Freaks and Geeks is one of my favorite shows. That is why I am on this board. Freaks and Geeks takes place in the Midwest. I grew up on the East Coast. I am trying to think of differences between the Midwest and the East Coast on the show. When I was growing up in New Jersey the kids who were freaks would have been called burnouts. We also call it soda, not pop. Are there any other Midwesternisms in the show?
shareI was 18 in 1981, grew up in small town about 400 miles east of Michigan,went to med size high school. A couple of things I noticed:
We would say 'She has her period', not 'she's on her period.'
Cream, Led Zeppelin or the Who were not popular (considered old people's music)-Def Lep, AC/DC were big-as well as older bands like Rush, Pink Floyd & the Dead.
Daniel would have been called a Dirt
Kim would be a Dirt Girl
Ken & Nick would be Wastes or Partiers
Lindsay would be a Brain
Millie would be a Church Girl
the Geeks would be Nobodies
And as always, the Jocks were called Jocks (that one seems to be universal)
I am east coast was 17 in 79 when I graduated. We called it soda or coke. I am power watching with my kids now and they love this show. I am surprised that most of the music is early seventies. In my time, bands like Boston, The Cars, and Cheap Trick ruled along with the earlier bands like the Allmans and Zepplin. The stoners or heads liked Zappa. I haven't seen that on the show yet.
There was also a class we called preppies that I haven't seen on the show - The college bound white collar kids. Kind of like the Omegas from Animal House but not as evil.
This show goes along with Firefly as a show cancelled before it's time.
At my high school the good students were usually referred to as "preps". The preps in my graduating class had enormous egos and were often referred to as "the homos". Kids were more homophobic and less politically correct back then.
A lot of high schools referred to kids in the school band as "band f@gs". At my school the term "bandy" was commonly used.
I grew up in Ohio and was in high school in the '80s. What they call "Freaks" in this show, we called them "Hoods." And instead of "Geeks" we would have called them "Nerds." And yes, we definitely used "Pop" instead of "Soda."
share'81 grad here from Pa. In our HS freaks were known as "heads". Jocks were jocks. "Time for me to Fly" by REO was our prom song. Van Halen, Boston, Rush, Zeppelin, Skynyrd and AC/DC were huge. Daniel would have been in shop class ( carpentry, car mechanic, etc). We also had a smoking section outside the caféteria that looked exactly like the one in the show. They were the "smokers" and had their own clique. I didn't align myself with any particular group but I have to admit I found myself at a lot of kegger parties on friday nights like the one Lindsay had.
Freebird!