Happy Summer! Pete & Pete Tackle Freedom and the American Way

I promised I would do reviews of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and I am delivering! If you remember my previous post about this beloved Nickelodeon show, or are a fan of my Slushenminer pin shop on Etsy, you know that I am a big fan of the brothers Pete. It's a show that still makes me laugh, and we all need more laughter in our lives right now.

In audio commentary on the Season 2 DVD, the creators, Will McRobb, Chris Viscardi, noted that the tone of the series was a mix of weird and sentimental. And they joked that that was the kind of thing people can turn their back on really easily. I get that to an extent. The show wasn't for everyone, and some people don't remember it at all. I find "weird" to be extremely funny, and the sentimentality gives it soul. 

The episode I'm reviewing first is Season 2, Episode 1 "Grounded For Life." It has plenty of weird, and plenty sentimental. Being that the 4th of July is right around the corner, I thought it would be perfect to start with this story line which is centered around Independence Day, healthy (read corrupt) American competition, and Freedom. 

Some notes before the synopsis: 

• While Little Pete has episodes in Season 1 centered around his character, he has more B story lines than not. This episode is a defining moment for Little Pete in the series; building his character, showing that he's growing up, and preparing the audience for more Little Pete-centric episodes. The third season gets even more Little Pete Episodes. Big Pete is always the narrator, even for his own episodes, "Grounded For Life" is no exception.

• This is the first episode featuring Nona F. Mecklenberg, played by Michelle Trachtenberg. This episode features Nona solo from her family - aside from her dog Nimbus. Famously, her father would be played by Iggy Pop in future episodes.

• There's new footage for the show's opening credits, specifically for the title cards of Dad (aka Don Wrigley, played by Hardy Rawls) and Little Pete (played by Danny Tamberelli). This footage is sourced from this episode and the credits would remain the same until Season 3. 

• The music in this episode is sooooo gooood. They probably use every track on the stock music record. It's familiar sounds you've heard on classic tv and movies. It ranges from tragic, to thrilling, to cheerful. It's used to such great affect for the emotions of each scene. Also, the song played during the end credits, "Waiting For October" by Polaris is a very uplifting 90's jangle-pop song. Polaris does the opening credits theme for the entire series, and they do many other memorable songs that are featured in the show. Their only full length album, Music from the Adventures of Pete & Pete  is amazing. It wasn't released until 1999, three years after the show ended.

Now, with no good segue, here is the synopsis - peppered with my thoughts, as always - of "Grounded For Life."

S2E1 - air date September 4, 1994 

The episode starts with a stoic introduction by the all-knowing narrator Big Pete, played by Michael C. Maronna. Posing in front of an illustration of our fore fathers, Pete describes how they "forged the great experiment" of creating America, much like how Little Pete forged his own great experiment of putting the humidifier next to the dehumidifier on the lawn.

Resulting in an explosion that scorches the front lawn, Little Pete is punished by his father who loves his dear lawn of "Sweet Kentucky Blue" - just like a red-blooded American man does. And like an American Don loves competition. He has an ongoing bet with neighbor, Mr. Lerdner, who is as scummy as his name suggests. Every year they see who has the best lawn by July 4th, and whoever loses has to mow the other's lawn for the rest of the summer. Lerdner has won for the past five years in a row. He's your typical evil prep, with enough money and smug insanity to have his own lawn flamingo surveillance system and a secret lair to review the footage.

The 4th is only a week away and this is a huge setback. Not only did this frivolous stunt hurt Don's chances at winning, he is betrayed by Little Pete's reaction. "Who cares about your stupid grass." Don is furious at the flagrant disrespect for him as a parent and for his personal interests as a human being. That his son wouldn't try to understand his passion, or even apologize for the mess, is beyond disappointing, so he puts Little Pete through a series of punishments.

Even after having to replant the seeds one by one, being made into a human sprinkler, and forced to administer a deep tissue Swedish massage to the afflicted lawn, when faced with the question, "Do you care yet?" Little Pete answers with an impassioned "No!" Big Pete knows that all Little Pete cares about is freedom. At this point, Little Pete has made a very Little Pete split second decision to run for the Canadian border. 

