Square Pegs

infobox television
show_name = Square Pegs


format = Comedy
camera = Single camera
runtime = 30 minutes
creator = Anne Beatts
starring = Sarah Jessica Parker
Amy Linker
theme_music_composer = The Waitresses
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 27 1982
last_aired = March 7 1983
num_episodes = 20
imdb_id = 0083482
tv_com_id = 129

"Square Pegs" was a CBS comedy television series that aired during the 1982-1983 season. The series followed Patty Greene (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Lauren Hutchinson (Amy Linker), two awkward teenage girls desperate to fit in at Weemawee High School.

Overview and Setting

Created by former "Saturday Night Live" writer Anne Beatts, the pilot episode introduces us to an eclectic group of eight freshmen on their first day at Weemawee High School. Most scenes were filmed in an abandoned high school in southern California. Weemawee was on its face in a generic suburban American community, but the details of the dialogue clearly revealed the location to be in the New York City metro area, most likely in Connecticut or New Jersey. Though the location was never stated outright, the plot often referred to events in nearby New York City, and the creator, Anne Beatts, of "Saturday Night Live" fame was no doubt endeared with the area. In the pilot episode Slash makes many references to hanging out at a record store in "the city" (the universal reference to Manhattan in the greater NYC metro region). This impresses the girls who live in suburbia and desire a somewhat more exciting life. The most common location for scenes filmed outside of the school was "The Grease", a Greek diner (also common to the NYC metro area) which was a frequent hangout for the kids. The diner was actually called the Acropolis, according to the neon sign in the window.

The series was much acclaimed by critics at the time for its realistic (if comic) look at teenage life, reflecting a sensibility somewhat similar to the John Hughes teen comedies of a few years later.Frank Halperin. "Sarah Jessica: Before 'Sex,' she was 'Square'" ("It List" column), "The Courier-Post" (Cherry Hill, NJ), August 23, 2007.]

Presumably the characters were to go through high school during the following four years until graduation, but the show lasted only one season. The first two episodes had strong ratings, but plummeted shortly after. A "TV Guide" article dated June 9, 1984 blamed the show's failure on the inexperience of its staff, and drug use on the set; nevertheless, it struck a chord with many Generation X viewers and many of its catchphrases and characters are still fondly remembered by fans.

Though targeted to younger viewers, the prime time show's dialogue was rather adult and risque, much more like "Saturday Night Live" than the later high school comedy "Saved by the Bell" which was aimed at pre-adolescent viewers.

Main characters

Patty Greene was a budding young woman, not quite beautiful yet, but well cultured and intelligent. While clever and seemingly well-adjusted, she seemed awkward and a social misfit ("i.e." a square peg) when amongst the "popular" students. Patty hated her eyeglasses, but her father would not let her get contacts (because, he said, her eyes were "still growing").

Patty's very close friend Lauren Hutchinson struggled with her weight (the actress needing to wear padding for the role), had braces, wore unusual clothing, and also did not fit in with the popular crowd. However, much more so than Patty, Lauren constantly and strangely desired to be in with the in crowd, and the series' episodes revolved more or less around her dragging Patty into various schemes in attempts to make them more popular.

Lauren and Patty were surrounded by colorful supporting characters. Their friends Marshall Blechtman (John Femia) and Johnny "Slash" Ulasewicz (Merritt Butrick) were a pair of lovable geeks. Marshall was a motormouthed, would-be comedian, while Johnny was a soft-spoken new wave fan (not punk... "a totally different head... totally."). Though seemingly off in his own reality most of the time, Johnny Slash states that he " [does not] do drugs and isn't a hippie."

The popular kids that Patty and Lauren were usually trying to impress were Jennifer DiNuccio (Tracy Nelson), the quintessential buxom Valley Girl, her boyfriend Vinnie Pasetta (Jon Caliri), a handsome greaser hood, and LaDonna Fredericks (Claudette Wells), Jennifer's sassy friend. Vinnie was cool but dense, using the "Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?" line three years before the character Biff in 1985's "Back to the Future". LaDonna was well known for her sassy one liners such as "Shoot, child, you think this place is crowded? You should have seen our living room when "The Jeffersons" went to Hawaii. Those were the three worst Sundays of my life."

The typical official high school activity culture was personified by preppy Muffy B. Tepperman (Jami Gertz) who was the endlessly chipper chairperson of the Weemawee Pep Committee, head of the Morals Club, chairman of the Science Fair Committee, and member of the Future Nurses of America. Muffy had a memorably pompous, oratorial speaking style and began many sentences with "It behooves me to tell you..." or "People..." While Patty and Lauren were friendly and likable, Muffy was unabashedly annoying. Though perhaps even more socially inept ("I'm going to ignore that because, frankly, I don't get it"), Muffy's unawareness and/or lack of concern with her failure to fit in with the popular kids was in stark contrast to the motivation of the show's protagonists, and did not stop her from relentless involvement in peppy activities.

