The Adventures of Pete & Pete is the best live action kids T.V. show...ever! It is the surreal story of small town America through the eyes of the brothers Pete Wrigleys...yes, both of them are named Pete. Big Pete is the voice of reason...usually and Little Pete is the anarchic voice of chaos...and he has two tattoos.
I of course did not watch 'Pete & Pete' as a kid...I was 20 when it started and I had just graduated from FIDM and had moved back home. I remember watching over the summer and that's what it reminded me of...the lost summers of youth. But 'Pete & Pete' was like a memory, surreal and a bit weird and how you wanted your childhood to be like but wasn't actually like.
Adults were like another race or aliens. They were usually weirder than the kids. The Wrigley brothers' Mom had a metal plate in her head that could pick up radio signals and even got it's own opening credit. And then there's Artie 'The Strongest Man in the World', Little Pete's best friend and superhero.
'Pete & Pete' was the most indie show on T.V. not only was Iggy Pop on it, so was Kate Pierson from the B-52', Juliana Hatfield, Syd Straw form the Golden Palominos, Michael Stipe, Debbie Harry, Luscious Jackson and Gordon Gano from the Violent Femmes. Also on 'Pete & Pete' were some of our great indie actors; Steve Buscemi, Martin Donovan, Janeane Garofalo, Ann Magnuson, Bebe Neuwirth the list is long and revered.
The Pete's world was somewhere we all wanted to visit...if not live in. It was an escape from our boring lives but also a reminder of how some of the shenanigans we got up to as a kid; staying up all night, a trip to the seaside, trying to remember that song you only heard once, were at the time the biggest most important adventures of our lives!