At the Manitoba peninsula, Little Pete - ever the smooth-talker - poses as Dirk Wayne, lotion salesman. Don is able to locate Little Pete's whereabouts through picking up police radio through Mom's metal plate in her head - as you do - but before they can make a move, the mounty has already escorted Pete home by horse.

In the chaos of Little Pete being dragged away by his father, Nona F. Mecklenberg, a new girl in town happens upon the scene. It's the last person Little Pete sees before he gets seriously grounded. (I know this sounds really grim but trust me it's very cute and funny and no one gets hurt.) 

After a very dramatic scene reminiscent of a movie about a soldier breaking rank, Little Pete is sentenced to a one month grounding. This means he'll be missing the town fireworks display, something that is of immediate concern to Little Pete, and the implications are not lost on Don. If Pete won't show remorse for taking something away from Don, Don is going to take something away from Pete. 

Meanwhile, side characters and complete polar opposites, Nona and Mr. Lerdner clash as Nona's dog Nimbus walks onto Lerdner's lawn. Lerdner, with no class what so ever, sprays Nimbus with a hose, causing Nona to spout one of my favorite lines from a child actor, "What are ya, A serial killer!?"

After warning her that dog urine kills grass faster than acid (probably not true), Nona goes on a pretty great diatribe about how much she hates Wellsville. Nimbus is so traumatized from the move that he hasn't peed since before they arrived. She finishes by saying that dog's have 1/3 the size of a human's brain but they're over 100% nicer.

 
Don has turned the house into a full fledged prison. He even pats down Pete's friend Artie (aka the Strongest Man in the World, played by Toby Huss) before a supervised conversation with Little Pete. The most memorable line for me personally is one resulting from this conversation. Little Pete wants Artie to tell him about the outside, pressing him to talk about the asphalt again. Reluctantly Artie says, "When it rains, it smells like summer." Which is something I completely understand, and I think the writers of this show have always done such a great job highlighting the mundanely magical parts of life. This kind of poetry can be seen in other episodes, such as "Sick Day" where Little Pete sees things about the house that are different when he's home alone on a weekday.  I digress.

"I thought you would ... DIG it"

Artie gives Little Pete an ant farm for inspiration. Little Pete thinks this is for companionship, but Artie hints at escape. Little Pete finally figures it out, and starts digging a tunnel in the basement with a "24 gauge paperweight" of the Statue of Liberty. His goal it to dig to the new neighbor's yard (neutral territory) by 4th of July. 

Digging the tunnel has it's challenges, but Big Pete has his back, personally disposing of the excess dirt. He even gets in touch with his artistic side:

One of the best throw-away moments is when Little Pete finds Jimmy Hoffa's wallet in the tunnel.

"Hmm... Hoffa!"

Nona, homesick enough to begin covering her new house with 4x6 photos of her old house's bricks, hears Little Pete in the tunnel talking to his tattoo, Petunia, and goes to investigate.

Nona introduces herself to Little Pete. She says the F in her name stands for Francis, but she will legally change it to either Flame or Forklift. They are truly kindred spirits. Both of them are in need of a friendly voice, and it's so dang beautiful how these two kids got together! They discuss the rejection they've received, and their disdain for their lot in life.

The conversation gets cut short when Don notices Nona being a weirdo talking to his lawn. Mom (aka Joyce, played by Judy Grafe) is correct in saying Nona is probably just lonely, but Don figures he better make her scram just in case. When confronted, Nona tells Don a "botanical fact" that talking to your grass makes it grow.

He acts skeptical to this idea in front of her, but under the cover of darkness Don gets up close and personal with the lawn, whispering sweet nothings to it. Little Pete is subjected to hearing this in the tunnel, and writes his dad off as a "Nimrod." 

At this point the tunnel is causing the grass above it to die, which is not good for Don's sanity or the secrecy of Little Pete's escape rout. Fortunately Nona is on top of it, and paints the grass green perfectly to fool Don into thinking his grass is still alive - and the sexy talk is working wonders. Lerdner is not happy with Don's progress and he has a very scary POV shot with his own lawn, threatening the blades of grass with death.

