Peachdale

Peachdale (1985–1987) was a unique U.S. children's television series created and produced by Fred Bishop's Gorilla Television studio. During its original run, it was broadcast as part of the failed MDB television project, but it has since become a minor cult classic. Bishop's studio produced numerous other offbeat children's programs, including The Lovabulls, Bunnybear, and Iggy's Pizza, each of which had its own small but devoted audience. 1

Bishop attempted to produce a theatrical film version of the series in 1998, to be titled Ernie's Nuts: The Lost Legend of Peachdale, but the project was aborted. 2

Overview

Peachdale dramatizes the daily adventures of Joe Leonetti, his friend Ernie Murphy, and their friends and relatives in the fictional suburban town of Peachdale, Maryland.

Hallmarks of the series included its dark comedy, surprising violence, unusual use of enormous animated eyes superimposed over live actors' actual eyes, high-pitched vocal performances, and frequent use of a bizarre system of euphemisms that stood in for the full range of profane and vulgar language. 3

Though ostensibly set in the "real world," plots increasingly moved away from quirky character pieces (such as Joe and Ernie building a tube between their bedrooms) and began to unfold against a surreal mythology that came to include mysterious floods, conceited rabbits, ghosts, human-sized bees, and a small creature named Bru whose species was never specified. 4

Other regular characters included Mike, Charlie, Amy, Beth, Fred (Joe's dog), Millicent (Ernie's cat), and a number of unnamed adults.

Plot and format

Joe Leonetti and Ernie Murphy are 15-year-olds living in adjacent homes on Hope Street in Peachdale, MD. Joe, the son of a navy man, is an arrogant, callous bully who claims to be "Best." Ernie, whose father Hank operates the Magic Hat Magic Shoppe, is gentle and forgiving to the point of mental illness. Although they both claim to be best friends, their relationship is a twisted and unhealthy one: Joe continually berates, undermines, and even physically abuses Ernie, while Ernie alternates between astonished horror at Joe's behavior and good-naturedly excusing it. A typical running joke involves Joe threatening Ernie with odd and often brutal treatment: "I'm gonna tear you," "I'll break your heart," "I will whittle your waugh," etc. 5

Joe's prominence establishes him nominally as the star of the show, but most plots tend to revolve around Ernie and the predicaments he endures due to his own foolishness or to Joe's (or someone else's) cruelty.

Though most episodes of the series take place within Peachdale, the characters do occasionally venture to other locales. In "The Big Apple Bites Ernie", Ernie is menaced by a trenchcoat-wearing stranger on a New York subway train. The stranger reaches into his coat, causing Ernie to freeze in terror, but then removes only a manilla envelope, at which Ernie relaxes. The stranger then opens the envelope, takes a gun out of it, and points the gun at Ernie. Sweating and trembling, Ernie thinks, "Why isn't anyone helping me?!" The camera then zooms back and we see that every passenger on the train is being similarly menaced by his or her own trenchcoated stranger with a gun. 6

Ernie's innocence (or "God-waugh stupidity", as Joe would have it) often lands him in difficulty, though Joe is often instrumental in ratcheting up Ernie's danger by several notches. In "Ernie's Sunday Best", when Ernie is presented with a communion wafer and prompted with "The body of Christ", Ernie cheerfully responds, "Perhaps the blood of Christ to wash it down?" This causes enough discomfort in the church, but it is Joe's added comment ("Why don't you ask for onion rings with that?") that leads the priest to expel Ernie from the congregation ("Why, the good Lord would smack you Himself if He could"). 7

Many examples can be cited of over-the-top behavior on the show: from Joe dragging a half-[...] and still-urinating Ernie off the toilet bowl by his hair, to a shirtless Ernie fleeing from a violent gang while his hands are stuck in holsters on his belt, desperately launching himself through the glass windowpane of his family's living room, and being hurled bloody and defenseless back into the street by Hank.

Episode list

SEASON 1

  Tube Trouble
  Joe's Diet
  The Good Egg
  Surrounded By Girls
  The Lemon Face
  House 43
  Ernie's Chest Plate
  Bru's Busy Day

SEASON 2

  Nice Wings, Bee
  Grizzle
  Me! Ahhh!
  Ernie's Sunday Best
  The Big Apple Bites Ernie
  Jack Frost Nipping at Your Nuts
  You've Got the Gun
  Waugh Chapel Road

External links

• Peachdale viral martketing site
• Peachdale Families faux genealogy site
• Ernie Murphy's Pizza Essay (unofficial) tie-in site