The Adventures of Pete and Pete

The Adventures of Pete & Pete, also known simply as Pete & Pete) is an American television sitcom created by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi for the Nickelodeon channel. It focuses on the surreal experiences of the Pete Wrigley brothers in the company of their parents, friends, enemies and other eccentric characters that characterize the fictional town of Wellsville. It is primarily aimed at children's audiences and stars Michael C. Maronna as the older Pete and Danny Tamberelli as the younger Pete.

Started in 1989, the series evolved from the 60-second format —designed for commercial breaks— to a set of half-hour specials, and in 1993 it became a regular television show. 1996, all filmed on actual locations in northern New Jersey. The creators drew on "the way children tell stories" to give perspective to the adventures it is about, and hired some of their favorite actors to supporting roles, including Martin Donovan and Damian Young. They also sought to "honor the spirit of indie rock" by including songs by groups such as Drop Nineteens and The Magnetic Fields. The original music was the work of by Mark Mulcahy, the leader of the band Miracle Legion, who for the occasion adopted the pseudonym Polaris and in 1999 gathered the material he composed on the album Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

Episodes have rarely been broadcast and the third season was not released on DVD due to circumstances including the loss of licenses for music chosen by McRobb and Viscardi. However, a dedicated cult following revolves around the series. of fans and over the years has been praised for its style, characters, original soundtrack, and guest appearances by musical and acting personalities including Iggy Pop, Gordon Gano, Michael Stipe, LL Cool J, Debbie Harry, Marshall Crenshaw, Adam West, and Steve Buscemi. Entertainment websites have also ranked it as one of the best children's shows of all time, while some people see its aesthetic as a precursor to the hipster subculture.. In 2011, members of the cast and production crew had their first gathering at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the legacy of the show before a wide audience of fans. His popularity also motivated members of Miracle Legion to continue using the pseudonym Polaris to tour in later years.

Premise

The second season Wrigley house, located in a neighborhood of South Orange, New Jersey.

The series centers on the Pete Wrigley brothers—the eldest, Big Pete or Big Pete, and the youngest, Little Pete or Little Pete—who live with their parents, Don and Joyce Wrigley, in the fictional town of Wellsville, USA. In this framework, it is never explained why the protagonists have the same name, nor is a distinction made when referring to any of them. The creators, Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, made this decision because the idea made them laugh when developing the program. The first commented in 1994: "We are happy to tell you that there is no answer, because a great aspect of the program is that in childhood there are several mysteries that will never be explained. There are rumors and a bit of speculation, but no one knows the real answer."

These brothers go on adventures that mix the surreal and the everyday in settings like the suburbs and school, often accompanied by their friends Ellen Hickle, the superhero Artie, or Nona Mecklenberg. Big Pete also serves as narrator, speaking directly to the camera or as a voice-over, adding gravitas to the peculiarities of the show. While the child roles are the "saneest" in the setting, the older ones are often portrayed as eccentric or illogical. On some occasions mention is made of the "International Adult Conspiracy", a society of parents that controls aspects of their children's lives, such as their usual bedtime. Two characteristic inanimate elements of the series (Joyce's metal head plate and Little Pete's tattoo) have their own introduction in the opening sequence as main characters. Also in this world is the corporate brand Krebstar, which produces all the variety of products that the inhabitants use, and the episodes lack pre-recorded laughs to punctuate the jokes as in other sitcoms.

A timeless image of the 1990s is presented through the settings and costumes of the characters, a look reminiscent of the indie-grunge aesthetic that has been noted for its supposed influence on the hipster subculture. McRobb and Viscardi did not consider themselves aware of these qualities in the style they created, although they did acknowledge their childhood on the New York scene and their musical tastes as sources of inspiration. The concept for Wellsville is based on a song of the same name by the American quartet The Embarrassment., whose lyrics—in McRobb's words—"capture what's great about living in a small town that's far from the highway." Seb Patrick, a writer and journalist specializing in popular culture, noted these aspects and issued in one of his articles: «[Pete & Pete] is very confident in his tone and aesthetic [...] he has achieved a timeless Americana quality, inhabiting one of those towns [Wellsville] that, although the technology and cars are slightly updated, feels permanently rooted in 1950s suburbia." According to this notion of the world, the Wrigley home is situated somewhere in the "Sideburn State," miles from the Canadian border and five hundred miles from Hoover Dam, not far from the beach.

Some of the recurring themes in the episodes are the Wrigley brothers' relationship with their parents, the children's rebellion against the rules, confrontations with enemies, the romantic subtext of the friendship between Big Pete and Ellen and how interests of this they begin to differ from those of his brother as he goes through his adolescence. Michael C. Maronna, who played the older Pete, commented in 2021: "You would hope that my character could advise [Little Pete] [...] But the setting we were in was so bizarre that the show was much more episodic than serial. We weren't saying what happened last time [...] It seemed like about two guys going completely different paths; I was thinking about girls and he wanted to stay up all night."

