Pinned! When You Join the Wrestling Team and Have to Go Into Witness Protection

I fell off the wagon, and I didn't finish my self proclaimed "Bully Season" of Pete and Pete reviews... yet. Bully Season has been extended, and I'm going to try and finish what I started.

I've been thinking about this season 3 episode a lot lately. It really is one of the most clever. I wish I could tell you exactly which gangster films this episode parodies. All Pete and Pete episodes tends to follow common movie and TV tropes in an ironic and clever way,  kind of like The Simpsons, but the references aren't as on-the-nose. In this case, lets agree that this follows the journey of a protagonist who has pissed off their enemy, and that enemy is systematically plotting and offing all innocent bystanders to get closer to his prey. Pinned! is equal parts Wiley Coyote, Good Fellas, and teen sports drama.

Once again Big Pete is doing what he can to socially climb, as he's painted to be at the bottom of the totem pole this entire series. This time, Pete is striving to get a letterman jacket so he can have social cashe and so girls will pay attention to him. It's the "power of the mighty W."

Pete has to have it. He's not athletic, Pete doesn't have any aspirations. "Just pick a sport and make the team." As usual he wants the easy way out, and we know this attitude will bite him later.

But Pete finds that getting what he wants is "as simple as falling off a building."


Pinned!
S3 E10 - Air Date: December 7, 1996

Pete is excited to join the wrestling team, with his friend Teddy - who had already made a comfortable situation for himself there. As usual Pete is not into producing the effort it takes to be good at the thing he's working on. The wrestling coach, Beano Glatner, is an old school hard ass. His archetype is like that of a boxing coach from the 50's. As expected, he is not easy on Pete, and is generally intimidating.

Pete struggles during practice, even with the wrestling dummy, Roy. Ellen, who is at the practice - for whatever reason - shows Pete how to do the "Reverse Wildiggy."

The already intensely accomplished Ellen, can add wrestling to her repertoire. Wrestling is in her blood. As old-timey footage of a man alligator wrestling plays on, Pete explains that Ellen's uncle, Gentleman Bill Hickle, was the Greater Pensacola wrestling champion. He passed everything he knew to her, and she was enthusiastic to help the team.

The way Pete and Pete was formatted, there were some facts about the characters that were maintained throughout the series, such as their mother's metal plate in her head. But in each episode things like Ellen's life long passion for wrestling is only revealed in this third season episode and is never mentioned again. Though this isn't a plot hole or a negative. The MO of many characters in the show was to have stalwart dedication to something that is appropriate for the episode and helps the plot along. It fits and it works with the show's quirkiness without being insulting to the audience.

As Ellen interjects herself into the Boys Wrestling team practices, Mr. Glatner is visibly threatened by her knowledge of the game. She's being a little bit of a pain in the ass, undermining Glatner, but he's also not being encouraging to her interests. Being the sexist you expect a wrestling coach to be, Glatner dismisses Ellen and tells her if she wants to help the team, she should join the cheer leading squad. Ellen has something brewing beneath the surface. Oh, she'll join the cheer leading squad...

Upon seeing the lineup, Pete is disappointed he's only made the 4th string. Teddy reminds him that you still get a letter just for coming to every practice. You don't have to be the best to get one, you can just coast by. Pete is relieved, but just as he lets his guard down, Endless Mike enters the locker room.

"What does that W stand for? Wuss Bucket?!" Mike has always had it out for Pete, and now that Pete's found a team to belong to - or a group of jocks to attach himself to - Mike wants to tear this down immediately.

In a sweet turn of events, Pete's beefy teammates come to his side. For once Pete isn't defenseless against Mike. Pete stands his ground and tells him off.

Endless Mike calls them a bunch of clowns.
"I have a nice shag stapled to the roof of my van, you think I could be a jock-o too?" He sarcastically coos.

Pete's new social security only makes Mike more likely to retaliate, and harder. He threatens,
"When I get you alone i'm gonna yank [your spine] out of your body and beat you over the head with it!"

