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* CutShort: And it makes the final episode, "Discos and Dragons", into an inadvertent...
** [[GainaxEnding Mind-Screw Ending]]: Let's see, [[spoiler: Sam has become disillusioned with his best friends but Daniel has joined their gang. Nick and Lindsay are no longer a couple, he has also broken up from his circle of friends and Lindsay is off on a cross-country road trip while her parents think she's attending an academic summit. And Kim and Daniel's latest break-up may be the last.]] Lord knows where they would have taken this.
*** Actually, it was completely advertent. The final four episodes were written in the knowledge that the show wasn't being renewed.
** [[GainaxEnding Mind-Screw Ending]]: Let's see, [[spoiler: Sam has become disillusioned with his best friends but Daniel has joined their gang. Nick and Lindsay are no longer a couple, he has also broken up from his circle of friends and Lindsay is off on a cross-country road trip while her parents think she's attending an academic summit. And Kim and Daniel's latest break-up may be the last.]] Lord knows where they would have taken this.
*** Actually, it was completely advertent. The final four episodes were written in the knowledge that the show wasn't being renewed.
to:
* CutShort: And it makes the final episode, "Discos and Dragons", into an inadvertent...
into...
** [[GainaxEnding Mind-Screw Ending]]: Let's see, [[spoiler: Sam has become disillusioned with his best friends but Daniel has joined their gang. Nick and Lindsay are no longer a couple, he has also broken up from his circle of friends and Lindsay is off on a cross-country road trip while her parents think she's attending an academic summit. And Kim and Daniel's latest break-up may be the last.]] Lord knows where they would have taken this.
*** Actually, it was completely advertent. The final four episodes were written in the knowledge that the show wasn't being renewed.]]
** [[GainaxEnding Mind-Screw Ending]]: Let's see, [[spoiler: Sam has become disillusioned with his best friends but Daniel has joined their gang. Nick and Lindsay are no longer a couple, he has also broken up from his circle of friends and Lindsay is off on a cross-country road trip while her parents think she's attending an academic summit. And Kim and Daniel's latest break-up may be the last.
*** Actually, it was completely advertent. The final four episodes were written in the knowledge that the show wasn't being renewed.
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* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Typical with 6'4 Jason Segel in most of his roles. Nick and Lindsay have plenty of ShipTease and he is a solid head taller than her.
* HypocrisyNod: The big basketball game is against Lincoln High, and the students put up posters everywhere that say "Assassinate Lincoln!" But their own school is named after President [=McKinley=].
* HypocrisyNod: The big basketball game is against Lincoln High, and the students put up posters everywhere that say "Assassinate Lincoln!" But their own school is named after President [=McKinley=].
to:
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Typical with 6'4 6'4'' Jason Segel in most of his roles. Nick and Lindsay have plenty of ShipTease and he is a solid head taller than her.
* HypocrisyNod: The big basketball game is against Lincoln High, and the students put up posters everywhere that say "AssassinateLincoln!" [[AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]!" But their own school is named after President [=McKinley=].WilliamMcKinley.
* HypocrisyNod: The big basketball game is against Lincoln High, and the students put up posters everywhere that say "Assassinate
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Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Part of what made the show unique was its retro setting did not use the typical trappings like ItWillNeverCatchOn, HilariousInHindsight and was even sparse in the use of NothingButHits. It was surprisingly immersive in the time period. The show was praised to heaven and back, making it on TIME magazine's top 10 new shows, but [[AcclaimedFlop never quite took off]] with the ratings.
to:
Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Part of what made the show unique was its retro setting did not use the typical trappings like ItWillNeverCatchOn, HilariousInHindsight and was even sparse in the use of NothingButHits. It was surprisingly immersive in the time period. The show was praised to heaven and back, making it on TIME magazine's top 10 new shows, but [[AcclaimedFlop never quite took off]] with the ratings.
ratings, which led to its notorious cancellation.[[note]]It actually topped the Magazine/TVGuide list of the shows that were cancelled too soon.[[/note]]
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[[caption-width-right:349:Try to separate the freaks from the geeks.]]
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[[caption-width-right:349:Try to separate the freaks from the geeks.]]
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* DeliberateValuesDissonance:HighSchool teachers ''and students'' (openly) smoking on campus.
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* DeliberateValuesDissonance:HighSchool DeliberateValuesDissonance: HighSchool teachers ''and students'' (openly) smoking on campus.
