Freaks and Geeks

[billfromlaketravis 11522]

The 100 greatest sitcoms thread got me thinking about Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest TV Shows List from 2016. I was pretty surprised with No. 11 Freaks and Geeks. Ahead of Letterman, The West Wing and Game of Thrones. 

The show was always at the top of the brilliant but canceled lists, but I never thought of it as an all time great show. After a rewatch, I'm still not sure it is a great show. Excellent cast, soundtrack, but I'd probably put it behind The Wonder Years on my best high school show list and behind Undeclared on my brilliant but canceled list. Both were far funnier. 

While it did grow on me some, it's a sad show that deals with the melancholy of high school and the hopelessness of being stuck in a small town. It's not really funny or dramatic. I think anyone could appreciate and enjoy the show, but if you didn't like high school this is your Mona Lisa. NBC aired 12 episodes before it was canceled, but they filmed 18. All episodes are available on Hulu. 

Some highlights : 

- Martin Starr as Bill. He made some interesting choices as an actor and he really went for it. He played the geekiest guy in school and played it well. 

- Linda Cardellini as Lindsay. You really sympathized with her angst. She's brilliant, but doesn't want to get pigeonholed with academic pursuits. Her ending was great and one of the best scenes from the show. 

- Lindsay's parents were awesome. I think we all wish we had folks like them. Two people truly in love that love and nurture their children. Joe Flaherty, previously of Happy Gilmore fame, is a great TV dad. 

- Franco and Rogen were OK. It's rare that TV show gives young actors a chance to figure it out on screen. It was fun to watch them put it all together. Nowadays, they'd probably get recast by British actors with Shakespearian resumes. 

- I loved the Geeks. 3, sometimes 5 guys, that were genuine friends. Stephen Lea Sheppard was hilarious as the high school philosopher Harris. A really strong perform from Samm Levine as Neal. 

- Biff was perfect as the gym teacher Coach Fredricks.

- Some cool cameos. Rashida Jones as a bully. Ben Stiller. Shia LaBeouf as the mascot. Lizzy Kaplan is a few episodes. Ben Foster as super nerd and Three's Company super fan Eli. Jason Schwartzman was pretty funny in his brief appearance. 

 

Some low points: 

- Jason Segel. He always plays the silly guy with the heart of gold, and he can't act for shit. He's doing a lot of stuff on the show, none of it well. Probably the least talented member of the main cast. 

- I don't like Busy Phillips, and this show didn't help. She's made a career out of being annoying in everything. 

- I don't think the Geeks were really bullied all that much. The jocks knock over their books, but there's no ass kickings, wedgies, or swirlies like you'd expect. Other than that not getting much play from the ladies, the Geeks don't have much to be sad about. 

- The Freaks aren't really burnt outs. They don't smoke all that much weed, never get drunk, never get arrested, and always seem to make it to school on time. 

[Deej 76899]

30 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Joe Flaherty, previously of SCTV fame, is a great TV dad.

 

[rage-a-holic 4454]

Yep, thanks for letting us know about that Joe Flaherty guy from Happy Gilmore. 

Bob Barker, Verne Lundquist and Richard Kiel also got their first big breakout roles in it.

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by rage-a-holic

[Deej 76899]

They all owe their careers to Adam Sandler, particularly Carl Weathers. 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Deej

[mr. sunshine 2832]

I once heard that the greeks don’t want no freaks. Some band out of California. Probably freaks themselves 

[billfromlaketravis 11522]

My favorite episode is Noshing and Moshing. Papa Weir gets hammered at a party. Neal's ventriloquist act gets weird. Uncomfortably funny things happen. 

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

All internet lists suck and the OP sucks. Freaks and Geeks was great. 

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Excellent show.

And I grew up on The Wonder Years (I was the same age/grades as Kevin…or within a year).

But have you tried to go back and watch it recently? There are a lot of misses and overly dramatic crap in that series.

Freaks and Geeks felt more real to me.

[atomheartbevo 89781]

7 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Some low points: 

- I don't think the Geeks were really bullied all that much. The jocks knock over their books, but there's no ass kickings, wedgies, or swirlies like you'd expect. Other than that not getting much play from the ladies, the Geeks don't have much to be sad about. 

- The Freaks aren't really burnt outs. They don't smoke all that much weed, never get drunk, never get arrested, and always seem to make it to school on time. 

Yeah, these two points kind of ruin it at times.  Nobody was assaulted in a janitor's closet with a traffic cone, nobody was sexually assaulted with a floor waxer, nobody was "accidentally" killed, and then you had to get some friends to help and make it look like the person hung themselves from a goalpost on the football field, followed by a quickly coordinated campaign to spread rumors around school that they were jealous they didn't make the football team (and everybody knew they never cared about football) or pined for some girl that would never give them the time of day or whatever.

And even in the 80s, we had the freaks that did plenty of pot, made bongs in one of the shop classes, and were constantly listening to Pink Floyd or Zeppelin or whatever.

With that said, the cast makes it easy to ignore, and like you said, it's interesting to see young actors figuring it out.

Edited June 7, 2021 by atomheartbevo

[huge 3795]

Ive never seen one second of this show but I keep thinking I should, just to check the box

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

19 minutes ago, huge said:

Ive never seen one second of this show but I keep thinking I should, just to check the box

You should check it out. It’s brilliant. And it only lasted one season so it won’t take up much of your time. 

[Tom 2959]

9 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

 

- The Freaks aren't really burnt outs. They don't smoke all that much weed, never get drunk, never get arrested, and always seem to make it to school on time. 

 

I love this show and think it deserves every accolade it gets and more.  

