground to show that the animator is animating even though most of the animation is going to be Hanna Barbara-equse. Pan up to a window and then head inside a bedroom containing four boys sleeping. One of them is the blond haired wonder Tommy sleeping with his new puppy friend, Petey. In the last special, Petey and Tommy became friends in the best ABC Weekend Special I have reviewed at this point. Tommy is sleeping with the red pjs on as Petey wakes up and licks Tommy in the face as we pan over to an alarm clock as it's 7:30 am. All the boys wake up and it's a special day according to them because Tommy and Petey are getting adopted. Just like that! There has to be a catch to this, otherwise, the special would be over in less than five minutes. Tommy and Petey bail stage left and under the bed, in that order in order to start packing because the adoption will be made official after breakfast. Apparently, the packing involves a leash and one white shirt, that made me chuckle as Tommy is already dressed. Okay, I get that BS&P isn't going to allow Tommy to undress and redress in his formal gear, but by god; that was fast! Tommy hugs Petey as they are happy while Petey is licking Tommy's face again. Scene change to the front door inside with Mrs. Miller, Tommy and Petey watching from the window. We discover that Tommy's last name is going to be Williams since Tommy mentions the family as The Williams'. Miss Miller claims that they are from Lucton, so they are moving to Iowa it seems. That explains why the long drive as Petey checks the luggage and realizes that he forgot his bone. Considering that they only packed two items, I think they forgot a lot more. Petey runs upstairs and checks under the bed and finds no bone, then checks the closet and only finds a bat. Petey does this to make a baseball reference which didn't catch. Petey wonders on his ass as we scene change to the orphanage outside on the sky shot as a car arrives. Tommy is so happy because it's the new family from Iowa, as a brown haired father and a blond haired mother arrive. They look so generic, I swear that they are stock characters from Hanna-Barbara. Oh wait...The animation looks like someone with hands walks them through the sidewalk to the house.
Miss Miller opens the door and we have the meet and greet. They look friendly enough, I guess. The faces are off-model from shot to shot I should note as Tommy is still breaking in from titles of Mrs. Williams to Mom. Mr. Williams asks Tommy to take his new mother out to the car. Tommy's new mother, not the father's for obvious reason. Tommy complys and gets a cheering section from the boys on the way out, that was classy. Back inside as Miss Miller and Mr. Williams exchange more notes and then Petey the Puppy is brought up and Mr. Williams is shocked and appalled. Uh-oh! Mr. Williams blows off Petey because he hates dog because he claimed that a dog bit him once and they are a nuisance. Okay, if the father and/or mother were legit allergic to dog hair, which has happened before in a Ruby-Spears ABC Weekend Special, this would have been understandable. Listen, I was mauled by a dog once, but even I do not think most dogs are dangerous. I used to own a dog named Jewel, who was a lovely dog until he was killed by a snowplow many years ago. The only reason I would never have a dog as a pet again. It's a really sad part of my life that I remember and a reminder that childhoods are not this perfect puppet to be used and abused by others. Mr. Williams assures Miss Miller that he will treat Tommy so well that he'll forget about Petey; which I doubt. Mr. Williams leaves just before Petey comes down the stairs, somehow finding the damn bone he lost. Petey sits down and realizes that Tommy is in the car. The car leaves stage right and Petey chases the car like the puppy dog that he is. Yup, that's what happened and that effectively is the end of Miss Miller's role in these specials. Tommy is inside the car and hears Petey barking from inside. Tommy notices Petey and wants them to stop, and then Mr. Williams confesses right there that Petey is staying behind. What an asshole?! The car drives away into the background as Petey cannot catch up anymore and sheds a tear. As soon as this scene occurs, I have been proven wrong because we head into the kitchen with Miss Miller petting Petey and consoling the puppy who refuses to eat. Miss Miller has to tell the truth, and it sucks, before she leaves feeling awful. Probably regretting accepting the offer for Tommy to be adopted without venting the parents to see if they didn't hate dogs, I guess. Petey teases eating the puppy chow and then nose buts it away because Mr. Williams is going to make it be helped.
