'Freaks and Geeks' - what happened?! - appreciation thread

Excuse me, Dr. Love? Would you autograph my genitals?

 

There's just a plethora of brilliant lines from this show.

 

A couple of faves:

Mr. Rosso: "How dumb do I look?"
Ken: "Do you really wanna know?"

Alan: "Shut up you little girl."
Bill: "I'm not a little girl. I'm a bionic woman."

 

Mr. Rosso (after seeing his pumpkins destroyed): "Not cool! That is really not cool!"

Creepy older guy about to enter Lindsey's party with his equally sketchy pals: "We're gonna tear this mother DOWN!!!"

Mr. Rosso: "Hey, have you guy's checked out the new Rush? I hear it's really rockin', and I saw Hendrix, live!"

Mr. Rosso: "I have friends who are some the dirtiest, smelliest men you will ever meet. But they all have girlfriends. You know why? Confidence."

 

Nick: Wow, that dinner smells good. Let me guess, meat?

 

Good to see that the Freaks have all moved on to successful careers:
James Franco (Spiderman movies)
Seth Rogen (Judd Apatow and Kevin Smith movies)
Jason Segel (Apatow movies and How I Met Your mother)
Linda Cardellini (E.R.)
Busy Phillips (Well...saw her in The Wayans Brothers White Chicks)

What about the Geeks?

John Francis Daley (Dr. Lance Sweets on Bones)
Martin Starr (Mostly small bit parts in Apatow movies: Knocked Up. Superbad and Walk Hard)
Samm Levine ( A lot of tv appearances but has a juicy role in the new Quentin Tarantino flick Inglourious Basterds due out in August opposite Brad Pitt.
Here's the trailer
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808404206/video/11988602

 

Oops, just realized Busy Phillips is on Terminator:Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Sorry Busy, haven't watched the show.

 

Yep, Black Flag's Damaged, that was the forgivable thing that was a few months to early that I alluded to. Sounded like you hadn't seen that episode yet, so I didn't wan't to ruin for ya.

 

Gf and I just watched the "Chokin' and Tokin'" episode. Brilliant stuff. Especially the scene where Linda Cardellini's character Lindsay asks Millie to help her babysit.

Millie - "You're high!"
Lindsay - "What?"
Millie - "You're on the pot!"
Lindsay - "How could you tell?"
Millie - "I'm not dumb Lindsay. I know what high people look like. I went to a Seals & Crofts concert last summer."

 

That show had great writers, didn't it? Several years ago I saw some pictures of what these people look like today. The now woman that played Millie looks completely different than she did on the show. She was unrecognizable.

 

like the lettuce?

The Eagle has landed

 

I think I found Lindsay's character a bit more credible than you did. Yes, she's definitely searching for some kind of identity, something different from how she's been labeled in the past, a common enough occurrence in high school. But there's an extra factor which plays into her unease and quest beyond just typical adolescent searching...its something that is only mentioned a few times throughout the series, but I think the death of her grandmother had a profound effect on how she viewed life, I think she was maybe looking for something more authentic (I think her grandmother's death quashed any sort of belief structure that life should be lived in one particular manner without question), a level of authenticity that she initially thought that the "freaks" embraced and could offer her, but realizes they can't as a group or clique and that is why she is willing to go along and at least try out the dead head scene, all while still being somewhat pulled by her past (the mathlete episode) yet unwilling to fully return to that set. She's definitely a complex character, and thus may not be as representative as the other characters on the show that "we all knew" in high school. That said, I still find her to be a credible character and don't see a failure in these transitions.

Lyndsay is also a pretty empathetic character -- until she feels betrayed, like that scene in which she helps Daniel cheat but then starts cracking up uncontrollably during the parent-student-teacher meeting when Daniel goes into this phony shtick about tracking in schools. But she is especially empathetic in the case of Kim Kelly. No one gives Lyndsay a harder time about her efforts to transition from "daddy's girl" or "miss goody two-shoes" to "freak" but by the end of the series Lyndsay has grasped what sort of environment (seeing Kim's home and meeting her mother) informs Kim's rougher side and that deep-down Kim is actually a good person who needs desparately to get out of her environment, and thus set out to follow The Dead In this sense, Lyndsay doesn't bear grudges and is quite emotionally mature for her age, and thus somewhat unique and perhaps not as representative of kids we knew in high school (and thus a little more difficult for most of us to relate to).

 

Going back to the OP, as probably mentioned the ratings were low, too low. I watched it then and knew it was going to happen. Fortunately, so did Apatow and Feig and ultimately "planned" on the season ending as a school year and there was some sense of closure.

 

The one real mistake I caught in Freaks And Geeks -- I think it was in the first episode, actually -- was when the freaks were talking about getting stoned and going to see The Wall. The film didn't come out until a couple years later.

But anyway, brilliant show.

 

IMDB says this is an error, but also allows that Nick could be refering to a laser show. I think it's an error.

 

I thought he said they were going to the planetarium which would obviously be a laser show.

 

I did a quick Google search, and apparently the exchange goes like this:

Nick: Hey does anybody wanna come see The Wall with me on Saturday night? Thought I might try an experiment—see it straight once.

Ken: Don't do it! You'll regret it, man. Trust me.

I guess that doesn't negate the possiblity that they're talking about something other than the movie....but given the film's reputation (as being an experience that's somehow enhanced by being stoned), I stand by my initial thought that they just got this one wrong.

 

I've grown to love the show recently, but I'll admit that I never even noticed it during it's run. I'm not sure if it was a marketing thing or what, but I probably wasn't even old enough to appreciate it when it was on.

 

In one of the DVD commentaries, it was acknowledged that they made a mistake.

 

Great show.. pretty sure I watched every episode when I was in high school and then it literally disappeared overnight. A shame.

 

For the last five years, every January I'll start Freaks & Geeks and watch my way through it (usually concluding mid-to-late February). Really never gets old. What a great show. Just watched the pilot tonight.

 

I didn't they shouldn't have!!!

 

It was definitely laser Floyd, not The Wall. Maybe they mentioned The Wall but at some point they said laser.

 

People are talking about two different things here. They do go see Laser Floyd in a "The Garage Door" (episode 12), but in "Beers and Weirs" (episode 2), Nick asks if anyone wants to go see the Wall with him.

 

So thankful for Netflix I am plowing my way through this series front to back. Brilliant stuff.