July 12, 2018

The Adventures of Pete and Pete

56 minutes

Episode 94 – The Adventures of Pete and Pete

Imagine it’s 1989 and you’re watching Nickelodeon. You’ve just finished watching an episode of Double Dare and, instead of commercials, you’re treated to a quick scene of a young red headed boy who tells you a story. Sometimes, it’s about how his brother is still frozen from a game of freeze tag the day before. Other times, it’s about what he and his friends would do for a dollar, or about his terrible summer job mowing lawns along Route 34.

As quickly as it arrived, the odd little story is over and you’re back watching ads for toys or cartoons or whatever else Nickelodeon was trying to sell. What was that? Was that a show? Did you imagine it? Well, actually, what you witnessed was the genesis of a new show that would formally debut two years later as a handful of 24-minute specials, which then spawned another 3 seasons of brotherly goodness.

That show was The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

From Wikipedia:

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”,[1] while IGN called it “one of the most well-written kids shows ever”.[2] The first two seasons were released on DVD in 2005; the third was planned for 2006 but was indefinitely postponed.

Highlights:

Will McRobb, Chris Viscardi, Michael C. Maronna, Danny Tamberelli, Judy Grafe, Alison Fanelli, Hardy Rawls, Toby Huss, Michelle Trachtenberg, Rick Gomez, Nickelodeon, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Iggy Pop, Steve Buscemi, Adam West, Janeane Garofalo, LL Cool J, Debbie Harry, Luscious Jackson, Nice, Drop Nineteens, Poi Dog Pondering, Syd Straw, Polaris