Petey knows what to do because he did it once before. In the first special! Petey is going to hell and back, but the stakes are different. He knows Tommy accepts him, and Tommy is his friend. This time, it's to find Tommy and make the parents accept him. Maybe the mother has a different opinion of Petey because the only opinion shown is Mr. Williams, the sexist bigot who is a spiecist as well! Petey runs out and proclaims that he'll make Mr. Williams accept him and that I believe is the end of Miss Miller's role on this show for real this time. Scene change to the boring road, which is much more exciting than Peppa Pig's, as Petey is tired. Considering that Glen Oaks is somewhere in New York and Lucton is somewhere in Iowa; Petey grossly underestimated the distances, methinks. I discover that it's not Luckton, but Lovtown. Which is a completely fictious town I should note, so it's literally Anytown, USA at this point. Oh, and it's 40 miles away. Even Petey realizes that he is screwed...until you realize that the sign is in front of the train tracks. If you cannot guess the next spot; you have no business reading this rant. Yup, a giant train appears on the tracks and the side door is open for no reason. Of course! Petey runs, jumps from the wooden deck and into the train via the side door and lands in a bushel of apples. The train sounds really make the music sound awful, I should note. Then we see two disease-infested dogs (one husky, one black dog) who scratched themselves making dropping jokes. None of them were funny, I should note. Comedy relief is not this special's strong point, methinks. The dogs exchange notes for a while as Petey didn't notice a thing. The guise of this is that the breakman hates dogs as well, only unlike Mr. Williams; he would beat them and/or murder them, you see. Basically they tell Petey that the train doesn't stop at Lovtown, unless you throw the switch. Which confuses Petey for no reason. Scene change to the train continues it's trek to probably parts unknown. Just like Lovtown, apparently. Inside the car, the dogs are resting and then get woken up by the brakeman. The brakeman opens the trapdoor on the roof and he looks like he is the recycled shithead Petey faced in the first special, only in train riding gear. Of course! Ruby-Spears is so cheap, it makes Hanna Barbara look like 1970's Disney Feature at this point. Oh wait...The non-comedy relief dogs bail out of the car through the side door right on cue, and Petey soon follows after teasing that he cannot jump off. Of course, BS&P isn't going to allow the brakeman to commit violence on anyone.
He just cuts a stupid promo and literally nothing else other than stalking Petey. Petey takes a bump on the seesaw train kart containing either U.S. Mail, or flour. I cannot tell which at this point, the footage is much darker than I expected and it's the video quality's fault in this case. The closeup after the seesaw train cart shows it's U.S. Mail. Oh, lookie; they are in Lovtown after all. How about that?! Thank you Mr. Brakeman! Petey is so happy as now he has to get directions instead of locating Petey. We head into Lovtown, AnyState, USA as the town is like a city at this point. Petey went from on the edge of the sidewalk in the far sky shot to on the sidewalk in the middle in the close up shot of him walking. Then we get the weirdest thing I have seen in the special so far: A dalmation dog is resting on the sidewalk in front of the firehouse number seven (as stated on his belly) as the dog tells Petey that he knows where the Williams family is. The dog gives him direction and we cut away mid-sentence, and it doesn't matter because we head to the Williams residence right away, which is a gated community, which Petey runs in and finds. Petey is looking an opening and cannot find one because the gate bars are too narrow for him to get through. Kit Cloudkicker, Petey is not. However, Petey's a dog, so he'll dig a hole in and out. Petey is digging, but he digs in the worst spot ever: Right in front of the white dog with brown ears named Dolly. I know this because she's pissed off and the doghouse in the background reveals her name. I don't blame Dolly for being pissed off, since Petey pretty much pissed on her. Of all the places Petey could have dug, he picks the one in front of Dolly?! What a moron Petey is?! Petey feigns ignorance and Dolly decides to let Petey explain himself. They exchange notes for a while and despite Petey being an idiot, she does agree that Mr. Williams shouldn't be hating dogs. Okay, then. Dolly claims that there is a way to get in, but the principals are away for a while, so Petey is screwed. Petey is not happy about that one, and Petey is a mess, so he has to go back to the junkyard a few blocks to clean up. Because there is a bathtub full of water, you see. I betcha it's all muddy waters and Petey is an idiot. Dolly decides to join in for fun, or she's bored. Either way, they are together and will be until the end of the ABC Weekend Specials featuring Petey The Puppy. Which is two more specials after this one! Dolly explains that Mr. Williams is a jeweler, which does not endear to me in the least. Apparently, Mr. Williams is going to be doing stuff with a priceless diamond and the entire press is going to be there.
