Series Hey Sandy!
The Adventures of Pete & Pete is a series many 80's-90's tropers would probably be familiar with, thanks to it's time slot and just plain creative storytelling. The Nostalgia Critic put it best when he said the show was shot through a kid's point of view.
Every episode is just like what a kid would see during school or the summer, or what a teenager would experience during high school or going on their first date. It was off the wall, insane, and we loved every second of it.
Probably the best thing about the show was the characters, and Lord knows, there was no shortage of likeable characters. The parents were always quirky, but meant well for the kids. The teachers were out and out sadists, and what kid hasn't had the question of when they're really going to use algebra in life? (Answer: Too freaking often). Probably the best characters were the bullies and the friendly adults. Endless Mike and Pit Stain were both creative villains, and their actors knew just how to act for childhood villains. Stu the bus driver was, of course, a caricature of how schoolkids see their drivers, a little on edge at all times. But everyone's favorite character was Artie, and the opinion of this troper is that the departure of Artie, while a great going-away special, was the moment the show jumped that shark.
But that's small change, all told, and the show was still creative and funny until the final episodes. If you want a kid's network show that came before the tweenie invasion, you need look no further than "The Adventures of Pete & Pete". Do it for ARTIE! THE STRONGEST MAN - IN THE WORLD!!!
Series Season 3 (or Why I'm Glad the Nick Rewind DVDs ended)
Ah, P&P. The writing was stellar, the storylines were relatable because of their exaggeratedness, the acting was great, the gags were hysterical, the soundtrack was awesome, and it gives me warm fuzzies every time I watch it. What else is there to say?
Oh yeah, this: Season 3 sucked.
Don't get me wrong, there are some very good episodes, and even one or two that manage to recapture the old charm. But the majority of the season suffers horribly, in spite of the fact that there's no huge changes (Artie notwithstanding) to the series. So what happened?
Let's start with the characters. Most of this season focuses on Little Pete, which is our first problem—the show always walked a bit of a tightrope between Big Pete, who's slowly maturing into adulthood, and Little Pete, the essence of childhood. Tipping the scales means losing a big part of what made the show relatable. Secondly, Little Pete's supporting cast isn't interesting. Monica and Wayne are both one-note and Nona's bland as hell. This season also introduces two villains—Pit Stain, who's pretty much Endless Mike Lite and is neither funny or intimidating; and Principal Schwinger, who's a generic nasty authority figure and is only memorable for being played by Adam West. The plots also become fairly formulaic—most episodes with him have him pegged against one of the villains, or just wandering around doing next to nothing. Moving on.
What we do see of Big Pete suffers from the fact that, rather than just cook up a new love interest for him now that the Ellen thing's been sucked dry, they gave him chronic Girl Of The Week syndrome, making him appear overtly shallow since most of these girls have the personality of a tube of toothpaste (more, sadly, than can be said for Nona.) In spite of that, most of the Big Pete material is okay, but his plots tend to be Friend Or Idol Decisions. Oh, and we get another is-Ellen-a-love-interest episode, which Little Pete narrates and depicts love as a disease. Fun.
Okay, so I'm not really glad this season hasn't had a release, because "Road Warrior" and "Pinned!" are pretty sweet, "35 Hours" and "Das Bus" are fun in spite of Big Pete's Character Derailment, and considering half of it's spent on Little Pete's posse "Saturday" is a pretty good finale. But the rest is still pretty awful.