Product Description

In THE ADVENTURES OF PETE & PETE, Pete and Pete are two redheaded brothers living in the somewhat surreal town of Wellsville. Pete, the older of the two, narrates the stories about their adventures in everyday life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3550 in DVD
• Brand: MARONNA,MICHAEL C.
• Released on: 2005-05-17
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .50 pounds
• Running time: 294 minutes

Amazon.com
Pete and Pete took an alternative rock approach to the family sitcom. In other words, this wasn't your dad's situation comedy. Is it any wonder so many alternative musicians, like Juliana Hatfield, the B-52’s Kate Pierson, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, and Blondie’s Debbie Harry flocked to the (fictional) town of Wellsville? Nor could independent film actors, like Richard Edson (Stranger Than Paradise), Martin Donovan (Saved!), and Steve Buscemi (Fargo), resist the allure of the appealingly offbeat Wrigley family.

Meet the Wrigleys: redheaded teenager Pete (Michael Maronna, Home Alone), redheaded elementary school student Pete (Danny Tamberelli, The Mighty Ducks) and his tattoo Petunia, Dad (Hardy Rawls), Mom (Judy Grafe)--and the metal plate in her head. First season cast members include Big Pete's almost-girlfriend Ellen (Alison Fanelli), Little Pete’s pal Natasha (Heather Matarazzo, Welcome to the Dollhouse), bus driver Stu (Damian Young), and Little Pete's personal superhero, Artie (Toby Huss), the strongest man in the world. Buscemi appears as Ellen’s dad in "Apocalypse Pete" and would return for another episode in the second season.

The first season followed three years of 60-second shorts. It features 12 adventures (eight regular episodes plus four specials). Highlights include "King of the Road," in which the Wrigleys battle for road trip supremacy, "Tool and Die," in which Big Pete learns not to judge a shop teacher by his cover, and "Hard Day's Pete," in which Little Pete forms the Blowholes with Syd Straw and Marshall Crenshaw. Then there's "Don't Tread on Pete," in which Little Pete utters the immortal line, "Is this guy pickin' your scabs the way he's pickin' my scabs?" The Adventures of Pete and Pete ran on Nickelodeon for three well-loved, much-missed seasons. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

a few notes
I'm not here to critique the show "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" -- I could go on for a very long time and still not convey what it, as a show, means to me. It (like another review here wonderfully stated) still holds up, even when you have had it's importance build up in your mind after years of not being able to see it. Usually, your favorite childhood shows are incredibly underwhelming after a prolonged hiatus -- but in this case, the show is actually even weirder and more sophisticated than you remember.

I'd just like to respond to the review concerning the quality (as in visual) of this DVD set.

Someone else hinted that because of the bootlegs, this set is unnecessary. The quality of the bootlegs are not any better, and in many cases worse. For this DVD set, the actual quality of the episodes is what you'd see on TV if they were re-run on Nickelodeon.

The most glaring problem occurs in the episode "Day of the Dot" (the classic Big Pete and Ellen kiss on the football field) -- a noticable and slightly annoying tape error creates a constant line of red in the upper section of the screen, and it stays that way for about five to ten minutes.

But other than that, there's really not much else to complain about.

Nickelodeon obviously didn't know how to handle this show properly; if there are any other faults noticable on these episodes, it's just how they are now. There's no way to go back and reverse the damage done to the master tapes throughout the years.

That's not to say the quality is God-awful; far from that. If you have seen the recent and much lamented Noggin re-runs, you'll know what you're getting. Neither above-average or below-average quality, just good enough.

So leave quality out of your mind when you purchase -- these episodes look just fine, and we should be thankful that they are finally available. Buying this set may also help the future of other Nickeloden DVD releases (I personally would love some "You Can't Do That on Television") and more seasons of this classic show on DVD.

Final edit: the commentary tracks for this DVD set are from co-creators Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi and director Katherine Dieckmann on the episodes "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation," "Day of the Dot" and "The Nightcrawlers." Also of note is the Polaris music station, which features seven songs that can also be found on the Polaris CD (aptly titled "Music From The Adventures of Pete & Pete").

A++++ for quality ingredients, C for presentation
Imagine a scene sometime in the not-too-distant future when you are consuming snackables and watching DVDs with a friend.

"What are we watching now?" your friend asks.

"The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Season One. Only one of the best sitcoms of all time. A show that could get you misty-eyed over a man who lives in a portajohn. A show that introduced me to the meaning of love through Ellen Hickle, blessed be her name."

"How come I've never heard of it?"

"Bite my scab, blowhole!" you say, as you insert disc two because that's where they put two of the shorts that precede the series proper, selected apparently at random from the sixteen that were produced. Your friend asks why they did that, and you explain that, according to legend, a Paramount Home Video employee once suggested that they include *all* of the shorts on the Season One set, or at least maybe, say, the *first* two shorts, or all five of the specials instead of four of them, but that employee was summarily fired and escorted from the office by armed guards. Then you tell your friend to quit asking so many questions as you skip past the Lemony Snicket trailer for the one millionth time.

The only childhood show that's as good as you remember
For the uninitiated, Pete and Pete was a surreal show about two strange brothers in an even stranger town. Think "Twin Peaks" for the elementary school-junior high crowd.

The show is silly and bizarre, but in a "Cartoon Network Adult Swim" or Will Ferrell way (demented to the point of nearly not being for children), not in the way newer Nick programming like "All That" is (kids acting like idiots and talking loudly).

Most of the best bits come from the neighborhood superhero Artie "the strongest man... IN THE WORLD!", who either has powers beyond our comprehension, or is a skinny, deranged lunatic who thinks he does.

Upon reviewing the shows of your youth, you usually find the animation/acting or the stories to be weak, or the jokes to be nowhere near as funny as you remember. Pete and Pete is the exception to the rule.