It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since Freaks and Geeks aired on NBC. The show featured a fantastic cast, touching, realistic writing, terrific music, and an almost unforgivable short run.
Many of the young cast members went on to have excellent careers despite NBC's pitiful treatment of the show. Stars like James Franco, Linda Cardellini, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, John Francis Daly, and Martin Star have all enjoyed robust careers in Hollywood. Shia LaBeouf, Rashida Jones, Lizzy Caplan, JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Ben Foster, Amy Aquino, Samaire Armstrong, Stephanie Erb, Leslie Mann, Kevin Corrigan, David Krumholtz, Jason Schwartzman, Matt Czuchy, and Mike White are just some of the talent that appeared in the shows all too brief run.
While 18 episodes were made, NBC only aired 15 of them, even banning one of them completely. The network never realized the greatest it had on its hands, and it canceled the show after one season that was exiled to Saturday nights and against the big TV phenomenon of the time - Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? What a waste of great talent and material.
The show centered around a 14-year-old, new freshman Sam Weir, his two best friends, his older sister Lindsay, and her four friends. The writing focused on the awkwardness and innocence of three young boys trying to find their way in high school. It also followed Lindsay as she went from being a brilliant student and mathlete to someone trying to find herself by closing off past relationships while becoming a part of a group of burnouts.
Sam and his friends make up the "geek" part of the show as they are into TV comedies, the fantasy genre, the AV Club, and Dungeons and Dragons. Linday, though she maintains her top grades and good heart, becomes a problem child while hanging the "freaks" of the school - the burnouts.
The writing was nothing short of brilliant, bringing up memories of life as a teenager that almost everyone can relate to. In a time when everything is awkward, numerous topics are covered, from school dances, dates, embarrassing parents, showering after physical education classes, cheating on exams, heartbreak, and joy. There is something for almost all audiences to relate to, as everyone has gone through similar tribulations in their lives.
Joe Flaherty and Becky Ann Baker exquisitely portray Sam and Linday's parents. He is a gruff local businessman with a bark worse than his bite, and she is a housewife who takes pride in her clean homes, tasty dinners, and incredible children. She calms her husband and kids during mealtime arguments and is a shoulder to cry on. They are imperfect but played perfectly.
Everyone has their favorite episodes for personal reasons. Some may resonate with a situation, while others gravitate to others. This is a list of my favorites.
The best 5 episodes of Freaks and Geeks
5. Episode 4 - "Kim Kelly is my Friend"
Not everyone liked this episode, as NBC never aired it and even banned it. It is a little different from some of the other episodes in tone, but it is also very realistic. It addresses common high school themes—bullying and abusive parents.
Sam is bullied by an older female student who writes something derogatory on his locker. When he tries to remove the insult, Same gets in trouble with the school for defacing school property. He is punished with a 500-word essay. As someone who was given a couple of these punishment essays in high school, this episodic plot resonated with me.
By episode four, Linday has injected herself into the ring of friends, including Kim Kelly, but Kim hasn't embraced her. Still, Kim knows how smart Lindsay is and invites Lindsay to her house for dinner with the secret agenda of showing her mother she could have nice, good friends.
Kim's mother is outwardly verbally abusive, and her stepfather is more subtly so. The dinner goes sideways when Lindsay is caught off guard by questions Kim's mother asks her. Lindsay realizes why she's there in the first place but tries to answer the questions as best she can. It becomes obvious that Lindsay is lying, and the mother blows up. A screaming match ensues, and Kim and Lindsay flee the house. Kim's mother chases them as they drive away.
This situation surrounding Kim's home life must strike a chord with most viewers. You probably know someone who had a similar bad situation with their parents. I know I did. While NBC may not have approved the episode, it was raw and realistic. It was a loud and raucous episode that certainly separates itself from most of the rest of the show in tone, but that doesn't diminish just how good it is.
4. Episode 9 - "We've Got Spirit"
Through most of the show's run, Sam has an unrequited crush on a perky cheerleader. He is stuck firmly in the friend zone. When the team's mascot gets injured before the big basketball game, Sam decides to try out for the role to be near Cindy.
After Cindy puts in a good word with Vicki, the bossy head cheerleader, Sam gets the gig. You'd think this would make Sam happy, but as Cindy's friend, she tells him about her big crush on the star basketball player. The news sours Sam toward being the mascot.
