Freaks And Geeks: The Untold History of Television

Kathleen Olmstead

Dec 2011 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

The Untold History of Television provides a captivating glimpse behind the scenes of those groundbreaking shows that have both defined and changed the pop culture landscape.

A short-lived cult classic, Freaks and Geeks proved that a television show about teenagers could reach beyond the superficial by confronting—and redefining—high school stereotypes. In this text, Kathleen Olmstead investigates the ups and downs of the show “that pushed the beautiful people aside and gave us stories about those usually ignored by television.”

The ebook contains information about the inception and development of the series, thought-provoking episode analysis, and on-the-set stories about the cast and crew.

Ratings and reviews

A decent summary of the series, paying particular attention to the cast and crew, their lives and careers. If you are an avid fan of the series who has watched the DVD commentaries, there is not a lot of new information in this very short book (why is this a 36-page "book" and not an "article"?) It is a concise picture of the series, and puts many of the stories scattered throughout the DVDs into one accessible place. As an academic, the lack of sources for information or citations irked me (especially as I recognized many references from my own experience with the series). Vague references to the effect of the series, possibly influencing television that followed felt unsubstantiated. Did series like Gilmore Girls actually get inspiration from the show, or was TV maybe just heading in the comedy/drama direction, anyways? This insistence on stylistic legacy also paradoxically ignores many fore-runners of the series, which created and developed the teen-centred genre. There is sadly no reference to My So-Called Life, which offered similarly "different" main characters, and suffered a similar early cancellation in the mid-90s. Appropriately celebratory, this book tends to follow Paul Feig's own rhetoric of having created something never before seen on television.

About the author

Kathleen Olmstead has written more than a dozen books—fiction and non-fiction—for the young adult market and her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Fireweed and Taddle Creek, among other journals. She has produced, written and directed several short films and is always working on the next one. She is a part of the Arbeiter Ring Publishing collective. Kathleen lives and works in Toronto.