Origin and production

Shorts

In 1989, Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi worked in Nickelodeon's commercials department as creators of short audiovisuals that were intended to broadcast content during commercial breaks. Some of these were independent narrative pieces that relied on the identity that the channel maintained at that time as opposed to the Disney company, under realistic concepts of childhood. In the spring of that year, the duo had the idea of making a series of documentary-style short films -for the low cost of production that this entailed—about a boy who shared the name Pete with his dog, which initially had to make up for the insufficient corporate publicity that had arisen at Nickelodeon. Viscardi, committed to working as a co-producer on the project, later convinced his partner that they should change this concept, saying that "the hardest thing is working with children and animals". Later, with the influence of filmmaker and music video director Katherine Dieckmann (who had attended the same high school as McRobb), the story was consolidated as the adventures of two brothers of different ages who have the same name. In the preliminary scripts, elements such as the metal plate on Joyce's head and other peculiarities that would define the program were already present. the older Pete had a tattooed arm, but this was ultimately chosen to be a feature of the younger, while the idea of dealing with the documentary style was scrapped in favor of shooting "mini-films".

The duo's purpose was to "capture the genuine" of childhood in their shorts, which portrayed the adventures of a duo of brothers who live with their parents in the fictional town of Wellsville, where surreal elements are part of the suburban setting. "[Chris and I] always believed that you don't need to go beyond your neighborhood [...] you can have as many adventures [there] as someone who goes to the moon", McRobb commented on the use of such a setting In Dieckmann's words, the idea "had as much to do with the melancholy and emotionality of childhood as it was absurd", which was complemented by the "downtown New York sensibility" the team shared. these aspects, the next step was to choose the cast of the short films. To do this, Nickelodeon made a preliminary selection of the best talent that attended the auditions, and the creators went on to choose the final roles based on their experiences in similar processes.

From the left: Judy Grafe (Joyce Wrigley), Chris Viscardi (cocreator), Danny Tamberelli (Little Pete) and Michael C. Maronna (Big Pete) during a meeting at the Bowery Ballroom in New York (2012).

On the duo's intuition, Danny Tamberelli was cast in the role of Little Pete: “He just walked into the room and [we knew] he was the [right] kid. He just had that explosive quality; he was funny, adorable and small [...] the boy had a certain electricity", Viscardi expressed in 2012 about the audition of that one. For the character of Big Pete it was not immediately known who would get the role, although actor Michael C. Maronna stood out as one of the top three to consider. The creators would have to rely on who was chosen to narrate the shorts, and said candidate—according to McRobb—"brought so much nuance to the way he delivered his lines" that in the end he got the role. The contrast between the two actors (Tamberelli was seven years old and Maronna twelve) was used to create a dynamic between their characters, defining Big Pete as "much more cerebral" than Little Pete in his reasoning for the role. each situation, while the latter acts "punched to the face". Alison Fanelli was quickly cast as Ellen Hickle, thanks to her "lovely girl-next-door" appearance. With the full cast of children, McRobb and Viscardi felt the need to change aspects of their original idea to work with the talents and characteristics of their actors: "Let's tell stories about two brothers who are five years apart and who are really good friends," said McRobb, which it led to Big Pete narrating the adventures of his namesake giving them a "heroic" character.

The team was given the budget to produce three one-minute shorts that aired as an interstitial segment during Nickelodeon commercial breaks, titled The Adventures of Pete & Pete. These were filmed in New Jersey with McRobb's script and Dieckmann directing, who contributed his own ideas and directed a significant number of episodes throughout the show's history. The first adventure featured to "Petunia", the tattoo of a woman on Little Pete's forearm, which became one of the representative elements of the style that the creators developed for the project. In McRobb's creative vision, traits like this are not always they had to be "perfectly coherent", which, among other singularities, gave rise to the superhero Artie (Toby Huss) and the obsessive attitudes of Don Wrigley (Hardy Rawls) in later stories. The first three shorts enjoyed good reception among the The channel's audience, and the channel commissioned its managers to produce several more over an extended period of two years. Huss's role was an addition and consisted primarily of improvisations that achieved Artie's bizarre profile. the Nickelodeon team was never overly comfortable with the traits the character brought together. McRobb and Viscardi retained the ad department style throughout the show's years. The former expressed in 2012: "Back then, when we had sixty seconds to tell a story, we decided to bring together as many ideas, images, and non sequiturs as we could capture, and that part of childhood that no one seemed to pay much attention to.”

