The Adventures of Pete & Pete

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The Adventures of Pete & Pete

Danny Tamberelli (top) as Little Pete and Mike Maronna (bottom) as Big Pete.
Genre Comedy
Created by Will McRobb
Chris Viscardi
Starring Mike Maronna
Danny Tamberelli
Alison Fanelli
Hardy Rawls
Judy Grafe
Toby Huss
Michelle Trachtenberg
Narrated by Mike Maronna
Opening theme "Hey Sandy" by Polaris
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 34 (including 6 specials and 16 shorts) (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 24 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel Nickelodeon
Original run December 5, 1993 – May 1, 1996
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Adventures of Pete & Pete was an American television series produced by Wellsville Pictures and broadcast by Nickelodeon. The show featured humorous and surreal elements in its narrative, and many recurring themes centered on two brothers both named Pete Wrigley, and their various interactions with family, friends, and enemies.

The show was created by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi and began as minute-long shorts in 1989 that aired in between regular programs. Owing to the popularity of the shorts, five half-hour specials were made, followed by a regular half-hour series that ran for three seasons (1993-1996) and continued in reruns until around 1999. The N aired reruns of the show between 2002-2003, but is no longer broadcast. The first two seasons were released on DVD in 2005 and the third was planned for 2006 but was indefinitely postponed.

Contents

[edit] Setting

Pete & Pete is set in the fictional town of Wellsville; like The Simpsons' Springfield, its state is never revealed, even though there is a Wellsville, New York in Allegany County, and another, much smaller, in Montgomery County, as well as others in Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Utah. In addition, Glurt County, mentioned in "Yellow Fever" and "The Good, the Bad and the Lucky," does not exist. The show does offer a few clues:

  • Someone can reach the Canadian border within hours, either running on foot or riding a lawn mower.
  • License plates bear the nickname "The Sideburn State." ("King of the Road," "Field of Pete")
  • Little Pete travels westward into the Central Time Zone. ("Time Tunnel")
  • During an episode where Pete goes on a field trip, there is also a map that shows Leominster, Massachusetts, as the map shows the trail of the field trip.
  • In the episode Yellow Fever, Bus Driver Stu asks directions to I-87, which only runs through New York State.
  • Kentucky can possibly be seen from the top of a water tower. ("What We Did on Our Summer Vacation")
  • In the bonus episode "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation", Pete is looking through photographs on the Wrigley car which has a New York license plate.
  • When the family vacations at the beach in the Mr. Tastee episode, they are close enough to drive home that afternoon.
  • A town map places it in Clinton County with various markings such as the Sheriff's Office ("Day of the Dot").
  • According to Big Pete, their house is exactly 567 and 4/10 miles from the Hoover Dam by road. In the same episode, as big Pete explains the qualifications of being king of the road, an overhead view of a map of the United States is shown over Nevada and Utah ("King of the Road")
  • In the episode "Apocalypse Pete", Joyce Wrigley (Mom) can be seen wearing a Green Bay Packers (Wisconsin) football helmet.

The show was actually entirely filmed in several Northern New Jersey locations: originally, the school scenes were shot in Bayonne and the neighborhood scenes in South Orange, and Leonia. For the third season, production moved to Cranford. If looked at closely enough, many aspects reveal the Northern New Jersey setting, for example the Star Ledger newspaper can be seen advertised in various scenes around the town, in addition several NJ Transit buses can be seen in various shots as well as New Jersey state license plates on vehicles. Also throughout the show characters mention names of various New Jersey regions and towns. Pete's math teacher talks about a town called Lodi in a word problem an obvious reference to real life town Lodi, NJ; in addition, Pete's father talks of going on a road trip to Cumberland, another real life reference to Cumberland County, NJ while Pete's father's station wagon has New Jersey plates in the first season.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of The Adventures of Pete & Pete episodes

In addition to the 34 regular season episodes, 6 specials and 16 shorts, the movie Snow Day was originally written by McRobb and Viscardi to be an extension of the television series, but Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures were not interested in a feature at the time. It was eventually made by series director Chris Koch in 2000 with a new lead cast and most of the characters renamed, but retained series regulars Chris Elliot, Iggy Pop and Damian Young.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Family

