The Website of Pete and Pete
Fan Response and Analysis
The articles here have been written by various fans of the show. There are no criteria for having your article put up here except that you must be willing to let your article be seen by thousands of people. Articles are editted for form, never for content. If you have your own analysis of an episode or the show in general, send them to Jeremy Frens.
Dawn of the Nightcrawlers
by Rishi Kundi <chrome@minerva.cis.yale.edu>
In the episode "Nightcrawlers", Pete and what few Nightcrawlers remain after a week lounge, dazed, on the curbside. As the camera tracks down the line of wearied, harried adolescents, the score is infiltrated by the cheery sounds of piccolos and flutes. A quick pan up shows Joyce Wrigley strolling down the sidewalk, carrying groceries and whistling as she not-so-coincidentally passes her erstwhile son and his gang. With a tone that can only be described as honey-coated razor blades, she says, "Beautiful day, isn't it?" and glances pointedly at Pete.
The young Viking is down for the count; his forces are sadly depleted, his will is sapped. He is on the brink of surrender when his mother says this. To a weaker man---say, older Pete---the triumph in that condescending remark would have been enough to sway his stance. But this is Little Pete; he has been taught by Artie in the principles that make a Viking a Viking. He glares up at his mother: to her surprise, the lassitude is vanished from his eyes, replaced by the blazing heat of a thousand suns. Beautiful day? Surrender? Not bloody likely. From under that fiery stare comes the simple defiance that is Pete:
"Dawn was better."
When I first saw this, I was stunned. In less than fifteen seconds, the show had summed up all that is virtuous about man---loyalty to principle, willingness to suffer, and a stout heart in the face of overwhelming odds---and placed that summary in the words of a ten year old boy.
What is the significance of this, you may ask. These have been included in the plots of a million horrid sitcoms. Pete is special because its origin---the conditions---are trivial: a boy wanting to stay up late. The applicability and relevance of this profound expression of values to a relatively unimportant situation is telling of the ubiquitousness of those principles in everyday life, thereby establishing Pete's attitude as not only topical but fundamentally human in spirit.
So there you have it: the most amazing moment I ever experienced due to cable TV. I hopw you don't think that I am overanalyzing those two lines.
It's a Pete & Pete World
by Don Caballero <JUSTINL@nlc.trilogy.230.k12.il.us>
From the opening credits, the strange fractions of scenes that flash by foreshadow the shows unreal and uncanny situations, all while a groovy tune is being hammered out by Polaris. Playing on the front lawn of the Wrigley's estate, the band has a energy that also can be found within the rest of the programs thirty minutes. However, behind all of these abstract adventures, almost always a moral can found. This is what strikes me as one of the most amazing aspects of the show; by going beyond the borders of reality, the writers can emphasize important lessons more realistically. When reality is stretched a little, the adventure resembles more of a tall tale, but that is what The Adventures of Pete and Pete is; a modern fable. Anyhow, any kid I know would tell me that Pete & Pete was much more intriguing than a "Tortoise and the Hare."
A description of The Adventures of Pete and Pete might baffle those not familiar with this little show. Within this surreal and exaggerated world, a bowling balls attacks a man's jugular, a mischievous boy freeze-dries Cuba, and a girl becomes a dot. Riboflavin becomes essential to time travel, a woman has spatulas attracted to the magnetized metal plate in her head, and all products suspiciously are made by a company called Krebstar. This is all normal, however, to the inhabitants of the town of Wellsville, a sometimes chaotic corner of suburbia.
The Wrigley's are only a small part of the wide spectrum of bizarre and goofy characters that encompasses the town of Wellsville. Former suburbanites included the strongest man in the world, Artie, and an anonymous ice cream man known as Mr. Tastee. Evil takes on many forms, including a grinch that takes away the garbage, an almost demonic Endless Mike, and a bully named Pitstain. Some well known actors have popped up on Pete & Pete, even the singer of R.E.M. has made a cameo on the show.
When you take a deep look at the show, it is obvious why so many people have said what a wonderful example of television that it is. It provides an imaginary wonderland that is humorously twisted and full of absurd premises. But that does not detract from its other dimensions, which include real morals and studies of human character. This program can be enjoyed by anyone that gets cable and has a sense of humor. Each episode ends with a tune that represents its realization of good music and sets the mood as you go away satisfied by another silly episode.
Untitled
Kendal Myka Obermeyer <kobermey@unlgrad1.unl.edu>
The first Pete & Pete I ever saw (and fortunately taped) was "What We Did On Our Summer Vacation". I was immediately sold. Hooked. You know...I Saw The Light. Some years later, I still have that episode on tape, half worn-out, and watch it reverently from time to time with that special contempt reserved for viewings of Sacred Audiovisual Material. The contempt is for those with so little soul as to speak during the Viewing. However, they are beyond my help.
