They need to make a show like Freaks and Geeks set in the 90s
I would totally watch it.
shareThe show is basically a hybrid of the 1990's with some 1980 pop culture stuff mixed in.
shareThis show felt more like 80s than 90s to me
shareThey never get the clothes and the hairstyles right for 1980-81. In the beginning the Freaks hair is way too short, they would have gotten their asses beaten up back then. Then Ken's long hair in the end is really a mid 1970's look. The production values have some references to 1980 but overall there's numerous mistakes.
There's numerous anachronisms in every episode, facts, dates, movies, products etc. They don't even make an attempt in some episodes like when the go to the convenience store where the punk girl works. That's a convenience store is right out of 1999. The only thing they do is put a Time magazine from 1981 on the counter. The punk girl doesn't even look like a 1981 punk girl, she looks like a goth chick from the 90's.
Usually reasons for anachronisms on a TV show are the budget and pace of production. The fact is the show was like a response to "That '70s Show" a few years later, somewhat riding a wave of '70s nostalgia that was fading out at the end of the '90s.
shareYeah, good points.
I think another hard thing is trying to get those feathered hair styles to look authentic. That was a boy's hairstyle that is really difficult to re-create because you would have to have the boys grow out their hair out and then have them get a feathered cut. There's no way you could do that with a large cast of extras. They never get the clothes right either which is probably a budgetary problem.
They make so many mistakes/factual errors/anachronisms about the time period which makes it rather sloppy. Someone who was very young or not born around 1980-81 isn't going to notice it but if you were a teenager around that time you would notice it right away. This show never had a big audience from kids who went to high school during that time. Most of the fans of this show were kids born in the late 70's early-mid 80's.
I think another problem with material set in the early 80's is that your trying to appeal to Generation X kids who are a much smaller population than the baby boomer kids. Generation X is a smaller demographic and thus brings in less money.
The whole Michigan thing never really works either because most of the time it looks like the kids live in Southern California.
I think another problem with the show is that the network never supported it.
Would agree there are a lot of things that are out of place if you look even semi-deep enough and overall the vibe I get is some kind of hybrid of the 90s and 80s that you can't quite put your finger to from pure visuals. So you just need to keep in your mind, "A-ha, it's supposed to be 1980. Okay" then you're put at ease.
share