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* TeensAreShort: Averted. Nick is six foot four and played by nineteen year old Jason Segel while the rest of the cast are quite tall. The only exception is Sam who is noted as being short for his age.
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* TeensAreShort: Averted. Nick is six foot four and played by nineteen year old Jason Segel while the rest of the cast are quite tall. The only exception is Sam exceptions are Neal, and Sam, who is noted as being short for his age.age. Had the series made another season, Sam would have averted this as well, as John Francis Daley had a growth spurt immediately after filming the first season.
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* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The usual sad story. Aired out of order, shuffled around the schedule, barely advertised, and so on.
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* ShoutOut: To nearly all the musical cult favorites of the late '70s, which is probably one of the reasons why it took so very long to clear the rights for the [=DVD=] release. Bill watching Garry Shandling qualifies, as Judd Apatow was a writer on ''TheLarrySandersShow'' before ''Freaks and Geeks''.
to:
* ShoutOut: To nearly all the musical cult favorites of the late '70s, which is probably one of the reasons why it took so very long to clear the rights for the [=DVD=] release. Bill watching Garry Shandling qualifies, as Judd Apatow was a writer on ''TheLarrySandersShow'' ''Series/TheLarrySandersShow'' before ''Freaks and Geeks''.
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* WrongGeneticSex: This is a major plot point in one episode, when [[spoiler: Ken's new girlfriend Amy tells her she's one of these. There was no DNA test or anything - the conflict came from Amy getting upset at Ken telling his friends her big secret]].
to:
* WrongGeneticSex: This is a major plot point in one episode, when [[spoiler: Ken's new girlfriend Amy tells her him she's one of these. There was no DNA test or anything - the conflict came from Amy getting upset at Ken telling his friends her big secret]].
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Compare its fellow TooGoodToLast high school drama ''MySoCalledLife'', and Apatow's follow-up TooGoodToLast college comedy ''{{Undeclared}}''.
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Compare its fellow TooGoodToLast high school drama ''MySoCalledLife'', ''Series/MySoCalledLife'', and Apatow's follow-up TooGoodToLast college comedy ''{{Undeclared}}''.
''Series/{{Undeclared}}''.
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* ContinuityNod: Lindsay's mom referring to Nick as "the guy who ate all my Fruit Roll-Ups" in "Boyfriends And Girlfriends" counts as this; the series generally doesn't make too many references to previous episodes beyond well-established plot points, so this is particularly apparent.
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*FakeOutOpening: A small one, and has hints of a TakeThat to boot. The camera focuses in on [[TheBeautifulPeople a jock and his cheerleader]] trying to ham up their non-existent melodrama, and soon after, the camera introduces us to the real heroes of the show.
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* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. The Weir parents generally give well-meaning and sometimes have helpful advice to their children. However, generational differences in particular (they are, after all, pre-Boomers while the kids are early Gen-X'ers) often diminish the value of their advice.
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* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. The Weir parents generally give well-meaning and sometimes have helpful advice to their children. However, generational differences in particular (they are, after all, pre-Boomers while the kids are early Gen-X'ers) often diminish the value of make it difficult for them to understand what their advice. children are going through. This is particularly apparent in the episode "Boyfriends And Girlfriends," where the Weir parents' lack of familiarity with post-60's sexual politics makes them extremely paranoid about Lindsay and Nick hooking up. Fortunately, unlike a lot of other teen shows, F&G never goes overboard with this trope. It's actually presented in a very realistic (for its time, at least) manner.
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* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Students and teachers smoking on campus.
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* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Students and DeliberateValuesDissonance:HighSchool teachers ''and students'' (openly) smoking on campus.
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**** Surely Sam walking into school wearing a baby-blue Parisian nightsuit. The look on his face as he realises that everyone is laughing at him is priceless.
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**** Surely Sam walking into school wearing a baby-blue Parisian nightsuit. disco jumpsuit ("Parisian nightsuit"). The look on his face as he realises realizes that everyone is laughing at him is priceless.
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* {{Corpsing}}: When found out that he had Lindsay help him cheat on a math test, Daniel breaks into a monologue about how he was pushed into the dumb kids group and how it affected his self-esteem. When he finished, everyone in the room (teacher, guidance counselor, Lindsay and her parents) are all silent. That is, until Lindsay breaks into hysterical laughter because he had used, word for word, the EXACT same monologue to guilt her into helping him cheat in the first place.
