Square Pegs: No Joy in Weemawee

State-of-the-art tape recorder.  (OK, no, it
was dated by '83 and thus perfect for a school.)

Square Pegs: No Joy in Weemawee
CBS
February 21, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Gross & Stillman story is better than most about sports, helped by an offbeat sense of humor, especially in some of the background and throwaway gags:

• The school newspaper (in keeping with the "Indian" theme) is called The Tom Tom, so there's a posterboard that says, "Tom Tom Club," a reference to the New Wave group (with a couple Talking Heads);
• During a montage of newspaper headlines, there's a reference to both Citizen Kane and His Girl Friday;
• When Steve Sax, who would also appear as himself on Who's the Boss? later in the decade, shows up, he's invariably introduced as "Rookie of the Year, Steve Sax," the Scooby-Doo form of celebrity address;
• Johnny is a member of the Jughead Fan Club.

We also finally get to see Johnny's real last name spelled out: Ulasevicz.  And we learn that Jennifer is so "popular" that it's beneath her to be a cheerleader.  Note that Weemawee, which has twice been established as not being in New Hampshire (or was it Connecticut?), here seems to be close to NYC (Letterman's show is taped in "the City") and is definitely not in California.

Karen Armstrong returns as Cindy, and Steven Peterman is back as Rob Donovan.

Square Pegs: Merry Pranksters

Square Pegs: Merry Pranksters
CBS
January 10, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
B-

A nice touch in this Deanne Stillman story is that some of the action takes place the week this aired, as with "Monday, January 10" appearing on the screen.  On the other hand, when we see the address for the high school, it's in "Weemawee, USA," with a six-digit zip code.  Things that happen in this episode:

• Muffy raps, to Johnny's bongo accompaniment;
• Jennifer has mono, as does an offscreen character mentioned before, senior Bubba Hines;
• Lauren's latest scheme for popularity involves vandalism, but Vinnie is the natural suspect, and doesn't mind because suspension would allow him to spend time with Jennifer;
• Patty and Lauren have lines about not wanting to be too intellectual for their audience, so Patty suggests "Joanie loves Chachi" as a message, which was not only topical but a bit meta, since that Happy Days spin-off definitely did not present an intellectual view of young people;
• Johnny and Marshall make references to Jim Morrison and "People Are Strange," but then Johnny does have the Doors drummer in his band;
• The graffiti doesn't work out, but the phony ad to sell the school attracts a rich Arab.

Basil Hoffman returns as Principal Dingleman.  Friedman shared directing duty with Nasella, who would direct one on his own.