Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's 1999

Freaks and Geeks



I'll admit that I did not watch this show on it's initial run. Hell, it wasn't until a couple years ago that picked up the dvd and watched the entire run in three nights. But because of the impact this television show had (and still has) on our current Hollywood I must talk about this show and it's initial run during the 1999-2000 television season.

If you've never watched the show here is a brief synopsis: Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) is a straight A high school student who one day starts hanging out with the "freaks" under the bleachers. Her friends and family immediately take notice of this and try to stop her from hanging with her new friends. At the same time her little brother Sam (John Francis Daley) is entering his freshmen year of high school and quickly realizes that he and his friends are the "geeks" of the school. The series explores the social implications that accompanies both of these groups and how other people react to interacting with everyone involved.

Unlike most teen television shows the producers cast actual teenagers for many of the roles instead of twenty-seven year olds who "look young." This made the impact of storylines that dealt with teen issues ring truer than some other, more popular teen shows (Beverly Hills, 90210). But the real impact this show had on culture and today's Hollywood is the actors and the producer that this series launched.

First off the show was produced, written and directed by Judd Apatow. Just try and go the movies without seeing a trailer or poster for one of his movies theses days. His two failed attempts at television (he also produced the critically acclaimed but Fox Television marketing failure Undeclared) paved the way for a more successful movie career, and provided a springboard for many talented actors to build their own success. Here is a list of stars that started on Freaks and Geeks:

Seth Rogan (Knocked Up, Super Bad)
James Franco (Spiderman, Pineapple Express)
Linda Cardellini (ER, Scooby-Doo)
Busy Phillips (Dawson's Creek, White Girls)
Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall)
John Francis Daley (Bones, Waiting)

On top of the stars of the show Freaks and Geeks had many guest stars who would go on to garner fame as well:

Lizzy Caplan (Cloverfield, True Blood)
Sarah Hagan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Dave "Gruber" Allen (The Naked Trucker and T-Bone's Show)
Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin)
David Krumholtz (Numb3rs, Serenity)
Samaire Armstrong (Dirty Sexy Money, The O.C.)
Joanna Garcia (Reba, Priviliged)
Bianca Kajlich (Dawson's Creek, Rules of Engagement)
Shia LeBeouf (Transformers, Disturbia)
David Koechner (Anchorman, The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show)

Oh, and then there was some guy named Ben Stiller that made a guest appearance. Wonder what ever happened to that guy?

Whether it's to see a future star before they were famous or to remember high school the way it actually was rather than the way it is usually portrayed, you really cannot go wrong with this show.

One last "star" in the show is the music. Freaks and Geeks is set in 1980. This was before every trend and fashion from the 1980's came back into style and reminded us that some things should just stay in the past (I'm looking at you day glow, jelly bracelets and hair metal). The music is a perfect time capsule for the era and it, along with the styles and cultural references, really set the mood for a great show that could have easily been set in any era. It just goes to show that no matter the era, high school was the same for everyone. It's a shame this show was not allowed to last more than one season but I am glad that we have this dvd set to remind us that great television does exsist and will find its audience eventually. Even if it finds it too late for the network.

Nearly Almost Famous-ish

In early September of 2000 I was unemployed. I had no direction in my life and I lived for only a few things: sex, parties and my daily dose of Beverly Hills, 90210. Life was good. One late afternoon I awoke and looked up at the television.

I had (and still have) a tendency to sleep with the television on. The reason I had slept into the late afternoon was because the night before there was a huge party at my place to celebrate the 18th birthday for two of my former co-workers. Hell, they were friends and how could I not throw the birthday party that they wanted?

So I had been up all night. I had finally hit the bed around ten o'clock that morning and was slightly hung over. I opened my eyes and saw Rebecca Rankin on the tube talking about the new Cameron Crowe movie. I had heard he was making a new movie but hadn't read more than a blurb in Rolling Stone magazine a few months earlier.

As the late afternoon sun shown through my bedroom window, behind my television, I saw this:



My world changed that afternoon. I was obsessed from the first time I saw that clip. I HAD to see that movie! It was not scheduled to release for another couple weeks, but I got a phone call a few days later from my friend Andy. He had gotten a hold of a couple tickets for the sneak preview. I was there!

The night of the sneak peek I was so consumed with anticipation that I could barely contain myself. The movie started and I was totally consumed with all that it offered. I fell in love with Penny Lane, Russell Hammond and William Miller that night. And more importantly I re-fell in love with music.

I had been playing in a band for close to a year at that point and things just hadn't been going well. Basically we couldn't keep a coherent line-up. Seeing Almost Famous did not make a good band but it rekindled a desire to play. It was my inspiration for a looong time there after. That movie is not about being a teenager, or a rock star or a groupie. It's about the music.

Even though I fell back in love with music the night I saw Almost Famous a part of me died that night as well. I realized that I was not going to be the rock star I wanted to be. I was just going to be ordinary the rest of my life. That's the great (and awful) thing about art, it makes you strive to be better and it also makes you realize just how ordinary you really are. That night I knew it was never going to happen to me. I was a pale imitation of my heroes.

