Happily Heading Back to School With ‘Square Pegs’
By JEN CHANEY
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
“Square Pegs” was a TV show about nerds. But when it debuted in 1982, it immediately emerged as one of the hippest things on primetime TV.
The comedy about two unpopular high schoolers scheming their way up the social ladder was a rarity among adolescent series: It was honest, unconventional, infused with modern-rock music and filled with pop culture references. Shot in single-camera format and featuring offbeat humor crafted by a largely female writing staff, “Square Pegs” can be seen in retrospect as a pioneer, paving the way for later left-of-center teen fare like “Freaks and Geeks” and “My So-Called Life.” Of course at the time, CBS didn’t see it that way, which is why — like “Freaks” and “Life” — it was canceled after its first season.
Now the ’80s classic, starring a young, bespectacled Sarah Jessica Parker before she blossomed into the glam Carrie Bradshaw, comes to DVD on May 20 ($29.99) ready to be revisited by anyone who fondly remembers listening to a Walkman, talking like a Valley Girl and loving the “Square Pegs” theme song by the Waitresses. Yes, as smart as “Square Pegs” remains, its charms will be most thoroughly appreciated by children of the ’80s. I mean, one of the episodes is called “Pac-Man Fever.” Another features a performance by the band Devo, who appears at preppy Muffy Tepperman’s New Wave bat mitzvah. If you never spiked your hair or wore legwarmers, the sheer genius of such plot developments may be lost on you.