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Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Part of what made the show unique was its retro setting did not use the typical trappings like ItWillNeverCatchOn, HilariousInHindsight and was even sparse in the use of NothingButHits. It was surprisingly immersive in the time period.
to:
Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Part of what made the show unique was its retro setting did not use the typical trappings like ItWillNeverCatchOn, HilariousInHindsight and was even sparse in the use of NothingButHits. It was surprisingly immersive in the time period.
period. The show was praised to heaven and back, making it on TIME magazine's top 10 new shows, but [[AcclaimedFlop never quite took off]] with the ratings.
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* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. The Weir parents generally give well-meaning and sometimes helpful advice to their children. However, generational differences in particular (they are, after all, pre-Boomers while the kids are early Gen-X'ers) often diminish the value of their advice.
to:
* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. The Weir parents generally give well-meaning and sometimes have helpful advice to their children. However, generational differences in particular (they are, after all, pre-Boomers while the kids are early Gen-X'ers) often diminish the value of their advice.
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* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Typical with 6'4 Jason Segel in most of his roles. Nick
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* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Typical with 6'4 Jason Segel in most of his roles. Nick and Lindsay have plenty of ShipTease and he is a solid head taller than her.
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Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Compare its fellow TooGoodToLast high school drama ''MySoCalledLife'', and Apatow's follow-up TooGoodToLast college comedy ''{{Undeclared}}''.
to:
Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Part of what made the show unique was its retro setting did not use the typical trappings like ItWillNeverCatchOn, HilariousInHindsight and was even sparse in the use of NothingButHits. It was surprisingly immersive in the time period.
Compare its fellow TooGoodToLast high school drama ''MySoCalledLife'', and Apatow's follow-up TooGoodToLast college comedy ''{{Undeclared}}''.
Compare its fellow TooGoodToLast high school drama ''MySoCalledLife'', and Apatow's follow-up TooGoodToLast college comedy ''{{Undeclared}}''.
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* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Typical with 6'4 Jason Segel in most of his roles. Nick
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** In fact in the beginning of one episode, a jock accidentally hits Sam very hard in the stomach while giving his girlfriend a gun show, and though Sam doesn't admit that he got hurt, the guy did genuinely act apologetic.
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*** That opening was a MindScrew. The show wanted to open with some contrived melodrama to make you think it would be another BeverlyHills90210 or DawsonsCreek, and then immediately subvert it by panning the camera down at the far more interesting and realistic Freaks, basically telling the audience "This isn't ''that'' kind of show!"
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* JerkJock: Subverted with Mr. Fredricks. He initially appears to be a cliched asshole gym teacher, but is later revealed to be very compassionate and understanding, even when dealing with students who don't do well in gym (Sam and Bill.)
** Mr. Fredricks is definitely a JerkWithAHeartOfGold as well. He risks losing his job to have a more frank discussion about sex with Sam after realizing that he's seen a pornographic movie and makes a good effort to bond with Bill after he starts dating Bill's mom.
** Also subverted with Cindy's boyfriend Todd. He starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy.
** Played straight, though, with Seidelman. The enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.
** Mr. Fredricks is definitely a JerkWithAHeartOfGold as well. He risks losing his job to have a more frank discussion about sex with Sam after realizing that he's seen a pornographic movie and makes a good effort to bond with Bill after he starts dating Bill's mom.
** Also subverted with Cindy's boyfriend Todd. He starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy.
** Played straight, though, with Seidelman. The enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.
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* JerkJock: Seldom played straight, which is surprising given all the other stock high school tropes.
** The bullies and jocks are completely separate cliques--the bullies are mainly losers picking on others even lower on the social ladder, while the jocks are mostly just known for sleeping around. They can be obnoxious but few actually antagonize others. One example is Cindy's boyfriend Todd: he starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy. There is a straight example, though, in Seidelman, the enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.
** Subverted with Mr. Fredricks. He initially appears to be a cliched asshole gym teacher, but is later revealed to be very compassionate and understanding, even when dealing with students who don't do well in gym (Sam and Bill.)
** Mr. Fredricks is definitely a JerkWithAHeartOfGold as well.) He risks losing his job to have a more frank discussion about sex with Sam after realizing that he's seen a pornographic movie and makes a good effort to bond with Bill after he starts dating Bill's mom.