Half-hour specials

McRobb and Viscardi produced around twenty-six The Adventures of Pete & Pete shorts up to 1990, after which they had the opportunity to make a half-hour special. The duo, who only knew their respective division's practices, they decided to create it as a "giant sixty-second story" stretched to the requested length and, without any reference from those already handling that format, set about doing what "felt right". For this special, titled "Valentine's Day Massacre," Katherine Dieckmann returned as director and production continued under the control of Nickelodeon's advertising department, where the crew didn't have to worry about other people interfering with the content they were making. they wanted to generate. In the plot, Big Pete is in love with his math teacher, Miss Fingerwood (Syd Straw), and confronts his high school enemy, "Openface" (Jason Late), who seeks to blackmail him during the Valentine's Day. The result aired on February 9, 1991 and almost a year later it won the CableACE award in the category of best children's programming. According to Viscardi, the Nickelodeon executive team was very happy about this This achievement led to him and McRobb receiving the budget to produce two more specials (which eventually became five). This set of stories is known as "the pilot season".

The musician and singer Michael Stipe was one of the first personalities invited in the series.

Dieckmann also directed the follow-up special, "What We Did On Our Summer Vacation", and with his background in music videos managed to include two of the first cameos in the history of Pete & Pete: Michael Stipe (frontman of rock band R.E.M.) as Captain Scrummy and Kate Pierson (of new wave group The B-52's) as Mrs. VanDerveer. According to Viscardi, after having them it was easy to get other special guests for the program. The character of Mister Tastee also debuted, whose plastic head in the shape of ice cream became an emblematic object of the program. In the plot, the Wrigley brothers and Ellen try to befriend this new character, a mysterious local ice cream man (played physically by Tobby Huss) who they perceive as a lonely man, but who shies away from any chance to form personal ties with his customers. The special premiered on September 8, 1991, during the back-to-school season, and has been highlighted by various outlets among other episodes of the series. Additionally, it earned McRobb and Dieckmann individual CableACE nominations. of that year for her work as a writer and director.

The next three specials continued to explore narrative aspects and character dynamics. "Space, Geeks, and Johnny Unitas" refers to the 1958 NFL championship and theories about alien life, when Big Pete and Ellen try to get a good grade in science with the help of the weirdo in class, Joe Jones (Martin Zentz), to avoid going to summer school. s Day Massacre" and inspired future situations on the show. For McRobb and Viscardi, this special marked a marked improvement in their thirty-minute storytelling, and exploration of the father-son bond between Little Pete and Don Wrigley. It also includes the participation of Steve Buscemi as Phil Hickle (Ellen's father), who reappeared in a couple of episodes in the same role. In the fifth and final special, "New Year's Pete", Little Pete serves as the narrator for the first time, at the same time that he and Artie are the central characters. The latter two works were also nominated for a CableACE in 1993.

Seasons

While McRobb and Viscardi believed that The Adventures of Pete & Pete was suitable for the thirty-minute format, they were not sure they wanted to make it a regular show on Nickelodeon. executive producer Thomas W. Lynch (who was in the process of a deal to create more series) convinced the duo and the network that the concept was good enough to take this step. Nickelodeon commissioned a season with Lynch's involvement and, During the making of this, McRobb and Viscardi used four to five regular directors, including Katherine Dieckmann and Peter Lauer (who provided a particular style on episodes such as "Tool and Die" and "Halloweenie"). Both creators they continued to intend the show to be "funny, sad, weird and beautiful".

Mark Mulcahy created the Polaris band and composed music especially for the program.

An essential part of producing a season of The Adventures of Pete & Pete was choosing who would provide the soundtrack, given the intention to "honor the spirit of indie rock » on each episode. McRobb and Viscardi enlisted several of their favorite bands to contribute tracks, including The Apples in Stereo, The Magnetic Fields, Yo La Tengo, Drop Nineteens and Luscious Jackson. The largest musical role fell to members of the band Miracle Legion (Mark Mulcahy, Scott Boutier and Dave McCaffrey), who were contacted to compose the original music because the lyrics of their song "The Backyard" served as inspiration for the series. Due to an ongoing dispute Between the group and its record company and the dysfunctional relationship of the members, the leader Mulcahy devised the pseudonym Polaris to be able to participate in the project, and this new identity of the trio was included in the opening sequence and in the episode "Hard Day's Pete". The musician received specific instructions from McRobb for the composition of the songs, particularly on the tone and type of instrumentation that they should have. According to him, the tandem required "a library of music that they could fit together and use in any way they wanted", resulting in twelve songs recorded for the series (four per season). The opener, "Hey Sandy", was a pre-existing Mulcahy composition that delighted creators, who did not want the lyrics to say «Pete & Pete". Their original intention was to use a Pixies song in that section, but they could not afford to acquire a proper license. In addition, much of the music inserted in the specials had to be replaced by Polaris themes when Pete & Pete became a serial regular, including the original opening, "Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers" (covered by the band R.E.M.).

