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"Square Pegs" (1982)

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1 article from 2008

20 May 2008 9:07 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news

In the wake of Saturday Night Live's success, multiplexes and TV sets were stuffed with comedies about dope-smoking slobs getting the best of prim, authoritarian snobs—and in none of them was there any mistaking which camp was meant to be awesome. But when former SNL writer Anne Beatts created the short-lived early-'80s sitcom Square Pegs, she shifted the paradigm a little, making her heroes outright geeks who envied the popular crowd. Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Linker played high-school freshmen perpetually failing at social climbing, spending their afternoons and weekends with dweeby class clown John Femia and spacey new-waver Merritt Butrick. Because none of these kids looked or acted cool—and because even Weemawee High's popular kids were kind of gawky—Square Pegs smartly captured the high-school experience for a large number of '80s teens. The show's cult success carried over to Freaks And Geeks and the films of John Hughes,

Noel Murray

1 article from 2008