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"Halloweenie"

by Aaron Friederichs

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.