At this time Pete is not phased by Mike's threats. Pete is protected and his letter is in the bag. So Pete coasts through the practices, he's sitting pretty.

                                       
Meanwhile, Ellen calls Glatener's bluff and joins the Pep Squad. She is once again present at every wrestling practice. Ellen is so full of pep! She's at least faking it to grind Glatner's gears.

Pete is happy to hear that Endless Mike transferred to Sludgely High. Wow, no more Endless Mike right? Well, Mike went ahead and joined the Sludgely wrestling team. Now Mike can theoretically be matched against Pete.

But Pete isn't too worried. He's all the way down at 4th string. He would never be called to wrestle in a match. No problem... until the 1st string wrestler is taken out in a freak accident. There's an unexplained explosion, and the poor kid has smoking coming out of his wrestling headgear.

Endless Mike is in disguise in the stands, revealing his detonator.

Frank Fazzini is bumped to 1st, and a pattern becomes clear that Endless Mike is going to begin ousting each player in Pete's weight class in an increasingly Looney Toons fashion.

Endless Mike ads some kind of device to the hand dryer in the locker room. Frank is unaware as he walks away from the sink and the hand dryer starts on it's own. Somehow this device causes the hand dryer to suck Frank inside it. He's dragged across the floor, and the last image we have of him are his hands flailing out of the machine. If he's not dead, Frank needs the hospital, and therefore cannot wrestle.

Carl VanDike is the last in line above Pete now. Little Pete is tasked with keeping him alive.

In a very mob movie story line, Little Pete brings Carl to a sleazy motel and is coaching him through a witness protection program scenario. Little Pete has three rules: sleep with your shoes on, no eating unless I taste it first, only use code names.

"My code name is Schecky."

As Carl tries to bite into an apple, Little Pete slaps it out of his hand and says, "Ask yourself: do I want to live or do I want to DIE?"

"Live! Live! I want to live!"

Carl inspects his surroundings. "It's not so bad," he reasons. Carl muses that he has cable tv, fine art, and an Amazing Fingers Vibrating Bed.

Little Pete immediately knows this sounds fishy. But before he can stop Carl from putting in the quarter, the bed slams up into the wall, presumably crushing him.

"Curse you Endless Mike!!! Aaahhh!!!"

Mike was disguised as a cleaning lady, the ingenious way he infiltrated the motel room.

Now that Pete is in the 1st string, he's considering giving up the letter. But Teddy has another idea. Change your weight class. Right now, he's in the 130-139lb weight range. If Pete becomes lighter than Mike, they can't be matched. "Loose a few pounds, gain a life."

Endless Mike is craftier than Pete and Teddy give him credit for. He's ruthless. With Pete attempting to loose weight, Mike was right behind him.

Pete wasn't safe in the sauna...

His diets weren't extreme enough...

And where Pete was ok with loosing some body hair, Mike was removing organs. 

"Say hello to my kidney, 3lb 4oz."

At the weigh in, Pete is 129 lbs and Mike is 130. Pete thinks he's in the clear.

Mike extracts one of his molars right on the spot, and he drops to 129lbs 15oz. Pete and Mike will be wrestling against each other.

Mike says, "They say the human body has 191 separate bones. Oh where do I begin?"

At this point Pete is contemplating quitting the team to avoid the physical punishment of and Endless Mike scorned. Pete postulates, "Quitters never get their guts pulverized in front of the whole school."

As a member of the pep squad, Ellen cannot help but burst out tips and techniques from the sidelines. Glatner has had it, and bans Ellen from the gym till the big game.

Ellen and Pete lament their situation. "I've forgotten more about wrestling than he ever new." she says.

That's when it dawns of them. Pete has tried everything except trying to actually beat Mike in the ring. Ellen offers to teach Pete everything she knows, so he has to tools to defeat Endless Mike.