But it was okay. I had the music I loved to tell the story of my life and make it complete. And it did. It helped me through break-ups. It helped me get through career anxieties. And it helped me get through national tragedies. Somewhere inside of all that I found a reason to keep going. I can thank Almost Famous and the musical inspiration it gave me to keep on going. I love that movie and I love the promise it represents. If I ever meet Cameron Crowe I will thank him for that wondrous movie that sent my head spinning and made me dream bigger than I ever had before.

Now I'm Playing With Power

In June 1986 my dad owed me some money. I was twelve years old and five months early, for my birthday, I had received a substantial amount of money for my age, $300.00. My Dad had borrowed said money for bills and I had never let him forget that I was owed that money. Finally, after school had let out for the Summer I had been granted the right to spend said money. Initially I wanted the cash but as the months wore on something else had captured my eye. There was this strange new gaming console that had piqued my interest a few months back. Its name: the Nintendo Entertainment System.

I can still remember the commercials: Two kids sitting in a living room (one of them would later play Scott, the kid who was friends with David Silver until David got cool new friends, on Beverly Hills, 90210) playing various Nintendo games until the sheer power of the NES blasts their suburban home into space. To further emphasize their point the voice over simultaneously announced “Now You’re Playing With Power!” as the slogan flashed across the screen. I HAD TO HAVE ONE!!!



For months I had been obsessing. I needed this new gaming system! My old Atari 2600 was still kind of cool but this new Nintendo system blew that old seventies hold over away. The future was here and its name was NINTENDO!

On a Friday evening in June, 1986 my Dad had to play a make-up softball game due to a rain-out. I was still too young to play in the league but was anxious to get started. Still, that night was strange. During batting practice Dad was pitching to our own team and caught a line drive in the forearm. I, being only twelve years old, was less concerned with his condition and more concerned with my video game. I had been promised we would go to Target after the game and purchase my new obsession. I was concerned with Dad’s well being but I HAD to have my new game. Tomorrow was just too far away!

To Dad’s credit he played the entire game and led our team to a victory with a fractured forearm. And, to my eternal gratitude, he passed on the hospital opting for a minor emergency clinic instead. We were there about an hour when they finally told him he had a hair-line fracture and a cast would not be necessary. I was glad he wasn’t injured but I had bigger plans for that night. Target was still open and I had a destiny! Luckily the clinic was just down the road from Target and there was still about forty-five minutes before they closed. To me time was running out!

Once there I went straight for the electronics department. I knew where Nintendo lived and I was not about to let it slip through my hands. I rounded the corner, ran full force and stopped dead in my tracks in front of the end cap that housed my intended destiny. Dad followed slowly behind and eventually found me jumping up and down in place. He lifted the console bundle off the shelf and into the basket. I was set, the bundle included Super Mario Bros., a light gun and two controllers. That’s all I needed! The system was on sale for $149.99 and I figured I would pocket the rest of the money for later. But a monkey wrench was thrown in my plan.

Dad asked me if I wanted any other games. I was not prepared for this. Suddenly a strange euphoria came over my twelve-year-old person. I had more money to spend. This was a development that I could not control. I had to spend more money! And I did. Hogan’s Alley, Pro Wrestling, Gumshoe, Duck Hunt and Excitebike all came home with me that night. Being still young enough to have a bedtime, even during summer months, I only had time to hook-up my new vice and play Super Mario Bros. for about a couple hours.

All night I dreamt of my new acquisition in wanton lust. This was the future of gaming and I had one. I had the power to master all things digital! I would be the best there was at every game put in my path! Saturday morning rolled around and I arose early to face my new temptress. I played every game I bought the night before. I played and played and played until my Dad came into my bedroom with an angry look on his face.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” he asked with a face of stone. “I don’t know, 10 o’clock?” I replied. “It’s 2:30 in the afternoon,” he said. “Now turn that thing off and come eat some lunch.” I could not believe that I had lost almost 7 hours of the day to video games. I was in heaven but my parents didn’t see it that way. Strict regulations befell my video game playing from there on out.

Over the next few years a lot of video games passed threw my NES. Ghosts n Goblins, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Golf, Legend of Zelda, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Top Gun, and Double Dribble just to name a few. I lost countless hours and several summers to the Nintendo. I entered a local competition when I was sixteen at a video rental store. The game was Ninja Gaiden. I had only played Ninja Gaiden 2 but still ranked in the top five. That same summer I went to Bush Gardens with my family and happened upon an Excitebike competition. I placed third.

Because of Nintendo I went to the theater and saw the movie The Wizard with Fred Savage and Jenny Lewis just because it was going to preview Super Mario Bros. 3. If you’ve seen that movie you know my shame. Yes, I owned the Power Glove. No, I never learned to use it and if you owned one you probably never learned to use it either. As the years went by other gaming systems came along and on a fateful late spring day in 1993 I discovered a new video game system I couldn’t live without. I sold my Nintendo the next day and bought a Sega Genesis. But that is a story for another day