Nick's Picks:
The Adventures of Pete and Pete
a reflection by Nick Carr

In the opening credits of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, a lawn mower is pushed across a sunny lawn as a small garden gnome statue looks on in the background. Cut to a moment later, as the lawnmower is again pushed back across in the opposite direction. All we see of the boy pushing it is a pair of rolled up jeans and beat-up sneakers. The title credits, clearly a cable-access level video effect, roll out.

Yet in a way, this is Pete and Pete, and this opening shot is much of what the show embodies. A world where the weather is always specifically tuned in to whatever season it is. Sunny summer days are brilliant and gorgeous, with blue skies and green grass; autumn brings piles upon piles of brown and orange leaves, dead trees, and gray skies; winters are white. And Spring brings hope that Mr. Tasty will be out soon. There’s never any in-between in the world of the Wrigleys. Yet, at the same time, this isn’t your world, and the garden gnome is a good early reminder that you’re about to enter a place where anything goes.

It’s difficult to describe the magic of Pete and Pete to someone who has never seen the show. Well, let’s get the basics out of the way. Pete and Pete are two brothers whose only real resemblance are heads of fiery red hair. Why did their parents name them both Pete? God only knows, but if you start asking questions at this point, you’ll never get through an episode. Pete and Pete live with their parents in Wellsville. Mom has a metal plate in her head and can pick up radio waves at will, and the Petes often leave notes under magnets on her forehead. Dad is an overweight guy who enjoys barbecuing, bowling, and runs a driving range. Younger Pete has a personal superhero named Artie, The Strongest Man in the World. Arties goes around in red tights, thick black glasses, and a blue and red striped shirt, and regularly saves the world in ways you’d never imagine.

Wellsville is basically a sort-of 1950’s suburbia, with white picket fences and nice houses. But it’s at this point that the world of Pete and Pete leaves reality and becomes surreal. Close enough to “normal” to recognize your own childhood and neighborhood, but distant enough to see a wonderfully warped and cartoonish existence which everyone is a part of. For example, in Hard Day’s Pete, Younger Pete operates a radio station using a Krebbstar walkie-talkie (Krebbstar is to Pete and Pete what Acme is to the Road Runner and the Coyote). How does he manage to get any kind of output? As Older Pete narrates: “Sure it’s only a Krebbstar 2000 walkie-talkie with the transmit button taped down, but with the right kind of antenna, no one within a five mile radius was safe.” Cut to an antenna on the roof of the Wrigley house. But more importantly, this is a town in which everyone listens to Pete’s radio show. It’s an every day thing that a kid would start a pirate radio station called WART. During the news segment, Artie reveals: “Today’s top story: Mr. Fleighterherry has hemorrhoids! Haha – ewww…” And sure enough, Mr. Fleighterherry is listening. And of course, he soon becomes a nemesis.

Perhaps the best thing about Pete and Pete was that it never pandered to the audience. Ever. Either you were in on the … I don’t want to say joke, because it really wasn’t joke. I guess that either you were willing to participate in the world, or would otherwise deem it all quirkily stupid and move on. Those who got it, loved it. Those who hated it either grew up too fast or forgot what being a kid was like. The show was never goofy. Quirky yes, but never goofy. Goofy would be a world in which Pete and Pete were played for fools, Artie was seen as mentally ill, and where the idea of beating up the Atlantic Ocean was quickly dismissed as stupid. No, everything was taken as reality, from the bully Paper-Cut, whose most deadly weapon was the razor-sharp side of a piece of paper, to the ignorance of the perpetual cast on Pete’s friend Nona’s left arm.

As mentioned earlier, younger Pete had Artie, the strongest man in the world. Artie could always be counted on to help Pete save the day, such as in the episode When Petes Collide. Their grandfather shows up, and both Petes fight over who will get their father’s prized bowling ball Rolling Thunder. As the familial war escalates, Artie decides enough is enough and comes to beat up the bowling ball. He shows up at the door and yells: “You know what I’ve come for, Grandpappy. The ball! The ball! Out with it, old man!” “You’ll be sorry,” says Grandpa. Artie wrestles with the ball for the next few hours - and loses. “Foolish man,” says Grandpa. “Brave…but foolish.” Brilliant. One of the most touching episodes is a two-parter in the second season, in which Dad is tricked by the International Adult Conspiracy to get Artie out of town, just as Pete is going up against the school bully and needs his personal superhero the most. In the end, though Artie returns, Pete beats the bully on his own, and Artie tells him that he has taught him all he can. It is time for him to move on to another boy and be his personal superhero. Not a dry eye in the house!

