Abstract
This chapter explores the circumstances surrounding the cancellation of Freaks and Geeks and its status as a cult programme, a label that is in part linked to the programme’s struggle to be broadcast and then released. It considers one of the main barriers to Freaks and Geeks’ home media release, the licensing of the vast amount of music used in the programme, and how crucial the music is to its construction, both aurally and narratively. It also examines how Freaks and Geeks offers audiences a glimpse ‘back in time’ to before the majority of its stars were famous, a time capsule of talent that would fully emerge during the 2000s.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Abbott, S. (ed.) 2010. The Cult TV Book. London: I. B. Tauris.
Battis, J. 2010. “Trangressive TV”, in S. Abbott (ed.), The Cult TV Book. London: I. B. Tauris, pp. 77–83.
Bierbaum, T. 1990. “Booming 80s behind it, vid faces uncertainty.” Variety, Jan. 10, pp. 31–2.
Birchall, C. 2004. “Feels Like Home: Dawson’s Creek, Nostalgia and the Young Adult Viewer”, in Davis and Dickinson (eds.), Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity. London: BFI, pp. 176–190.
Davis, G. and K. Dickinson. (eds.) 2004. Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity. London: BFI.
Dehnart, A. 2000. “Geek Love.” Salon, Apr. 20. Available at: http://www.salon.com/2000/04/20/geeks_3/ [accessed Nov. 25, 2016].
Dickinson, K. 2004. “‘My Generation’: Popular Music, Age and Influence in Teen Drama of the 1990s”, in Davis and Dickinson (eds.), Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity. London: BFI, pp. 99–111.
Gwenllian-Jones, S. and R. Pearson. 2004. Cult Television. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Halfyard, J. K. 2010. “Boldly Going: Music and Cult TV”, in S. Abbott (ed.), The Cult TV Book. London: I. B. Tauris, pp. 121–128.
Hills, M. 2004. “Dawson’s Creek: ‘Quality Teen TV’ and ‘Mainstream Cult’?” in Davis and Dickinson (eds.), Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity. London: BFI, pp. 54–67.
Jackson, J. 2009. “The 15 Best TV Shows That Were Cancelled Too Soon.” Paste Magazine, Oct. 13. Available at: https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2009/10/the-15-best-tv-shows-that-were-canceled-too-soon.html [accessed Nov. 25, 2016].
Klinger, B. 2006. Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ornstein, S. 2015. “Motion Pictures: Competition, Distribution and Efficiencies”, in V. Tremblay and C. Tremblay (eds.), Industry and Firm Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 181–204.
Pearson, R. E. 2003. “Kings of Infinite Space: Cult Television Characters and Narrative Possibilities.” Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies (Nov.) Available at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/scope/documents/2003/november-2003/pearson.pdf [accessed Oct. 17, 2016].
Pearson, R. 2010. Fandom in the Digital Era. Popular Communication 8 (1): 84–95.
Raeside, J. 2016. “High School Antiheroes: Freaks and Geeks Finally Comes to Netflix.” The Guardian, Oct. 7. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2016/oct/07/freaks-and-geeks-netflix-judd-apatow-paul-feig [accessed Oct. 17, 2016].
Sheffield, R. 2016. “100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.” Rolling Stone, Sep. 21. Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/100-greatest-tv-shows-of-all-time-w439520 [accessed Nov. 25, 2016].
Time. 2007. “All-Time 100 TV Shows: Freaks and Geeks.” Time, Sep. 6. Available at: http://time.com/collection-post/3101650/freaks-and-geeks/ [accessed Nov. 25, 2016].
Wee, V. 2004. “Selling Teen Culture: How American Multimedia Conglomeration Reshaped Teen Television in the 1990s”, in Davis and Dickinson (eds.), Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity. London: BFI, pp. 87–98.
Wilcox, R. V. 2010. “The Aesthetics of Cult Television”, in S. Abbott (ed.), The Cult TV Book. London: I. B. Tauris, pp. 31–39.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barnett, K. (2017). It’s Only Teenage Wasteland: The Home Media Revival of Freaks and Geeks . In: Wroot, J., Willis, A. (eds) Cult Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63679-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63679-5_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63678-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63679-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)