Square Pegs

"Lauren: Listen, I've got this whole high school thing psyched out. It all breaks down into cliques. Patty: Cliques? Lauren: Yeah, you know, cliques; little in-groups of different kids. All we have to do is click with the right clique and we can finally have a social life that's worthy of us. Patty: No way! Not even with cleavage! Lauren: I told ya. This year we're gonna be popular! Patty: Yeah? Lauren: Yeah. Even if it kills us! opening credits"

Square Pegs is a High School Sitcom on CBS from 1982 about a pair of "unpopular" teen girls, Patty and Lauren, struggling to fit in with the "popular" kids at school. Joining them in the struggle are two teen boys, Marshall (who hopes to become the Class Clown) and Johnny Slash (who happens to be talented at a lot of things but is too much of a Cloudcuckoolander to appreciate it).

Despite its very short runtime, the show retains a cult following to this day. For everyone else, it's most well known for unleashing Sarah Jessica Parker on an unsuspecting populace.

Provides examples of:

 * Adults Are Useless
 * Beauty Is Bad: Jennifer, La Donna, Vinnie and Muffy.
 * Black Best Friend: La Donna is Jennifer's.
 * Brainless Beauty: Vinnie Pasetta. To a lesser extent, Jennifer.
 * The Cameo: Among the draws of the show were the ubercool guest stars.
 * Bill Murray. Coolest substitute teacher ever.
 * Also, Johnny's band has that "guy who drummed for The Doors".
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * The Ditz
 * The Eighties: Valley speak, video games, and New Wave music cover the landscape.
 * Extracurricular Enthusiast: Muffy Tepperman was involved in, if not the head of, every extracurricular activity.
 * The Glasses Gotta Go: Patty wears huge geeky glasses, which Lauren keeps telling her she needs to ditch in order to attract cute guys. But Patty is Blind Without'Em, and inevitably she goes back to wearing them.
 * This Loser Is You: We're supposed to identify with Patty and Lauren.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Johnny is Kirk's son!
 * Hollywood Homely
 * In with the In Crowd: what Lauren hopes to achieve.
 * Not So Different: the cool kids are just as screwed up as the four main characters. They're just prettier and louder.
 * Preppy Name: Muffy Tepperman
 * Retroactive Recognition: Muffy is played by Jami Gertz, who went onto to 80s movie stardom.
 * Sassy Black Woman: La Donna Fredricks
 * Status Quo Is God: Just when Lauren thinks the four have found a way to get in with the cool kids, something happens to embarrass either themselves or the popular clique, stranding them back at the losers' table. Also Failure Is the Only Option.
 * Lauren - who is obsessed with popularity - never achieves it while Patty - who just wants to survive high school - has more opportunities to be popular at school (but doesn't because her best friend Lauren will get jealous).
 * Valley Girl: Jennifer Di Nuccio.