Zero in condotta

SQUARE PEGS was the hippest teen show of the time. Great writing, funny characters, tubular new-wave music and fashions--what was not to like? Something, because the show vanished after one or two seasons. An early vehicle for Sarah Jessica Parker that seems to have garnered a cult following and much acclaim at the time(ROLLING STONE did an article on the show and creator Ann Beatts), it has since slipped into oblivion. Historically, TV shows about teen and high school life have short runs, but why couldn't Nick At Nite do a Teen Weekend or something, run SQUARE PEGS and all the other great teen shows like JAMES AT 15, THE BRONX ZOO, THE MARSHALL CHRONICLES AND FREAKS AND GEEKS, along with old school shows like ROOM 222 and DOBIE GILLIS.

I loved this show and remember it fondly. "Square Pegs" introduced Sarah Jessica Parker(FOOTLOOSE, SEX IN THE CITY), Jamie Gertz(QUICKSILVER, LOST BOYS, LESS THAN ZERO), and Tracie Nelson(DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS, FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES) to the world and make stars of them. Unfortunately the show got cancelled after only a year. TV Guide had a cover story a few years later about how drugs and money had killed the show. Well that's Hollywood for you.

This is probably the first show about High School that featured teenagers as the leads. Played by actual teenager actors, not twentysomethings. The show was conceived by Anne Beatts, a writer from "Saturday Night Live". The writing was top notch and the actors were funny and real. It's a classic show! Luckily I have 6 episodes saved on Video but it won't last forever. I want it on DVD please!!!!

PS: Another great show of High School life in the 80's was "Fast Times". Does anybody remember that one or was I the only one watching it. That show died after 7 episodes.

This quirky high school comedy was very popular with the handful who saw it.

Oddly, I always found Jami Gertz to be strangely attractive here as Muffy Tepperman, the quintessential self-centred, bitchy, asinine, somewhat vacuous prima donna of a Jewish princess.

Merritt Butrick played Johnny Slash, the non-conformist anti-hero. We were all very much surprised to see him pop up as Captain Kirk's clean-cut son in "The Wrath of Khan". An incredible transformation that was.

This one always had a good ensemble feel. All of the characters had an appealing screwiness to them which, subjectively, made this show the most realistic high school programme of its day, in its own peculiar way.

Sort of a "Northern Exposure" for the misfit adolescent crowd.

Patty Greene (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Lauren Hutchinson (Amy Linker) are high school freshmen best friends. They are desperate to be popular. Jennifer DiNuccio (Tracy Nelson) and Vinnie Pasetta (Jon Caliri) are the hot couple. With LaDonna Fredericks (Claudette Wells), they are the popular crowd. Muffy Tepperman (Jami Gertz) is the type A student leader. Instead of any of them, Patty and Lauren make friends with weird outsiders, Johnny Slash (Merritt Butrick) and Marshall Blechtman (John Femia).

The pilot suggests something closer to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It turns more towards a broad 80's teen show with some big issues sprinkled in. The laugh track gets used more. The characters become more broad. I still really like this group. The best moment is the hot janitor not recognizing Lauren. That is a pure universal teenager moment. There is some great music starting with The Waitresses. Bill Murray tries to gin up one episode late in the season. He's probably a friend of creator Anne Beatts. The last minute effort didn't work and the show was canceled after one season.

I remember being in 7th grade when this show came out and I felt like I've got a glimpse of high school for me with these characters. I loved it and I was so mad when CBS cancelled it after 1 season. I felt like I could relate to these characters and said that I will probably run into these kind of students when I would get into high school. But this show did it for me with the scripts they had and I did pick out my favorite episode was when Muffy (Jami Gertz, who was amazingly beautiful and one of the funniest) had a party and did not want to invite Patty and her gang and the plot in the script worked out very well. I also like the one when Marshall bought a love detector and try to enter it in the science fair and try to prove to Lauren that she was in love with him and it turned out to cause a chaos in school. It was a wonderful show for me to watch and my favorite was Vinnie Pasetta (Jon Caliri) who was the Italian stallion going out with the empty head stuck up popular Valley Girl, Jennifer, which I was hoping he dumped her for Patty when they were casted in the high school play, which I thought that would of been the kiss of death for the character, Jennifer and the show itself. But this is one show I really enjoyed as a teenager and as of this day I was so sorry it lasted for only one season. I have the episode on video for the last 12 years when USA network showed them so that is a collectors item for me.