1. General information
2. Pete and Pete on video
3. Pete and Pete shorts and history
4. Pete and Pete music
5. Cast and crew
6. Contacts
1.1. What is The Adventures of Pete and Pete?
It's a television show about two brothers, both named Pete, and their friends, family and everyday struggles in the town of Wellsville. Their friends number a personal super hero who just so happens to be the world's strongest man, their Mom has a metal plate in her head and their everyday struggles include a titanic battle against an evil bowling ball, a nation wide quest for a mystical ice cream man and a twelve day sleep deprivation exercise performed in order to undermine the power of the International Adult Conspiracy.
The show contained groundbreaking humour, which often bordered on the surreal, a long list of famous guest stars (including Iggy Pop, Michael Stipe, Steve Buscemi) and a fantastic alternative soundtrack. All of this combined to make one of the funniest and most offbeat shows of the generation.
1.2. When did Pete and Pete originally air?
Series one (as a whole) was aired in 1993, series two 1994 and series three 1995. The show was cancelled after the third series.
1.3. When is Pete and Pete shown?
Unfortunately, quite rarely now. It was, and is from time to time, shown on the Nickelodeon television channel. They sometimes rerun it during school holidays or at other random times. Check your local television listings to see if its currently airing.
1.4. How many episodes of Pete and Pete are there?
In total, thirty six full length ones. Twelve for each of the three series. Also, numerous "shorts" were filmed.
1.5. Why was the show cancelled?
Numerous reasons have been mentioned by various sources associated with Pete and Pete and Nickelodeon. The most common explanation is that characters, in particular the Petes, were getting too old. The show was originally about two kids trying to get to grips with the world. By the end of the third series, it may be that the show producers thought the two central characters had grown up too much and couldn't continue to successfully play their parts. Also, it was said that some central cast and crew members wanted to move onto other projects.
However, the Will McRobb (co-creator and
executive producer of the show) version of events says:
"It's complicated, but basically, Nickelodeon didn't
try very hard to bring the show back. When they finally got round to it, Chris
and I had moved onto other projects."
To me, it seems Nick's target audience may have been a little too young to understand Pete and Pete. The station's biggest draws at the time of airing were shows like Clarissa Explains It All and the Secret World of Alex Mack. On our old message board, many regular Nick viewers described the show as "stupid" or "dumb" and it's for these kind of reasons Nick may have dragged it's feet in commissioning a fourth series. If it were aired on the right channel at the right time it could have been a runaway success. Just look at Malcolm In The Middle.
"Think of the show as being like Artie the Strongest Man in the World. It has to leave, but the friendship will last forever" - Will McRobb
1.6. Was a follow up ever on the cards?
For a while, a follow up was rumoured but nothing ever happened and at the time of writing it has been six years since the show stopped. It is safe to assume we've seen the end of Pete and Pete.
1.7. What about the rumoured Pete and Pete film?
In 2000, the film Snow Day came out written by McRobb and Viscardi. This is rumoured to have been originally intended as a Pete and Pete film, but the characters had to be changed when the series finished (Pete and Pete becoming Natalie and Hal). Pete and Pete guest stars Iggy Pop and Chris Elliot feature and there are characters called Bill Korn and Wayne. Other elements of the film remain faithful to the show too. However, it has obviously been subjected to a corporate dumbing down and as a result, its a pretty disappointing affair. It's still worth seeing though, if you're a Pete and Pete fan, if only for Damien Young (Bus Driver Stu's) performance as the school principle.
1.8. Have there ever been any other shows like Pete and Pete?
A few. McRobb and Viscardi have done a number of shorts ("The Space Between Mr Frears Ears" and one about a school bus of which I've forgotten the name) and some pilots which were never picked up. Some shows did make it though, like "Kablam!" a comic book like show which featured various short films featuring a host of different characters such as McRobb and Viscardi's brilliant Action Force Now. This was also a Nick production. As far as unassociated shows go, there's the original Eerie Indiana from a few years back. This was very similar in style and humour as is Malcolm in the Middle, a more grown-up based version of Pete and Pete. In both, the parallels are striking.
1.9. What happened to "Sick Day"? Why have I never seen it?
In Britain, Nickelodeon received complaints about the subject of the episode with some parents claiming it encouraged children to skip school. As a result the episode was pulled from the schedule and to the best of my knowledge has never been reinstated. Kind of stupid really, as shortly after it was removed from TV, shows like Sister Sister and Kenan and Kel began running similar storylines. Pete and Pete was never meant to be taken seriously (unlike some other shows), hence storylines about looking for martians with odd scabs and a love of Johnny Unitas. And the moral of Sick Day is that playing truant is bad.
2.1. Where can I get Pete and Pete episodes on video?
There were three official videos released - "Classic Petes", "School Dazed" and "Farewell, My Little Viking". Unfortunately, these are now out of print. If you look hard enough you may be able to find the odd copy lying around some stores, and apparently they are occasionally auctioned off over the internet at sites such as Ebay. Also, you can try the fan trading section of our site.