I could be wrong, it's been a long while since I've seen it, but I thought it was supposed to be implied when they were hanging in the outside smoking area at lunch or under the bleachers they were getting stoned, but didn't show it for NBC network reasons or something like that.  

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

The Box of Rain scene is one of the all time greats. And Linda Cardellini is a total babe. She was hot in Freaks and Geeks. She was hot in Mad Men. And she was hot in 3rd Rock From the Sun. 

[lateshow 1305]

4 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

The Box of Rain scene is one of the all time greats. And Linda Cardellini is a total babe. She was hot in Freaks and Geeks. She was hot in Mad Men. And she was hot in 3rd Rock From the Sun. 

She was also hot in Bloodline. I celebrate her entire catalogue. 

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2739]

Always enjoyed the show.  

Spot on about Segel and Phillips. 

[Deej 76899]

She's smoke.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

3 hours ago, lateshow said:

She was also hot in Bloodline.

That I haven’t seen but I’m sure you’re right. 

[billfromlaketravis 11522]

Cardellini was smoke in Grandma's Boy. 

Also let's not forget her turn as Velma in the Scooby Doo franchise. 

[Rip76 4947]

Freaks and Geeks was great.

I've got the DVD set which has the extra episodes, and lots of good extras.  Bloopers/Auditions, etc.

Some of the best parts are Haverchuck.  Two that come to mind are the "Gary Shandling" and the Keg in the bedroom episodes.

The Wonder Years will always be my favorite TV show, but this maybe could have been.

**Franco and Rogen brought nothing to the series.

[billfromlaketravis 11522]

38 minutes ago, Rip76 said:

Freaks and Geeks was great.

I've got the DVD set which has the extra episodes, and lots of good extras.  Bloopers/Auditions, etc.

Some of the best parts are Haverchuck.  Two that come to mind are the "Gary Shandling" and the Keg in the bedroom episodes.

The Wonder Years will always be my favorite TV show, but this maybe could have been.

**Franco and Rogen brought nothing to the series.

Martin Starr can act. He was a scene stealer in Party Down and great as Gilfoyle on Silicon Valley. I think he has his own production company and kind of does his own thing. 

Franco was trying on the show, but they asked him to do James Dean things without the talent or experience. 

[tantric superman 4667]

17 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Franco was trying on the show, but they asked him to do James Dean things without the talent or experience. 

So, basically exactly what a high school dude might try to pull off?

 

[tantric superman 4667]

On 6/6/2021 at 11:06 PM, huge said:

Ive never seen one second of this show but I keep thinking I should, just to check the box

Here is a summary:

 

[Herpa Derpa 6129]

One of my favorite scenes is when Sam arrives at school with his new feathered hair and powder blue disco jumpsuit thinking he’s the shit. The transition in his emotions as he walks down the hall and realizes everyone is laughing AT him is classic. If you can’t relate to that experience, you never went to high school with a new outfit or haircut. Brutal and hilarious in a simple and relatable depiction of HS life. That’s the epitome of F&G. 

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

9 minutes ago, Herpa Derpa said:

One of my favorite scenes is when Sam arrives at school with his new feathered hair and powder blue disco jumpsuit thinking he’s the shit. The transition in his emotions as he walks down the hall and realizes everyone is laughing AT him is classic. If you can’t relate to that experience, you never went to high school with a new outfit or haircut. Brutal and hilarious in a simple and relatable depiction of HS life. That’s the epitome of F&G. 

Yeah, you haven’t lived if you never bought an embarrassing outfit from Chess King. 

[dogbreath 434]

The episode where Neal finds out his dad is cheating by biking around (eventually alone) testing the garage door remote on houses in different neighborhoods.

That shit hit home.  Or the scene where the kid at school tells everyone about how your dad took his mom, his brother and him to the movies on a fucking Tuesday night.  Oh wait, that was real life and not on the show.  

 

[DougO 5256]

On 6/6/2021 at 3:49 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

Some low points: 

- Jason Segel. He always plays the silly guy with the heart of gold, and he can't act for shit. He's doing a lot of stuff on the show, none of it well. Probably the least talented member of the main cast. 

-

 

Strongly disagree here. It was like I knew that exact same fn' guy in high school. He was one of the more real characters and performances that relate to my experience.

[DCA_HORN 725]

One of my favorite scenes is when Sam arrives at school with his new feathered hair and powder blue disco jumpsuit thinking he’s the shit. The transition in his emotions as he walks down the hall and realizes everyone is laughing AT him is classic. If you can’t relate to that experience, you never went to high school with a new outfit or haircut. Brutal and hilarious in a simple and relatable depiction of HS life. That’s the epitome of F&G. 

It's not a jumpsuit it's a Parisian night suit.

[DougO 5256]

On 6/7/2021 at 10:42 AM, Deej said:

She's smoke.

 

She was great in the Green Book, and still smoke.

[52-80 19233]

On 6/7/2021 at 5:57 AM, atomheartbevo said:

Yeah, these two points kind of ruin it at times.  Nobody was assaulted in a janitor's closet with a traffic cone, nobody was sexually assaulted with a floor waxer, nobody was "accidentally" killed, and then you had to get some friends to help and make it look like the person hung themselves from a goalpost on the football field, followed by a quickly coordinated campaign to spread rumors around school that they were jealous they didn't make the football team (and everybody knew they never cared about football) or pined for some girl that would never give them the time of day or whatever.

And even in the 80s, we had the freaks that did plenty of pot, made bongs in one of the shop classes, and were constantly listening to Pink Floyd or Zeppelin or whatever.

With that said, the cast makes it easy to ignore, and like you said, it's interesting to see young actors figuring it out.

Okay thats a lot right there

[RPM 26342]

Linda Cardellini always has and always will be pure smoke.