Absurd is the word for Family Channel's new comedy The Adventures of Pete and Pete, but we mean that in the nicest possible way.
A suburban legend series boasting an eclectic guest star list -- rocker Iggy Pop, kidnap-victim-turned-celeb Patty Hearst and actors Steve Buscemi (Fargo) and Janeane Garofalo among them -- the kids' show focuses on two brothers, 16-year-old Pete (Michael Marona), 10-year-old Pete (Danny Tamberelli) and their circle of oddball friends and relatives in the town of Wellsville.
Pete and Pete's mom has a metal plate in her head, useful for picking up radio and police scanner signals, and their dad is obsessed with his power tools and making "good time" during road trips in the family station wagon. But the kids are relatively normal if you don't count the pinup tattoo, Petunia, the younger Pete, sports or some of their more bizarre antics, such as ruining a performance by the Up With Personal Hygiene Singers or hijacking a school marching band to form a circle representative of nuclear fusion during the state championships.
Wildly exaggerating suburban life, series regulars include geeky superhero Artie, school principal Mr. Schwinger (Adam West) and a lovesick school bus driver named Stu, who submits his young passengers to an endless "misery tour" of local sites he and his ex-girlfriend frequented: "On the right, the factory that made our Hibachi."
The 39-episode series aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S. from 1993-95 but it's not outdated. Creators Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi set their recent made-in-Alberta feature film Snow Day in Wellsville.