Big Pete Wrigley (Mike Maronna)
The show's primary narrator, Big Pete often acts as a voice of reason in contrast to the strange occurrences and people around him. Typical sibling rivalry aside, he and his brother are best friends.
Little Pete Wrigley (Danny Tamberelli)
Four years younger than his brother, Little Pete is often engaged in struggles against adults and other authority figures. He frequently uses insults like "Jerkweed" and "bite my neck hair."
"Petunia"
A tattoo on Little Pete's left forearm depicting a woman in a red dress. It is frequently made to "dance" and gets its own credit in the show's opening sequence; the origins of that tattoo, and one of a sailing ship on Little Pete's back, are unclear.
Joyce Wrigley (Judy Grafe)
The Petes' mother, usually just called "Mom," has a metal plate in her head from a childhood accident; it can pick up radio stations — and, in the case of little Pete's "WART Radio," it can broadcast them too.
Mom's Plate
The plate in Mom's head, like Petunia, gets its own opening credit.
Don Wrigley (Hardy Rawls)
Usually known as "Dad," Don is the Petes' father. He and Joyce met when the metal detector he was using on a beach led him to the metal plate in her head. He is an extremely competitive driver, particularly during the family's excursion to Hoover Dam.

[edit] Friends

Artie, the Strongest Man in the World (Toby Huss)
Little Pete's personal superhero, who is very eccentric but quite powerful — for example, he can skip stones on Neptune, move an entire house by an inch, and hit a golf ball 300,003 yards. His catchphrase is "For I am Artie — the strongest man ... in the world!" His trademark word "pipe!" aggravates the adults of the community. He left the show after the 2-part episode, "Farewell My Little Viking". His spot in the opening credits would later be replaced in the third season with Nona's.
Theodore "Teddy" L. Forzman (Dave Martel)
Teddy is one of Big Pete's three friends (the others being Ellen and Bill). Teddy is kind of a dork and seemingly always in a good mood (except when affected by the mind-controlling substance Orange Lazarus). He is in the marching band with Pete and is known for bringing up odd facts and then remarking, "what, you guys didn't know that?". He also loves to exclaim, "excellenté!" while raising his finger.
Ellen Josephine Hickle (Alison Fanelli)
Ellen is Big Pete's best friend; though romance develops between the two on rare occasions, Pete generally sees Ellen as "a girl and a friend, but not a girlfriend". Over the course of the show she demonstrates some obsessive tendencies. In season one she labored under the misconception that she was "a dot," due to her placement "riding the I" in the Wellsville marching band's show. Later that season she became fixated with metallurgy while in shop class. In season three she was fanatical at getting an A in Mr. Slurm's driver's ed course and near the end of the season getting a pizza on time to Endless Mike as a delivery girl. She played French horn in the band.
Bill Korn (Rick Barbarette)
Bill is Big Pete's friend, who has a knack for practical jokes and sarcasm. He was renowned for getting Teddy to shoot milk out of his ears and getting Bus Driver Stu accused of kidnapping a busload of kids. He also admitted to once eating snot in the episode "Field of Pete". (This character did not appear in the third season.)
Nona F. Mecklenberg (Michelle Trachtenberg)
Little Pete's best friend. Her middle initial "F" stands for Frances, but she wants to change it to Frank, Fahrvergnügen, or Forklift. She wears a cast not because she has a broken arm, but because it causes an annoying, itchy feeling on her arm which she enjoys scratching. Nona took Artie's place in the opening sequence for Season three. She also had a brief crush on Little Pete once or twice in the series.
Natasha (Heather Matarazzo)
A neighborhood kid and Little Pete's friend. She stays awake by pulling her pigtails .
Monica Perling (Maris Hudson)
One of Little Pete's friends, Monica is the resident Kreb Scout (Girl Scout in season 2) who is ready for anything. Her unfortunate luck with pets has given her a reputation as the "Girl Scout of death," and she even has a graveyard for them. She has excellent hearing. Supposedly, this is because one of her ancestors married a bloodhound.
Wayne Pardue (Justin Restivo)
Also known as "Wayne the Pain." First appearing in the third season, Wayne was one of Little Pete's friends. But as his nickname implied, he was quite annoying. He frequently spouted expressions like "Geez Louise" and "Super Genius!" and also had a crush on Monica (as seen in 'Dance Fever').

[edit] Enemies

"Endless" Mike Hellstrom (Rick Gomez)
"Endless" Mike, mortal enemy of Big Pete, gets his nickname from the fact that he is perpetually repeating the same year in high school. "Endless" Mike reigns over shop class, has a car, and loves Neapolitan ice cream. Although his relationship with older Pete is often antagonistic they have joined forces on rare occasions, such as when Pete commissioned Mike to expel the family who bought his house, or borrowed his car to go on a date with Ellen (although both of these collaborations failed).
Open-Face
One of Big Pete's enemies. A boy who is always shown eating open-faced sandwiches, even in church.
Fran 'Pitstain' (Eric Kushnick)
Little Pete's mortal enemy, who has a gland problem that gives him huge, smelly armpit stains. He is in love with Nona. He is also often seen with his goons, Hairnet and Drawstring. Drawstring was later replaced by Nightbrace.
Papercut (Christopher Conte)
One of Little Pete's enemies. A boy who grew up in a copy shop and is covered with lacerations and scars from paper cuts as a result. He can fold paper into hundreds of origami shapes including make-shift weapons. As with the rest of his motif, he always picks "paper" when playing rock-paper-scissors. Pete once defied him by playing scissors, thus resulting in heated conflict.
Principal Ken Schwinger (Adam West)
The principal of little Pete's school. Always trying to stop his pranks, to no avail. He has a strange love of personal hygiene and creamed corn.

