We've almost hit the way halfway point, and thankfully I still have some hour long shows on this list to alternate weeks. That being said, today's hour long show is still technically a comedy, so get ready for a mediocre entry that doesn't say very much! In all honesty, I'd suggest you actually watch this episode rather than read why I like it because damn, this is a good one.
After the break: An entire "before they were famous" cast doing some of the best work of their careers.
Freaks and Geeks, "Pilot"
First aired on NBC Saturday, September 25, 1999
“She was a good person all her life and that’s what she got.” – Lindsay Weir
A few weeks back, I wrote about the “Lost” pilot and alluded
to how quickly it went through the development season. For the sake of clarity,
particularly for today’s entry, I figured I should explain what that process
is.
Every summer, the American broadcast networks hear hundreds
of pitches for new television shows, and in the fall each network will order at
least 50 scripts for television pilots. Starting in about January, two dozen of
those 50 scripts are ordered to the pilot stage, in which an actual episode of
television is made. A cast is assembled and pilots are usually filmed in March
or April (typically, multi-camera sitcoms are filmed closer to the deadline,
while single camera shows tape earlier because they require more editing).
These pilots are submitted to the networks in April, and from there network
executives decide, based on a number of factors including the reaction from
test audiences, which pilots they will order to series and actually air. It’s a
lengthy, outdated process that wastes a lot of peoples’ time and money, but
like a lot of things in this business (Nielsen ratings, for instance), certain
practices are used simply because no one has figured out a better way to do it.
Pilots that film in March or April and are actually picked
up will likely not shoot another episode until mid July if they have a spot on
the fall schedule. If they’re scheduled for a midseason debut, the start date
is actually later, likely sometime in October. Some pilots are shot months
before other episodes for a number of reasons – I know the pilot for NBC’s “The
Office” was taped about six months before filming the second episode and about
a year before it actually aired on TV.
In addition, pilots are often forced to film on location or
on existing sets because networks want to spend as little money as possible on
shows they aren’t committed to. Another “Office” example, the six episode first
season of that show was filmed in an actual office building – the soundstage
was used as office space for writers and producers, while the real offices
upstairs that are normally used by writers and producers became the actual
Dunder Mifflin set. In the second season, the office set was recreated on an
actual soundstage. In some family sitcoms, a main house set can completely
change between the first two episodes.
 |
| "Freaks and Geeks" cast - Top row: Joe Flaherty, Seth Rogen. Middle row: Becky Ann Baker, Samm Levine, James Franco, Busy Phillips. Bottom row: Martin Starr, John Francis Daley, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel. |
For all of these reasons, TV pilots are usually a) bad, and
b) look and feel nothing like what the series will eventually become. “Lost”
and “Freaks and Geeks” are among the exceptions that prove the rule. While
“Lost” has the most fully formed characters in a pilot I’ve ever seen, the
entire world of “Freaks and Geeks” changes the least between the pilot and
episode two out of any show I’ve ever seen. It’s not an episode you can really
watch and play “spot the difference,” unless you count some shorter haircuts
and the absence of literally only two or three characters that have some
significance in the remainder of the series (sadly lasting only 18 episodes). I
counted Neal’s dad and Bill’s mom as the only two slightly major characters
with speaking roles in multiple future episodes that don’t appear in this
pilot. If you watch the director’s cut on the DVD like I did, you’ll even see a
couple of long lost scenes with Busy Phillips as Kim Kelly that were cut for
time from the aired version. Dear pilots 2013 and beyond: be more like “Freaks
and Geeks”. Don’t just try to throw up a few walls with some boards to hold
them up, and don’t feel the need to build a mansion either. Build a sensible
house that fits your needs.
Anyway, there’s a more important reason as to why this
episode is an all time favourite for me. In 1969, a one hit wonder band called
The Rolling Stones wrote a song that suggested you can’t always get what you
want, but if you try sometimes, you might just find you get what you need. Over at The AV Club, Todd Van Der Werff has been writing about “Freaks and Geeks”
all summer and discussing how the show is about fundamentally good people
intending to do the right thing, even if their plans often backfire wildly. As
a result, it’s a show where trying to do, or thinking you’re doing, the right
thing often results in getting a metaphorical ass kicking by the universe. Some
days it can feel like the whole world hates you for trying to be nice in a largely un-nice place, as
Lindsay alludes to Mr. Rosso late in the episode. But what the freaks and geeks
of McKinley High realize over these 47 minutes is that the ass kicking they
receive should actually be interpreted as a kick in the ass, trying to get them
to take responsibility for their actions and do things for themselves.
On the freak side, Lindsay has been pressured to go to the
homecoming dance by her parents. After seeing two girls make fun of mentally
challenged Eli for asking them to the dance, Lindsay tries to stand up for Eli
by asking him to go with her. Later, she tries to do the right thing again by
telling two idiots to stop making fun of Eli by telling him “There’s a good
kind of laughing and a bad kind of laughing, and this is bad. They’re only
laughing at you because you’re retarded”. Eli furiously insists that he’s not
retarded but rather special, and he runs away from Lindsay only to fall down
and break his arm. One of the idiots asks Lindsay, “And I’m the mean one? How
does that work?”
It’s a frustrating and relatable scene. Lindsay realizes
(eventually) that trying to be a good person and do the right thing is not
about showing off how good you are and how much better you are than others (and certainly not by using words like "retarded").
Thinking she’s doing good is not a free pass to act however she wants in front
of her parents or misbehave at school. Later on, even Sam tells her that she
shouldn’t just assume that he would pass her message on to Millie just because
Lindsay has told him to. The world doesn’t revolve around her.
That’s the episode’s dramatic side. What makes the episode
so funny is how immature, knowier-than-thou Lindsay and her crazy adventures
cutting class and hanging out on the smokers’ patio at school are dealt with so
terribly by the adults on the show. Harold tries to liken her “cutting corners”
to wondering what would have happened if famous historical figures did the
same. In combination with Jean telling Lindsay that she’s just glad her
grandmother wasn’t alive to see this, Lindsay is understandably furious with
her parents, saying they don’t make any sense before storming off. Earlier in
the episode, she also tries to explain to Mr. Rosso that she was trying to do
the right thing with Eli only to realize that Rosso doesn’t even care about
that – he just wants to know why Lindsay quit the Mathletes. Sometimes as kids,
things we think don’t matter very much can seem inflated to ridiculous
extremes. But when people are fundamentally good yet just have trouble showing
it, we’re all still able to learn our lesson and turn out okay.
Also on the comedic side, and in the same “needing a good
kick in the ass” vein, is the geek story in which Sam, Neal, and Bill try to
fend off Alan White, the school bully. Each tries to deal with Alan tepidly
before realizing they actually need to stand up to him rather than just
(failingly) avoid or ignore him. Sam tells Mr. Kowchevski when Alan smashes his
Twinkie, but while Kowchevski tells Alan to buy him a new one, he also tells
Sam to be a man. Neal and Bill’s avoidance of Alan provide the two best moments
of the episode: Neal tries to explain that this isn’t his fight, as he has
memorized the bully’s schedule and therefore knows all the ways to avoid him,
right before turning around and walking right into Alan, enraging him. And
later in the locker room, Bill simply asks Alan, “What’s the point of all
this?!” in a way that would be considered Bill shouting. This only sets Alan’s
sights on Bill as well, and in a hilariously tragic capper to the scene, Bill
simply sits down on the bench next to Sam and softly says, “I kinda wish I
didn’t come to school today.”
Much as “Freaks and Geeks” is not a show explicitly about
learning lessons while swelling music plays in the background, it is a show
where characters make mistakes and grow because of them. In the end, everyone
learns to take initiative and make things happen for themselves. Lindsay gets
off her pedestal and asks Eli to dance to try and make good, admitting she
handled things the wrong way. Sam actually asks Cindy Sanders to dance with him
rather than allow her to periodically approach him for some reason so he can
say, “Oh, hi Cindy!” And even as Sam is caught up with Cindy and missing the
“big fight” between Alan and the geeks, Neal and Bill manage to hold their own
in a sequence that I often forget is the most gloriously pathetic fight ever.
From Bill throwing away his glasses to Alan trying to propel his bike away
like a skateboard, it’s a great scene that at least temporarily gets Alan off
their backs (Alan will literally almost kill Bill in a later episode, but hey,
these characters need to take their small victories where they can get them).
A great pilot – maybe one of the best ever – that never
fails to make me laugh.
Next week: Diversity. Good for us.
Next week: Diversity. Good for us.
P.S. Here’s that “In the Navy” promo I mentioned last week
in all its glory:
