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The Adventures of Pete & Pete facts for kids
| The Adventures of Pete & Pete | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | |
| Created by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Narrated by | Michael Maronna |
| Theme music composer | Mark Mulcahy |
| Opening theme | "Hey Sandy" by Polaris |
| Composer(s) | Mark Mulcahy |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 34 (plus 5 specials and 16 shorts) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Charles Darby |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
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| Release | |
| Original network | Nickelodeon |
| Original release | February 9, 1991 – April 1, 1996 |
The Adventures of Pete & Pete is an American comedy television series created by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi for Nickelodeon. It centers around two brothers, both named Pete Wrigley, and their humorous and surreal adventures in suburbia among their equally eccentric friends, enemies, and neighbors.
The Adventures of Pete & Pete began on Nickelodeon in 1989 as minute-long shorts that aired as interstitials. 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 from 1993 to 1996. Reruns of the shorts and the shows now run on TeenNick as part of their block NickSplat on October 5, 2015. Jason Ankeny of AllMusic called the series "the greatest children's show ever", while IGN called it "one of the most well-written kids shows ever". The first two seasons were released on DVD in 2005; the third was planned for 2006 but was indefinitely postponed.
Contents
Setting
Pete & Pete is set in Wellsville, a fictional town in the U.S. whose exact geography is never specified. License plates in the show refer to "The Sideburn State", and according to the series' canon, the Wrigley house is set miles from the Canadian border, 500 miles from Hoover Dam and "not far from the beach". The name of the town is also a nod to The Embarrassment's song "Wellsville". Certain locations were fictionalized for the purposes of the show; Glurt County, mentioned in "Yellow Fever" and "The Good, the Bad and the Lucky", does not exist in any state.
The show was filmed largely in South Orange, New Jersey, with location shots done in a variety of other spots around northern New Jersey, including the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, New Jersey, and the Wrigley House in Cranford, New Jersey. The exteriors of Pete & Pete's house (as seen in the credit sequence and other shots) were filmed on Melrose Place in South Orange, New Jersey. The football field used for various episodes is that of Bayonne High School in Bayonne, New Jersey. The fictional Wellsville High School's mascot is a squid.
Episodes
List of The Adventures of Pete & Pete episodes
Characters
Family
Friends
Enemies
Neighborhood members
The Wrigley house from season 3, located in Cranford, New Jersey.
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")
- Elizabeth Bogush — Diane Senski, love interest of Big Pete who loses interest due to Big Pete's friendship with Teddy, whom she finds too annoying. ("The Trouble With Teddy")
- Golden Brooks — Heather, captain of the tennis team and Big Pete's love interest. ("Crisis in the Love Zone")
- Drew Carey (uncredited) — Veteran at 4 July picnic launching fireworks. ("Grounded for Life")
- Jude Ciccolella — Mr. Slurm, high school shop teacher with a claw for a hand. ("Tool and Die")
- Matthew G. Cliff — Roger SanGreco, known as "Chalkface" due to his pale skin and the fact that he smells like classroom chalk. He is a short-lived enemy of Little Pete. ("The Call", "Dance Fever")
- 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 — As 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 — As 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 straitjacket. ("Last Laugh")
- Juliana Hatfield — Lunchlady Emma. ("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 Old Bob. ("On Golden Pete")
- LL Cool J — Mr. Thornberry, Little Pete's teacher. ("Sick Day")
- Luscious Jackson — The band that plays at the school dance. ("Dance Fever")
- Alicia Keys — A student ("Tool and Die")
- Ann Magnuson — Eunice Puell, mail carrier and object of Little Pete's affection. ("Crisis in the Love Zone")
- John McLaughlin — As 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 — Vincent Park, a neighbor and bowling agent who is impressed with Artie's bowling skills and gets him to sign a bowling contract.
