This is not an abandoned blog! -or- The Adventures of Pete and Pete was the greatest kids show ever

Yes, it is still active. Shortly after moving to my place for this year in Madison I had no internet and as such began thinking of all the wonderful things I could write about in here that I couldn't at the moment. The list eventually grew so immense that I did not want to tackle it and I have actually written the beginning to a multiple part update, but today I have decided I shall begin and only have a brief amount of time before I must leave for lecture, so I am posting something else.

Now to the topic at hand. When you are used to being able to turn on a TV and view any show you want because you have cable and when you are accustomed to turning on your computer and looking up any answer on Google, a month with neither of these luxuries causes some strange things. You realize how much free time you have, and as a result plug those gaps with odd things. After doing an absurd amount of crossword puzzles, watching Dr. Phil, every show involving a judge imaginable, watching many many movies, and running around outside, I realized I still had lots of time on my hands for hanging out and doing whatever I wanted as at this point school had not started yet. While digging through my backup CDs and movies I had downloaded, I realized I had hit the jackpot. I downloaded all 3 seasons of The Adventures of Pete and Pete a long time ago and had completely forgotten about it. So, my adventure began.

I sat down and began to watch the first season, glorious memories of my younger days filling my head, and to my surprise, the shows were now just as enjoyable, actually, scratch that, they were incredibly more enjoyable than I could possibly remember. Immediately I realized how now I was finally able to fully appreciate the brilliance and bizarreness that was involved with this show. For those of you not familiar with the show, this show aired on Nickelodeon back during the golden age of teenage children's programming when Nickelodeon actually aired shows worth watching such as Rocko's Modern Life, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Ren and Stimpy. The show revolved around the two redheaded Wrigley brothers, Pete and Pete, and their experiences with family, friends, and their eccentric collection of acquaintances in their small town of Wellsville. The word "quirky" doesn't even begin to describe this show.

To begin, perhaps it is just my obsession with music, however, as I began watching the show, I realized how incredible the music was, and when I investigated further, I realized the soundtrack to the show was made up of seminal indie rock acts like The Magnetic Fields and Apples in Stereo. I was absolutely dumbfounded that the creators of a kid's show would be willing to put thought into the music instead of just rip off some crappy composition. My love for the show grew that much more and then I realized something about the show that I believe has secured it in my mind as the best kid's show, possibly show, ever to hit television. Every single item in the show was created by a fictitious corporation called "Krebstar." This leads to humorous parodies of items such as "Kreb-Flakes" cereal. It was then that I realized, besides being hilarious, the show was sticking to it's indie ideals that the soundtrack portrayed by not giving in to any corporate sponsorship or just using the show as a vehicle to pawn merchandise on to young sappy kids. You can tell that there was actually feeling and real heart put into the show. Now to blow your mind even further, the show had an incredible cast. The regular cast members were excellent, especially by child acting standards, but when you realize that there were often cameos by people such as Steve Buscemi as Ellen's dad, Iggy Pop as Nona's dad, LL Cool J as Mr. Throneberry, Janeane Garofalo, Larisa Oleynik (who went on to star in "The Secret World of Alex Mack and is dropdead gorgeous), Johnny Unitas, Sam Rockwell, Frank Gifford, Michael Stipe, John McLaughlin (a former speech writer for Presidents Nixon and Ford), Selma Blair, and ADAM WEST as principle Kent Schwinger I believe the show enters an entire universe of its own. The eclectic collection of guests should give you some idea to the extent of how absolutely unique this show was.

The first two seasons of the show are finally available on DVD, however, each costs around $20 because Nickelodeon is the one releasing the show on DVD. According to http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=4348 the third season will be coming out this February, so now you can enjoy all 3 episodes legally.

I really cannot pick favorite moments to describe or episodes to discuss, as the list would be enormous as I would start writing and feel the list would not be complete without certain scenes, and it would just continue to grow. All I can say is that every show ends with some mellow, generally instrumental, indie rock fading in, all conflicts being resolved, and leaves you with a gigantic smile and a warm fuzzy feeling you have inside, similar to the felling you get when you're done watching Love, Actually. While I am sad there are only three seasons, I feel it was a good time to end the series as I'd rather have three incredible seasons, all worth watching, rather than just droning on and hitting some very low points that make me lose interest in the show a la Simpsons. I need to go to class now, so I'm going to wrap this up.

After watching all 3 seasons within a matter of days, the only negative thing I have to say about the show is that it makes me get all nostalgiac and I begin remembering how awesome television was in my childhood, and how now every show I see for kids and teens is such complete and utter trash.

ps. Anyone that can watch the entire series and not think Ellen is the coolest girl ever needs to introduce me to the girls they know.