"Day of the Dot" was the first episode made and the second to air, behind "King of the Road", which aired on November 28, 1993. Filming took place in areas of northern New Jersey, primarily in a suburban area of South Orange and Cranford Townships, with a budget of approximately $250,000 (an amount considered low for series production). A typical period of these lasted five days, usually Monday through Friday. Unlike other Nickelodeon series, sets were not set up for Pete & Pete; everything was shot on location, with indoor scenes requiring improvised sets inside actual homes. Each season had to take place in a different area, due to community members eventually complaining about the filming processes. and the equipment implemented. Likewise, the atmosphere of the episodes reflects three seasons of the year: summer, autumn and winter. In Viscardi's experience, "[it was] like you were shooting a movie, without worrying too much about how it would look the next episode." There were frames in which, due to child labor laws in the United States, scenes were completed on different days or stuntmen were used to care for minor actors. Janie Bryant, costume designer, she was in charge of characterizing the characters with "vintage pieces" that showed how "quirky" they are: "Pete and Pete were kids who dressed like adults. I always felt that they both had a mature sensibility. That was the beginning of [my] inspiration [in working on the series]," she expressed. On the other hand, Nickelodeon put her control in the language of the show; words like nipple or the sound made when urinating were an example of what was not allowed. Concerning this, Little Pete's particular insult, blowhole, caught the attention of the "Blowhole" team. standards and practices" of the channel, and they had to be convinced that it simply refers to the respiratory orifice of marine mammals. However, McRobb and Viscardi enjoyed creative freedom and rarely received interventions in their work: "[The series] it wasn't like anything else [on Nickelodeon], no one quite knew what to do with it or told us anything about it. It was like his special little room that no one wanted to go into," McRobb stated in 2010.

Nickelodeon used to premiere episodes on the Saturday primetime programming block SNICK, but they were sometimes moved to Sunday afternoons. The creators felt that the schedule rotation and the number of ideas covered in a single story caused that Pete & Pete was never one of the channel's most-watched productions. When it was renewed for its second season in 1994, Michelle Trachtenberg joined the cast as Nona Mecklenberg, Little Pete's best friend, and musician Iggy. Pop played James "Pop" Mecklenberg, Nona's father. Syd Straw and Steve Buscemi also resumed their respective characters: Miss Fingerwood and Phil Hickle. During this run, McRobb and Viscardi received minor calls to action regarding the episodes "Field Of Pete" and "The Call". In the first case, due to the use of a polymorphic lens when Big Pete's baseball team suffers a headache from ingesting an extremely cold drink. Such a moment could be mistaken for an allusion to substance abuse, which generated some controversy among some members of the channel. As for "The Call", it was considered inappropriate for a children's program that an electrician falls in love with Joyce Wrigley and continues to harass her despite the fact that she is married. As a consequence, the duo had to face the challenge to make the following season more like the children's experience.

Cancellation

Danny Tamberelli in the summer of 1995, when the third season of the series was filmed. Note part of the "Petunia" tattoo on your right arm.

A turning point in the series was when Toby Huss (who played Artie, "the World's Strongest Man") decided to leave the cast with the intention of pursuing other projects. To fire the character, Chris Marcil and Sam Johnson wrote the double episode "Farewell, My Little Viking". Over the years and the cult status the series gained, the creating duo and the actors discovered how meaningful this story was to those who watched it. However, the channel did not take kindly to the fact that McRobb and Viscardi had filmed a double adventure. According to the latter: "Artie, to them, was a confusing and disturbing character [...] Certainly, Nickelodeon executives—and I'm sure many parents around the world who watched the show with their children—probably felt the same way. Pete's dad and all the neighbors about Artie: they just wanted the guy gone."

The third season was characterized by its more childlike tone and the emergence of new romantic interests for Big Pete. With Huss's absence as Artie, Little Pete was joined by Nona Mecklenberg, Monica the "kreb-scout " and Wayne "The Pain" Pardue, and only for the latter two when Michelle Trachtenberg dropped out to star in the Nickelodeon film Harriet the Spy. At the same time, the Lead actors were beginning to get visibly older. With perceptible changes within the show and in Nickelodeon's management, McRobb and Viscardi also thought about pursuing other projects. ABC had even shown interest in working with them on a concept similar to the one they had created, but ultimately determined that the style "was too unusual". In December 1995, Pete & Pete again received the CableACE Award for Best Children's Series.

The episode "Saturday" was shot under the premonition that the show would be cancelled, but not as a formal ending. McRobb, Viscardi, Joe Stillman, and Dave Hemingson co-wrote it as a narrative experiment in case the series continued in a fourth season. It is about the Wrigley brothers, Ellen, Wayne, Monica, and bus driver Stu Benedict having separate adventures that eventually come together. According to Viscardi, having the characters separated like that was the kind of narrative that he and McRobb would have handled going forward. After the end of the third season, the two had a meeting with Nickelodeon executives during which it was confirmed that their creation would not be renewed. Viscardi called this point in the channel's history as «the beginning of the Dan Schneider era», which marked the transition towards mainstream productions that achieved much more popularity than Pete & Pete. In 2000, the duo saw the film Snow Day made, the original script of which was based on the show, but underwent extensive alterations to become a stand-alone story.

