Adventures of Pete & Pete - Season 1

Rating: NR

Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment

Release Date: May 24, 2005
Review posted: May 31, 2005

Reviewed by Keith Helinski

SYNOPSIS

Nickelodeon:

I was glued to Nick during the early 90s.  It was a huge influence to the childhood pop culture of the 90s.  If it wasn’t the live-action shows, it was the toons.  It was essentially the direct opposite of Disney when it came to normalcy.  You saw straightforward Mickey Mouse on Disney, you would see abnormal Ren and Stimpy on Nick.

I remember such shows like Pete and Pete, Clarissa Explains It All, Wild and Crazy Kids, Double Dare, Alex Mack, Doug, early Rugrats, Roundhouse, Eureeka's Castle, What Would you Do, Are you afraid of the Dark, Fifteen, Pinwheel, Welcome Freshmen, and my two personal favorites; Salute Your Shorts and Hey Dude. 

The “Rewind Collection” has been a long time coming.  Just do a search engine on the Internet.  The classic Nick shows has been the most requested shows to finally debut in DVD-land.  Many petitions out there hint this (and I must confess, I did sign the Shorts-to-DVD petition). 

Nick pretty much appealed to children and pre-teens.  That really hasn’t change after little over a decade.  While I lost interest by the mid/late 90s, it’s still very popular to this day.  Can’t go a day without hearing about Sponge Bob.  Nick pretty much launched the career of Amanda Bynes.  And Nick also launched Nick at Nite a while ago, which evolved into its own network called TV Land.  And despite the fact that the shows I remember aren’t around anymore, pretty much is repetitious when it comes to new TV shows.   I mean, when I saw All That when it first aired mid-90s, I thought to myself it was no different than Roundhouse, just a little more hipper.

Basically, before The WB, TGIF, and Fox Network – Nick was the family programming that ruled the TVs across the Nation.

There is a great site designed to better explain the classic Nick era and the shows presented in that short era for those that aren’t too familiar with it.

http://www.johnnorrisbrown.com/classic-nick/

Pete & Pete:

While I do vividly remember Pete & Pete (which was a huge show back then), I wasn’t much into it.   Maybe because at the time, I didn’t get the humor, or just thought it was stupid.  Whatever the reason was, I just wasn’t big on Pete and Pete. 

Watching the entire first season for the very first time since long ago, I now know why I never liked it.  Two reasons.  I am sorry to say it was damn smart for my taste.  Now days, I look for things within satire subtext.  From Shrek to Gilmore Girls, I can find satire about something in almost anything.  I wasn’t that open back then as a kid.  So I missed the dark humor it presented for suburbia Middle America. 

And there was another reason why I never got into the show, a character that goes by the name Artie.  I always hated this guy when he appeared.  I guess even then, I thought it was beyond over-the-top and stupid.  That thought hasn’t changed much.  The show would have been ten times better without this guy.  This guy consists of pretty much the role of the “village-idiot”.  In fact, if anyone that is reading this follows Gilmore Girls, think of a more pathetic version of Kirk.  Artie is suppose to be “the strongest man in the world”, and yet, he isn’t strong enough to beat the living crap out of a bowling ball.  That’s awful if you asked me.  And while this guy is supposed to be “the strongest man in the world”, the guy truly looks like a total wimp. 

Whenever we see Artie, expect horrible acting and present the show to hit mediocre rock bottom.  That’s how I see it. There is probably some huge/massive profound inner subtle behind Artie.  I simply fail to see it just on how completely awful he presents to the show.  And I ask you – in today’s society where we are seeing right in front of us, the trail of Michael Jackson, who is accused of sleeping with little boys, would you like a creepy man in a tight red outfit hanging around with your children?  I know it’s not the point of the show – and I am obviously taking things out of context to what they are.  But still – Artie is a creepy character and I just can’t get past that. 

Besides Artie, the show really isn’t that bad.  Has the cliché family/teen drama intertwine with the comical kiddy humor in a very unique matter.  This is the live-action version of Ren & Stimpy.  It’s very different to the norms of family TV.  Maybe that’s one reason why it had such a huge following.  The dark humor consists of little tidbits in everyday kid life, exploited comically within the show.  And through the narrative of older brother Pete, it really has much more greatness to what I thought when I was a kid.  I mean – there are lots of similarities to this and perhaps, The Simpsons or even Married With Children.  The humor is very much directed to kids – but also has a maturity level where even pre-teens and young adults can get. 

It’s a shame that damn Artie has to ruin the shining greatness the show provides.

THE VIDEO

Paramount Home Video presents the first season of The Adventures of Pete & Pete in fullscreen format.  On one hand, I could say as a critic that the quality in short, sucks.  It pretty much dates the show well, little over a decade old.  Looks as if it came directly from an old beat up videocassette tape.  In fact, during the episode “Day of the Dot”, there is a red line presented mid-half for almost five minutes to the center of the picture.  Only could mean it was from wear of the tape – which was never taken off during the transfer.  So I could simply say, Paramount was lazy during the transfer and just didn’t care.

But on the other hand, I am 50/50 about that.  On most circumstances, I would be discouraged over quality like this.  But this is an exception.  We are talking about a cult huge show from the early 90s.  Why would anyone remaster it as if it is Star Wars?  The quality certainly does date the show well.  As I was watching the show, I felt like I was brought back to the 90s.  Not just the nostalgic-ness of remembering the show – but just the feel of the 90s with the way the presentation looks.  I am glad they didn’t fart around with the quality.  It’s like a time capsule to 1993 during my childhood. 

Paramount Home Video presents the first season of The Adventures of Pete & Pete in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.  Much like the picture quality looking like something from the 90s, the sound quality isn’t much different.  The music is probably the best quality when it comes to sound.  Before The WB thought about getting the alternative rock moment to join forces with the programming of the shows and including their songs in the shows, Pete and Pete was one of the first to do that.  With the band “Polaris” (sort of a grudge-band feel to their brand of music, think Sponge meets Candlebox) as a Pete and Pete anthem, it really blends the music together with the show’s vibe.  And despite how lacking the sound quality is, the music is the pride in joy to the set. 

Audio Commentaries with the director and co-creators

On a few episodes, there is a commentary track with the creators and director.  Gives much needed depth on such a crazy show.  But it’s in any remote sense not entertaining by a long shot.  I think once again, to make a perfect commentary track involving a TV show, must look to the Everwood First season commentary tracks that involved the stars, writers, creators, producers, and directors talking about ALL the aspects of the show.  And ideally, it would have been nice to hear the two guys that played the Pete’s, together again after all these years.

And not to be too critical, but since this is a “REWIND COLLECTION” title, shouldn’t there be some sort of “retrospective featurette”?

Polaris Music Station: Songs from "The Adventures of Pete & Pete"

Much like the series, this is a very unique feature.  Not explaining a whole lot about it, it’s a feature where you get to hear the various songs done by the band; very original on adding this to the set.  Especially when much and bands has been such a hot-issue these days when it comes to DVDS and TV shows.

VERDICT: RENT IT

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