[edit] Neighborhood members

Phil Hickle (Steve Buscemi)
Ellen's father and guidance counselor of Big Pete's high school. Once an enemy of Don Wrigley.
James "Pop" Mecklenberg (Iggy Pop)
Nona's loving and occasionally overprotective dad
Mr. Tastee (Toby Huss)
The mysterious ice cream vendor who symbolizes summer for the neighborhood kids. He never removes his mascot costume head and is very reluctant to let his customers get close to him. When the Petes' attempts to strike up a friendship causes Tastee to flee, they and Ellen spend a summer tracking him down. His ice-cream truck is named the Tastee Mobile. It is suggested he also used to be married to a blind millionaire who calls him "Leonard."
Stu Benedict (Damian Young)
An eccentric and deeply bipolar bus driver who drives both Petes to school, often while nursing wounds from a relationship with fellow bus driver Sally Knorp while shouting out quotes such as "Passengers will refrain from killing my soul."
Frank Gulcher
A crossing guard who defends the crosswalk with his life, abiding by "the code of the crosswalk." Once failed to save Little Pete's pet lizard 'Gary' from death by oncoming traffic.

[edit] Guest stars

The many guest stars that appeared on Pete & Pete include:

  • Selma Blair — Penelope Ghiruto, school bus passenger from whose name Big Pete can make 27 words. ("Das Bus")
  • Jude Ciccolella — Mr. Slurm, high school shop teacher with a claw for a hand. ("Tool and Die" )
  • Ellen Cleghorne — Bus driver Sally Knorp, on-again, off-again girlfriend of Stu Benedict. (Appears in "Day of the Dot" and "Yellow Fever," though she is mentioned in other episodes.)
  • Marshall Crenshaw — "Lightning" Mel Ratner, a meter reader who joins Little Pete's band. ("A Hard Day's Pete")
  • Art Donovan — himself, talking to Big Pete about playing with Johnny Unitas. ("Space, Geeks, and Johnny Unitas")
  • Martin Donovan — crossing guard Kenneth G. Keegan who passes messages between Big Pete and Ellen in "Apocalypse Pete"; also Smith ("Smitty"), a security guard whom Little Pete and Petunia distract in "Space, Geeks, and Johnny Unitas."
  • Richard Edson — school janitor and field chalker Mr. Beverly ("Valentine's Day Massacre").
  • Chris Elliott — Meterman Ray, a meter reader who foretells Little Pete's future ("Sick Day").
  • Gordon Gano — Mr. Zank, the first of many substitute math teachers ("X=Why?").
  • Janeane Garofalo — Ms. Brackett, an English teacher ("X=Why?").
  • Frank Gifford — himself, a customer at Dad's driving range ("Rangeboy").
  • Ellen Greene — Abilene Jones, Drive-In film operator ("Time Tunnel").
  • Debbie Harry — a neighbor whose lawn the Petes sweep for land mines ("New Year's Pete").
  • Eliza Harris — girl in the straightjacket ("Last Laugh").
  • Juliana Hatfield — Emma, a young lunchlady ("Don't Tread on Pete").
  • Patty Hearst — Mrs. Kretchmar, a member of the family that moves into the Wrigley house ("35 Hours").
  • William Hickey — Grandpa Wrigley, Dad's dad ("When Petes Collide").
  • David Johansen — Park Ranger Thorsen, who scrutinizes Dad's activities until learning he is hunting for Bob ("On Golden Pete").
  • LL Cool J — Mr. Throneberry, Little Pete's teacher ("Sick Day").
  • Luscious Jackson — the band that plays at the school dance ("Dance Fever").
  • Ann Magnuson — Eunice Puell, mail carrier and object of Little Pete's affection ("Crisis in the Love Zone").
  • John McLaughlin — himself, devoting a portion of his show to support Big Pete's bid for Dad's bowling ball ("When Petes Collide").
  • Miracle Legion — the four-piece version of Polaris that Little Pete sees in a garage ("A Hard Day's Pete"). Polaris, in turn, was Miracle Legion minus guitarist Mr. Ray.
  • Bebe Neuwirth — Mail Lady McGintee, a mail carrier whom Little Pete comes across on his sick day adventure ("The Call," "Sick Day").
  • Larisa Oleynik — a nurse who rushes Little Pete through the hospital ("Dance Fever").
  • Vincent Pastore — Plays Vincent Park, A neighbor and bowling agent who is impressed with Artie's bowling skills and gets him to sign a bowling contract.
  • Kate Pierson — mysterious blind millionaire Mrs. Vanderveer ("What We Did on Our Summer Vacation").
  • Suzzy Roche — PEO MacMillian, meter maid and Inspector 34's love interest ("Inspector 34").
  • James Rebhorn — Supervillain John McFlemp, who rallies the neighborhood to get rid of little Pete's superhero Artie and turn him into a respectable and conservative adult.
  • Sarah Shannon — a grocery store employee who gives Little Pete a label from an expired can of tapioca pudding ("Sick Day").
  • Michael Stipe — Captain Scrummy, ice-cream vendor known for the Sludgecicle ("What We Did On Our Summer Vacation").
  • Syd Straw — math teacher Miss Fingerwood. Played bass in the Blowholes("A Hard Days Pete")
  • Liza Weil — Margie Corsell, a girl for whom Big Pete abandons his brother ("35 Hours"). Weil also played a bully in "Yellow Fever", with her mother Lisa as a teacher in the same episode.
  • Brittany Whittington — the Kretchmars' daughter, another member of the family that moved into the Wrigley house ("35 Hours")
  • Matthew G.Cliff — "Chalkface", the name young Pete gives to shortlived neighborhood villain Roger SanGreko. Often seen in the background of episodes sporting a lime green hoodie with a purple lizard on the chest "Gecko"/ San"Greko". He is given the name due to his fair skin and constant body odor that is easily mistaken with the scent of classroom chalk. ("The Call," " Dance Fever").