Characters

From the left: Michael C. Maronna (Big Pete) and Danny Tamberelli (Little Pete) at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles (2012).

This section describes the main characters and those who have major participation throughout the three seasons of the show. Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi downplayed their logic in order to provide a child's perspective on life, and chose not to explain their eccentricities so that the stories retain some mystery and absurdity. They also created signature language for several of them. —like Little Pete's insults, "bite my scab!" and "blow it out your nose hole!" blow it out your nose!")—, as well as allowing the actors to integrate their own ideas into their roles.

• Michael C. Maronna as Pete Wrigley (“Big Pete”)

The show's narrator, who often breaks the fourth wall to reflect on the situations that have surrounded him. His friends include Ellen, whom he considers "a girl and a friend, but not a girlfriend" (in English: "a girl and a friend, but not a girlfriend") in a kind of platonic love. He esteems his brother Pete as a best friend and expresses admiration for him when recounting his adventures epic character. His serious and shy adolescent persona hinders his interactions with the opposite gender and makes him the target of enemies such as "Open Face" and "Endless Mike", who mock his redhead with nicknames such as " carrot head". He is also a member of the school marching band along with Ellen and his other friends, Bill and Teddy.

• Danny Tamberelli as Pete Wrigley (Little Pete)

Four years younger than his brother, Little Pete is characterized by his defiant attitude toward adults or any authority figure. He wears flannel shirts and a red hunting cap, even in hot weather; the long sleeves are to hide the woman tattooed on his right forearm, whom everyone calls "Petunia". The origin of this tattoo is a mystery, as is the tattoo of a ship seen on his back during the special "What We Did On Our Summer Vacation". He is also red-haired, but short in complexion and "intense" in personality. He goes on adventures parallel to Big Pete's in most episodes, accompanied by his own superhero, Artie.

• Judy Grafe as Joyce Wrigley

The Petes' mother. She has a metal plate on her head due to a certain accident that she suffered in her childhood and it is used to pick up or broadcast radio stations.She shows that she is a stern and focused figure, unlike her husband, but also she is candid and understanding.

• Hardy Rawls as Don Wrigley

The Petes' father. He met Joyce when a metal detector he was using at a beach led him to her metal tag. He is overly competitive against other parents and his own neighbors, and his hobbies are stereotypical parental hobbies, such as cars., fishing or bowling.

• Alison Fanelli like Ellen Josephine Hickle

Big Pete's best friend; although the romance between them was explored on a few occasions, they are generally on friendly terms with one another. However, in the first short she introduces herself as "Pete's girlfriend". Throughout the show, Ellen shows obsessive tendencies stemming from his great dedication, such as in the episode "Day of the Dot", when his assigned position in a field formation as the dot of the "i" in squid ») makes her lose track of herself. She also often works in commercial establishments during school holidays.

• Toby Huss as Artie, "the strongest man in the world"

Toby Huss in 2012.

Little Pete's personal superhero; an eccentric man who wears tight pajamas, gesticulates a lot, and accomplishes amazing feats, whose typical catchphrase is "I'm Artie, the strongest man...in the world!". In the episode "Farewell, My Little Viking" is in great conflict with the adults of Wellsville and decides to go elsewhere when he realizes that Little Pete has already learned everything he needs to from him, so he is never seen again. Huss conceived the character during his college days and was originally about a boy who, confined in a mental hospital, would stretch his underwear up and claim to be the world's strongest man. After seeing a demonstration of this at a club in New York, McRobb decided to include Artie in his series of shorts.

• Michelle Trachtenberg as Nona F. Mecklenberg

Little Pete's best friend and a member of his neighborhood who often follows him on adventures. Her arrival occurred in the second season, when McRobb and Viscardi felt the series needed another female character.She always wears a cast on her left arm, while the "F" in her name has no fixed meaning; She assigns her to Frank, Forklift, and Fahrvergnügen.Her father, James "Pop" Mecklenberg, was played by rock musician and singer Iggy Pop, who volunteered to be in more than one episode..

• Damian Young as Stu Benedict

An emotionally unstable bus driver with psychopathic attitudes. He is a lonely man who seems to have nothing but his bus and the children he takes to school, completely devoted to his work under the motto of "trust, loyalty and kindness". In his first appearance, the episode "Day of the Dot", he laments the breakup with his co-worker, Sally Knorp, and takes a group of children (including Little Pete) on his bus while pointing to significant places in their relationship. In "Rangeboy" and "Yellow Fever" he finds himself hurt again by the same woman. McRobb and Viscardi took Young's role in the film Simple Men as basis for the creation of Stu and gave the actor freedom to exercise it as he wanted.