Teddy helps by role playing as Endless Mike. He gets fully into character.

Teddy was kicking Pete's ass, but around dawn Ellen's coaching began to kick in. Pete was as ready as he could be for this match.

On game day, Mike comes out with a pro wrestling theme song and stage lighting, full skeletal make up, cape, zebra stripped pants - it's an homage to WWF (and it was WWF and not WWE at the time this aired). 

Endless Mike has taken on a new persona: the Dr. Of Death.
His tag line: "I am the Dr. Of Death, and I am here to cure you of your life."

Glatner approaches Ellen as the match starts. "You even think about coaching and your keester will be suspended for the rest of the semester."

In the beginning, Pete is struggling.

But Ellen comes up with a cheer that will inform Pete of the moves he needs to make. Pete just has to execute them correctly...

"Wrist lock left! Ankle block right! Turn the blades and fight fight fight!"

It works!

At this point, Glatner escalates things quickly and calls the police in. They remove Ellen from the game. Ellen doesn't go to jail though, she's given an immediate sentencing of 6 months suspension.

Pete watches her being taken away, and he's not sure if he can complete the match without her.
"But... I'm gonna die."

Teddy yells from the sideline, "The big W is yours! Why don't you throw in the towel?" Teddy was right, Pete would get the bare minimum of what he set out for, a purely symbolic symbol of social prowess, a "six inch piece of low pile carpet."

"It was all that mattered, and then I realized it wasn't about the letter anymore."

Pete is tired of running from Mike, and he wants to win. As he continues to put Pete in peril, Mike spouts these gems:

"It's time for the doctor to sign your death warrant, flame head."
"Just accept it Wrigley, death is just another part of life."

Like all Cinderella stories, Pete comes back with a vengeance. Pete bests Mike, and Glatner exclaims, "Where did he learn that move!?" Teddy says, "His coach... that cheerleader you just kicked out."

Pete wins. Everyone rejoices.

Pete narrates, "From that day on W would never stand for "wimp", or "wuss-bucket", it would stand for "winner", and I guess no one needs a letter for that."

Pete never shows off his jacket again in the remaining 3 episodes of the season and series. Endless Mike shows up in the final episode, Saturday. So despite the transfer to Sludgley High School, he's got the weekends to be a fixture in Wellsville.

I liked this episode for it's over-exaggerated drama, and smart use of film tropes. I find myself constantly chuckling during this one, and marveling at the acting skills of these young people. It makes me want to take a time machine and get a job working on this show!

I swear I'm going to do another couple of these posts soon. I've been spending a lot of time on Endless Mike, who is the best bully of the show, but he's not the only bully. Stay tuned for my next bully-centric episode review...

Halloweenie, Get Ready For Bully Season!

Since I had so much fun breaking down the summer episodes of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, I decided to do another themed series as a follow up: Bullies. Bullies are ever present in kids programing, and Pete and Pete was no exception. To some degree we have all experienced bullying in our lives, it's a relatable trope. But Pete and Pete allowed their bullies to run off the rails in terms of menacing evil. The bullies had names like super villains, and were outfitted with lairs and cronies like mob bosses. These characters have extreme power over the protagonists, but luckily they don't often succeed in the end.

I thought it was fitting to begin this series with a Halloween episode, Season 2 Episode 7, Halloweenie. Of course Halloween is upon us so it's just seasonally perfect to watch this anyway. As an introduction to Pete and Pete bullies, it's a good first episode to discuss mega bully, Endless Mike Hellstrom.

Played by Rick Gomez, Mike proves to be a ruthless and manipulative person. He loves inciting fear in those around him. And though Mike laughs and smiles, he merely uses this to create ease with his prey before pouncing with a sharp turn in his mood. In general Endless Mike and his crew partake in low-stakes high jinks, but Mike is a good model for a TV villain that is disturbing and comical. 

