Throwback Thursday: Square Pegs (1982)

“All we have to do is click with the right clique…..”

Two freshman enter Weemawee High School and do whatever they can in order to become popular in 1982’s Square Pegs. Each episode saw the freshman interact with other students and faculty at the school and featured a surprisingly solid list of guest stars and musical guests. The series consisted of twenty episodes and, despite being both popular and critically acclaimed, was dropped after one season. I’ll get to the reason for the cancellation later. For now, let’s take a look at the series itself.

The stars of the series were Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Linker. They portrayed Patty “Stringbean” Greene and Lauren “Fang” Hutchinson, respectively. Lauren was more intent on becoming popular than Patty was and would often give Patty advice on how to successfully become a part of the popular scene. Their schemes almost always failed but every once in awhile they would connect briefly with one or two of the popular kids.

In the first episode of the series Patty and Lauren befriend two offbeat misfits named Marshall Blechtman (John Femia) and Johnny “Slash” Ulasewicz (Merritt Butrick). Marshall hopes to become a successful stand-up comedian and Johnny, despite being very shy, has a band whose drummer is John Densmore, the actual drummer for The Doors, and has connections in the music scene and in the city. Both of the guys have crushes on Patty and Lauren and spend most of their time with them. Marshall bonds with some of the popular kids, in particular with Vinnie Pasetta (Jon Caliri), a popular tough guy. Johnny unintentionally becomes popular whenever it is discovered that he is a home run hitting machine. His popularity is short-lived, however, because Johnny believes that baseball is too violent with all of the hitting.

Patty and Lauren often try to impress Jennifer DiNuccio (Tracy Nelson) and her best friend, LaDonna Fredericks (Claudette Wells). Much of the time, Jennifer and LaDonna tolerate Patty and Lauren in order to achieve some type of goal. Once they get what they want, they toss Patty and Lauren aside. Vinnie is Jennifer’s boyfriend throughout the series.

Another adversary for Patty, Lauren, and pretty much everyone else is Muffy Tepperman (Jami Gertz). Muffy is a know-it-all, goody-two-shoes who heads up just about every committee and board at the school. Much like Lauren and Patty, though, she is ultimately an outsider who is trying to find a way to be popular. She and Patty duel for the affections of senior Larry Simpson (Ben Marley).

The series also featured some excellent adult cast members such as Basil Hoffman as Principal Dingleman, Craig Richard Nelson as Mr. Spacek, and Catlin Adams as Ms. Loomis. Steven Peterman portrayed the students’ favorite teacher, Mr. Donovan. Martin Mull guest starred as Dan Vermillion, host of It’s Academical, a high school game show that visits the school. Bill Murray guest starred as Mr. McNulty, a substitute teacher who, at least in my opinion, got a little too touchy-feely with a few of the students, especially Patty, as he briefly dethroned Mr. Donovan as the school’s favorite teacher. I don’t believe that his character would work as well in the 2020’s.

The series also had some amazing musical guests. Along with Densmore, the series also featured a couple of up-and-coming New Wave acts. Devo appeared as themselves in one episode. The Waitresses, perhaps best known for their song I Know What Boys Like, performed the show’s theme song and appeared as themselves in the series pilot. Appearing on the final episode of the series and almost never mentioned in articles about the series, Jimmy & The Mustangs perform at Vinnie’s party and eventually end up crashing at Johnny Slash’s house.

The show was created by Anne Beatts. Episodes were directed by a number of people, most notably Kim Friedman and Terry Hughes. It did an amazing job of portraying high school life in the early 1980’s. While most shows divide students into cliques that almost never interact, Square Pegs put students in somewhat realistic situations where the popular kids acknowledged the nerds and outcasts when they were beneficial and even sought their help on personal issues. It was a funny show that unfortunately met its demise due to the fact that drug abuse was apparently rampant on the set. The production company, fearing bad press and unable to control the situation due to the distance to the set (an actual school about twenty miles from the studio), decided to end the series before any series damage was done.

Some of the cast would go on to have very successful careers. Sarah Jessica Parker became a legitimate superstar who appeared in multiple popular films and won multiple awards for her work on Sex And The City. Tracy Nelson starred or guest starred in a number of popular television shows. She’s probably best known as Sister Stephanie in The Father Dowling Mysteries. Jami Gertz appeared in The Lost Boys, Quicksilver, Twister, and Jersey Girl and many more popular films. She has also appeared in numerous television series over the years including Still Standing and The Neighbors. Merritt Butrick had a short but successful career. He starred as David Marcus in the second and third Star Trek films and guest starred on multiple TV programs. Sadly, Butrick died of toxoplasmosis, which he suffered from due to contraction AIDS. He was only twenty-nine when he passed away.

The series has had a solid cult following since it originally left the airwaves. The series was released on DVD and can currently be streamed for free on Crackle.

I hope that you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. Were you a fan of Square Pegs? Let me know in the comments and, as always, thanks for reading my post.