Pete and Pete...what an odd little show. If one is of an analytical or academic turn of mind, or if one just plain needs less mental free time, one can analyze this show to death and pick at one of the numerous strata to his/her heart's content.
Let us begin with the title: Pete and Pete. Two brothers with fiery hair and the same name. Significant or absurd, or both? It would be infinitely more disturbing if they looked and/or acted like twins. Or stupid. But both Petes can hold their own against all of Wellsville's bad guys, notwithstanding a bit of healthy blundering. Pete and Pete show us two types of Kids. Wellsville is teeming with Kids. All kinds of Kids. Suburbian kids who will grow up to be suburbian adults. Then there are the exceptions: Pete, Pete, and Ellen (for this particular episode, we'll confine it to them). I call them the Kids of Incredible Potential. When tracking Mr. Tastee, it is Ellen who manages to pinpoint his location to a stretch of interstate highway... I think a ten-mile stretch. And how does she do it? Ah, with trigonometry and a calculator, of course.
Day of the Dot
Raymond Marateo <marafam@erols.com>
What I find most appealing about this episode and the series in general is the fact that the theme of the underdog overcoming unfavorable odds is always present. Whether it is the younger or older Pete they both are faced with a dilemma and always seem to surmount it. But ultimately, what makes the series so appealing is that in the process of overcoming these conflicts, they have learned something about themselves in the process. For example in the episode "Day of the Dot", Pete in the end does lead the band to a "Wellsville Championship", but the real accomplishment is the fact that in the process Pete stood up to a bully, discovered his need for more than a friendship from Ellen, and learned authority figures,like Mr. Markel, aren't always right.
What makes Pete & Pete an exceptional series is the way it communicates to all of us. We all can sympathize with their problems. Overcoming bulling of any sort whether in a peer or authority figure is a major accomplishment, while dicovering love in plutonic relationships can be one of the hardest things to do.
Pete and his little brother Pete are all of us. They face all our problems, and we learn from these problems.That is the show's appeal.
Pete and Pete, You and Me
by Rebecca Mayer <mayers@gorge.net>
Pete and Pete is full of characters that are a part of every human being. Every character carries a trait that can be found in each one of us. We are all Pete and Pete.
Take older Pete, for example, the narrator of the story of Wellsville. There is a Pete in all of us, narrating the story of our own life. He is the deep and thoughtful side of us. He is the sometimes shy, yet always honest older brother we all wish we could have. He makes his emotions known, yet he is the sincere, tell-it-like it-is kind of personality we all display at times.
And younger Pete, the spirited little boy we all once were. The dreamer, the schemer. When we see Pete's anger, we feel the anger we feel inside of us, rage at the world's evil people. His insults and curses are the words we have all wanted to use at one time, but have never had the guts to do. Pete is guts. He is everyone's guts.
Ellen Josephine Hickle, Pete's best friend, is like everyone's best friend. She is a sensitive, caring, person, who wants to be a good friend. But Ellen has a drive. She has set clear goals for this lifetime. She wants to be something, the something we all want to be, and just like Ellen feels determined to reach the stars, so do we. Ellen is the determination in all of us.
Younger Pete's best friend, Nona F. Mecklinburg, is perhaps one of the hardest characters of the show to understand. But that is just another thing we all share. At times we are unreadable, hard to get into. Nona's casts represent the casts we all wear, trying correct what accidents, or mistakes, might have happened in our lifetimes. Her candy necklaces represents the strange idiosynchricies that we are all sensitive yet open about.
"Pete, I'm a Kreb Scout." Monica is clear about what she feels. She works hard to get her merit badges, just like we all work endlessly to get the merit we feel we deserve. Monica is the part of us that is not afraid to show itself the way it really is. Monica knows who she is, and she's proud of it. Her annoyance with Wayne is the same annoyance we all have with our admirers, no matter how adoring they may be.
Now let's talk about Wayne Pardue. His obsession with Monica is the same obsession we have all had with that special someone at one time and another. Wayne is a pain, just as our friends can feel about us every now and then. And we have all felt the same frustration and anger when that perfect white pair of tennis shoes got a drip of mud on them.
"What, you guys didn't know that?" The feeling of superiority is one we all feel at one time (some of us more than others), but Teddy seems to express it quite often. Teddy's strange ways of doing things are actually the way we all do things, strange and different from everybody else's. But Teddy's are truly odd, for example the exclamation uttered when he feels positive about something: "Excellentay!"