In Halloweenie, Mike's identity is hidden behind a mask for most of the episode. He is also enticed by the promise of good-guy Pete Wrigley showing his dark side. Mike doesn't just want to terrorize Pete, he wants to convert Pete. Endless Mike doesn't create victims by pushing them away, he likes to lure them in with the promise of acceptance - as long as they play by his rules. Mike would do the classic beat'em up thing, but he could always use new followers...

Halloweenie
S2 E7 - Air Date: October 30, 1994

I watched this episode with and without commentary, and one of the notable comments from the creators Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi is that the episode's director, Peter Lauer was known for wanting to make ambitious, dynamic imagery for the show. It's noted that Pete and Pete had no concrete formula for style, which allowed directors to be as creative as they wanted to be. Because of that you can see Lauer's touches in Halloweenie; slow-motion sequences, cameras placed in odd places and through objects. He got to make his horror movie dreams come true. 

This episode establishes a clear divide between Big and Little Pete right off the bat. Little Pete loves Halloween. He's excited for the season, jumping out of leaf piles with a monster mask on. He's got the spirit. Little Pete loves the warped rules of society during Halloween. Identities are changed and bed times are extended. He treats Halloween like a sacred holy holiday, insisting on participating in all of the traditions and taking them extremely seriously.

On the other hand Big Pete hates Halloween. He doesn't know where his Halloween spirit went, but he is not having any of his little brother's antics. Big Pete disparages Halloween as a "dork holiday." He might just be growing up, but Big Pete is down right spiteful over Halloween.
 

This year, like many before, Little Pete has the ambition to beat the record for most houses visited in one night on Halloween. Thirty-one years ago the Stilt siblings hit 374 houses that Halloween. They became legends, and aside from the massive amount of candy, Little Pete wants that level of immortality. Big Pete would be the perfect partner, if he didn't hate Halloween with a passion.

With Big Pete clearly not interested, Nona offers her assistance. She even proves her dedication to Little Pete by drawing his tattoo, Petunia, on her cast.

Crossing Guard Frank (played by James Lally) warns Little Pete and Nona that Halloween is on the line this year. The evil gang called the Pumpkin Eaters have been terrorizing the town of Wellsville on Halloween for years. Their identities are hidden with jack-o-lantern heads, and they ride around ruining everything on a fleet of mountain bikes. Frank says, if they strike too hard, Halloween will be banned in the town of Wellsville, potentially making this one the last year.

Big Pete and Ellen are walking around the neighborhood discussing the Pumpkin Eater controversy. Pete admits to Ellen that he fully loathes Halloween, and would maybe even be happy if this turned out to be the last year they celebrated. As they turn down the street they happen upon a veritable pumpkin graveyard in an alleyway. There is one lone, untouched jack-o-lantern on the ground that Big Pete is tempted to crush.

Even though the act of smashing pumpkins is associated with the Pumpkin Eaters and the senseless damage they do, Pete feels a release when he slams it to the ground. He now understands the appeal.

Little does he know, the Pumpkin Eaters were watching from inside the whole time. Endless Mike is revealed to the audience as the ringleader, and he's thrilled that Big Pete had it in him to smash the pumpkin.

This plot is similar to the episode Yellow Fever, which I will be covering in a later blog post. It's a theme in which Big Pete falls toward the dark side of social structure, and Endless Mike takes advantage of the situation.

Unfortunately, just that evening Little Pete and Nona are ambushed by the Pumpkin Eaters. They're chased screaming through the neighborhood, held down, and covered in shaving cream and toilet paper. Little Pete's jack-o-lantern creation is destroyed right on the Wrigley's front porch. The only thing the Wrigley's can do is watch in horror.

Nona's father, famously played by Iggy Pop, has decided to forbid Nona from going out trick or treating.

Big Pete offers to help Little Pete beat the record. He feels guilty for smashing that one pumpkin, as if that was the cause for the mayhem from the previous night. Big Pete can't help but feel like he upset the Halloween gods.

