Freaks & Geeks

Also the guidance counsellor reminds me of the hippie "lesbian seagull" teacher in Beavis & Butthead.

The grilled cheese/Garry Shandling thing hit very close to home for me.

It's just so right. No speaking, just the music over top...it's really touching.

Also: (sorry, abrupt mood change) Bill dressing up as the Bionic Woman for Halloween made me cry tears of laughter. "I'm sorry Steve Austin, I can't marry you. I'm mad at you right now.."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ulr6K6qqlI

The grilled cheese/Garry Shandling thing hit very close to home for me.

― funky house skeptic (polyphonic), Saturday, October 2, 2010 10:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Ditto, me too. In fact, it was so eerily on-the-nose that I combed through the show's credits looking for a name I recognized, assuming that someone I knew in middle school was involved with the episode.

I knew a guy in middle school who watched Garry Shandling while he ate grilled cheese. YOU KNOW WHERE HE IS NOW?

:)

I also used to play drums along to Exit...Stage Left.

Favorite scene of the entire series: Bill stuffing his face and laughing at the same time to Gary Shandling doing stand-up on tv. Sounds ridiculous, but that scene had a lot of weight to it.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, August 9, 2009 2:43 AM

Yeah, I heard Judd on the WTF podcast say that was the most personal scene for him, and I knew I wasn't just imagining it. That was such a magnificently crafted scene. Just thinking about it makes me feel kind of heavy.

they just talked about that scene on the ifc site: http://www.ifc.com/news/2010/10/revived-and-derived-freaks-and.php

Cosine on all vegemite posts, I was hella late to the game but wow this show can be really really good.

didnt realise rashida jones was in this!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_10cUJHptQVY/TQTVGScKa_I/AAAAAAAAACc/8D_g_2XQv_0/s1600/1.jpg

Did all teenagers listen to The Who back in 1981 tho'?

The anachronisms (this one didn't seem so off) are really annoying.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, April 16, 2004 2:17 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
The anachronisms really don't bother me at all -- unlike The Wonder Years, or Happy Days at least some of the time, being a period show doesn't seem to be the point of it. It's set in the early 80s, but it isn't about them.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, April 16, 2004 2:22 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^this is totally wrong...apatow has talked about how -- pre-mtv -- culture moved a lot slower and classic rock stuff hung on a lot longer in the midwest...that was true even later when i was that age in the late 80s

teenagers still listen to the classic rock stations in the midwest.

otm

Or any small town anywhere...

All teenagers everywhere always listen to the Who.

otm

So, how prevalent was Dead Headdom in the 80's anyways? Obviously there would have been extensive continued loyalty from fans, but I assumed it all would have died out well before 1980.

well there's still deadheads 2day... new gen hippies are always coming along..

Yes, that's was a pretty significant oversight on my part. How easily I have forgotten all the people I encountered in my summer camp experience :S

After 76 they were touring almost non stop right up to Jerry's death...so if we're talking 80 then you could pretty much stand still and they'd pass by at some point.

yeah, i like the way f&g still shows how loads of people in the early 80s were still basically hippies/early 70s style metalheads. the temptation in making a show set then would be to have everybody in skinny ties and drainpipes, pop cultural eras are never that clean-cut.

i feel like deadhead following didn't even really become a 'thing' until the 1980s

Mr Veg worked for Bill Graham in the 90's, worked all of the Deadhead summer shows...they were even huge then.

The top selling album of 1980 was "The Wall." The top selling album of 1981 was "Hi-Infidelity." Billboard top 10 in 1981:

1. Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
2. Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
3. Lady - Kenny Rogers
4. (Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
5. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
6. Celebration - Kool & The Gang
7. Kiss On My List - Daryl Hall & John Oates
8. I Love A Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
9. 9 To 5 - Dolly Parton
10. Keep On Loving You - REO Speedwagon

Pre-MTV, in a suburb of Detroit? This show hits the general random shittiness of mainstream/corporate rock pretty dead-on. In the Midwest, I can only presume that liking a band like the Dead (or metal) was one of the few overt forms of musical rebellion back then, at least identifiable as such.

i feel like deadhead following didn't even really become a 'thing' until the 1980s

agreed, the fratkids *and* the burgeoning mainstream of what was previously alt. culture both made the Dead bigger than ever in the early-1990's. which is ironic to me 'cuz Jerry and Co. were at a creative standstill and inconsistent from night to night

Nitrous and weed = short memories, lol

I also assumed Jerry Garcia has died much earlier, like in the 70's, too, so...

And by the way, great show. Just watched it in full over 48 hours. Finishing it was eerily emotional, like, much more so than I am at TV series/movie closures (and this is from someone who felt sad at the end of Arrested Development).

Quality tv show for sure

I don't know how I never watched this until now but I got the box set for my birthday oh man it's so great. I mean it's so spot on in depicting the awkwardness of the years and the way they wrote L and Sam's parents characters is so perfect. Also - Biff! Man, what took me so long?

Garcia died like early '90s which I only remember because some annoying kids I knew got all sad and had a drum circle in his honor. lol.

1995 as it turns out

I just remember the commemorative ties in the menswear section of my local department store.

Didn't realize this was set in the Detroit burbs, always kind of thought it over towards the west side of the Lower Peninsula.

I just remember the commemorative ties in the menswear section of my local department store.

― VegemiteGrrrl, Tuesday, January 11, 2011 1:09 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

probably thinking of the lines of ties w/ designs based on Garcia's paintings (i bought one for my dad for i think father's day once!), afaik there weren't neckties to commemorate his death

yeah jerry garcia artwork was definitely published & licensed well before his death, garcia ties were def a thing

Maybe I'm just remembering it that way, lol

lol I remember the Garcia ties

OK so I only have a couple more eps and I'm sad I'm almost done. SO SO GOOD.

you can still buy a garcia tie at jc penney's

wasn't phil jackson the big booster of garcia ties?

My guess = Bill Walton?

Now that's just crazy talk :p

Sorry for OT but how do you know so much of US cultural ephemera with an Aussie handle like VegemiteGrrrl? Been curious!

She moved over here for our football.

There's probably way too much water under the bridge now, but if there can be an Arrested Development movie, couldn't Apatow have done some sort of F & G reunion/sequel thing?

I think the biggest obstacle is that no one would be able to recognize Bill now.

xpost Leee, I was always kind of stuck on American pop culture growing up...kind of a freakshow Americophile. American politics/history major in college, Mr Veg has abt 10 years on me and American-born/raised so he has schooled me in whatever holes he perceived in my education, lol. Not to say I don't love my homeland of course, haha,
Besides, Big Red goes to the Bridge Benefit every year and I heart that giant hippie big time :)

Oh and Johnny otm. Football is my gateway drug,