Bus Driver Stu seems to have a passion for the large, yellow form of mass transportation known as buses. Like Stu, we all have a calling in life that we are driven to. Stu's bus is another man's stethoscope, and another man's law book.
Pit Stain, the bully with the gland problem, is the insecure person we all feel like at times when it comes to problems. His sidekicks, Drawstring and Hairnet, are the strength in numbers we feel when we need to be one of the pack. But he is only human, and just wants to be addressed by his real name, Fran, just as we want to be seen for who we really are.
Don Wrigley, King of the Road, more commonly known as Pete & Pete's father, is the dad we all are our hope to be someday. He loves his lawn and gardening equipment, just as we love the things that are special to us. The strange fondness we all have for something different is represented by Don's fascination with the Hoover Dam. Don is everyone's father.
Mom, the woman that is everyone's happiness. She is sometimes too happy, leaving us wondering, "Is she for real?" Yet she is true happiness, the gen uine happiness that we all feel. Mom's metal plate is the unique feature we all possess but are comfortable with. We all have a metal plate, just like Mom.
So you see, within every one of us is every one of the people in Wellsville. And when you think about it, Wellsville is like the whole world. We can all learn from, laugh at, and grow to love Pete and Pete, just like we can ourselves.
Detailed Analysis of "Halloweenie"
By Aaron Friederichs <Gimmejolt@aol.com>
Since "Halloweenie" was such a quality episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, I felt it deserved some intricate study. It displays wonderful universality when it comes to an American Halloween. It shows the two main emotions felt around the holiday: excitement (little Pete's quest for glory) and fear (older Pete's fear of being unmasked). The episode contained high points of both suspense and humor. It also contained a great musical score.
Note: I spell the Pumpkin Eaters the Pumpkin "Eters", because that's how they spell it on a car windshield in the episode.
Summary
The episode itself is divided into two main acts. The first being the preperation of Halloween, and the second being Halloween itself. There are also two basic plots to the episode.
The first plot: Wellsville has a problem. Every year trick-or-treaters are terrorized by the Pumpkin Eters, a group of four teenagers hell-bent on destroying Halloween. If they aren't stopped, this will be Wellsville's last Halloween.
The second plot: little Pete dreams of breaking the record of trick-or-treating to 374 houses in one night. The two plots tie together when Older Pete decides to help little Pete by going trick-or-treating with him, at the risk of being destroyed by the Pumpkin Eters.
Extreme Funny Points
- When Pumpkin Eter3 says, "Hey, hey does anybody else's pumpkin head smell like tangerines?", and Pumpkin Eter2 replies, "I licked mine once." Does this mean that they tried to get high off their pumpkins???
- "Wriggles". Ha!
- When older Pete pushes Pumpkin Eter1 (thinking it's only a dummy), and he suddenly, to Pete's surprise, pushes back!
- Little Pete tries to head-butt Endless Mike's solid steel head
- James Mecklenburg gives Endless Mike a Q-tip to clean the porch with.
Did You Notice...
- When older Pete is raking leaves, his mom and dad are at the front door
- When older Pete is narrating in the chair, there is a picture of two astronauts behind him
- There were 2 ghost trick-or-treaters (Greg and Judy Stilf) (Notice: the number "2" is used a lot)
- The Wrigley's house number is 363
- Each house gives A LOT of candy
- Pete and Pete started trick-or-treating at 7:00pm
- When Pete and Pete are running past the Pumpkin Eter's mess, there is a smoke bomb in the street. There is also a kid in the street if you look real hard.
- trick-or-treating slowed down aroun 8:50pm (house #203)
- trick-or-treating picked back up around 9:40pm (house #243)
- Pumpkin Eter1, or Endless Mike, is the Pumpkin Eter who falls into the pool
- the Haunted House is called the Wellsville Kaycee's Haunted House
- the shaving cream is Krebstar brand
- the red car in the first Pumpkin Eter flashback is the same red car in the garage that the Pumpkin Eters are shown in.
- the last house (little Pete's "final frontier") is the same house shown in the symbolic scene of older Pete smashing a flaming pumpkin
- it is also the same house shown in the Greg and Judy Stilf flashback
- When the Pumpkin Eters (except Endless Mike) run away at the end, Frank Gulcher is right behind them
- It is Pumpkin Eter3 that Nona squirts with the hose
- Little Pete trick-or-treats to exactly 373 houses Halloween night. This means that he would have to complete 1 house every 48.25 seconds
What the...?
- the door scrolling forward in the intro opens in a fakey way
- why would older Pete hate Halloween?
- why would Ellen encourage older Pete to smash the pumpkin?
- what have the Pumpkin Eters got against Halloween anyway? It's the one night that they can terrorize, which they obviously love to do.
- where do the Pumpkin Eters carry all their vandal supplies? They sure use a lot of it
- Why would the little kids laugh at Ned Richmond? The yare trick-or-treating themselves!
- ONLY six blocks to go???
- That's a pretty good reflection of Ned Richmond in older Pete's helmet visor
- How did Pumpkin Eter1, or Endless Mike, dry off so quickly?
- If it's around midnight, then where is all of that light in the haunted house's basement coming from?
- The moon behind Frank Gulcher and little Pete at the end of the show is too large to be a real moon
For Discussion...
- When older Pete smashes the flaming pumpkin symbolically, does this foreshadow the fate of Halloween? Or maybe the fate of older Pete?
- What was the point of Nona's mentioning of the mythical Greek gods Apollo and Athena? Could it have something to do with the fact that Nona's mother is never shown? Does it have something to do with Nona and little Pete? or maybe Pete and Pete?
- What the heck did Pumpkin Eter2 lick his pumpkin head for? Did he try to get high?
- When older Pete quits, there are only six blocks left; this probably takes little Pete around two hours to complete, meaning the episode ended around midnight
- the Wellsville Kaycee's Haunted House seems to have been closed for a while, probably a couple of hours. This means it is pretty late. The chase (Pumpkin Eters after older Pete) must have lasted a long time.
- In case you were wondering how little Pete and Frank Gulcher found older Pete and the Pumpkin Eters in the Wellsville Kaycee's Haunted House, notice how the camera shows older Pete's helmet (which contains a two-way radio) over a vent right when Endless Mike, or Pumpkin Eter1, says, "Here you are in this pathetic excuse of a haunted house, hating Halloween even more!" This must also mean that the Wellsville Kaycee's Haunted House is the only one in town.
- At the very end of the show, where is little Pete's bag of candy? Did he leave it at the haunted house? And what happened to the candy in his helmet?
- the number "2" is used a lot in this Pete and Pete episode for some reason - (Pete and Pete, Greg and Judy Stilf, 2 astronauts in the picture, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, Apollo and Athena, and the 2 plots). Do you think this represents the two main emotions felt aroun Halloween: fear and excitement?
- Do you think little Pete will go trick-or-treating with Nona or older Pete next year? will he break the record?
How to tell the Pumpkin Eters apart:
Pumpkin Eter 1: The leader of the Pumpkin Eters, Endless Mike. Has one eye in the center, and a grinning, sharp-teethed mouth. Wants to destroy the biggest Halloweenie of them all, older Pete Wrigley.
Pumpkin Eter 2: identity unknown. Has a frowning mouth with no teeth, and two triangle eyes. Licked his pumpkin head once.
Pumpkin Eter 3: identity unknown. Has two crescent shaped eyes and sharp teeth. Thinks his pumpkinhead smells like tangerines.
Pumpkin Eter 4: identity unknown. The only Pumpkin Eter with horns.
Well, that about wraps it up. I had to watch this episode about 30 times to catch everything, and I'm still not sure this really is everything. If you find something else, let me know.
Untitled
by Paul Osebold <posebold@ior.com>
There are several things I'd like to point out about Pete & Pete
First, the old theme of "students vs. teachers" is apparent. A good example is Younger Pete vs. Principle Schwinger. However, sometimes it's "students vs. students." Examples include Younger Pete vs. Johnny Earwax (as well as the other Up with Personal Hygiene Singers) and Pitstain.
Monica and Wayne are two of my favorite characters. They may have their conflicts, but I'm sure that some people can identify with Wayne; he's a nonviolent individual trying to fit in with the others. Monica's antics are often funny, as she's always trying to earn her merit badges (from Ethnic Dance to Cafeteria Lady). Sometimes, these two can get along. Wayne danced next to Monika on "Dance Fever" and they shared pizza with the others on "Saturday". When Principle Schwinger locked Younger Pete, Wayne and Monica in the school, they shared some friendships together.
"DAS BUS"
by Dan Brow <brow@alphainfo.com>
In my opinion this is one of the best Pete and Pete episodes. This episode people can relate to, I mean haven't we all been practically in love with another person that we barley even know. (I am of course referring to the older Pete being infatuated with Penelope.) The older Pete willing to do anything for this girl.
I was also enjoyed the scenery through out the story. The sunsets were an extra boost to the show. Another thing that I noticed was that the music in this episode was a unique choice, but again this is another factor that makes it great. One more thing that I wanted to comment on was that I thought that it was a great mistake to cancel the show. This show was easy for all ages to relate to and that is very disappointing to hear that it is canceled. Well I hope that you enjoyed this analysis that I have written, and please keep watching Pete and Pete.