Ellen warns Big Pete not to go trick or treating, lest he suffer the same fate as Ned Richmond.
Ned was a fifteen-year-old who went trick or treating and got "roasted" by the Pumpkin Eaters. They humiliated Ned, tying him upside down to a tree and branding him a "Halloweenie." Ned became untouchable.

Big Pete assures Ellen he can figure out how to avoid this punishment. The brother's are trick or treating as astronauts, so their faces will be hidden the whole time. But Pete admits to himself that he has a deep fear of being unmasked that night.

The brothers Pete take on the neighborhood with expertise. They are the perfect team, using their in-helmet walkie-talkies to communicate. And Little Pete took full advantage of the bathroom features in his space suit.

Side note: in the commentary the show's creators mention that Nickelodeon standards and practices allowed them to add the line about Little Pete peeing in his space suit as long as there was no sound of him doing it. 

What is this elaborate house of cards costume??

The Petes soon come across a war zone. The Pumpkin Eaters are out in full force. Crossing Guard Frank, covered in raw egg, is trying to settle the situation. The trees look like weeping willows made of toilet paper, children are crying over lost candy and broken costumes.

Traumatized, some are chased up trees. Frank warns Big and Little Pete to go another way to avoid the riff raff. Little Pete knows all of the neighborhood shortcuts, so they manage to hit 203 houses.

It's not easy to tick these houses off their list, as the Pumpkin Eaters have frightened home owners into darkening their porch lights. This doesn't stop the boys from getting more candy thanks to the creativity of like-minded neighbors.

With only six more blocks to go the brothers approach Ned Richmond's house. Ned is played by Larc Spies who you may remember from Strangers with Candy (another offbeat show I love to death). Ned is dressed as a matador with a thin marker mustache. He answers the door with an enthusiastic "Ole!"

Ned is someone who loves Halloween despite what happened to him. He immediately recognizes Big Pete through his mask. Big Pete tries to deny it, claiming to be Neal Armstrong, but Ned knows what's up. He mistakes Pete's evasion for diehard Halloween roll playing, and offers to go trick or treating with him next year.

This is all too much for Big Pete to bear. All Pete wanted to do was help his little brother, and maybe appease the Halloween gods. But his hate for Halloween, and all the reminders of why, were killing his spirit.

Big Pete associates Halloween with shame, embarrassment, and disappointment. We don't get a real back story on why this is true for Big Pete. At his age, it's a time when teens are expected to put aside childish things and stop trick or treating. Big Pete is getting older, so he's sick of being immersed in a holiday that isn't socially acceptable for him to fully participate in any more. Instead of allowing his little brother to enjoy it, he has the instinct to reject Halloween in a very vocal way.

Upset by Ned's suggestion that Big Pete is in the same ranks with him - an untouchable in the social hierarchy - and his use of the endearing twist on Pete's last name "Wriggles" Big Pete tells Little Pete that he needs to find a new partner tonight. A huge theme in the series is Big Pete terminating a tradition he previously shared with Little Pete from fear of embarrassment by his peers. Big Pete is always looking for ways to be more popular and rising in the ranks in any situation. Meanwhile, Little Pete is not so self conscience. He is more concerned with achieving awesomeness, and upholding the bonds of family and friendship - despite his bend for anarchy. Little Pete travels his own path and surrounds himself with like-minded people. Little Pete's conflict is often that he's faced with realizing Big Pete, a family member, a brother, is not necessarily on his side.

Little Pete calls Big Pete a traitor, and Big Pete runs toward home as fast as he can. Big Pete explains in the narration that he knows what he is doing is cowardly and unfair to his brother, but in his mind the ends justify the means.

Just as Big Pete thinks he's escaping doom, the Pumpkin Eaters chase him down. In a crazy chase sequence, Big Pete runs through yards, hopping chain linked fences. Someone's Rottweiler joins the chase. The Pumpkin Eaters are somehow able to jump these fences on their mountain bikes with no ramps. Big Pete tricks one Pumpkin Eater into flying his bike into a pool, buying Pete some time.

