"square pegs" creator anne beatts revealed the show's abrupt demise came from unfortunate circumstances behind the scenes - specifically, drug abuse among the teenage cast. beatts revealed in 2015, "i think that certainly, there was some drug abuse or drug traffic that may have happened, because i would say that that is norm for a set". devo member gerald casale also confirmed in 2009 about the drug use on set, saying "the girls were out of control — they were doing drugs and they were making out and they were coming on to us in a big way... they might have been 15 or 16, but in their heads they were already 40. i don’t think there was a virgin on the set, except maybe a couple of the guys". most of the show's scenes were filmed at the abandoned excelsior high school in the suburb of norwalk, california. because norwalk was twenty miles from norman lear's studio and cbs television in los angeles, it was hard to know what was happening during filming. embassy television received numerous reports of drug and alcohol abuse in the presence of minors, which caused embassy president michael grade to ask for an investigation and led him to pull the plug on the show shortly after the first season finished production.