One widely reported guest appearance — Hunter S. Thompson's, in "New Year's Pete" — has been described as "apocryphal" by show creator Will McRobb, who has said the Hunter Thompson listed in the credits is instead a similarly named extra. [1]

[edit] Music

The show featured music by such artists as Luscious Jackson, Nice, Drop Nineteens, Racecar, Chug, Poi Dog Pondering, Syd Straw, and The Apples in Stereo. The music of Stephin Merritt can also be heard throughout the series, including songs from his projects The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, and The Gothic Archies.

Polaris, a side project of Mark Mulcahy's Miracle Legion, served as the show's "house band," providing the theme song and many other tunes heard throughout the series and even appearing in "Hard Day's Pete" as a local four-piece playing out of a garage. Some of the Polaris' music from the show was released as a CD, Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete, including the theme song "Hey Sandy".

Music from the show was also available in 1995 on a promotional cassette single, titled Happily Deranged, available by sending in UPC symbols from Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats. This cassette includes the Polaris songs "Hey Sandy", "She is Staggering", and "Coronado II". The cassette includes a short introduction and closing read by Big Pete.

[edit] Production music

The show also used music from standard production music libraries.

[edit] Home video releases

[edit] VHS

Nickelodeon VHS tapes were first released through Sony Wonder, then through Paramount.

  • "Snick Vol. 1: Nick Snicks Friendship" — Includes one episode from each show in the early Snick lineup: Clarissa Explains It All, Roundhouse, Ren and Stimpy, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?. A pre-series Pete and Pete short is included in between each show. This tape includes the shorts "Artie, the Strongest Man in the World," "X-Ray Man," and "Route 34."
  • "Snick Vol. 2: Nick Snicks the Family" — Includes the same lineup as "Friendship." The Pete and Pete shorts are "The Burping Room," "Mom's Plate," and "The Punishment."
  • "Classic Petes" — Includes the episodes "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation" and "Apocalypse Pete," plus the bonus short "Artie's Workout." (with an accompanying "Petunia" Tattoo)
  • "School Dazed" — Includes the episodes "Day of the Dot" and "Tool and Die," plus the bonus short "StareMaster" (with an accompanying "Magic Motion Eyeball Card").
  • "Farewell, My Little Viking" — Includes both parts of the story, edited into one long episode. Also includes the short "Artie,the Strongest Man in the World".




[edit] DVD

Nickelodeon DVDs are released through Paramount.

Season Releases

"Season Three"was originally scheduled for release February 28, 2006. However Dreamworks and Paramount had combined and due to this, the third season was removed from Paramount's schedule.[3]

[edit] External links

Broadcast Season Release Date # of Eps
Season 1 1991, 1993-94, May 17, 2005 12 including four of the six specials
Season 2 November 1, 2005 14 including one of the six specials
Season 3 OSRD February 28, 2006 (Cancelled) 14 including one of the six specials