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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 11292
Released: May 20, 2008 |
| Our Price: $14.34 |
| Used Price: $11.99 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Square Pegs follows the hilarious misadventures of Patty (Sarah Jessica Parker, TV's Sex and the City) and Lauren (Amy Linker), two freshmen girls desperate to fit in at Weemawee High School. Befriended by oddball characters Marshall (John Femia), a budding comedian, and Johnny Slash (Merritt Butrick), a wacky new-waver, Patty and Lauren still hope to impress the popular kids: valley girl Jennifer (Tracy Nelson), her tough boyfriend Vinnie (Jon Caliri), and their sassy friend LaDonna (Claudette Wells). And it would "behoove us" to not forget Muffy (Jami Gertz), the ever-peppy preppie!
Description of Square Pegs - The Complete Series:
Square Pegs was in a class by itself, but much like brainy, bespectacled Patty (Sarah Jessica Parker) and pushy, overweight Lauren (Amy Linker), popularity eluded this late, lamented series, which was expelled from prime time after one season. Rarely seen in syndication, its cult cachet has only increased with time (enhanced by Parker’s extreme makeover into Sex and the City’s trend-setting Carrie Bradshaw). In the words of peppy, preppy Muffy Tepperman (a spirited Jami Gertz in her own career-launching role), it behooves us to report that the series lives up to its rep as a smart and hip alternative to what creator Anne Beatts (in one of the newly filmed interviews with the show’s creators and cast included on each disc) calls "processed cheese television" of the day. Square Pegs was a totally different head; totally. Anticipating 16 Candles and Freaks and Geeks, Square Pegs viewed high school from the perspective of the bottom of the high-school social food chain. Patty and Lauren are freshmen at Weemawee High School. Lauren has it "all psyched out": If the girls can click with the right clique, they will at last have "a social life that’s worthy of us." Alas, it is not to be. The girls instantly run afoul of the school’s reigning Mean Girl, Jennifer (Tracy Nelson), her bad boy boyfriend, Vinnie (Jon Caliri), and her sassy best friend, LaDonna (Claudette Welles). "La Donna doesn’t like anything I do," Patty wails, "and I don’t do anything." They are also treated with disdain by Muffy, who seems to have the run of the school to rally students around sponsoring a "Guatemalan child" (they need swimwear, too). Patty and Lauren reluctantly bond with fellow square peggers Marshall Blechtman (John Fernia), an aspiring comedian always ready with a <>Saturday Night Live or Monty Python reference, and the "laid back and left back" Johnny Slash (the late Merritt Butrick), who’s New Wave, and not punk. (New Wave, he explains, is "a totally different head; totally").
Each episode brings some new fresh hell for Patty and Lauren, but also some hope that their fortunes will somehow change and their stock will rise (in the pilot episode, Patty impresses a "stone fox" upperclassman, and in another, she's Vinnie's leading lady in the Chorus Line-inspired school musical, "A Cafeteria Line"). Until then, cup size may trump IQ, but friendship will trump popularity. Weemawee High School appears to be based in New York, but everything else about the show is totally Los Angeles, from, like, Jennifer’s Valley Girl-speak to an appearance in one episode by Steve Sax and the Dodgers. The laugh track is as lame and half-hearted as the one employed by SCTV, but the show’s left of center spirit shines through. Two standout episodes feature, respectively, Bill Murray (Beatts’ former National Lampoon and <>SNL colleague) as an unorthodox substitute teacher, and Devo, who performs at Muffy’s New Wave Bat Mitzvah. And that’s Wally Cleaver himself, Tony Dow, as Patty’s estranged divorced father in what passes as a Very Special two-part holiday episode. Square Pegs is totally '80s (in one episode, Marshall's Pac-Man addiction can only be cured by an intervention by Don Novello’s Father Guido Sarducci), but the Waitress’s indelible theme song ("I’d like it if they like us/But I don’t think they like us") sets just the right pathetic/persevering tone that will resonate for a new generation for whom "one size does not fit all." --Donald Liebenson
Square Pegs - The Complete Series Reviews:
Moments of Brilliance, but inconsistant 
2009-11-05 - With the creative team behind the ORIGINAL Saturday Night Live, this charming often witty show came out. Having to break the network enforced conventions, like a pathetic laugh track through the first 3/4 of the series, not to mention hammy overacting and cliche characters, there are some true genius moments in several of the episodes. The "glasses" speech in the second episode is one of the heaviest darkest things ever on network TV, and the Bill Murray episode is wonderful. The problem with so many writers and so little time, makes it hard to be consistent, and the quality definitely slacked near the end of the series. But I'm holding it against NON Teen shows, and that's really not fair. In the category the show was in, it by FAR outshines the garbage released now for teens. From the 90's on, horribly written, manufactured, unfunny shows with NOTHING to say like Saved By The Bell and California Dreams put Square Pegs on a Citizen Kane level.
Those who know, know. 
2009-07-11 - "Square Pegs" is a true cult show. It was an immediate hit that fizzled by its fourth episode, leaving behind rumors of questionable activities on the set and a devoted group of fans who still know the show's theme song by heart and grin when they hear someone say "It behooves me..." As a new wave fan when the show came out I was drawn to it's quirkiness and celebration of geekhood. My wife was the same age as the show's characters when it came out and was likewise a fan, and our mutual love for the show was a bonding experience for us when we were dating. It was said this would never come out on DVD, so I was pleased to see that it did last year. The show is very dated and timeless at the same time, as cliques and self-consciousness will always be a part of school life. The show was supposedly influential on several of the teen-oriented films that would appear a few years later and feature a couple of Square Pegs' stars. It is comical to see how no attempt at realism is made for production numbers or situations, and the running gags (Guatemalan child in need, tge girls' schemes, etc.) are funny. It's nothing deep or even enduring, but it will bring a smile to you and it wears better thsan you might think. And the theme song is still a classic.
DVD not received. 
2009-06-10 - I ordered the DVD on 5/9/09 and still have not received it. I emailed to see when I should expect to receive it and they said it could take several weeks. The seller should contact the customer to let them know if the shipment will be delayed.
Even better than I remembered! 
2009-04-09 - I really had some low expectations as many things I loved when I was little aren't as good as I remember, but this show was better than I remembered! I get some humour I simply did not understand when I watched this show as an eight year-old back in 1982-83. Reading other reviews, apparently, some of the original music is missing, but I didn't notice. The extra interviews with cast members is also worth watching.
Totally Different Head, Totally!
2008-11-11 - So they did strip out the songs, but they couldn't kill Devo and the Waitresses on camera. And the inhabitants of Weemawee High are as funny and moving as always. Check out the glam SJP in the interesting yet sparse DVD extras. Maybe IQ does trump cup size after all!
