TTH 6/1/26

Freaks and Geeks Rewatch - The Diary

There was generally a titling protocol for Freaks and Geeks episodes. If a show was titled ___ and ___ it usually meant that the plots for each of the Weir siblings were on equal footing. If it wasn’t it would be a sign that one of the storylines was much more prominent than the other. That is the case this week; Lindsay really takes center stage here.

That begins with the cold open; Lindsay and Kim are hitchhiking. Lindsay goes into this with a sense of adventure, aided to some extent by the fact that they were currently studying On the Road in English class. They get picked up, and the driver is quiet enough that the scene takes an ominous tone. That is, until he informs Lindsay that he is one of her father’s regular customers at the sporting goods store and that he would be disappointed in what she is doing.

Harold is horrified upon hearing that his daughter was hitchhiking. He and Jean know full well how dangerous that can be, as they remember from a TV movie that they had recently seen. As Harold questions Kim’s upbringing, the Weir parents realize that they need to get to know the parents of their daughter’s close friend, so it is time to invite Kim’s mother over for dinner. We the viewers have already met Mrs. Kelly, so we are well aware that this is a very bad idea.

The Sam storyline is once again all too relatable for me; it centers around one of the more degrading gym class traditions, choosing sides for team sports. The class is playing softball, and the last 4 unchosen players are Sam, Neal, Bill, & Gordon. In a funny sight gag the waistband on Gordon’s pants are pulled up so high that it appears as if he looks up to Fred Mertz as his #1 fashion icon. All this time Bill is silently begging not to be the last one picked; not only does he suffer through that humiliation but once the game starts he is positioned in deep right field, where no one is likely to hit the ball.

Meanwhile, the Weir/Kelly dinner goes about as well as one would expect. Mrs. Kelly spends her time telling the Weirs that her daughter is no good, revealing that she has read Kim’s diary and is aware that she is sexually active and smokes pot. Harold and Jean then tell Lindsay that they forbid her from hanging out with Kim anymore. Lindsay tells this to Kim, and Kim feels a sense of betrayal, claiming that Lindsay should have stuck up for her. At the same time Nick is not taking their breakup well at all, acting very passive-aggressive towards Lindsay, so she is now on the outs with both Nick and Kim.

Bill talks to Coach Fredricks, trying to convince him that it’s unfair to have team captains choose sides, but Coach is having none of this. Bill, however, finds in Fredricks’ office a list which contains the home phone numbers of the faculty members, which he sneaks out with so that the geeks can make crank phone calls. At first he calls Coach pretending to be Gordon’s father demanding that Gordon be allowed to play shortstop. The bigger prank would come later.

Harold and Jean wonder if they should follow Mrs. Kelly’s lead and take a peek at Lindsay’s diary. They do so, and instead of finding confessions of bad behavior, they discover Lindsay’s true feelings about her parents. She describes their conformity, the repetitiveness of their daily routine, and Lindsay’s dismay over the archaic gender roles with which their dynamic plays out in the household. Lindsay vows that she will never be like that.

As the geeks are preparing the next prank call while in Neal’s basement, Neal’s dad comes home. Neal’s father (Sam McMurray) tells them that he used to do the same thing when he was their age, and understands that it’s simple harmless fun they are taking part in. As he heads back to work, Sam asks Neal what he was doing home in the first place. Neal explains that he sometimes comes home in the middle of the day to change his shirt because something about his job forces him to sweat so heavily that a change of clothes is necessary. Keep that in mind, it will come up again in a future episode. As for the next phone call, this time when Bill calls Coach Fredricks he accuses him of inappropriately touching young boys. He has now crossed a line.

The next day Coach takes each student into his office so that they can read aloud to him what was said to him on the phone. Recognizing Bill’s voice, he is caught. Bill defends himself by saying that his feelings are hurt by never being given a chance to prove himself on the field. He is certain that despite his lankiness he could be a good athlete, but not if he is scooted away to the deserted island of right field. Coach Fredricks takes that to heart, and allows Bill and Gordon to act as the team captains the next day and gives them the responsibility of picking sides. When they get to the game, Bill has a chance to play hero. A pop fly is hit in his direction, he goes back, back, and makes the catch! There is much celebration to follow! There’s only one problem. It wasn’t a game ending play; it was the first out of the first inning and while everyone was celebrating the runners who were already on base tagged up and scored. Oh well, at least Bill had his chance to shine. More importantly, Bill and Coach had a bonding moment, something which will come up again in a future episode.

Jean has taken what she has read in Lindsay’s diary to heart. She broke up the usual dinner routine by preparing Cornish game hen. Harold was disgusted over this and left the dinner table to make himself a sandwich instead. The next day she once again tries to cook something different which Harold once again rejects. She then tearfully runs into her bedroom, and when he tries to comfort her she brings up the fact that she feels unappreciated. Harold temporarily drops his gruff facade and admits that everything he does he does with her in mind. He puts in the long hours at the store to please her and that he loves eating meat loaf for dinner so often because he loves it and loves her. The Weirs kiss and the as the scene cuts it’s apparent that they are about to indulge in some afternoon delight.

Finally, Lindsay tells Kim that she doesn’t care what her parents think. Kim is her friend, and she is going to bring Kim over to her house. This is much to Daniel’s relief; the rift with Lindsay was causing Kim to spend more time than usual with Daniel and that was a lot to handle. At the same time, the geeks came over to the Weir house after school. When they didn’t immediately see Mrs. Weir, they walked up to her bedroom door to make sure she was OK. No, don’t open the door! Thankfully they don’t, but they can clearly hear what is going on behind closed doors. Lindsay then enters the house with Kim just in time to see a slightly disheveled Jean step out of her room to tell the kids that she doesn’t have time to cook dinner and that they should order pizza. She also tells Kim that she is happy to see her. Kim’s response was that she was impressed, telling Lindsay that her parents are swingers. Linda Cardellini puts on her best “I’m so horrified” face.

This was episode #10, so we are already in the back end of the show’s run. Once again, Ken was nowhere to be seen this week. It continues to amaze that Seth Rogen was in the show’s opening credits but Busy Phillips was not. Next week’s episode is another memorable one, one which contains yet another of the most iconic scenes in Freaks and Geeks history.

Looking At Some Numbers

I’m going to slow the pace of this segment down just a tad. Here now is the next set of winners in my quest to determine the greatest Met to wear each uniform number.

27 - Here, I can just say Mike Glavine and move on to the next number, but there are better choices. Craig Swan is easily forgotten, because he joined the rotation just as the team was hitting a downturn and he was toast by the time the Mets got good again. In addition, he was frequently injured. But when he was available, he was pretty good. He once won an ERA title. He also has a place in LOLMets lore; he once got injured when he was hit in the ribs by a catcher’s throw to second base on a stolen base attempt. For what other franchise can a freak injury like that one occur? Jeurys Familia is the runner-up.

28 - There are 3 strong candidates. John Milner was a decent power hitter in the 1970’s. As Generation K fizzled out, Bobby Jones was the one young pitching prospect who went on to have a productive Mets career. The correct answer is Daniel Murphy, whose improbable home run streak in the 2015 playoffs helped lift the Mets to the NL pennant. I will make Milner the runner-up.

29 - Lots of “if only” to be found with this number. Ike Davis, who was ever so briefly a huge home run presence in the middle of the lineup, wore #29. So did a couple of former stars who briefly made Shea their home, Mickey Lolich and Frank Tanana. I should also mention that I had a brain lock a couple of weeks ago when I named Dave Magadan as the runner-up for a different number, completely forgetting that he wore 29 much longer. I’ll make that up to him here. For the runner-up I will choose a high peak above longevity and give it to Frank Viola instead of Steve Trachsel. I suffered through sitting in the stands for enough Trachsel starts on a cold windy day to scar me for life.

30 - Fun fact, 30 was Nolan Ryan’s Mets uniform number. As it was for Mike Scott before he moved on to Houston and learned how to throw a “hard slider.” This comes down to a battle between a pair of corner outfielders, each of whom were middle of the order hitters for Mets teams which came close but just fell short, and each made 1 All-Star team as well. I’ll go with Michael Conforto; he was home grown, played with the team longer, and the 2015 Mets made it one round further than the 2006 team did. That leaves Cliff Floyd as the runner-up.

The Big Events To Come

There are about a thousand reasons why I was so disheartened by the results of the 2024 election. Many of the those reasons are fundamentally existential to the great American experiment; others are largely ceremonial yet still important. As the horror of that election night was becoming ever so clear I was well aware that there are multiple important events scheduled during these 4 years which he will sadly be presiding over. The 2028 Olympics are still 2 years in the future, but 2 others are imminent.

We are less than 2 weeks away from the start of the FIFA World Cup, which the United States will co-host along with Canada and Mexico. With the caveat that once competition begins and agita dissolves as everyone is drawn into the excitement, there is every chance that this could turn into a clusterf***. Several months ago JV Vance encouraged international visitors to come here for the matches but then “jokingly” said that they should go back home immediately afterwards. No one found that funny; the concern among travelers that they might be sent to a foreign prison is genuine. Hotel bookings are nowhere near what they were expected to be; the hospitality industry was expecting a major windfall this year. It is looking very unlikely. Once again, the World Cup is the biggest sporting competition in the world. It would be stunning if there are empty seats in the venues due to a combination of outrageously high ticket prices and tourist trepidation, but that is very conceivable.

2026 is also the year that America turns 250. I remember the bicentennial celebration very well. Sure, some aspects of it were corny, but overall the lead up to the anniversary as well as the events of that day celebrated what makes this country great so well. I have come to grips with the fact that I’m probably not gonna be around for the tricentennial, so I have long been looking forward to the semiquincentennial as my final opportunity to experience a celebration of this nature. At least that is until you know who sabotaged everything.

We know the nature of that man; the day is no longer a celebration of our nation, it is now going to be a celebration of the Mad King. The events are crass and/or schlocky; and because every aspect of our society has become politically polarizing, so too is this milestone anniversary. I’m no different from everyone else; when I saw the list of musicians scheduled to participate in the Freedom 250 festival, I read each name saying either “makes sense” or “no! Why?” Once the blowback began artists withdrew in record speed. Some claimed they were booked under false pretenses; one can also say that it is terribly naive to believe that an event organized by this administration would not be partisan. Whatever the motives to initially commit and then cancel, the event quickly turned into a “no one is going to wish to participate in this” debacle. Do you know how toxic your brand would have to be to cause Milli Vanilli to cancel a gig? Anyhoo, congrats Flo Rida. You must be proud.

I honestly have no idea how much attention I will ultimately pay to the July 4 festivities. It’s a once in a generation anniversary, but at the same time it is difficult to feel the necessary sense of pride knowing what this man and his minions have done to our institutions. I may have no choice but to hold on until the tricentennial after all. Things have to be better by then, don’t they? Don’t they?

50 Year Ago - The Modern Lovers

When books and documentaries began to emerge about the history of punk rock, Jonathan Richman was often prominently featured as one of the godfathers of punk. That’s probably a stretch; he wasn’t aggressive enough musically to qualify as a true punk, but his DIY approach did have a clear influence on indie rock and on new wave so he is an obvious pioneer. And the debut album by his band The Modern Lovers produced one enduring classic.

Although released in 1976, the songs on this album were actually recorded as far back as 1971. That is why half of the lineup of the Modern Lovers consisted of men who by 1976 had joined a pair of the defining bands of the era: future Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison and future Cars drummer David Robinson. In addition, the legendary John Cale had produced 6 of the songs on the album. The Cale pedigree was not enough for the record to earn a proper release at the time of its recording; some record company shenanigans resulted in Warner Brothers dropping the band. By the time these tracks finally saw the light of day on an independent label Richman had formed a new Modern Lovers lineup, and the later group released an album which hit record stores a few months before the original lineup’s recordings finally did.

The album only had limited mainstream appeal upon that initial belated release, but in time the leadoff track Roadrunner has become a stone cold classic. A catchy singalong, it describes the simple joy of driving down the road with the radio on. It is written about driving on the roads around Boston with specific local references, but the sentiments are universal. The other featured song on the record is Pablo Picasso, which humorously discusses how fame can be a powerful aphrodisiac. As the song points out, the famous artist never had much trouble with the ladies and that he was never called an a**hole. I find the latter notion hard to believe, but whatever.

Despite this album’s importance in the progression of music, it falls just short of greatness for me. I wouldn’t say that Richman’s vocal stylings are an acquired taste, but his half spoken/half singing style does start to get repetitious by the time you hit the latter half of side 2. A little bit of Richman goes a long way.

Half of the Modern Lovers would go on to bigger things in the decade to come; Richman himself kept a lower profile, although he continues to tour and record to this day. His most visible moment would come when he acted as the Greek chorus in There’s Something About Mary. Fun fact - when I saw the movie in the theater, there was a woman seated a couple of rows behind me who groaned every time that Richman and Tommy Larkins appeared on screen. At one point she yelled out loud “I hate these a**holes!” So, Pablo Picasso might have never been called an a**hole, but I can verify that Jonathan Richman was at least once.

Closing Laughs

It’s a new week, a new month, new everything! Let’s make the turning of a calendar page the start of something bigger and better. Have a great day everyone, and we will talk again on Wednesday.