Product Details

• Actors: Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Linker, Jami Gertz
• Format: Box set, Color, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English
• Subtitles: French
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click .
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: May 20, 2008
• Run Time: 491 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00151QYT4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,959 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Square Pegs - The Complete Series" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Square Pegs was in a class by itself, but much like brainy, bespectacled Patty (Sarah Jessica Parker) and pushy, overweight Lauren (Amy Linker), popularity eluded this late, lamented series, which was expelled from prime time after one season. Rarely seen in syndication, its cult cachet has only increased with time (enhanced by Parker’s extreme makeover into Sex and the City’s trend-setting Carrie Bradshaw). In the words of peppy, preppy Muffy Tepperman (a spirited Jami Gertz in her own career-launching role), it behooves us to report that the series lives up to its rep as a smart and hip alternative to what creator Anne Beatts (in one of the newly filmed interviews with the show’s creators and cast included on each disc) calls "processed cheese television" of the day. Square Pegs was a totally different head; totally. Anticipating 16 Candles and Freaks and Geeks, Square Pegs viewed high school from the perspective of the bottom of the high-school social food chain. Patty and Lauren are freshmen at Weemawee High School. Lauren has it "all psyched out": If the girls can click with the right clique, they will at last have "a social life that’s worthy of us." Alas, it is not to be. The girls instantly run afoul of the school’s reigning Mean Girl, Jennifer (Tracy Nelson), her bad boy boyfriend, Vinnie (Jon Caliri), and her sassy best friend, LaDonna (Claudette Welles). "La Donna doesn’t like anything I do," Patty wails, "and I don’t do anything." They are also treated with disdain by Muffy, who seems to have the run of the school to rally students around sponsoring a "Guatemalan child" (they need swimwear, too). Patty and Lauren reluctantly bond with fellow square peggers Marshall Blechtman (John Fernia), an aspiring comedian always ready with a <>Saturday Night Live or Monty Python reference, and the "laid back and left back" Johnny Slash (the late Merritt Butrick), who’s New Wave, and not punk. (New Wave, he explains, is "a totally different head; totally").

Each episode brings some new fresh hell for Patty and Lauren, but also some hope that their fortunes will somehow change and their stock will rise (in the pilot episode, Patty impresses a "stone fox" upperclassman, and in another, she's Vinnie's leading lady in the Chorus Line-inspired school musical, "A Cafeteria Line"). Until then, cup size may trump IQ, but friendship will trump popularity. Weemawee High School appears to be based in New York, but everything else about the show is totally Los Angeles, from, like, Jennifer’s Valley Girl-speak to an appearance in one episode by Steve Sax and the Dodgers. The laugh track is as lame and half-hearted as the one employed by SCTV, but the show’s left of center spirit shines through. Two standout episodes feature, respectively, Bill Murray (Beatts’ former National Lampoon and <>SNL colleague) as an unorthodox substitute teacher, and Devo, who performs at Muffy’s New Wave Bat Mitzvah. And that’s Wally Cleaver himself, Tony Dow, as Patty’s estranged divorced father in what passes as a Very Special two-part holiday episode. Square Pegs is totally '80s (in one episode, Marshall's Pac-Man addiction can only be cured by an intervention by Don Novello’s Father Guido Sarducci), but the Waitress’s indelible theme song ("I’d like it if they like us/But I don’t think they like us") sets just the right pathetic/persevering tone that will resonate for a new generation for whom "one size does not fit all." --Donald Liebenson

Product Description

Sarah Jessica Parker. Desperate to join the in" crowd, nerdy high school freshmen Patty and Lauren are willing to pull off all kinds of goofy stunts to prove they're worthy. Will these two square pegs ever fit in? Maybe with a little help from Devo, the L.A. Dodgers and Richard Blade. 20 episodes on 3 DVDs. 1982-83/color/10 hrs/NR/fullscreen.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Music GONE! June 2, 2008

By Dominic Casario

Format:DVD

They took the cheap way out and didn't license most of the great 80s tunes as heard when the show originally aired. In some places it's obvious, like when Marshal introduces a Minor Threat song while DJing at the school radio station and they play some generic dreck. Other times, it's more subtle, like every scene in the diner originally had music playing in the background, and now there's just nothing.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars It behooves me to say ... May 14, 2008

By Edward Aycock

Format:DVD

I used to watch this every Monday night, and then the kids at school would all talk about it the next day. Sadly, the show died a premature death, which was a bummer as I always wanted to see Lauren and Patty grow and get over not being part of the in-crowd. Oh well, we can all pretend Patty became a famous New York sex columnist ...

Now to the DVDs. I've seen the set and all I can say is, "Totally New Wave."

Fans of the show will be thrilled to know that all the episodes are here as they were originally presented - crystal clear, with the Waitresses and Devo's appearances intact and the full 24 minute running times. Of course, we have to suffer through the awful canned laughter, there was no option to get rid of it.

This show brings back memories for sure, and it's hard to believe it's been over a quarter of a century. Is that even possible?

A great feature of the DVDs is the cast interviews. The only members missing are Merritt Buttrick, who passed away in 1989, and Jon Caliri who played Vinnie. It's fun to see Tracy Nelson and Claudette Wells together again.

Will a new generation appreciate the show? Who knows, but for a lot of us, this is a great piece of nostalgia and a funny show.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars groundbreaking tv show , April 12, 2008

By mr. smith

Format:DVD

on a much higher level than almost anything ever done about high school . its also funny as hell and done at at a time where most high shool characters were student body president or head cheerleader, now most teen characters are cooly reflective outsiders. This show is long over due but is arguably the best comedy about TEEN life ever