Sam's friend Neal desperately wants to be the mascot because he thinks he will be much better at it than Sam or the injured mascot. Neal is convinced the Norseman mascot should be funny and not just run around waving a wooden sword.
When Sam sees Cindy talking to and kissing the basketball star, he goes into the locker room to sulk. Neal finds him and talks Sam into letting him be the Norseman. Neal plays up his comic take on the mascot role, much to Cindy's and Vicki's chagrin. Both think it's still Sam and are angry when Neal topples the cheerleader pyramid. Cindy wants to know why Sam bailed on the gig, and not wanting to hurt her feelings, it tells her he was sick, and all is forgiven.
Meanwhile, Lindsay, who has almost inadvertently started dating Nick, one of her "freak" friends, decides his drug use and general malaise are too much. She thinks he is a nice guy but not someone she wants to be in a romantic relationship with. She tells her mom and asks for advice.
At the basketball game, Lindsay's mom runs into Nick and assumes Lindsay has already told him. This shocks Nick, and he's very hurt and upset. Lindsay isn't too happy with her mom either. Nick avoids Lindsay the rest of the evening and breaks up with her in the morning before Lindsay can say anything to him.
This episode is filled with teenage angst centered around crushes and breakups. Both are common, familiar topics that will strike home for most people in one way or another. Nearly everyone will have been on on side or the other of these situations and none of them are fun.
The writers do a good job breaking up all that angst with the comedy surrounding Neal taking over as the mascot with disastrous results. The episode comes off as silly at first glance, but there is a lot of pain and anguish for several characters in this episode. It is well-written, and it unfolds in a couple of unexpected ways.
3. Episode 17 - "The Little Things"
Sam finds out that not all that glitters is gold. After spending the whole season pining for Cindy Sanders, she finally realizes how nice of a guy Sam is, and they become a couple. All should be a paradise for Sam, but it doesn't work out as he always imagined it.
As it turns out, Cindy and Sam have almost nothing in common. He finds out she is rather shallow after his mom gives her a necklace that has been in the family for decades. He gives it to Cindy, and she scoffs at it and asks how much he paid for it. They see his favorite movie, The Jerk, and she thinks it's stupid. Socially, they run in different circles, and neither is comfortable with the other.
In Ken's (Seth Rogen) biggest storyline of the series, he's been dating a tuba player, who he really likes. She confides in him a secret - that she was born with both male and female genitalia - and that her parents and doctors removed the male parts after her birth. While Ken tries to be cool and understanding about it, it causes him to question his own sexuality.
Ken finally decides that it is too much to handle, and he's going to break up with his girlfriend. There is a great scene in the bathroom where Ken is trying to work up the nerve to break up, and Sam is in there, too. Sam is throwing up in a stall because he is nervous about breaking up with Cindy.
When Sam tells Ken why he's nervous, Ken questions why Sam would ever break up with the cheerleader. Sam lists all of the things wrong with them as a couple, and Ken realizes that he has none of those problems with his tuba girl, Amy. He realizes there is no way he can break up with her.
Sam bravely tells Cindy that he doesn't think they should date anymore, and why, and that he wants to remain her friend. She agrees that they aren't a match, but he is angered by the fact that he broke up with her. Ken finds Amy and tells her he's been stupid and likes her too much to let anything come between them.
This is the penultimate episode, and it has several funny little moments and poignant scenes of sadness. It's about personal growth for both Sam and Ken, and both end up in the correct place for themselves.
2. Episode 16 - "Smooching and Mooching"
Sam finds out that Cindy Sanders likes him. This is a big deal for Sam and the show. Sam has liked Cindy for as long as he can remember and now he finds out she likes him. With encouragement from his friends Neal and Bill, he asks Cindy on a date. She accepts and suggests they attend a friend's house party. He finds out it is a makeout party and wants to back out, but Neal and Bill talk him into going and taking them with him.
They play Spin the Bottle, but Cindy's spins never point toward Sam. He has to watch her kiss other boys. Bill, however, keeps "winning" when the head cheerleader, Vicki, spins the bottle his way. She doesn't allow him to kiss her on the lips and complains about her luck. Eventually, her spins point to Bill enough times to send them into the closet for "Seven Minutes of Heaven," where, by the rules of the game, they "get to" make out.