Lerdner comes up with a sabotage plan because he got a bout of insecurity and thought he would lose for some reason. The water spigot on the Wrigley property has always been leaky. Lerdner uses this against Don by making the leak worse, luckily on a night Don wasn't getting freaky with the ground. He'll never suspect a thing. What Lerdner doesn't know - and it's questionable if he would have even cared - is that Little Pete was still in the tunnel, and the excess water caused a collapse.

It's pretty scary stuff, Little Pete could have drowned or been suffocated for real. But this is still a kids show so he's defeated but ok. Nona is the one to discover the scene in the morning, turns off the spigot and checks on Pete. Don wakes up to a completely muddy lawn, and attempts CPR in a grotesque expression of grief. 

This day is July 4th. Don knows that he's lost the war with Lerdner but he's not going to let that ruin his own Independence Day. Big Pete confronts Don in the station wagon. He asks why Little Pete is still grounded despite the war being over. Don says, "The point is respect; respect for my inalienable
right to a perfect lawn. And Pete still has to learn his lesson."

With his tunnel caved, watching his family leave for the fireworks without him, Little Pete's hopes are crushed. That's when Nona busts in with a rousing recitation of the poem on the Statue of Liberty, sparkler in hand.

Then they show some B-roll of pre 9/11 Statue of Liberty over Big Pete's narration.

1994

Little Pete is once again inspired to dig, now with the goal to finish before the end of the night.

Meanwhile at Throneberry Park, Don, Joyce, and Big Pete try to have a good time without Little Pete at the Fireworks show. Don is the one who breaks after being reminded of Pete at every turn.

"Awww! Pete would have loved this!"

At the end of his tunnel, Little Pete ceremoniously released his ant farm into the dirt, proclaiming their freedom. Now he has to put Lady Liberty to use.

Little Pete is free.

Once they've gotten properly acquainted, Nona and Pete try to right some wrongs. They encourage Nimbus to relieve himself on Lerdner's lawn. After several attempts Nona finally pulls out a Polaroid of Nimbus's favorite pee spot. This inspires him to let go - and it's a hot and steamy one. 

During this time Don had been eagerly driving to pick up Little Pete and take him back to the fireworks. He's happily singing the lyrics to his own version of Yankee Doodle "Daddy" when he sees Pete has escaped on his own.

"I'm a Yankee Doodle Daddy, a Yankee Doodle do or.... DIE!!!"

Little Pete knows he's in for it, with Don threatening a Christmas day release. When the fireworks start going off right then and there, father and son are taken aback.

In that moment they set aside their differences.  Don says, "I can't deny you your freedom. It goes against everything America stands for." Little Pete interjects, "Your lawn is important to you. I'm sorry I screwed it up." In that moment bearing witness to the fireworks meant more than ever before.

The lawn war ended in a tie due to cheating on both sides. Little Pete was charged with mowing both lawns for the rest of the summer, but as Big Pete narrates, "it was a small price to pay for freedom."
[Cut to Little Pete mowing over one of Lerdner's surveillance flamingos].

What did we learn:

• All-American guys like Don are going to be played by the white collar guys every time if they don't get wise to the game. 
• While the walking polo shirt uses his money to use technology against us, we're running around blaming our own kin for our problems and letting pride get the best of us. 
• Torture never results in legitimate confessions. 
• You might consider running away to Canada, but they don't want you. 
• Prison sentences are too long for non violent offenses, certain sentences need to be commuted. 
• While people might make up fake facts to try and validate discrimination against others, we have to speak up and call them on their bullshit. 
• Moving to a new place can be traumatizing. It's hard to cope when you don't have a friend, so reach out. 
• The words of Lady Liberty should ring true in all our hearts. 

I plan on doing a summer theme all summer long. I really need something positive to spread right now and one of my passions has been this show. There are plenty of summer-centric episodes of Pete & Pete, and I'm not doing them in any particular order, just in the order I want to do it. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually review every episode. For now it's just the fun summer time stuff. Stay tuned!