Like most television programs that I have fairly fond memories of, I can't lie and pretend to be anything like an authority on the short lived and off-beat series about a bunch of high school students; Square Pegs (with the cool theme song). Premiering in September of 1982, this was definitely worth watching; especially to this guy who was just one year out of highschool at that point. (I should have graduated at least two years before that but, like Johnny Slash in this show, I was not exactly 'there'.)My circle of friends would talk about that week's installment -- we played pick-up ice hockey every weekend, so there was time in the dressing room before the game to recount the previous week's exciting events in our lives. It was clear that a couple of close friends of mine were there every week for Square Pegs.
The characters were actually interesting to a degree: This is probably part of the reason the show didn't last more than twenty episodes. We all went to highschool with characters like these. As I mentioned there was Johnny Slash, played by Merritt Butrick... one of the more interesting of the lot.
I was visiting a friend last week who has satellite tv. On the Saturday, it rained on and off for the entire day. As I don't have cable -- don't need it really as I'm happy with CBC and TVOntario -- watching the channels 'TV Land' and 'Dejaview' kept me cemented in front of the LCD television with one episode after another of I Love Lucy (brilliant as always and one of the greatest of all time), Happy Days (crap, except the first couple of seasons), Happy Days (status; same), Joanie Loves Chachi (unbelievably bad), Good Times (good when good), and Square Pegs (has the bonus of being watchable today as I learned that Saturday).
I had forgotten that I had a bit of a crush on Tracy Nelson. Quite the cutie to me, back then.
I'm sure that Square Pegs will be available on DVD soon.
A great site to check up on this sort of thing is: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/
2 comments:
I had seen a couple of partial episodes of Square Pegs at a friend's house as a kid - I'm not sure if we got it or if it was "cable." I may have made the connection between Merritt Butrick on the show and his more subdued role as the son of Kirk in Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock. Sad that he died of AIDS shortly after attaining some fame. I'm not sure if Square Pegs ran between his Trek appearances.
He would have gone onto Square Pegs right after Khan. 'Pegs' would have been shot starting in the spring/summer of 1982.
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