We head to Doyle's Junkyard as Petey is literally cleaning himself in the bathtub. Petey is cleaning himself and splashing water onto Dolly like a moronic jerkass as Petey is also clueless as to what a diamond is. Dolly's explaination is stupider than Petey cluelessness. I'm just going to let Dolly make a fool out of herself as Petey dries off looking at a broken mirror. Fitting since his life has been broken in the thirty minutes since I have seen him on-screen. A diamond is not worth a million bones, Dolly. Bones are worthless in cash, but useful in biting. It's a dog thing. Petey decides to sleep on the conveniently placed brown sofa on the ground because Petey is yawning and tired. Dolly leaves to attend to her people, because calling them friends is so beneath her, I guess. Petey does accept Dolly and vice versa on the way out, I should note. We are officially halfway through this special and it's boring to me. Outside of one moment with the train, it's doesn't have the "hell and back" feel of the first special. Night falls as we pan down to Petey sleeping on the sofa in front of the shed as we hear someone address someone else as Fingers. Petey wakes up and watches from a distance two human burglers in front of a safe. The one who is using doctor's sethoscope and wearing glasses while trying to open this iron safe is clearly Fingers. Fitting since his voice is very nasel, but he's clearly not voiced by Charlie Alder nor Peter Cullen since neither one worked on this special in anyway. The guise of this is that Mr. Williams hid the diamond in Doyle's junkyard via that safe. Yup, the robbers are trying to steal this diamond. Finally, a stake that doesn't involve Petey having to go to hell and back for once. Hey, this should at least pick up the boring pace this episode was heading at this point. Oh wait, I got it wrong; the safe is just a test safe to see if Fingers can break through Williams' safe. I don't know if the other man is Doyle since Fingers mentions his name; but I'm calling the other robber Doyle until proven otherwise. Doyle rubs his hands with glee and it's the most grossest thing I have seen Ruby-Spears do in animation. Doyle's hands look like Mickey Mouse gloves, but isn't suppose to be wearing any gloves. Petey panics and decides to try to stop them and that ends the segment almost 12 minutes in!
After the commercial break, it is morning and we head to the house of the Williams with multiple cars parked inside the yard as we pan west to the dirt area where Dolly and Petey are exchanging notes on the situation. Dolly then reveals that there is a drainpipe that leads into the backyard! Just like that! After all that bullshit about stuff earlier in the episode, all Petey had to do was go through the drainpipe. WORSE?! We see the Williams are presenting the diamond on the table to the press. Okay, the artwork on the far shot is crappy as hell, but I expect that since this is Ruby-Spears we are talking about. The stupidest thing about this segment is that they are showing this kickass diamond, the most important McGruffin in the entire special, like it is being raffled off by a bunch of little kids. Except two of them are adults, and Mr. Williams is a jeweler. They couldn't do this in a museum, which would be a lot safer to present this diamond?! This is not the animator's fault, this is the writer for booking a spot that makes the Williams look like total geeks! Tommy and even the mom I feel bad for, but there's no excuse for Mr. Williams here! This is so stupid and I knew Ruby-Spears would screw up this brand royalfully at some point. Tommy looks ashamed on the closeups and I believe it's because he still loves Petey. Fair enough, but this presentation sucks anyway! Okay, this gets even worse for this special: Petey's STOOPID PLAN OF ALL TIME is to run in, steal the diamond in his mouth and run off. This is only going to make Mr. Williams hate the dog even more and he will have good reasons for it because Petey is now a common thief. This is a stupid plan! And that's exactly what happens here. Even stupider, he runs into the house, finds the safe and cannot put the diamond into the safe, because Petey's jumping skills suck like shit! Petey runs away, jumps out the window and decides to bury the diamond. He tries to bury the diamond, but gets cut off by Tommy, Tommy hugs him and Petey licks his face. Petey is our GEEK OF THE WEEK~ and he basically buries any hope of being accepted by Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams comes in to protest and Tommy protests in kind. Since the father always wins because bigotry, everyone. Mr. Williams grabs Petey and throws him out. Petey is lucky he didn't get the dog catcher treatment like The Incredible Detectives did in their special. Of course, we still do not know the mom opinion on the dog.
Scene change back to Dolly's doghouse as Petey is sulking and Dolly wants her to try again. Idiots! Anyhow, Petey decides to return to the junkyard to stop Fingers and Doyle, which would make a great lawyer combination, let me tell you. Or maybe not. Dolly joins in because this is Petey's last chance to prove himself as worthy of Tommy's friend to Mr. Williams. We head back to the junkyard and both Fingers and Doyle are gone. However, the robbers forgot to seal the windows to the small office. Logically, Dolly and Petey jump inside and they cough dust something fierce because this junkyard is not environmentally friendly at all. Dolly then freaks out because there is a mouse on the desk on top of the address book I suspect. The mouse blows off Dolly for being rude, so Petey decides to be polite. Basically, this mouse acts like a dog is scrubbing his ears for no reason as he wants the sticky drawer (NOT THAT ONE~!) open so he can access the cheese Doyle uses for the mousetraps. Petey agrees to the terms and the drawers are on the lower right of the desk. The dogs use their mouths to open the drawer and everyone takes the most wimpest bump ever into the wall and it looks painfully bad. Sigh. The mouse takes the worst drawn Swiss Cheese piece ever and leaves. Petey blows him off as rude, which did make me chuckle. We discover the address book on the floor is addressed as J. Doyle in Room 2A, Grand Hotel, State Street. We head back into the city of Lovtown on a shot of Grand Hotel AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark), and head to Room 2A as Petey and Dolly look underneath the door to discover that Fingers and Doyle are playing poker at the table. Yup, the chinass robber is in fact Doyle. Petey and Dolly are scheming to get the tools away from them to prevent them from getting the diamond, but they cannot run in for obvious reason. Petey's next STOOPID PLAN is to use the janitor's closet. This is one time where Petey should just let Dolly make up the plan here. I'm just saying. Petey nudges up the door and finds a giant cart on wheels. Dolly and Petey somehow take the cart on wheels to the stairs, because Room 2A is upstairs for some reason. They nudge the cart on wheels off the stairs. Okay, if this happened, I would hear it; but I would have stayed out of this. Nope, Doyle and Fingers open the door and walk out, allowing Dolly and Petey to head inside unmolested.
I get it, the heels are supposed to be stupid in the end; but they need to be stupider than Petey and Petey isn't going to be topped in this episode in terms of stupidity. Of course, Petey's STOOPID PLAN backfires because the bag is too heavy for him to bite on and pull back. Dolly has to be told to help and Dolly helps; and this is not much better because they can barely get the bag to move backwards. I betcha the heels catch them and call the dogcatcher. I check the video...Damn, I'm good! They don't call the dogcatcher though, but they stuff the puppies into a locked room and bail. I should note something: Doyle confirms that Petey made headlines in the newspaper considering the diamond incident earlier and thinks someone trained Petey to steal the diamond from them! Incorrect, but funny! Oh, and the newspaper is also thrown into the locked room. I'm guessing it's a storage closet. Oh, and throwing the paper in is completely stupid because there is a giant nail in the room. Here's what happens next: Petey puts the newspaper underneath the door, Dolly puts the nail in her mouth, Petey and Dolly do the human ladder chain spot, Dolly uses the nail as a lockpick, the key somehow was in the door and it wiggles out, landing onto the newspaper, and Petey brings the newspaper in. Dolly gets on Petey's back again and Dolly puts the key into the lock with her mouth, which we only see the doorknob with the lock and the door opens. Okay, this was neat; but the end of it was badly botched since we never saw Dolly put the key into the lock at the end. Petey claims he saw a detective show on television do this, so Miss Miller was very liberal in Tommy watching television shows I bet. Dolly and Petey make their escape. They run through the window like it's a door, that was hideously hilarious and then run out of the hotel as Petey tells Dolly to cross her paws that they make it on time to end the segment 18 minutes in. Well, this was a really hideously hilarious six minutes of stupidity and bad botches in this segment. The storyline is fine inspite of the stakes being muted, but the stupidity of it just makes this look like very Ruby-Spears episode I ever saw.
After the commercial break; we get a useless shot of the city skyline as the clock strikes midnight in Lovtown, AnyState, USA. Useless because there is no animation whatsoever. The backgrounds make sure it's not Chargeman Ken-equse. I wish it was Chargeman Ken-equse, because that would be hideously hilarious. Here, it's just there to suck. Oh man, the lighting in this episode has turned into shit now, and I'm dead certain it's the video quality and not Ruby-Spears fault! I had to increase the brightness here. Anyhow, Fingers and Doyle make it to the Williams residence and make their plans to attack, attack, attack, HOOOOOOOOOOO~! Oh wait, I meant steal, steal, steal, BOOOOOOOOOOO~! Dolly and Petey arrive at the scene and their next plan is to bark loudly in order to wake up Mr. Williams. Okay, this plan isn't dumb at least. They bark for a long ass whomping time and this wakes up Tommy first. Tommy goes to the window to hear Petey barking outside and then runs down the stairs forcing Doyle and Fingers to hide. They notice the kid and then they kidnap him and gag him basically. Mr. and Mrs. Williams wake up as Mr. Williams is at his wit's end about Petey. Hey, Petey went through hell and back to be Tommy's friend?! What did you expect?! Doyle and Finger run out with Tommy and put him into their vehicle and exit stage left as the adults notice them right away. The diamond is also stolen in the interm as Petey follows and gets in the vehicle as he tells Dolly to go get backup. Who?! Dolly has no known dog friends outside of Petey and the Williams already know Tommy has been kidnapped. Scene change to Doyle's junkyard and I have no clue where Tommy is tied up, other than he was tied up so badly, even Tommy could have escaped on his own. Which is probably why the heels said it like they expected Tommy to free himself. Apparently, Doyle and Fingers are headed to South America, because apparently, Mexico is off-limits according to BS&P. Doyle and Fingers bail as Petey runs in and Tommy cannot untie himself, so Petey runs in after the heels and we get another edition of that Ruby-Spears motif: Dog bites man on leg. The "Man Bites Dog" thing has to be a rib on Ruby-Spears, I cannot believe it otherwise. Doyle goes down, the diamond is now on the ground. Fingers grabs it and he gets bit on the leg. This only proves Mr. Williams' point that dogs are horrible, Petey. Petey gets bounced back and we get the worst animated and sounding pinball spot of all time.
