![]() The proclaimer felt like adding some pressure to make sure that the “lazy” researcher in question got the message loud and clear.Ī bit of background for my non-academic readers. In each one of these cases, the recipients of the proclamation were already working blood, sweat, and tears on grants, but that is not enough. “If you don’t get at least one federal grant in the next six months, you’ll be out on the street, jobless, sweeping floors at the local burger joint… so get your butt in gear writing grants!” This is a proclamation handed down by an administrator to more than one researcher I know lately. Let’s look at two examples of the lunacy that seems to be spreading throughout our halls of higher ed. As much as I love entrepreneurial activities and my own current independence from academia, we as a society need these institutions to carry forth the great intellectual traditions that have led to so much advancement for our species. The only thing that matters is where we’re at, and what to do about it.Īs our colleges and universities go, so goes society. I can come up with some smart-sounding theories, but in the end they matter not. Giving nearly every kid the opportunity for a college education, we thought our future was bright. We believed in them, and they in turn opened their doors to our masses. We had high hopes, so we invested in them heavily. They were discovering penicillin and the polymerase chain reaction (which allows us to sequence DNA). ![]() I can’t say this emphatically enough: No other show before or since has had the brains to persuade Devo to play at a bat mitzvah.Once, a long time ago in a place not so far away, universities and research institutions were the shining beacon of hope for our society. What other show back then was hip enough to have Muffy host a New Wave bat mitzvah, a theme she chose after rejecting her original “Poltergeist” bat mitzvah idea because she had already been to a “Star Wars” bar mitzvah and a “Rocky 3” bar mitzvah, and the movie theme seemed played out? This was the episode in which Devo performed. And her best girlfriend, LaDonna Fredericks, was often relegated to saying either “girl,” “Chile” or, most often, “Girl, I hate that.” Catchphrases were extremely important back then, which is why, in addition to LaDonna’s signature dialogue, Johnny Slash also was required to say, “Totally different head - totally,” at least once per episode.īut the fact that “Square Pegs” was of its time, in its time, was what made it so great to watch and, for those who wax nostalgic about that era ( who, me?), great to watch again. People regularly used phrases like “Gag me with a spoon!” and “barf.” Jennifer DiNuccio (Tracy Nelson) - the popular Valley Girl who said “like” at a ridiculous level of frequency intended to be comedic but that now seems less comedic because everyone talks that way - actually wore a zigzag-print leotard and leg warmers in one episode. It still featured that God-awful retro laugh track. ![]() Another word I learned from those titles: cleavage.)Ī re-watch of any “Square Pegs” episode - available on DVD and streaming on Amazon - confirms that this show soaked heavily in its ’80s juices. (Clique - I actually learned that word from listening to the “Square Pegs” opening titles. It was like a weekly John Hughes movie, before the Hughes movies had come out. It was a show about not fitting in that hit the zeitgeist long before “My So-Called Life,” “Freaks and Geeks” or, yes, “Glee” would attempt to insightfully explore similar terrain. It was a show starring young, not always model-pretty characters - from nerdy pals Patty (Parker) and Lauren (Amy Linker) to tweaked-out musician Johnny Slash (the late Merritt Butrick) to hyper-overachiever Muffy Tepperman (Jami Gertz) - who talked in a language peppered with references to Pac-Man and the Clash. As envisioned by creator Anne Beats, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer, it was a single-camera series when almost every other sitcom was a multi-camera, shot-live-before-a-studio-audience deal. “Square Pegs”looked very different from everything else on television. ![]() But if you were a kid walking the Earth then and are still reeling from the arrival of MTV 13 months prior, this seemed like another youth culture game-changer. Given that the show was canceled after its inaugural season, it may not have been a super-monumentous occasion. 27, 1982, the high school comedy “ Square Pegs” aired for the first time on CBS. ![]()
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