Once in the closet, Vicki makes it clear there is no way she is kissing Bill. For most of the show, Bill has proven to be the bravest and most awkward of the "geeks." He has been a crusader in other episodes, speaking out in his own way to right perceived wrongs. In this case, he chastizes Vicki for being mean and stuck up. He tells her that she doesn't pay attention to the feelings of others and that anyone as pretty as she is should be nicer. In a moment of weakness, she gives in and starts making out with Bill, and they go way past the allotted time.
This very nostalgic scene probably brings back both good and bad memories for the audience, but it's Bill's big moment, and he's the hero. It is also the beginning of Sam realizing that dating Cindy wasn't going to go as he'd always imagined.
The other main storyline is fantastic as well. Linday's ex-boyfriend Nick leaves home when his father sells his beloved drumset. He stays one night at Ken's, but then goes to Linday's and tells his story to her family, knowing how good-hearted her parents were. He asks if he can sleep on their couch for a night, and they shock Lindsay by saying yes. They'd never liked Nick and she couldn't believe they'd allow her ex- boyfriend to stay the night.
Nick and Lindsay's dad connect over music when the older man introduces the younger to jazz with its intricate percussions. Nick is blown away, and at one point, Lindsay catches Nick dancing in the living room with her parents. She's horrified and embarrassed, but it also is a tender moment because, for all of his problems, Nick is a sweet guy.
Both storylines give secondary characters big moments. Both Bill and Nick play big roles in the series, but they both get nice moments here, near the end of the series.
1. Episode 1 - "Pilot"
There can be no doubt about what NBC saw in the pilot that made them want the show initially. The pilot is as perfect an hour of television as there has ever been. It is incredible, and it draws the audience in and makes them love the characters immediately.
Lindsay is trying to find herself. We get the impression she's been a model student and child her whole life, but after the death of her grandmother, she goes on a journey of self-discovery, which lasts the whole season. She starts wearing her dad's army jacket, and she quits the Mathletes. While she maintains her good grades, she stops hanging out with her old friends and starts hanging out with the burnouts.
The burnouts are amused that Lindsay wants to hang out with them. They consider her a poser, too smart to hang out with. They think she is a goody-two-shoes and hold her at arm's length. As the series moves forward, she has to prove herself to this group, which she does throughout.
We see her heart and personality when she stops some girls from making fun of Eli, a student with intellectual disabilities. Eli is asking all the girls if they'd go to the dance with him, and the girls laugh and string him along. Kindsay steps in and tells him she would be glad to go to the dance with him.
Later, she catches two boys poking fun at him, and when she tries to step in, she missteps. She tells the boys to leave Eli alone, and she uses a term that upsets Eli. When Eli is running away, he falls off the bleachers and breaks his arm, and it is Lindsay's fault. She becomes a pariah around the school.
Sam, Neal, and Bill are eager to start life as high schoolers, but run into a bully named Allen, who hounds them relentlessly. He seems to be everywhere they are, and he doesn't let up. They ask for advice from an upperclassman they know, but he is little help.
Sam, meanwhile, continues to pine for Cindy, someone he liked even before high school. He manages to ask her to the dance, but she already hs a date. She does promise him a dance, though.
The dance has one of the sweetest scenes ever. Sam arrives at the dance in his suit. He looks around the room and finds Cindy talking with some friends. "Come Sail Away" by Styx begins, and it is a slow song. He weaves his way through the dancing kids and asks her to dance. She accepts, and he leads her through the crowd by the hand, looking for the perfect place to slow dance with his crush. Just as he stops and starts to place his hands on her hips, the pace of the song changes to a faster beat, and Cindy begins to dance fast. The flash of confusion and disappointment on Sam's face is brilliant, sweet, and relatable.
Lindsay, assigned to the punch table by the school counselor, sees Eli and asks him to dance. He sees she is genuinely sorry, and he forgives her immediately and dances with her.
This episode hit every note perfectly, putting the audience in those characters' shoes in that time and that place. It tugged every nostalgic string in all the right ways and did so with a sweet yet realistic tone. This episode is just fantastic.
It set the tone for the whole series. NBC never appreciated what it had and what more it could have been. Audiences were robbed of the chance to see these characters grow up and how they would grow. Shame on NBC for canceling this show so quickly. Today, you can stream the series on Hulu.