- Geoff Pierson — Mr. Perfect, dad's competition on a family trip to the Hoover Dam. ("The King of the Road")
- Kate Pierson — Mysterious blind millionaire Mrs. Vanderveer, who was once married to Mr. Tastee. ("What We Did on Our Summer Vacation")
- John Ottavino — Inspector 34, inspector of Kreb of the Loom underwear and Little Pete's guardian angel. ("Inspector 34")
- Suzzy Roche — PEO MacMillan, meter maid and Inspector 34's love interest. ("Inspector 34")
- James Rebhorn — Supervillain John McFlemp, who rallies the neighborhood to turn Artie into a respectable adult. ("Farewell My Little Viking" (parts 1 and 2))
- Sarah Shannon — A grocery store employee who gives Little Pete a label from an expired can of tapioca pudding. ("Sick Day")
- J. K. Simmons — Barber Dan, who refuses to talk to Big Pete. ("Saturday")
- Michael Stipe — Captain Scrummy, a disliked rival ice-cream vendor to Mr. Tastee. ("What We Did On Our Summer Vacation")
- Syd Straw — Math teacher Miss Fingerwood. Played bass in the Blowholes. ("Hard Day's Pete", "X=Why", "Valentine's Day Massacre")
- 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.
One widely reported guest appearance — Hunter S. Thompson 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.
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. On the DVD commentaries, the director and the creators revealed that they tried to use a song by the Pixies, but could not afford the rights.
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".
Polaris' music for the show was released on vinyl on Record Store Day 2015. The album tracks are:
- 1. Hey Sandy
- 2. She Is Staggering
- 3. Waiting For October
- 4. Saturnine
- 5. Everywhere
- 6. Ivy Boy
- 7. Summerbaby
- 8. Coronado II
- 9. Ashamed Of The Story I Told
- 10. As Usual
- 11. Recently
- 12. The Monster's Loose.
With a total of 2100 pressings, the album sold out promptly and was considered a must-own by many reputable collector sites, such as Modern Vinyl, Consequence of Sound, and Paste Magazine.
Music from the show was also available in 1995 on a promotional cassette mini album, 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" (listed on the cassette as "Staggering"), and "Coronado II". The cassette includes a short introduction and closing read by Big Pete.
Robert Agnello was the writer and creator of numerous pieces of music for Pete & Pete and wrote the Blowholes music for the "Hard Day's Pete" episode. The show runners originally intended to use the song "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain for the episode, but could not afford the song rights and instead asked Agnello to write a "sound-alike" version. Agnello's sound-alike song, "Marmalade Cream", was so catchy that he was asked to produce three other songs for the episode: "Summer Wind", "Piledriver", and "You Color My World". He also wrote "One Lousy" Dance which was sung by Iggy Pop and the Garbageman theme sung by David Johanson. Many incidental songs in the series were performed by Agnello and his band Lamb to Slaughter.
Broadcast
The Adventures of Pete & Pete first ran on Nickelodeon from 1993 to 1996. Reruns continued to air from 1996 to 1999, and again from 2003 to 2004 on U-Pick Live. It also aired reruns on The N from 2002 to 2003.
The Adventures of Pete & Pete was one of the series mentioned as a potential future series that would air on The '90s Are All That. Despite images of the show appearing in the often-shown The '90s Are All That commercial promos, no episodes of the series have aired on the block. The 1989 shorts began airing on the block in 2013. When the block expanded into The Splat (now NickSplat) in 2015, Pete & Pete was listed as part of the block's lineup, but had yet to be scheduled (only the shorts have been aired on the block).
On May 28, 2017, it was announced that Mike Maronna and Danny Tamberelli would take part in a weekend-long event on NickSplat called "The Adventures of Pete & Pete: The Strongest Reunion in the World" on June 17 & 18, where classic episodes were replayed while they share various moments from making the series.
Reunion
From left to right: Danny Tamberelli, Michael C. Maronna, Toby Huss and Rick Gomez during the "Pete & Pete Forever" reunion at SF Sketchfest 2016, in San Francisco, United States
In late 2011 and early 2012 a series of cast and crew reunions took place in Los Angeles and New York City respectively. Tamberelli, Syd Straw and Marshall Crenshaw performed a rendition of theme song "Hey Sandy" in addition to other Pete & Pete compositions. Creators McRobb, Viscardi, along with Michael Maronna, Hardy Rawls, Judy Grafe, Alison Fanelli, Toby Huss and Director Katherine Dieckmann were all in attendance.
The 2011 Los Angeles reunion was billed by the Cinefamily as the "KrebStar Film Festival", a reference to the show's own brand. Additionally many products from the show were available, including Krebex, Kreb Scouts, KrebStore 24 and Krebgate Toothpaste. Staff members also handed out "performance-enhanced" Orange Lazarus.
Since September 2013 Danny Tamberelli and Mike Maronna release a monthly podcast, The Adventures of Danny and Mike, on the Last Podcast Network.
See also
In Spanish: Las aventuras de Pete y Pete para niños