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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Freaks & Geeks on DVD!

14:27 / 07.04.04

This show fucking rocks. I urge all of you to check it out. It's by a thirtysomething creator named Judd Apatow and Paul Feig, about growing up in jr. high/high school. It was on NBC for a while, critically acclaimed but cancelled because it was poorly marketed/put on a bad night/low ratings. It won two Emmys (for screenplays/writing), one of which even after it went off the air (because technically NBC aired a rerun of ep. that won the 2nd Emmy during the Emmy calendar year).

You won't find a better, more heartfelt and heartbreaking show about growing up in the middle-class 80s USA. It's about the geeky, dorky kids and the "burnout", counterculture pot-smoking cigarette-chain-smoking crowd (the latter being known as the 'freaks' in H.S.). I cried hard and laughed hard at practically every episode - and oftentimes I was crying for joy at how true, how wonderful it was. The actors are top-notch. Linda Cardellini, currently Velma in the crappy Scooby-Doo movies, and James Franco, currently Harry Osborn in the Spidey flicks, came from this series.

Check it out. It's out on DVD today. Entertainment Weekly said "It's the best teen drama...well, ever!" The DVD collection has gotten top marks from everyone. It's something like 15 or 16 episodes total, and the final ep does kind of finish the story off nicely.

14:30 / 07.04.04

Oh, and Linda Cardellini plays a more respectable role these days on E.R. The creators of Freaks & Geeks also did the short-lived half-hour series "Undeclared" for Fox a few years back. And there's a blonde girl in F&G who was in the later seasons of Dawson's Creek (I didn't watch Dawson's Creek at all, I just occasionally saw her on the show when I flipped channels).

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:38 / 07.04.04

Hello! Let's hear it for the Sarah Hagan Appreciation Team! Millie The Mathlete 4 Lyfe!

I love Sarah Hagan and this is the show that brought her into our hearts.

14:50 / 07.04.04

I love this show... it was so great. Do you know how much the DVD is running? Hopefully not too much.

15:25 / 07.04.04

Cool call, Birdie!

I think the DVD goes for something like $60 or $70. I soo rarely spend that kind of money on anything like this, but this show is so kick-ass that I must have it. And apparently there are TONS of really excellent extras & commentary.

That's right, I forgot about Millie the Mathlete who later became a Buffy potential!!

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

17:39 / 07.04.04

I was incredibly tempted to hold out for the super-bonus edition, as it has a 10 minute featurette SOLELY about our Sarah Hagan but I just could not justify an extra 65 bucks (I got my box on sale) for two disks and the yearbook. Maybe if it's still available when I get my tax return.

Anyway.

SARAH HAGAN ON COMMENTARY!

Awe. Some.

18:46 / 07.04.04

Virgin Megastore has it for $54.99 in NYC. I assume the price would be the same or very close around the country (or maybe even less cause NYC is so damn expensive)...

18:47 / 07.04.04

Also, Amazon.com has it for $48.99 with free shipping.

23:05 / 07.04.04

I've seen almost all the episodes from when it was on the air, and just have to say, buy this show. It's one of those series, like Twin Peaks, that was just phenomenal from the get go. There's some great overarching plots, and a lot of respect for the audience. The last episode of the series is one of the top ten greatest TV episodes ever.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

13:36 / 08.04.04

I just finished off the second episode and it's all coming back. This show was so fantastic. Lindsay is like the most fully realized female teenager ever on television ever. Sam is completely in every way me is a teenager, down to the horribly unmanagable hair.

And Bill. Bill, Bill, Bill. So effortlessly hilarious. I think it was his single performance on this show that ushered in the kind of understated comedy that a show like Arrested Development thrives on. Everything he did was so subtle but so spectacular, you had to buy it.

A true American Pioneer: Bill Haverchuck.

15:30 / 08.04.04

Yeah, this show resonates a lot with me. It's almost like the kids are analogs of my friends - Sam is my friend Jason, I was more like Bill. And our friends Andy and Mark, fused together, were like the kid who loved old cheesy comedians - what was his name? The kid with the black curly hair? Oh, Neil!!

