Square Pegs - Overview and Setting

Overview and Setting

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. Most scenes were filmed in the abandoned Excelsior High School in Norwalk, California. Weemawee at first appears to be in a generic suburban American community. However, though the location is never stated outright, the plot often refers to events going on nearby in "The City", which is the universal New York metro reference to Manhattan. A frequent hangout for the kids and the most common location for scenes outside of school is "The Grease", a Greek diner, also common to the NYC metro area (it is actually called the Acropolis, according to the neon sign). In another reference to the New York metro location, Patty states that when her father brought her to his cabin in the woods, she cried as they "passed each exit on the Connecticut Turnpike".

The series was much acclaimed by critics at the time for its realistic (if comic) look at teenage life, reflecting a sensibility somewhat similar to the John Hughes teen comedies of later years. Though targeted to younger viewers, the prime time show's dialogue is rather adult and risqué, much more like Saturday Night Live than the later high school comedy Saved by the Bell which was aimed at pre-adolescent viewers.

Presumably the characters were to go through high school during the following four years until graduation, but the show lasted only one season. The first two episodes had strong ratings, but plummeted shortly thereafter. An article in the June 9, 1984 issue of TV Guide blamed the show's failure on the inexperience of its staff, and drug use on the set, though cast and crew interviewed for the 2008 DVD release make no comment regarding the latter allegation.