Meanwhile, Little Pete is doing well on his own. He speaks into his helmet radio "In forty-five minutes I'm gonna be famous, and you're gonna be a blow hole!"

But Big Pete is too busy running for his life to get the message. He crawls in through the open window of a closed down haunted house. The Pumpkin Eaters make it just in time for Crossing Guard Frank's flashlight to scan over the window like a beacon in a prison escape movie.

Big Pete is sure he's evaded the Pumpkin Eaters. He takes a moment to take in the haunted house, and jeer at the decorations. He's startled by what looks like a Pumkin Eater, but after nudging the figure, he realizes it's a dummy. Big Pete mopes, "I hate this holiday." Little Pete radios back "Well it hates you too!"

Big Pete continues to walk through the house. Seeing another pumpkin-headed dummy, Pete aggressively shoves it. But this time it shoves back. "Tag! You're dead!"

Big Pete runs screaming through the house, as other Pumpkin Eaters emerge from closets laughing maniacally. They corner Pete in the basement. The bulkhead doors are locked from the outside. Endless Mike, with his pumpkin head disguise says "Well, well, well, if it isn't the biggest Halloweenie of all."

Little Pete is approaching his last house. He pauses to radio Big Pete about his imminent victory. But on the other end of the radio Big Pete is pleading for his life. Little Pete hears:
"What do you want from me?"
"Just your soul..."

Little Pete knows that Big Pete has been caught. "Bite my scab! Why? Why now?!"

Endless Mike explains to Big Pete that they all saw him smashing the pumpkin in the alley the other day. Mike thought it was promising to see that Big Pete had a bit of darkness in him. He knows that Pete hates Halloween, and he uses fact this to make Pete think he has support in the war on Halloween. Mike gives Pete an ultimatum. Smash a pumpkin and join their gang, destroying Halloween in Wellsville forever, or end up like Ned Richmond.

With a fresh Jack-o-lantern in hand, Big Pete acknowledges the level of power he wields.
As Mike tells Pete, "No one's looking." Pete retorts, "Sorry to hear that." and crashes the pumpkin against Mike's mask, causing it to shatter.

Big Pete is shocked that the ringleader of the Pumpkin Eaters was Endless Mike - for some reason.
"Who did you expect, Mr. Tastee?" says Mike before he lunges at Big Pete.

Just as the Pumpkin Eaters are about to have their way with Pete, the bulkhead doors swing open. Frank and Little Pete are staring down. The jig is up.

Endless Mike's cronies run away, leaving an exposed Endless Mike. Little Pete wacks Mike with his massive bag of candy and headbutts him for good measure.

A bag of candy blasting Endless Mike

Little Pete knocks himself out with the blow, but just as Mike rebounds with a quippy super villain phrase, "In space no one can hear you scream." Big Pete shoves a jack-o-lantern on Mike's head, incapacitating him.

This sequence is the most violent the series gets, and it's very cartoonish. The villains are caught like a Scooby Doo mystery, except instead of unmasking the bad guy, they unmask him and then mask him again.

In the epilogue, Endless Mike and his gang are cleaning up Nona's house as punishment. Nona's dad comes out to say "You missed a spot... stooge." (a reference to Iggy Pop and the Stooges).

Because Little Pete is such a good and loyal brother, he was able to put aside his quest for immortality to save his older brother's [social] life. By stopping the Pumpkin Eaters, Little Pete was also able to save Halloween for the whole town. Big Pete admits that at the end of the day this is a bigger and better win for the season. They can try to beat the record again next year...

The episode is played out by "Waiting for October" by Polaris. 

I am really excited to further explore Endless Mike and introduce the other maladjusted youth of Wellsville.

As always please visit my Etsy shop Slushenminer for Pete and Pete enamel pins!