And I got to give a shout-out to the Paul Lynde-esque father, who tread the line beautifully between over-the-top comedy parent and sincere, realistic parent.

15:30 / 08.04.04

And the gym teacher, who was awesome. Wasn't he the bully jock in the Back to the Future movies?

12:49 / 17.05.04

Just started going through the ep's in earnest -- the show just blows me away. Sam's streak through the high school to the tune of Madness' "One Step Beyond" absolutely kills me. "Kim Kelly is My Friend" is an amazing episode. This show is always just great, great, great.

13:06 / 07.06.04

"Lady L"!! BWAHAHAHAHAAA HAHAAAAAA !!! I almost forgot about this (last saw the show on videotapes like 2 years ago).

Priceless.

02:02 / 23.07.07

I've just watched this tv show straight through and I can't get over how much I like this show. Although this show is in the early 80s, it felt to me more like my high school experience in the early 90s. This felt very sincere to me...moreso than most television shows about the teen experience. Shows like "That 70s show" always pissed me off because even though there were genuine moments in that show, there were also ingenuine moments played for the laughs or played to show off the cute girls in a very 90s way.

I knew these people in high school. This isn't an exaggeration. I took out my yearbook and I could see how these people are familiar looking to my friends and, although my memories may have changed throughout the years, I still remember doing things like the weird dance bit in the pilot where you want to slow dance and suddenly the song changes. I remember the weird girls with their my little pony attitudes or the scary sexual girls that freak everyone out. It reminds me a lot of why I liked Dazed and Confused (with realistic-looking girls) and that Ben Affleck movie "Glory Daze" (if only for that one part in the movie where the guy doesn't get the girl in what looks like the worst confrontation ever).

I don't know why I can't stop watching this tv show. Something about Frieg and Apatow's direction and the actors' improvisation that makes me want to rewatch for nuance.

- G

13:34 / 23.07.07

>> I've just watched this tv show straight through and I can't get over how much I like this show.

I watch the series over and over again, about once a year, and I still feel the same way. It's just perfection.

Entertainment Weekly called it "the best coming of age TV show...well, ever." And it truly deserves that label. 'Nuff said.

23:44 / 23.07.07

Agreed. Nice to see Martin Starr (Bill) and the guy who plays Nick in KNOCKED UP, which I HIGHLY recommend to all F&G fans. james Franco also shows up in a cameo.

UNDECLARED was also supposed to be good, albeit a bird of another feather format-wise. Some of that cast is on KU too.

01:47 / 24.07.07

Undeclared is pretty terrific - not quite on the level of F&G but still far-above-average TV fare. And at times, Undeclared is brilliant (esp. the Will Ferrell guest-star episode, which was done when he was first kicking ass on SNL but was *far* from a household name...)

00:17 / 25.07.07

I just noticed something from Undeclared, right after watching Freaks and Geeks: Is that Sarah Hagen screaming at her mother and grandmother to get the hell out of her dorm room?

Undeclared feels different than Freaks and Geeks. I'm definitely going to watch it, but I think I need a buffer between Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

I wonder if Knocked Up is still playing. Or maybe I'll watch ER or somethin.

- g

00:35 / 25.07.07

Knocked Up was still in the Top Ten last weekend, so if you are in the US, you should be able to see it an a multiplex.

A friend just saw SUPERBAD and thought it was off the scale hilarious and a newly minted classic to boot. And I've read some good test screening reviews of Pinapple Express (stoner "action" comedy).

Apatow and Rogen have staged a quiet comedy revolution, I think. Let's hope their amazing touch teached Hollywood something. Hell...who am I trying to KID? Anyway, they are very fucking funny.

01:16 / 25.07.07

That seems interesting. Ther was this really interesting article about how Judd Apatow might actually be bad for comedy movies because of his reliance on improvisation instead of straight scripts. I can see their point because improvisation makes script writing problematic. Who needs script writers if we have directors that insist on improvisation?

I love Judd Apatow and Paul Frieg. There is something authetic in their improvisation. It just seems weird that there are people who are against his method.

- g