Pete & Pete Was Way Deeper Than You Remember
The Adventures of Pete & Pete looked like a normal Nickelodeon kids’ show… but the more you look back, the stranger it gets.
In this video, we’re heading back to Wellsville to revisit one of the weirdest, smartest, and most quietly emotional shows Nickelodeon ever made. From Big Pete and Little Pete to Artie, Petunia, “Hey Sandy,” the unforgettable guest stars, and the show’s strange indie-movie energy, Pete & Pete felt completely different from everything else on ’90s Nickelodeon.
We’ll look at how the series started as short interstitials, why it became a cult favorite, how it captured childhood in such a bizarre and honest way, and why the full show is still so hard to watch today because of music rights issues.
Was The Adventures of Pete & Pete secretly Nickelodeon’s most grown-up kids’ show? Or was it just too weird to last?
Were you a Big Pete person or a Little Pete person? And did “Hey Sandy” instantly unlock a memory for you too? Let me know in the comments.
@theraVen27
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Yes! Been waiting for this one
@Zeiru
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I always think of that one episode where Little Pete hears some people playing a song and he falls in love with it but keeps slowly forgetting it to the point he can only remember a single note, then at the end of it he finds the song again. "I was around, Nobody knows~!"
@MarconeAntelius
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
The strange cat lady that every neighborhood kid talked about, she was real in Wellsville. The summer adventures that somehow seemed bland and exciting at the same time is what happened to the brothers. There was one day when we all stopped having imaginary friends, Artie was akin to that imaginary friend, and when Little Pete said goodbye it was symbolic of him growing up. While the Petes each had different adventures at times, kids of any age could somehow relate to either of them. Mcrobb and Viscardi touched on something that none of the other shows did: real life and how strange it could be. To me that's what makes Pete & Pete special.
@pluvia33
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
The main thing that was weird to me about Pete & Pete was that the show often bored me a bit, but also felt fascinating and hard to ignore when it came on. The episode I remember most was the one about the "time warp" of the extra hour you get when Daylight Saving Time ends. It was just such an interesting way of thinking about the subject that it has stuck with me, coming to mind during almost every time change in my life since.
@younggregory
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
It's my favorite show of all time. I even have petunia on my right forearm. I regret nothing
@MyFlipperLikesIce
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
No idea this show went so far into the 90s…i don't think i watched much of the actual episodes, i know i wasn't watching this once i got to highschool 😅
@dancoroian1
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
11:50 what happened here? 🤔
@thebug410
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Hey smiling strange, you're looking happily deranged.
@Oceanic83
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
As a little kid, this show seemed different from every other show I watched, but since I had no perspective on anything, I didn't realize at the time just how unique it is. For all I knew, there could be 10 more shows like it.
@dancoroian1
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
5:45 specisiffity 😝
@phunbee
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
This was the network's best show IMO. I loved this and Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, and Doug. This was masterful, done in the camera, lets put on a show feel television.
@concernedcitizen2350
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I couldn’t agree mores that Pete & Pete was never meant to be a long running show. It was more of a special summer you experienced as a kid. All the characters were like people you met on a family vacation that you were never meant to have anything more than a short friendship with before traveling back home.
Also, I just learn recently that Danny Tamberelli was a voice actor on GTA 5 which blew my minds
@Ohhitya
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I love this show so much. The episode where Little Pete is fighting bedtime by beating a world record with the kid just growing a beard in the background and the girl who would look up at the sun and sneeze to stay awake and then there was a cloudy day and she calls the sun a wuss and Big Pete and Ellens song, are you kidding man? You didnt notice her? Well you must be blind…oh and the Ellen episode where she questions why about algebra and i am the dot….
@brunovance8101
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Have you been changing thumbnails and titles or have my memory lapses finally made me feel like I'm slipping between dimensions?
@nyarlathotep1328
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I had the unique privilege of being gifted a signifgant dose of acid and offered to have whatever I chose play on the TV for hours. Best way to rewtch this series as an adult ever-it absolutely is a young adult show for a young adult audience under the guise of children's programming. Total 90's Grunge philosophy perfectly encapsulated, an TV series that is also a beautiful work of art.
@stevencipparulo6937
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I am from NJ and never knew that the show was filmed a few towns over… I guess thats why it always felt so familiar
@malicemiz
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Best show to ever air on Nickelodeon. Definitely Kid Friendly Twin Peaks. Superb soundtrack with some obscure alt and shoegaze tunes too.
