THE TKTV NEWSLETTER
Season 3, Episode 2 aired January 10, 2000

CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. Letters from the viewing audience
3. Kim's Commercial Comments
4. Don't miss
5. TV Trivia
6. Favorite Quotes of the Week
7. A totally unrelated link

1. Intro

Before I get onto the real topic of today's intro, I just needed to tell you all about this cool line I noticed in an episode of "Providence" from its first season. Sydney is talking to Lilly at the bus station as Lilly is about to get on a bus for Hartford, Connecticut, and she says, "Hartford's a nice place, but it can't compete with Providence." I wonder if the writers knew when they wrote this that next season CBS would put out a clone of "Providence" called "Judging Amy" which is set in Hartford, Connecticut?

Okay, now onto my real topic, which is the fabulous new NBC show, "Freaks and Geeks." "Freaks and Geeks" is set in a suburban high school in 1980. It stars the talented Linda Cardellini as Lindsay Weir, the school's champion "mathlete," who is trying desperately to break out and become friends with the cool kids. Now before you say to yourself, "Ugh, it's just another 'Popular,'" let me clarify that Lindsay is not trying to hang out with the pretty blonde popular cheerleaders, but rather the greasy-haired guys that hang out and smoke cigarettes and cause mayhem on Hallowe'en.

Lindsay's little brother Sam, played by the adorable John Francis Daley, is also a geek, but other than the fact that he'd like to get a date with a cute cheerleader and avoid getting beat up on a regular basis, he's fairly happy with his nerd-dom and his super-nerdy friends, Bill and Neal.

What's beautiful about this show is, unlike "Dawson's Creek" or "Popular" on the WB, the writers here aren't taking the teen angst plot-line and applying inappropriate language to it. These teens do and say the stupid things that real teens do and say... that I did and said when I was a teen. When burn-out Daniel asks Lindsay to help him cheat on his math test, she doesn't give him some well-constructed lecture on the dangers of cheating. She tries to talk him out of it, but is eventually pulled into the scheme due to her need to be accepted. And when the two of them are busted, and Daniel pulls a beautifully executed pity speech in the guidance counselor's office, Lindsay appropriately ruins the whole thing with peals of nervous laughter.

When Lindsay decides to throw a party while her parents are out of town, it's not some club-scene guest-listed candle-lit formal soiree, it's her parents' eighties-style house with brown shag carpeting, a keg of beer, and lots of uninvited freaks. It also ends up getting busted by the cops. I can't tell you how many parties I went to in Cambridge, Massachusetts that ended with the cops shining flashlights in everyone's eyes.

I never went to a public school, and when I was in high school, I was in boarding school. So I've always found it hard to relate to high schools portrayed in movies and on TV. In "Freaks and Geeks," however, I don't have to relate to the high school, because I can absolutely relate to the characters.

I remember I was a big nerd in my class, and just like Lindsay, I started wearing a ratty old army jacket to school every day because I thought it looked cool. I remember when I would finagle my way into the cool crowd, and everything would be going well even if I was slightly uneasy, until some Kim Kelly type (the fabulous blonde bitch played by Busy Philipps) would come along and burst my bubble, telling me exactly what I didn't want to hear.

I remember when I was younger, and I was more like Sam. I didn't have a hope in the world of ever hanging out with the cool crowd, and I sort of didn't care, as long as they didn't torture me. I had my one friend, who was just as geeky as I was, and it was us against the world.

"Freaks and Geeks" is another one of those critically acclaimed shows that has been getting dismal ratings. Luckily, NBC is just the network to give it the chance it needs. They have moved the show from its pathetic Saturday night time slot to Mondays at 8pm. The first Monday episode airs this Monday, January 10th, at 8pm ET. Watch it. Do remember when you got your first fake ID?

http://freaksandgeeks.tktv.net

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2. Letters from the viewing audience

From Andrea:
Is Now and Again the great show about the guy who died and they transplanted his brain? Or is it that sappy, boring predictable piece of crap that eveyone's hailing as this generation's thirty-something? Ya know, the one with Sela Ward and that cute guy as divorcees who hook up and get constantly interrupted by their kids. BORING!

