The Adventures of Pete and Pete

Great show. Very high-quality in writing and aged much better than other live-action 90s Nick content. I see it as sort of a spiritual predecessor to Malcolm in the Middle, Scrubs, Even Stevens, Bernie Mac Show, Lizzie McGuire, Cougar Town and The Office.

Danny & Michael came to my city to play a show. I got to hang with Big Pete for a few hours. He is kinda kinky. 🥳

Is Big Pete gay, R2?

This is the one with Michael Stipe in it, right?

It was such a hidden gem and far ahead of its time. Smart writing and sophisticated humor. You can find episodes on Youtube. Nickelodeon released the first two seasons on DVD but not the last season, even though the DVDs were pressed and packaged. It’s also nowhere to be found on streaming services.

They have a podcast called Danny & Mike and it's pretty funny. They talk about doing drugs and stuff.

Mike Maronna was really cute as a teenager, he was also in Home Alone as one of Culkin's older siblings.

Katherine Dieckmann directed some episodes of the show. She also did REM's videos for Stand and Shiny, Happy People.

I still cherish this show very fondly. It seems that Nickelodeon and MTV both went downhill in the late 90s once Viacom turned them into purely commercial enterprises shelling out manufactured garbage. Their early years of these cable networks had more of a low-budget DIY aesthetic but clearly the people running these stations were much more passionate about the content and took risks. Ren & Stimpy, Beavis and Butt-head, Liquid Television, Pete & Pete, All That, Daria, etc all aged far better than whatever these networks put out in the 2000s and beyond.

It’s got one of the best theme songs ever.

Yay!

Back then I noticed this show was different right away in the 90’s , and quickly became a fan. Sarcastic, goofy, “post-modern” humor and storytelling. Strange moments of darkness. The “kid’s show” classification is wool over the eyes.

The two leads are both separately excellent. I also always loved the bully character Endless Mike. The whole cast is great. There were often interesting cameos by people like Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson. I think Debbie Harry too?

I literally wanted to live in their bucolic, sunny neighborhood where only wacky things ever happened.

In the 00’s I bought the first two season on DVD. I was amazed how young they both looked in the first season. And I was later able to track down the “lost” third season (never released for home viewing) on bittorent.

My partner and I always watch the Halloween episode “Halloweenie” every Halloween, as a tradition. It’s one of the series best and darkest episodes!

Don’t get me started!

Yea Debbie Harry. List of cameos...

R11 That list isn’t complete. I distinctly remember Kate Pierson’s cameo in one episode. She played a blind lady.

This was my favorite show growing up. It was way ahead of its time and Nickelodeon didn’t give it the respect it deserved. I had bought the DVDs for my brother as a gift and told him that, but when they arrived, I decided to keep them for myself, lol.

R11 Adam West and Bebe Neuwirth also made appearances. And Luscious Jackson was the band for a school dance.

PITSTAIN

Toby Huss went to playing weirdos like Artie and doing Sinatra impressions on MTV to now being a really solid actor.

Toby Huss also voiced Cotton Hill

The Adventures of Pete and Pete is tied with Salute Your Shorts for my favorite all time Nickelodeon show.

Here’s the full version of the song from the opening credits.

I know it’s no Peak TV and that there is danger in nostalgia, but I wonder if those of us in the early-/mid-90s ever knew how good we had it.

Why are they both named Pete?

It was a bit over my head as a ten year old in 1995, but I remember admiring the characters, if not understanding a lot of the finer details of the plot. I thought that kid was so cool to have a bombshell-lady tattoo that "dances" (and no, DL tattoo trolls, it didn't inspire me to ink myself.)

My mother, bless her, had a brief Tipper Gore-esque conversion to prudishness in the 90s (she was a hippie in the 60s and 70s). I wasn't allowed to watch shows like Clarissa Explains it All because Clarissa was too much of a brat, and hence a "bad influence." Thankfully they realized I was smart enough to be able to differentiate real life from what I saw on the TV. Or maybe she just smoked a joint while watching Peewee's Playhouse and got over it.

Why was a kid allowed to get a tattoo?

[quote]Why was a kid allowed to get a tattoo?

Because of TikTok, Rose.

That doesn’t even make sense. Rose is supposed to be used for obvious questions. That was not an obvious question.

R21 You had to be there.

I loved that math teacher Miss Fingerwood played bass in a band. I loved her name, too!