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Sarah Jessica Parker got a big career boost as a teenager from her starring role in the offbeat, much-praised sitcom “Square Pegs,” which had a one-and-done, brilliant-but-canceled run on CBS in the 1982-83 season.

Parker has paid tribute to “Square Pegs” creator and showrunner Anne Beatts, who died April 7 at the age of 74. Parker recalled her longtime friend and mentor as a unique personality who made an enormous impression on the future “Sex and the City” star, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

“I assure you, there was no one like her. Not that I’d ever met,” Parker said in a statement to Variety.

On “Square Pegs” Parker played Patty Green, an awkward high school freshman at Weemawee High School who was desperate to break into the popular kids’ clique. She palled around with her equally ambitious best friend Lauren, played by Amy Linkers, and their colorful outcast friends including the...

For the past two years, I've been lucky enough to be a small part of a show called Portlandia. The series -- created by the prolifically talented Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and returning on Friday for a second season -- has been described by many a stinging satire of Hipster culture. While it does parody Hipster earnestness, the show pays loving tribute to communities Like Portland everywhere -- Silver Lake, Austin, Bolder, Williamsburg, Minneapolis, Northampton, Berkeley, etc, etc, etc -- and much has been made about how the show has puts Hipster Culture in the spotlight.

I must say, however, Hipsters are not a new TV phenomenon. With thick glasses, just-so-avant-garde fashion and knowing smirks, Hipsters have had a special place on TV since the beginning of the medium -- even before the birth of the term. For more than half a century, TV Hipsters have had a profound effect on American culture.

It’s still Thursday for another couple of hours where I am, so it’s time to remake an 80s classic TV show or movie with an all-new cast. This week: Square Pegs, the 1982-3 CBS high-school comedy. Predating John Hughes’ take on teen life in the 80s, this was one of the most depressingly -- and most hilariously -- realistic depictions of adolescence in the early part of the decade. The original cast included: Patty Greene: Sarah Jessica Parker Lauren Hutchinson: Amy Linker Marshall Blechtman: John Femia Johnny “Slash” Ulasewicz: Merritt Butrick Jennifer Dinuccio: Tracy Nelson Vinnie Pasetta: Jon Caliri Muffy B. Tepperman: Jami Gertz This was so 80s that it would be tough to actually update this for the 2010s (which is when this would end up landing, were production to start now) without killing everything that made it so wonderful back then. Maybe it could go all Brady Bunch Movie on us,...

In the wake of Saturday Night Live's success, multiplexes and TV sets were stuffed with comedies about dope-smoking slobs getting the best of prim, authoritarian snobs—and in none of them was there any mistaking which camp was meant to be awesome. But when former SNL writer Anne Beatts created the short-lived early-'80s sitcom Square Pegs, she shifted the paradigm a little, making her heroes outright geeks who envied the popular crowd. Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Linker played high-school freshmen perpetually failing at social climbing, spending their afternoons and weekends with dweeby class clown John Femia and spacey new-waver Merritt Butrick. Because none of these kids looked or acted cool—and because even Weemawee High's popular kids were kind of gawky—Square Pegs smartly captured the high-school experience for a large number of '80s teens. The show's cult success carried over to Freaks And Geeks and the films of John Hughes,...