• Rick Gomez like Mike Hellstrom (Endless Mike)

The archenemy and bully of the older Pete, though he was also confronted by the younger. He is a standout student in carpentry class, in which his bullied performs poorly, and on two occasions tries to get him to join to his gang of bad boys: in the episodes "Yellow Fever" and "Halloweenie". Although Big Pete describes him in his narration as "the most hated bully in town", the book Bullies and Mean Girls in Popular Culture (2013), by Patrice Opppliger, defines Mike as "an annoying acquaintance rather than a bully" due to his short stature and lightness of threats.

• David Martel as Theodore «Teddy» L. Forzman and Rick Barbarette as Bill Korn

Big Pete's best friends, also members of the school marching band. Teddy is characterized by his constant positivity—becoming silly and naive—and by providing trivia to his friends whenever he gets the chance. Bill, for his part, is sarcastic and a practical joker. In the episode "Don't Tread on Pete" a dynamic is observed between the two, which results in Teddy spewing his milk out of his ears when reacting to one of the other's jokes during lunch time.

• Maris Hudson like Monica Perling and Justin Restive like Wayne Pardue

Little Pete's friends, who make up the usual foursome in season three. Monica is a member of the Wellsville Boy Scouts (or "kreb-scouts"), known for having very bad luck keeping her pets alive. Pain" (figuratively, "the Annoyance"), due to his cluelessness and cowardice, which is why nobody wants his presence. The role of both characters was expanded in the final stretch of the series due to the absence of Michelle Trachtenberg, and even they appear in the last episode, "Saturday".

Syd Straw in 2012.

• Syd Straw as Miss Fingerwood

Big Pete and Ellen's math teacher first appears in the special "Valentine's Day Massacre", when she is unable to tell that said student has a crush on her. Her obsession with numbers dates back to to the moment when, as a baby, she thought the silhouette of the two was her mother. Straw, whose profile had inspired the ideal actress archetype for the character, also provided her talents as a musician and singer in the episode "Hard Day&# 39;s Pete", when Miss Fingerwood joins Little Pete's band.

• Mister Tastee

Replica of the head of Mister Tastee for one of the cast meetings in 2012.

An ice cream man reminiscent of Mr. Softee, physically portrayed by various actors throughout the series, while his voice is not credited. Toby Huss took over the role in the special "What We Did On Our Summer Vacation", when the Wrigley siblings and Ellen try to become friends with the character. The character only appears in his ice cream truck during the summer to please the children of Wellsville, but refrains from becoming romantically involved with them. removes his large plastic ice cream head, so his true identity is a mystery. In McRobb's words, he is a man "who can't handle intimacy". He later appeared as a cameo in episodes such as "The Big Quiet" and "Das Bus". In addition, he became a cult following for the show and merchandise has been designed in his likeness, such as T-shirts and vinyl figures.

• Jim Lally like Frank Gulcher

A smoking, lone crossing guard who avidly defends crosswalk laws. He is one of Little Pete's few adult friends, whom he calls "boss" since his appearance in the "New Year's Pete" special, when the two develop a camaraderie. His loyalty to Little Pete is evident in the episode. "The Big Quiet", when he fails to save his pet lizard from being crushed by a car and joins acts intended to pay him respect.

The series also features numerous guest appearances by notable musical and acting personalities, including: Richard Edson as Mr. Beverly in "Valentine's Day Massacre," Marshall Crenshaw as "Lightning Bolt," and Mel Ratner in " Hard Day's Pete", Debbie Harry as a neighbor of the Wrigley brothers in "New Year's Pete", Gordon Gano as Professor Zank in "X=Why?", Juliana Hatfield as Emma in "Don& #39;t Tread on Pete", Adam West as Principal Swinger in "Last Laugh" and "Allnighter", Chris Elliott as Meter Man Ray and LL Cool J as Professor Throneberry in "Sickday", and Patty Hearst as the Mrs. Krechmar in "35 Hours".

Music

Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi's taste for low-pop bands was key to their being a small part of the show, as their compositions were easy to acquire. According to Alison Fanelli: "Selecting music and sound effects it was like the baby of Will, Chris and Katherine. They spent hours going through the music archive and using material that no one else had used." Among the number of singers and groups that contributed their songs to The Adventures of Pete and Pete are Miracle Legion (under the pseudonym Polaris), The Apples in Stereo, Yo La Tengo, The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, Luscious Jackson and Syd Straw. Polaris frontman Mark Mulcahy composed the background music and the opening song, "Hey Sandy", the lyrics of which have been widely disputed because they offer no clear meaning. Many fans of the series have assumed that its indecipherable third line reads "can you settle to shoot me?" ("can you settle to shoot me? ?"). In this regard, Mulcahy has asserted that "nothing that has been guessed is correct" and that, if all these mysteries were solved, "people would be quite disappointed with the truth".