2.2. Can you get us copies of various episodes on tape?
No. This is the question we are asked the most frequently. Unfortunately it's just not physically or (probably) legally possible. For one thing, we don't have the capabilities, and for another, we're based in Britian and most requests are from America. Even if we could copy the tapes, they would not work on American VHS machines.
3.1. What are the Pete and Pete "shorts"?
The show originally started out as filler material to be aired between other shows to fill in a gap where nothing else had been scheduled. They were approximately half a minute to two minutes long and follow a similar albeit much shortened format to the full length episodes.
3.2. Where can I see the shorts?
Very occasionally, Nickelodeon will reuse them in some countries, but we haven't seen or heard of this for a number of years. Other than these rare sporadic appearances, you are unlikely to see them, which is a great shame as they really were very, good - the perfect introduction to life in Wellsville.
There are some videos which contain them, but these have been out of print for some time and are very rare. There is one short on the "Farewell My Little Vikings" Pete and Pete video, and three each on the "Nick Snicks Family" and "Nick Snicks friends" Nickelodeon videos. These also contained episodes of other classic Nickelodeon shows and are equally hard to track down. We managed to get one or two on tape straight off the television and we might try and see if we can convert them to downloadable format. I doubt the show creators would mind as there is virtually no other way people will get to see them now.
3.3. How many shorts are there?
Good question. One source we have come across says there are thirteen. However we've seen at least one short that they didn't mention. The most precise answer we can come up with is that there are at least fourteen.
3.4. Were there any other different kinds of episodes?
The videos contained some exclusive mini episodes. These were slightly longer than the shorts. "Classic Petes" had "The Artie Workout" and "School Dazed" had "Staring contest". The latter came with a free magic motion eyeball card to test your staring powers (whereas Classic Petes came with a Petunia tattoo). The third video "Farewell, My Little Vikings" had one of the original shorts all about Artie on it.
3.5. Why did it make a transition to full length episodes?
The shorts were a hit as soon as they were aired. Pete and Pete's creators, Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi were then asked to do a special longer episode. The result of this was "The Valentine's Day Massacre", which was shown on February the ninth, tenth and fourteenth in 1991. Again, this proved a hit so four other specials were made ("What we did on our Summer Vacation", "Day of the Dot", "Apocalypse Pete" and "New Years Pete") over the next two years. McRobb and Viscardi were then commissioned to make a whole series. Seven new episodes were filmed and the five episodes that had already been made were edited, to include details like the new music score, and shown as part of series one.
4.1. Who did the music for Pete and Pete
This is the second most asked question that we receive. Numerous bands contributed to the show, but the house band, the band that played the music for the opening credits, provided many other songs for the show and is the one everybody wants to know about is Polaris. Will McRobb was a big fan of Connecticut band Miracle Legion and asked if they'd score the show. They did, but as they were missing a band member they changed their name to Polaris. The three members even gave themselves screen names, becoming Jersey (bass), Muggy (Guitar and vocals) and Harriss (drums).
4.2. Is there a Pete and Pete CD?
Originally, a three track tape was given away in a Kelloggs promotion while the show was still running and it became a Holy Grail for fans of the show. Then, after a long period of intense rumour and anticipation, Polaris released a CD entitled "Music from the Adventures of Pete and Pete" in 1999, four years after the show ended when all copyright questions had been answered. It was released on Muggy's own label, the Mezzotint imprint, and is available from there. It contains all the tracks you know and love and no self respecting Pete and Pete/music fan should be without it.
4.3. Are Polaris or Miracle Legion still togethor?
Unfortunately not. Miracle Legion released their last CD, "Portrait of a Damaged Family" in 1996. Their most successful album was 1992's Drenched. Polaris only released the one album and never toured as under their stage name. Mark Mulcahy is now a solo artist (with two albums out at the time of writing) and the other two members, Dave McCaffrey (Jersey) and Scott Boutier (Harriss) have joined Frank Black (formerly leader of one of the world's most inspirational bands The Pixies) and are now part of his band; Frank Black and the Catholics.
4.4. Where can I find out about releases from other bands who appeared on the show?
We have a section of the site dedicated to the show's music. To find CDs buy those artists, try searching at Amazon.
5.1 What have the cast and crew been up to since the show finished
We tried to keep track of what everyone was up to but it became difficult and the page kept getting out of date. The best way of checking what other members have done before and since is to look at the Internet Movie Database.
5.2. Do you have any email addresses or any way of contacting the shows stars.
Occasionally we do, although sometimes our addresses get out of date and become redundant. If we do have email addresses they'll be mentioned on the relevant sections on the site. If you don't happen to come across a certain contact address, then I'm afraid we don't have it and can't help.
6.1. Is there anyway I can contact Nickelodeon or the makers of Pete and Pete.
Yep. You can use the following address to get in touch with both parties
Nickelodeon Viewers Service,
37th Floor,
1515 Broadway,
New York, NY 10036.
6.2. I have some other questions that haven't been answered on here. Can you help?
Write to us at the following
address: