Freaks and Geeks: Discos and Dragons

I happened to stumble across Freaks and Geeks for the first time in more than eight years the other night, and I immediately was reminded of how sad I was this series got cut after one season. Such a cool vision of the early 80s. Made it almost seem cool to have lived then. Below are a couple of scenes from the last episode of the series, “Discos and Dragons,” which in my opinion is one of the very best, if not the best.

In the following scene James Russo and the AV squad are playing Dungeons & Dragons, and Russo’s character is called “Carlos the Dwarf,” and anyone who played D&D knows how bad ass dwarves can be.

And even though I hate hippies, the final sequence of the entire series wherein Lindsay goes to follow the Grateful Dead rather than attending an academic Summer camp speaks volumes to the spirit and vision of this series. It was an awesome ending to an awesome show that died well before its time.

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9 Responses to Freaks and Geeks: Discos and Dragons

  1. Luke says:

    Freak and Geeks is the best television ever made about adolescence… hopes, dreams, fears, anguish, possibilities, limitations, unsettling change… it’s all in there. And, it’s set in Michigan, to boot, so it wins.

  2. Reverend says:

    I realized the Michigan thing loomed large when the academic Summer camp was in Ann Arbor. I mean who wouldn’t want to follow the Dead if they lived in freakin’ Michigan during the 80s. How brutal šŸ™‚

  3. Luke says:

    Alternatively, if you grew up in Long Island in the 1980s you could always just wait for a classmate to shoot a neighbor in the face or for someone to open up with a handgun on the LIRR.

  4. Reverend says:

    Weren’t both those instances from the 90s?

    Long Island Lolita (1992):
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Fisher

    Colin Ferguson (1993):
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Ferguson_(convict)

    And while I yet to have proof of this, I am currently working on an investigation which will link both of these scumbags back to Michigan.

  5. Luke says:

    What, you’re fucking specific now? šŸ˜›

  6. Reverend says:

    Only when convenient, Luke, only when convenient.

  7. Chris Lott says:

    Watching _Freaks and Geeks_ on DVD with my children– who were right at that high-school age– remains a vividly remembered highlight of those years. And while it was hard not to be a little crazy about Linda Cardellini at the time (hey, she’s actually only 5 years younger than me), I think I’ve since fallen into a hard man-crush on James Franco, which will probably develop into a weird mania when I finally get a chance to see _Howl_.

  8. Reverend says:

    Chris,

    I totally agree with the man crush on james franco, and while I hated Milk as a film, I thought he was awesome in it. So seeing him in Freaks and Geeks again, and seeing his development into a pretty solid actor is quite rewarding

  9. Master AC says:

    I get so angry at NBC for how they treated this show. In my opinion this is one of the best television shows in history and it’s fans only got one season.

    Read a great Busy Phillips quote a while back, somebody asked her about her experience on the show and how it got canceled early. She said something like “it was rich white men demanding other rich white men to give them a formula to sell more soap”. Genius.

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