The members of Polaris—Mulcahy (singer/guitarist), Scott Boutier (drummer), and Dave McCaffrey (bassist)—appear in the opening sequence and in the episode "Hard Day's Pete," when Little Pete he becomes obsessed with the song "Summerbaby" after seeing the band play inside a garage. Also, within the project they adopted the aliases Muggy, Harris, and Jersey Polaris, respectively. Robert Agnello composed pieces of music for the series, including " Marmalade Cream", whose melody is based on that of the song "Mississippi Queen". According to him, the instruction he was given was to copy the sentiment of popular songs that were too expensive to acquire, but in such a way that a plagiarism suit would not arise..

When Mulcahy released the album Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete (Polaris' twelve-song set written for the show) independently in 1999, the series was already three years old and Nickelodeon had no interest in releasing the songs. At the time, only a few of these were offered in cassette format as promotions on Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal boxes. The album had a limited re-release of 2,100 copies in 2015 and reputable music websites such as Modern Vinyl, Consequence of Sound and Paste Magazine have recognized its value as a nostalgic and collectible item.

With the end of the series, the end of Polaris also happened: «We were made up not to be real, that was the kind of paradigm we proceeded with. We're not really a band, so we're not going to do anything. We are primarily a character on a TV show. Once the show ends, the character is gone", Mulcahy said in 2015. However, both lived on in the collective memory (which was evident in a series of commemorative meetings) and the trio returned to using the pseudonym in 2014.

Original songs featured in the series are:

Broadcast and releases in domestic format

The Adventures of Pete and Pete was part of the SNICK programming block in the 1990s.

The series ended with 34 episodes. To this are added the five specials considered as pilots, to which an opening sequence was added to air them regularly. The seasons premiered between 1993 and 1996 on the Nickelodeon channel, as part of the stellar SNICK Saturday programming block and sometimes on Sunday afternoons. On the other hand, the versions for Spain and Latin America were presented through internationalized versions of the channel since 1996. In the years after its cancellation was also assigned timeslots within the retrospective blocks The N (2002) and Nick Splat (2017). In its Spanish version, Nickelodeon aired marathons of the episodes every weekend in mid-2001.

The shorts that originated the show were first released on VHS within the compilations Snick Vol. 1: Nick Snicks Friendship and Snick Vol. 2: Nick Snicks the Family (both from 1993), in which they shared space with other Nickelodeon productions, such as Clarissa Explains It All and Ren and Stimpy. Later, Sony Wonder —the children's subsidiary of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment— marketed the series in that same format, but in its own collections: Classic Petes in 1994, which contained the specials "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation", "Apocalypse Pete" and the exclusive short "Artie's Workout"; School Dazed (from the same year), with the episodes "Day of the Dot" and "Tool and Die", added the unpublished short "Stare Master"; and finally Farewell, My Little Viking (1995), with both parts of the homonymous episode and the short "Artie, the Strongest Man in the World".

Between May and November 2005, seasons one and two were released on DVD with all of their respective episodes spread across two discs per set, plus audio commentary by Will McRobb, Chris Viscardi, Katherine Dieckmann, Michael C. Maronna, Danny Tamberelli and Toby Huss. Distributor Paramount had scheduled the third release for February 2006, but this plan was unexpectedly cancelled. McRobb and Viscardi said in 2012 that they also recorded commentary for the remaining adventures and that at that time the packaging remained in storage. McRobb added in 2017 that part of the problem with the release of the final season—whether on DVD or on television—is that song licenses spread as a result of some bands breaking up, although this did not affect the bands. all episodes. There have been fan petitions seeking to convince Viacom to go ahead with this release, but the set remains unreleased. Only eight of the original shorts have been released digitally, under the title The (Short) Adventures of Pete & Pete.

Reception

Despite its relatively short time on television, The Adventures of Pete & Pete garnered a large cult following after its cancellation. Tokens of appreciation from its fans include numerous articles in line, unofficial merchandise, and permanent tattoos matching Little Pete's. The book The Greatest Cult Television Shows of All Time (2020), by Christopher J. Olson and CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, exposes that «Pete & Pete enjoys a reputation as one of the best shows to emerge from Nickelodeon's golden age", adding that it "captured the zeitgeist of the 1990s and distilled it into a kid-friendly package that also resonated with college-age adults, particularly those in the burgeoning alternative scene of that era." Likewise, for SPIN magazine's Jonathan Bernstein, cameos from the likes of Michael Stipe and John McLaughlin "didn't they do more than add to the cult stamp of the show". Writer Seb Patrick mentioned in one of his articles that "for those who grew up with it, and perhaps some who discovered it in later years, Pete & Pete was an absolute delight." Mathew Klickstein, author of the book Slimed!: An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age (2013), told Flavorwire: "The people forget that Pete & Pete only lasted three seasons. [The series] performed horribly. It had very poor ratings [...but] the people who did see it cared a lot about it, met it later, or shared it with their family or friends." Mike Drucker of the IGN website opined that it What makes this fiction special is that it "didn't feel (and still doesn't feel) mass-produced" or "made to appeal to the widest audience", and he listed it as one of the best-written children's series. Similarly, Screen Rant's Spencer Coriaty described the writing of the episodes as "some of the most inventive of that period".

Diverse web portals have also listed it as one of the best children's series of all time. Josh Spiegel, of Screen Crush, issued: "It worked not only because of the chemistry between Michael Maronna and Danny Tamberelli [...] but also because of the quirky portrayal of small-town life in a way that you can't find on many kids' shows." Dan Devine of PopMatters also considered this last aspect the creators' greatest success in the series: "I don't think they [Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi] have gotten enough respect for their ability to harness the awesome weight and power of suburban normality." He also declared Big Pete "one of the coolest teen characters" Real Life" Ever Created" and praised Toby Huss's histrionics in his portrayal of Artie. Of Collider, Allison Keene credited the series' endurance to being "firmly rooted" in the 1990s with its aesthetic and soundtrack, to the time "completely in his own world". For Michael Walsh of the website Nerdist, Pete & Pete was "so ahead of his time in the early '90s that he still feels ahead of the curve."

Some people have also pointed to her as a supposed precursor to the hipster subculture (because of elements that became characteristic of the latter, such as beanies, flannel shirts, and tattoos), while aspects of her making have been compared to that of independent film. This can be attributed to the contributions of director Katherine Dieckmann, costume designer Janie Bryant, and the distinctive New Jersey atmosphere that is reflected in the episodes. Referring to the presumed influence that the show had on fashion years later, Will McRobb stated that the style of the characters is rather a product of their time: "Little Pete wore plaid shirts, sure. Other than that, I don't think there's anything you can point to as a "cultural brand" [in the series]. We tried to create a timeless universe that was [like] anyone's childhood." On the other hand, his and Viscardi's musical choices have been recognized as something defining in the character of their work. On this aspect, music journalist Matt Roney wrote in The Michigan Daily: "Looking back, Pete & Pete had a strangely "indie" aesthetic for a series aimed at kids and teens". Allmusic editor Jason Ankeny considered that "the jangle pop crisp and rich in melody” by Polaris was the perfect complement to the show, giving the album Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

Meetings

From the left: Danny Tamberelli, Michael C. Maronna, Toby Huss and Rick Gómez at the 2016 SF Sketchfest Pete & Pete Forever event in San Francisco, USA.

Between late 2011 and early 2016, a series of cast and creative team reunions took place in cities including New York, San Francisco, and Portland. The first took place at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, with a panel discussion consisting of creators Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, director Katherine Dieckmann, writer Joe Stillman, and actors Michael C. Maronna, Danny Tamberelli, and Toby Huss. Temporary tattoos of "Petunia" and drinks Orange Lazarus (from the episode "Field of Pete"), while the venue's marquee read "Krebstar Film Festival" in tribute to the series. Subsequent, sold-out gatherings featured Alison Fanelli, Hardy Rawls, Judy Grafe, Rick Gomez, Damian Young, Syd Straw, Marshall Crenshaw, and the Polaris band. The team shared information about the making of the show, experiences from filming, and answered questions from fans. Tamberelli, Straw, and Crenshaw rejoined the band The Blowholes (from the episode "Hard Day's Pete") and performed covers of original songs from the show during the reunion at New York's Bowery Ballroom. On a few occasions, the actors read significant scenes in front of the audience. audience, such as the farewell between Little Pete and Artie in the second part of "Farewell, My Little Viking".

In 2013, for the show's 20th anniversary, Maronna, Tamberelli, Huss and Gomez parodied their experience as cast members in a sketch written by McRobb and Viscardi for the website Funny or Die. This shows the actors having an anarchic reunion in a bar before an event, which ends with the irruption of Mister Tastee. In 2017, after the release of the retrospective block Nick Splat, Maronna and Tamberelli filmed a commercial at outside the Viacom offices, announcing the series' return to Nickelodeon with a two-night marathon. Both actors were also at that year's ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, where they mingled with fans and were They met with Viscardi to discuss the show. Since 2013, the pair have hosted the monthly podcast The Adventures of Danny & Mike, from which he derived the interactive show Nostalgia Personified in 2019, with the purpose of presenting it in parts of the United States. Likewise, the members of the band Miracle Legion (Mark Mulcahy, Scott Boutier and Dave McCaffrey) started in 2014 their first musical tour as Polaris due to the appreciation they gained with the series, and in 2020 they got together to promote the "deluxe" re-release of the album Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete.