Last week, Nichole asked me to write something on the blog about Barry Bonds and his ascension to the homerun crown.

Well, that’s done.

******

“The Welfare lines are full of video game players.”
“No they aren’t, Dad.”
“Well…they will be!”

As of late, Nichole and I have been enjoying a TV show that we watched way back when. “Freaks and Geeks” is this little gem of a show that focuses on two fringe groups at McKinley High School outside Detroit. The Weir family has two representatives: Lindsey (Freak), the former mathlete gone (mildly) bad after the death of her grandmother and Sam (Geek), an awkward young man struggling to avoid bullies and having to take showers after PE.

The show only ran for 18 episodes back in 1999-2000, which is really too bad. There are few shows that capture the drive to try and fit in matched with the futility of the effort with quite as much heart as this show. I guess I never realized how much I liked this show and how it became part of my subconcious meter stick for how shows measure up. But after watching these episodes again, I discovered the impact it had on my tastes. After “Freaks and Geeks” I had a hard time watching canned laughter shows. They just didn’t work for me anymore. Of course I can watch and enjoy Seinfeld re-runs but for the most part the laugh track shows lost it for me.

The other aspect of the show that I found comforting, for lack of a better word, was the way in which series creator and writer Judd Apatow portrayed the Geeks. This is probably because I was and still am one.

Yes, I can quote from Blade Runner and a bevy of other Sci-Fi movies.
Yes, I have a Star Wars pillow (REturn of the Jedi era, no less!).
Yes, I could sit down and debate the pros and cons of Hostess vs. Dolly Madison snack cakes, and in fact I have on occasion.
And yes, I wear sneakers that don’t match my socks from time to time….or almost every day.

“Freaks and Geeks” was one of the first shows to spotlight the difficulty with which kids navigate the treacherous waters of youth in the pressure cooker setting of High School. The great thing that most kids didn’t know then and still don’t today, is that it’s okay to be a geek, a nerd, a fringe member. It’s allright to not break into the inner sanctum and let me tell you why: I broke in and discovered that those kids (and now grown ups) were pretty sad and mixed up, too.

So be a nerd, be a geek! Quote from Blazing Saddles. Ponder the finer points of breakfast cereal. Enjoy being you.

Apatow said it like this: “I think that everything I do tends to root for the underdog. I always felt as a kid that I was under appreciated, invisible or weird, but I’ve always secretly thought people would one day appreciate what is different about me. I’m always putting that message out there. Eventually, the nerds and the geeks will have their day.”

Amen, brother.

Too bad there aren’t more shows like this and one less Grey’s Anatomy.