Tommy is trying so hard to untie himself and finally succeeds. Tommy decides to run in and be the real hero like a moron because the kids are suppose to be helpless since the dog is the main event and has to be the hero of the story since the point of this was for Mr. Williams to accept Petey even if he's a dog. Cut to the car with the heels and Fingers cannot start the car. The car has turned on them. What a bunch of geeks?! Petey runs in, he gets bounced back again, and lands on a conveniently placed giant switch on the wall, and it turns on. Petey will not quit and run in again. Somehow in this entire sequence, the heels car gets caught in the JAWS OF HALF-LIFE (I think, the scene is so dark I literally cannot see a thing) as Tommy panics. Tommy runs in and turns the switch off as we cut back to the heels panicking. Petey jumps in from behind like a heel and steals the diamond back. Problem is, Petey cannot jump out of the car and is surrounded by the heel inside the car. GEEK! Petey dodges their heels and jump out from the side of the car without further incident. Petey freefalls much to Tommy's horror and Petey lands on a conveniently placed mattress, designed to be a crash pad. I have zero issues with this, WWE does this all the time for that bump anyway. Tommy than notices Petey wedged between a frame without the diamond and Petey is out. If this wasn't so successful, they could have ended Petey's life here and it would make sense; but I doubt he's dead since he hit a mattress, therefore, Petey is doing the "sell like I'm dead" sell in order to force the heels to flee. However, they are stuck in the car as the police arrive with Mr. Williams and Mrs. Williams. The police officer accuses PETEY of stealing the diamond, even Mr. Williams is appalled by this since he knows Doyle and Fingers kidnapped Tommy for the diamond, so it couldn't have been Petey. Tommy is hoping Petey isn't dead, and he does say "dead" here, in 1980. Dolly runs in and Mr. Williams is petting Petey; so he has finally accepted him. Dolly nudges Petey's face and then they did a scene change with Petey smiling with his eyes closed. Yup, he's milking that sell job like a professional wrestler. Petey wakes up as I discover that this is Tommy's bedroom and thank goodness, the lights are on. Petey also broke his right ear during this. Thankfully, he didn't Mick Foley the poor thing. The entire family walks in with a bone as Mr. Williams finally accepts Petey for real and offers Petey a bone. Petey accepts the bone as he barks for someone. Tommy asks who, and in comes Dolly jumping and they nuzzle each other and Mrs. Williams' opinion is that she loves PUPPY LUV~! That settles it then. The humans all are happy, Tommy grabs Petey and says it all while Petey licks his face to end the episode at 22:00 approx. This started out slow and plodding, the storyline was fine for the most part; but the bloom is off the rose on Petey already as it was a mess of logic break and stupidity in the second half. ** 1/4 (45%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; I finally finished my sixth ABC Weekend Special and it did not live to the expectations the first Puppy special did, mostly because of a brutal second half. The first half was a really toned down version of Petey going to hell and back and it lacked the panche the first special had. I don't know if it was BS&P or the writer compressing the story; but it still felt slow and plodding and the one time Petey was in any danger, it was muted to say the least. The storyline itself was fine and the characters were mostly fine. Everyone played their role in an okayish fashion. Once I saw the presentation of the McGruffin diamond to the press in the second half, this special fell off a cliff and turned into every Ruby-Spears episode you ever saw since. It must have worked since they kept going back to it every time (save Bad Cat), but the logic was stupid and the final third was so brutal, I could barely see it. It was almost unwatchable, and it's not the creators nor animator's fault; it was extremely poor video quality on a show that was badly perseved. The ending was as it should be and the death tease was amusing enough, so overall; it was a special that could have been above average if Ruby-Spears wasn't Ruby-Spears. Sadly for Petey; the next two specials are just filler and don't really seem to add anything to the table. However, I'm chugging on through because there's more to come. So....
Thumbs marginally down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.