Square Pegs: The Arrangement

Square Pegs: The Arrangement
CBS
March 7, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
B

Beatts wrote this season- and series-closer with David Skinner, who has no other credits.  And this is the only directing credit for Craig Richard Nelson, who had played Mr. Spacek.  It's an interesting place to leave the group, with Patty uncharacteristically (as both she and Lauren realize) cutting a deal to be invited to the party for Vinnie and Jennifer's six-month anniversary, while Muffy and Marshall work out a deal of their own, involving covering the party for the school radio.  (Taped for later broadcast it looks like.)  Lauren and Patty don't seem to have realized that the popular kids aren't that likable or worth their time.  However, when "the gruesome foursome" (as Muffy calls them) gather at Johnny's to influence the Nielsen's (again, meta), the band from the party shows up to relax with their friend Johnny, so maybe someday the girls will realize that their male friends are cooler than the "cool kids."

Karen Armstrong returns as Cindy, as does Maggie Munro as a nameless Student (and, no, I still have no idea who they are).  Richard Blade returns as himself.

Square Pegs earns 3 C+s, 9 B-s, and 7 B's, so that's a very narrow range averaging out to the high end of B-.  As with Bosom Buddies, I wonder if it would've done better as a cable original, especially since it came out at a time when network TV did not care about winning a particular demographic group.  Not only was this about geeky high school freshmen (not a particularly popular topic in mass media at the time), but it has an offbeat, hip sense of humor that sometimes misfires but is always interesting.  I think the show has aged fairly well, definitely a product of its time but with some universal insights about things like friendship.  It should've run longer but I can see why it didn't.