From Shane:
Okay, more to add to the "Stark Raving Mad" deal. Is it just me, or didn't they rip the set off of another show called "Fired Up?" Everyone from that show now is on another. . .brunette is on King of Queens and the blond was on "NYPD Blue" but now I can't remeber and the guy/brother is on "Ladies Man" I think. . . anyway they stole the WHOLE set off of that show including the coffee shop. . .now a bar down stairs. "Fired Up" I belive is rerunning on Lifetime during the day, check it out for yourself.

Note from TK: You know, when I saw the first episode of "Stark Raving Mad," I thought the exact same thing. That apartment on "Fired Up" was so unique, and Ian's apartment on SRM is unique in the exact same way. BTW, Leah Remini, the brunette on "Fired Up," is now on "King of Queens," and Sharon Lawrence, the blond, went back to "NYPD Blue" for awhile and is now on "Ladies Man." Mark Feuerstein, who I think played Remini's little brother, guest starred on "Caroline in the City" for awhile as a young veterinarian that Caroline was dating, and then had his own show on NBC for a little while last year called "Conrad Bloom."

Letters from the viewing audience are always welcome. Please email any opinions, questions, comments, or random thoughts to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of "letters." Letters may be edited for length or content.

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3. Kim's Commercial Comments

Hello and welcome back... Oh, wait! You guys weren't gone -- I was! Sorry to be absent from last week's TKTV Newsletter. I hope you guys missed me, but there was a fantastic guest article, so I hope you all caught that instead. Having survived the "Y2K disaster", my trusty new computer and I are ready to dish out a dose of commercial criticism (I can feel that the excitement is almost too much to bear). So here goes...

What spot has me laughing? Finesse: Directions and Tampons

Okay. I read some discussion at alt.tv.commercials about the 'Tampons' spot. It seems that some viewers are confusing this shampoo commercial for a tampon commercial. A couple pulls up at grocery store. The guy gets out, looks at his list, and grimmaces. "Tampons." He shakes his head. No way, he thinks. He turns around to tell her to forget it and sees his wife/girlfriend shaking her head, her gorgeous hair flowing in the breeze. Suddenly, he changes his mind again, allegedly unable to resist her beautiful head of hair. He asks, "Regular... or super?"

In the 'Directions' version of this spot, the idea is basically the same. In this commercial, it's obvious that the couple is on a trip. They pull up to a gas station and the guy actually goes in to ask for directions. The point, it seems, is that no man can resist beautiful Finesse hair.

Now, if they could only invent a shampoo that would make them put on the new toilet paper roll...

What spot has me cringing? Glaxo-Wellcome: Newman as Influenza

I give them points for originality. I even give them points for getting a celebrity endorsement. And I guess, based on the celebrity they got, these spots are not *that bad*. But take away the Newman factor, and they're just goofy!

Wayne Knight plays a personification of influenza... an unwelcome guest in the home. He pops up at the front door and other surprising locations. He does all this to make the point that we're really not safe from the flu. We can catch it anywhere. So we'd better be prepared. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Get a flu shot.

If you want to watch this commercial (although, I can't imagine why you would), you can find it at adcritic.com.

TKTV is always looking for new guest writers. Do you have an idea for an article? Write to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of "guestwriter."

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4. Don't miss

For details and lots more fun TV to look forward to, see
http://www.tktv.net/index.html?/upcoming.html

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5. TV Trivia

Last week's question was: in honor of the series finale of "Sunset Beach," when did this Aaron Spelling daytime soap opear first premiere on NBC?

The first and only prize goes to Lindsay, who correctly answered January 6, 1997.

This week's question is: when Christopher Gorham ("Popular") was Elliot on Party of Five, why wouldn't he sleep with Sarah (Jennifer Love Hewitt)?

Send answers to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of tvtrivia.

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6. Favorite Quotes of the Week

From "Felicity"
"Let me see it." -Felicity asking to see her portrait that Noel is drawing
"No, I made you look like a really cute tomato." -Noel

From "Jesse"
"Cubism. It's so over. I mean, is it the front of her face? Is it the side of her face? Everybody looks like a flounder, right?" -Diego

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7. A totally unrelated link

A humorous look at death, burials and cremations

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All too often a clear conscience is merely the result of a bad memory.