An ongoing gag throughout the series was Muffy's fundraising for Weemawee's adopted "little Guatemalan child," Rosarita. As the series progressed, Muffy's charitable intentions became more and more frivolous, asking the school community to provide the girl with her own apartment away from her parents, cable TV, a second pair of culottes, swimwear, a split-level duplex, and finally, her own cleaning lady.

This group of eight students, though clearly of varied academic standing, were always in the same classes. The recurring staff members at the school were:
* "Ms." Loomis, a feminist liberal arts teacher who often bemoaned her ex-husband
* Jonathan "Lovebeads" Donovan, who was continuously bringing up his antics in the sixties and always stopping just short of completing references to smoking pot
* Mr. Spacek, the affected but married drama teacher
* Principal Dingleman

Home life of the students was rarely depicted, but Patty's father was prominently featured in the Christmas episode, played by Tony Dow, best known as the character Wally Cleaver in "Leave it to Beaver".

Opening dialogue

Before the opening credits and theme song began, every episode began with the following dialogue appearing in a montage of stills from the school:

:Lauren: "Listen. I've got this whole high school thing psyched out. It all breaks down into cliques.":Patty: "Cliques?":Lauren: "Yeah, you know. Cliques. Little in-groups of different kids. All we have to do is click with the right clique, and we can finally have a social life that's worthy of us.":Patty: "No way! Not even with cleavage.":Lauren: "I tell you, this year we're going to be popular.":Patty: "Yeah?":Lauren: "Yeah. Even if it kills us."

Theme Song and other Music

To accurately reflect high schooler's tastes of the moment, new wave music was an important facet of the show's style. The show's opening and closing themes were performed by The Waitresses. In some episodes "Chopsticks" was the opening theme and "Square Pegs" the closing theme, and in others these were reversed.
* The Waitresses appeared in the premiere episode as a band performing at the school dance. They sang "I Know What Boys Like" during a scene, and "Square Pegs" during the closing credits, with the characters dancing along. Their song "Christmas Rapping" was playing in the popular hangout diner ("The Grease") during the Christmas episode. They were mentioned by name in the episode in which Jennifer worked at the diner.
* John Densmore, original drummer for The Doors, played himself as a member of Johnny Slash's new wave band, "Open 24 Hours." He played with them in two episodes: "Open 24 Hours" (episode #8) and "Muffy's Bat Mitzvah" (episode #9).
* Also performing in "Muffy's Bat Mitzvah," the new wave band Devo appeared as themselves.
* The school radio station, run by Marshall, was covered with posters from New Wave bands, including Berlin and Missing Persons.
* Billy Idol's song "Dancing with Myself" was featured in the episode guest starring Bill Murray. The song was replaced with generic music in the DVD release.

Episode Broadcasts

*ORIGINAL BROADCASTS: "Square Pegs" debuted on CBS on September 27, 1982, in the 8PM slot on Mondays, which was formerly held by "M*A*S*H" (which was moved to 9PM.)
*SYNDICATION: After having been unseen for a decade, episodes were shown on USA Network in the mid 1990s, and later on Nickelodeon, and TVLand.
* Recent availability: The show has been on HDTV on HDNet, Comcast digital cable On Demand, on Saturday nights at 7PM on Me-Too Chicago, and on Canadian diginet Deja View on weekends at 10:30AM (ET/PT) and 2:30PM (ET/PT). All episodes are available for download on iTunes.

DVD Release

Sony released the entire series on DVD in a 3-disc set on May 20, 2008, to coincide with the theatrical release of Sarah Jessica Parker's film "". On the DVDs, the episodes have been digitally remastered and include 8 featurettes called "Weemawee Yearbook Memories". Each featurette focuses on a different cast member and has new interviews with the actors and creator Anne Beatts. Noticably absent from the interviews are Jon Caliri and Merritt Butrick. Butrick passed away in 1989 of AIDS but he received his own featurette nonetheless where the cast fondly remember their experiences with him. Jon Caliri's current whereabouts are not discussed in the interviews, nor do they appear to be available anywhere on the world wide web currently. Also available on the DVD are two minisodes from '80s sitcoms "The Facts of Life" and "Silver Spoons". [ [http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Square-Pegs-Complete-Series/9059 "Square Pegs" DVD News: Announcement for "Square Pegs: The Complete Series"] , "TVShowsonDVD.com", February 25, 2008]

Packaging for the set states that it includes 19 episodes instead of 20. This is because the two parts that make up "A Child's Christmas in Weemawee" appear together as one episode.

Other uses

* "Square Pegs" is also the title of a very early pre-World War II television broadcast aired on the BBC in 1939. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418188/ Square Pegs (1939) (TV) ] ]

*A Chinese TV series, "Life Made Simple", is also sometimes known as "Square Pegs".

References

"Carrie Bradshaw, Teenage Geek", NY Times 13 July 2008 [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/arts/television/13brow.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=square+pegs&st=nyt&oref=slogin]

External links

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* [http://www.jumptheshark.com/topic/square-pegs-general-comments/1855 Jump The Shark - Square Pegs]
* [http://www.brianorndorf.com/2008/05/dvd-review-squa.html Brian Orndorf discusses the 2008 DVD release of "Square Pegs"]