@ashleyedwards6036
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I loved this show! I watched it from the beginning –the sixty second bumpers. I had a crush on big Pete. I was a week away from my twelfth birthday when the final episode aired. I really wish they had an actual ending instead of an episode that left you thinking there would be another new episode the following week.
@livemusicmakeart
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
What are you talking about? "I Saw the TV Glow" is about being trans.
@TaylorSlade-w9z
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I grew up with Pete and Pete. My exhusband's name is Artie and we actually bought the 1st and 2nd season DVDs right after we moved into our first house.
@jakeerbst4073
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
The way you summarize how and why these shows make us feel when we look back perfectly encapsulated the feelings I have. It’s not just “nostalgia”, it really is a longing or yearning for what is gone and we can’t get back. Even when we consume the old media, which is fun to reminisce about, it will always be bittersweet.
@Gamekilla0085
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I always thought the ice cream man was a serial killer
@natemitchell4560
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
The real kicker is I actually grew up in a town called Wellsville
@daftnut022
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
The orange Lazarus lives rent free in my head
@Maddie_Black
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I used to love this show, Pete & Pete. I unfortunately, still remember Salute Your Shorts theme song more than this one. LOL
@VonEsch
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
This was a defining show of my childhood. I watched it during the original run and watched anytime reruns played. I try to get other people to experience it via YouTube but if you weren't there when it happened it might not click. Especially for the younger generations
@richkeller7209
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
This was my favorite show when I was a kid BECAUSE I knew it was weird. It was weird but it made sense to me, I could wrap my mind around it. I recognized it.
@jessicahanlon6742
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I am about to turn 40, and this is still my favorite show. It is a kid's show made by adults who made the show THEY would want to watch, and didn't condescend to kids. My best friend, who was college aged when it aired, loved it just as much as I did. The show's universe, cast, music, and cinematography are incredible and I capsulated the childhood of the last generation to be raised by imagination instead of technology. I wish we could all go back to Wellsville!
@yoBigWave
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Pete & Pete were one or my favorites growing up, now im in my late 30s I can see that Pete&Pete walked so Malcom in the Middle could run
@zanythos3716
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Nickelodeon we went from being The Shit, to just being Shit
@DraconSteel
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I still think of the arms out of the window skit any time i have the windows down in the car.
@NathanHarrell-k6d
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I may have missed the mention but Michael Stipe from R.E.M was Captain Scrummy the rival to Mr Tastee. I loved this show so much as a kid and I still regularly watch it.
@Terrorvision2
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
That's when everything started changing for the worst, after this got canceled and they started going "mainstream"
@GabrielJohnson-f6o
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
RIP Pete&Pete 😢 grew up on this show!
@christopherandrews9232
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
“THE URINATOR!!!” Loved that episode😂
@Terrorvision2
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Great theme song, was my favorite show at that time along with Beavis and Butthead and Liquid Television
Oh and Sifl and Olly
Had all these on DVD at one point. Need to get all that back
I always thought the Flaming Lips had something to do with this show but I guess that was a false memory. Maybe I connected the two because of the red hair
@smack_dab
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
To think about it my mom wouldnt let me watch this show. She for some reason didn't like it.
@Insidedaride
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
I was a little old for nick in these years but I loved watching pete and pete with my younger siblings. It had very subtle more mature themes (and amazing guest stars and bangers from 90s indie rock).
@retromacman620
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
It really did turn Suburbia into folklore! It had a feel of a Cameron Crowe film, with a wistful charm that does reminds me of Garden State, Elizabethtown, but kid oriented. The Twin peaks parallel is a great thought too!
@Lynn17
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
One of my favorite shows from 90s Nick!
@KevinCrittenden-q9c
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
The early 90s it was legendary hit after hit after hit
@idlewanderlustJSF
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
There was a cereal that had a promotion where you could get a cassette of the theme song if you sent in box tops or something. I think it was Golden Grahams.
@fj06carnone
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
15:09 you couldn't even play 2 seconds of it, you AI generated coward 🤣
@deathbydeviceable
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
It's a "strange" coincidence Nickelodeon had a "casting couch".
@Goz86
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
The thing about Pete and Pete and similar tv shows is that it wasn't just something you watched and that was it. You literally felt apart of the crew, living day to day with them. You were apart of the show, not just a spectator. You dont get that feeling anymore with tv shows now a days.
@lastrayer9004
July 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Uh.. can we just crowdfund those music rights to get the rest of the show!?