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Thursday, June 15, 2006
Freaks and Geeks
This was a great show that unfortunately only lasted one year. It was on NBC during the 1999-2000 TV season. It was set in Michigan during the 1980-1981 school year. It mainly focused on a brother and sister. The brother was a freshmen and one of the geeks. His older sister was a smart kid starting to hang out with the freaks. The freaks were slackers who talked about sex, drugs and hard rock/metal. The show plays a lot of music from the late 70's-early 80's. There are references of songs played by Rush, Van Halen, Ted Nugent and a number of other bands. The reason was it so good was that the kids acted like real high school kids. Kids were awkward, kids could be mean and and it wasn't always easy, but the show is also funny as hell. Unfortunately NBC had the show off for a while during the World Series and they changed nights on it. They also refused to show an episode they found to be to rough despite having advertised it the week before. Fortunately the entire series came out on DVD two years ago and I have played every episode several times.
I don't remember that show but it sounds like a good one! I grew up in the 70's and although Ashton & Topher are cutie pies, That 70's Show was not very realistic.
ReplyDeleteThat show was brilliant, I loved it!
ReplyDeleteOne of my all-time favorites. I too own the DVD set and recommend everyone should just go buy it...you will not be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteBar-The 70's show is a typical sitcom, Freaks and Geeks was one of a kind. It's a shame they couldn't have gotten just one more season out of it.
ReplyDeleteOnmywatch-I agree.
Strutter-I was thrilled when the dvd set came out. Very well done with more extras then I could have hoped for. I know it took them a while to get permission from the artists to use all the music, but it was worth it. I didn't get to see all of the episodes in the original run once they switched nights.
I've never seen this show but any show that references Rush has to be cool!
ReplyDeleteIt was an excellent show. It is a shame that it lasted such a short time. But that was the way of tv then. Now some cable channel would have snatched it up in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteI loved this show. I was disappointed when they cancelled it too.
ReplyDeleteFred-There is an episode where the character who plays drums listens to Rush while he plays. He is terrible, but it's a good episode about being in a garage band.
ReplyDeleteMimi-I agree, but I guess I have to give some credit to NBC because all of the other networks turned it down. So if it wasn't for NBC then it wouldn't even have gotten on for one season
Fuzz-I agree, if the creators has posed the idea like three years later then a cable channel would have won awards for it.
Curare-It was a shame to think about the kinds of crap shows that get several years while good shows like Freaks and Geeks, the Tick and Greg the bunny didn't hardly get a chance.
Oh man, Freaks and Geeks—don't even get me started. This series was art of the highest order, and 10x better than most cinema out there. It was saturated with music—Styx, Rush, Nugent, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Floyd, etc.—and I'm so glad the producers put the work in to pay for the rights to the songs so that the DVDs could be released with the original TV soundtrack intact.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, it's OK that it only lasted one season, because it exists as this perfect, self-contained set of episodes that never got tainted by additional seasons of watered-down material. It never jumped the shark!
Welcome, the Mule. I agree that Freaks is perfect the way it is. In some ways I would have like dto have seen a season two, but it could have changed the show. NBC did give them some space to do what they wanted and that may have changed during a second season.
ReplyDeleteIt was so perfectly casted. I can't think of very many shows where even the occasional supporting cast was so good.