"Let the substitution begin!"
The
Story
Mistakes, points of interest and cross references
Krebstar sightings
Special guest stars
The people behind X=Why?
At school, everyone has one particular lesson that feels about as useful as a bucket of warm spit. For Ellen, this lesson is algebra. While others are prepared to go to any means in order to complete the waste of time that is Miss Fingerwood's algebra class (especially Teddy Forseman), one day, Ellen decides that enough is enough and asks the question that students have wandered ever since algebra began. Why? With this single word, Ellen's classroom revolution begins as Miss Fingerwood stumped. Sure, it may have helped her guess the temperature of muddy rivers, but when it's easier to just use a thermometer, why must people learn algebra word problems? Miss Fingerwood has no practical answer and now she knows just how valuable algebra really is, her world is shattered. She decides to resign from her job and after a brief visit to Phil Hickle (Ellen's Dad) who is the schools careers adviser, she disappears from Wellsville school and begins a downward spiral of meaningless jobs, starting with that of a bingo announcer.
At first, the other teachers aren't worried and begin deploying the substitute teachers, starting with Mr. Zank, but he too is soon busted by Ellen. Little Pete hears of the classroom take down and begins his reign of terror on the teachers (as they hold positions of high power in the International Adult Conspiracy). Eventually the teachers begin to get increasingly worried as one by one all the substitute teachers are eliminated - even Mr Shreck with his evil persuasive singing powers.
Meanwhile, Miss Fingerwood's obsession with the numbers she announces at the Bingo hall are starting to put off all the potential bingo players - rather than simply reading out the number she gives a long winded explanation of the mathematical function of all of them. Soon, there is no one left playing bingo and Miss Fingerwood has to find a new job again. This time, she gets the post of ticket conductor for the 99 cents matinee. Back at the school, the teachers are on the brink of nervous breakdowns as Little Pete has them all running scared.With all the substitutes gone, Phil Hickle takes over algebra class, but Ellen is as merciless as ever and Phil doesn't even last a minute in the class room. It seems Ellen had won. But before Ellen is allowed to enjoy her victory, Pete wants her to see what she had reduced the first casualty too, and takes her to see Miss Fingerwood.
However, when they get to the 99 cents matinee, Fingerwood has gone and the only clue as to her whereabouts is written on the back of some Kreb Duds in the form of a deadly algebra word problem. Ellen's only chance of finding her and stopping her leaving Wellsville for good is to decipher the problem and with the help of Pete and her Dad, she gets to work, eventually working it out and stopping Miss Fingerwood at the train station in the nick of time. Ellen and Miss Fingerwood realise the use of word problems and Miss Fingerwood comes back to school, teaching environmentally friendly algebra problems (while Teddy is still going to extreme measures to work them out) while Little Pete suspends his reign of terror.... for now.
Mistakes and points of interest in this Episode
- The cookery teacher in the staff room is played by none other than Toby Huss, better known as Artie, the strongest man....in the world!
- Mr. Shreck's "X is the number of pigs in a barn" is the same as the song "Jericho" (by The Monkees among others) with different lyrics.
- When on the train at the beginning of the episode, Teddy sits next to Mrs Richter the fat substitute teacher who wipes her face all over the blackboard.
- Teddy's train is going to Lodi, a real town near South Orange, NJ, where Pete and Pete is filmed for the most part of series one and two.
- When Ellen is circling the Y in her book, it's not actually her hand (or if it is, the directors instructed her to hold her pen differently) as the hand which does this holds the pen in a distinctively different manner.
- The cookery teacher puts the cake stencil in the pastry about fifteen times but on the close up, only about six shapes have been cut.
- "Pup Fiction" is on at the 99 cents matinee. This is obviously a copy of "Pulp Fiction", a film in which Steve Buscemi (who stars in this episode as Phil Hickle) had a small part which aired about the same time.
- When Pete and Ellen go to stop Miss Fingerwood leaving town, Little Pete can be seen in the background, mysteriously just sitting there and watching them.
Krebtrack train company
Krebstar 2000 Walkie Talkie
Kreb Duds - milk chocolate covered candy.
Steve Buscemi: Steve plays Phil Hickle, Ellen's dad. Since starring in Reservoir Dogs in 1991 he has shot to fame appearing in many critically acclaimed movies such as "Fargo" and the "Big Lebowski ". He is now a major movie star.
Syd Straw: Appearing in quite a few Pete and Pete episodes as Miss Fingerwood, Syd is a singer.
Janeane Garofolo: Janeane plays literature teacher Ms. Brackett in this episode She is an american stand up comic who has also appeared in many movies.
| Ellen Hickle - Alison Fanelli | Big Pete - Mike Maronna |
| Little Pete - Danny Tamberelli | Teddy Foresman - Dave Martel |
| Phil Hickle - Steve Buscemi | Miss Fingerwood - Syd Straw |
| Ms. Brackett - Janeane Garofolo | |
| Written by - Katherine Dieckmann |
"Let's motivate!"