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Square Pegs is an American sitcom that aired on CBS during the 1982–83 season. The series follows Patty Greene (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Lauren Hutchinson (Amy Linker), two awkward teenage girls desperate to fit in at Weemawee High School. Synopsis Created by former Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts, the pilot introduces an eclectic group of eight freshmen on their first day at Weemawee High School. The series was much acclaimed by critics at the time for its realistic look at teenage life, reflecting a sensibility somewhat similar to the John Hughes teen comedies of later years. The actual location of the suburban community served by Weemawee is never specified, but Beatts had grown up and attended high school in Somers, New York, about an hourlong commute from New York City. Characters Patty Greene (Sarah Jessica Parker) is clever and seemingly well-adjusted, but feels awkward and like a social misfit (i.e. a square peg) when with the "popular" students. Patty's close friend Lauren Hutchinson (Amy Linker) constantly desires to be in with the "in" crowd, and the series' episodes often revolve around her dragging Patty into various schemes in attempts to make them both more popular. Lauren and Patty are surrounded by colorful supporting characters. Their friends Marshall Blechtman (John Femia) and Johnny "Slash" Ulasewicz (Merritt Butrick) are a pair of lovable geeks. Marshall is a motormouthed would-be comedian, while Johnny is a soft-spoken new wave fan (not punk... "a totally different head... totally.") Though seemingly off in his own world most of the time, Johnny states that he "[does not] do drugs and isn't a hippie" and on more than one occasion displays unexpected intuition and empathy, particularly regarding Marshall and the girls. The two boys help maintain the school radio station. Several scenes indicate that Marshall is attracted to Lauren and Johnny to Patty. The popular kids whom Patty and Lauren are usually trying to impress are Jennifer DiNuccio (Tracy Nelson), the quintessential buxom Valley girl, her boyfriend Vinnie Pasetta (Jon Caliri), a handsome greaser hood, and LaDonna Fredericks (Claudette Wells), Jennifer's friend and the sole minority character in the cast. Vinnie is cool but dense, and LaDonna is given to sassy remarks. The typical official high school activity culture is personified by preppy Muffy B. Tepperman (Jami Gertz), the endlessly chipper chairwoman of the Weemawee Pep Committee, head of the Morals Club, chair of the Science Fair Committee and a member of the Future Nurses of America. Muffy has a memorably pompous, oratorical speaking style and begins many sentences with "It behooves me to tell you..." or an elongated "People...". Though perhaps socially inept ("I’m going to ignore that because, frankly, I don't get it"), Muffy's unawareness and/or lack of concern with her failure to fit in with the popular kids is in stark contrast to the motivation of the show's protagonists, and does not stop her from relentless involvement in school activities. She shows her partial distain for Patty and Lauren by calling them "String Bean" and "Fang" and the "gruesome twosome" An ongoing gag throughout the series is Muffy's fundraising for Weemawee's adopted "little Guatemalan child," Rosarita. As the series progresses, Muffy's charitable intentions become more and more frivolous, asking the school community to provide the girl with her own apartment away from her parents, cable TV, a second pair of culottes, swimwear, a split-level duplex, and finally, her own cleaning lady. This group of eight students, though clearly of varied academic standing, are always in the same classes. The recurring staff members at the school are: Ms. Alison Loomis (Catlin Adams), a feminist liberal arts teacher who often complains about her ex-husband Mr. Rob "Lovebeads" Donovan (Steven Peterman), who continuously brings up his antics in the 1960s and always stops just short of completing references to smoking pot Mr. John Michael Spacek (Craig Richard Nelson), the affected but married drama teacher Dr. Winthrop Dingleman (Basil Hoffman), the grinning, square principal Series creator Anne Beatts appeared in two episodes as Miss Rezucha. Home life of the students is rarely depicted, but Patty's father is prominently featured in the Christmas episode. He is played by Tony Dow, best known as Wally Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver. Production Creative staff The show was unusual for an American sitcom of the time in having a largely female writing room, at Beatts' instigation. Twelve of the 20 produced episodes were written entirely by women, with another 3 being co-written by women. As well, half the episodes were directed by women. Show opening Before the opening credits and theme song begin, every episode starts with the following dialogue appearing in a montage of stills from the school: Lauren: Listen. I've got this whole high school thing psyched out. It all breaks down into cliques.Patty: Cliques?Lauren: Yeah, you know. Cliques. Little in-groups of different kids. All we have to do is click with the right clique, and we can finally have a social life that's worthy of us.Patty: No way! Not even with cleavage.Lauren: I tell you, this year we're going to be popular.Patty: Yeah?Lauren: Yeah. Even if it kills us. Series cancellation Square Pegs creator Anne Beatts revealed to TV Guide in 1984, a year after the series was canceled, "I think that certainly, there was some drug abuse or drug traffic that may have happened, because I would say that that is norm for a set." Devo member Gerald Casale also confirmed in 2009 the rumors of drug use on set, saying: "The girls were out of control — they were doing drugs and they were making out and they were coming on to us in a big way... They might have been 15 or 16, but in their heads they were already 40. I don’t think there was a virgin on the set, except maybe a couple of the guys". Most of the show's scenes were filmed at the abandoned Excelsior High School in suburban Norwalk, California. Because Norwalk was twenty miles from Norman Lear's studio office and CBS Television in Los Angeles, it was hard for the producers or network to know what was happening during filming. Embassy Television received numerous reports of drug and alcohol abuse in the presence of minors, which caused Embassy President Michael Grade to ask for an investigation and led him to pull the plug on the show shortly after the first season finished production. Cast members Jon Caliri and Tracy Nelson have adamantly denied that any of the minors in the cast were involved with drugs (although not denying that there may have been drug abuse amongst the crew). Beatts herself maintained "... drugs, ego, and chaos did not kill Square Pegs. Low ratings did. The highest audience share Square Pegs ever received was a 24, which now [in 2020] would make you the queen of Hollywood, but was considered inadequate for CBS, then the leading 'Tiffany ne.... Discover the Deanne Stillman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Deanne Stillman books.