Meanwhile, older Pete’s biggest relationship is with his best friend, Ellen. In the first episode of the show, he realizes his love for her during band practice and compares it to “a nuclear chain reaction that never got started. We could’ve exchanged neutrons and lit up the entire solar system but instead there was only darkness.” Pete finally shows Ellen how he feels during the big band presentation, when he orchestrates them to form a thermo-nuclear fusion pattern, with he and Ellen coming together in the middle of a circle of band members. “There appears to be two heavy hydrogen atoms moving closer together!” the announcer calls out. “Burn baby burn!” yells younger Pete in the stands. “We have fusion screams the announcer,” as they kiss (of course, younger Pete dons his sun glasses). Artie marches along with a strange horn, which I’ve captured here. Each episode usually delved into some level of philosophy like this, which gave greater subtext to the show and really made you think.

The only strange thing is that this episode should really come at the end of the series. In future episodes, they’re just friends and the events of this are pretty much forgotten. Ellen is Pete’s conscience and guide through complicated and difficult times, though their friendship is sometimes tested by fights and other girls. And for the record, is there any guy out there who didn’t have a crush on Ellen as a kid? Correct answer: no.

The guest stars they got for each episode just go to show how hip the show was to those who got it: Steve Buchemi, Janine Garofolo, Adam West, Michael Stipe, Iggy Pop, Juliana Hatfield, and Hunter S. Thompson. Go check it out on imdb - Thompson has ONLY done fictional acting on Pete and Pete, in the episode New Year’s Pete.

Television is nearly completely void of programs that don’t talk down to kids and treat them as lessers. I used to know immediately when a cartoon show like G.I. Joe or He-Man was being carefully orchestrated to teach me a lesson on caring, and it used to bug the hell out of me. It also made me mad when the logic of an episode of The Real Ghostbusters or Transformers either didn’t make sense, or was just really uncreative and stupid (such as the one where the Ghostbusters are being menaced by ghosts who have stolen their proton packs…and then see the “spare” proton pack resting in the corner). Pete and Pete not only treated you as an intelligent individual, it gave you more to think about when the television shut off.

The Adventures of Pete and Pete ranks up there in my book as one of the greatest TV shows of all times, and I mean this outside of any nostalgia factor. I’ll prove it someday with my own kids, when I sit them down and introduce them to Pete, Pete’s Older brother Pete, Artie, Ellen, Petunia, Mom, Dad, and the surreal magic of Wellsville, where anything can happen and always does.

What's been going on in post-Pete lives?

Michael Maronna aka Big Pete:

I've heard a few "I've met Big Pete" stories from various NYU kids. The above pictures terrify me, but each to his own I guess. He was Stewart on the Ameritrade ads for a while. Then he had small roles in Slackers and 40 Days and 40 Nights. No clue what else is coming up in his future.

Danny Tamberelli aka Little Pete

In the same way that MTV uses its reality "actors" to be in many of its other shows, such as Road Rules and the rest of that crap, Tamberelli was a Nick staple after Pete and Pete, appearing on shows like All That and doing voice work on cartoons. He was recently in Igby Goes Down, which is a pretty respectable indy credit. IMDB says he goes to Hampshire College now, but who knows. He also plays in the band Jounce.

Alison Fanelli aka Ellen

Actress Alison Fanelli gave up acting and went to med school at Dartmouth. I think I found a personal page here as part of Xado, Dartmouth's co-ed Christian a cappella group: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~xado/members/afanelli.htm

And the rest...

Creators Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi wrote Snow Day, which was supposed to be a Pete and Pete movie but got destroyed in development after it was decided the Petes wouldn't be present. They are listed as series writers on Ed, which sort of makes sense.

Hardy Wrals (Dad) hasn't done anything since. Judy Grafe (Mom) hasn't done anything since. Toby Huss (Artie) has had a lot of various roles, though I'm sure you all remember him on Seinfeld as Elaine's boyfriend The Wiz. We all know what Michelle Trachtenberg (Nona) is doing these days (for the record, that's a killer last name). Rick Gomez (Endless Mike Halstrom) did the voice of the pilot in the Animatrix "Final Flight of the Osiris" which is cool. He was also in Ray and is in the upcoming Sin City, so relatively speaking, he's made out the best.

Anyway.

Keep the memory of this show alive. The fact that this was possible once means it could - just maybe - happen again.

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