** Also subverted with Cindy's boyfriend Todd. He starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy.
** Played straight, though, with Seidelman. The enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.mom.
** The bullies and jocks are completely separate cliques--the bullies are mainly losers picking on others even lower on the social ladder, while the jocks are mostly just known for sleeping around. They can be obnoxious but few actually antagonize others. One example is Cindy's boyfriend Todd: he starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy. There is a straight example, though, in Seidelman, the enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.
** Subverted with Mr. Fredricks. He initially appears to be a cliched asshole gym teacher, but is later revealed to be very compassionate and understanding, even when dealing with students who don't do well in gym (Sam and Bill.
** Mr. Fredricks is definitely a JerkWithAHeartOfGold as well.
** Also subverted with Cindy's boyfriend Todd. He starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy.
** Played straight, though, with Seidelman. The enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.
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* OrphanedPunchline: A raunchy joke that the Geeks don't understand is the impetus for their plot in "Tests and Breasts". We only hear the punchline, "...'How do you think I rang the doorbell?'" is all we hear until near the end of the episode, where the audience finally gets to hear enough of the setup to figure out the joke ("So there's this guy with no arms and no legs...").
to:
* OrphanedPunchline: A raunchy joke that the Geeks don't understand is the impetus for their plot in "Tests and Breasts". We only hear the punchline, "...'How do you think I rang the doorbell?'" is all we hear doorbell?'", until near the end of the episode, where the audience finally gets to hear enough of the setup to figure out the joke ("So there's this guy with no arms and no legs...").
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* OrphanedPunchline: A raunchy joke that the Geeks don't understand is the impetus for their plot in "Tests and Breasts". We only hear the punchline, "...'How do you think I rang the doorbell?'" is all we hear until near the end of the episode, where the audience finally gets to hear enough of the setup to figure out the joke ("So there's this guy with no arms and no legs...").
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[[quoteright:349: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/freaks_and_geeks_tv_dvd_7057.jpg]]
{{Dramedy}} created by Paul Feig and Creator/JuddApatow for Creator/{{NBC}}, based on the former's experiences, about two groups of teenagers in the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} suburbs in 1980. The "[[TheSlacker Freaks]]" are into rock (''not'' disco!), pot and just hanging out. The "[[{{nerd}} Geeks]]" are into comedy, the AV club, role-playing games and are just getting into computers. Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) is at the fringe of the Freak group, while her younger brother, Sam (John Francis Daley), is at the core of the Geeks.
Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Compare its fellow TooGoodToLast high school drama ''MySoCalledLife'', and Apatow's follow-up TooGoodToLast college comedy ''{{Undeclared}}''.
Has a [[Characters/FreaksAndGeeks character sheet.]]
----
!!''FreaksAndGeeks'' is the TropeNamer for the following tropes:
* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes
----
!!''FreaksAndGeeks'' provides examples of:
* AbortedArc: Sam's beginning frustration with Neal and Bill (as well as Gordon and Harris) in "Discos and Dragons" was to translate into the next season with Sam wanting to break away from the Geeks as he started with puberty, as well as the relationship between Coach Fredericks and Gloria Haverchuck (Bill's mother), and the divorce between the Schweibers. [[AsYouKnow No further explanation is needed]].
* ActorAllusion: [[MST3K Joel Hodgson]] selling Sam a jumpsuit.
** The whole reason for the Halloween episode was to give them an excuse for Joe Flaherty to dress up as a vampire, recalling "Count Floyd" from ''{{SCTV}}''.
* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. The Weir parents generally give well-meaning and sometimes helpful advice to their children. However, generational differences in particular (they are, after all, pre-Boomers while the kids are early Gen-X'ers) often diminish the value of their advice.
* TheAllegedCar: Kim Kelly's Gremlin, Nick's Maverick...It's 1980, it's Detroit, if the series had lasted pretty much every marginal American car from the '70s would've shown up...
* AlliterativeName: Kim Kelly, Daniel Desario, Cindy Sanders
* AmbulanceCut: Sort of. In "Chokin' and Tokin'," Alan yells at Bill that he put peanuts in his sandwich. Cue his OhCrap face as he realizes Bill really is allergic to peanuts, and then cut to Bill on a gurney being rushed down the hall to the waiting ambulance.
* AudienceSurrogate: Arguably, any of the main characters.
* AuthorAvatar: Sam Weir = Paul Feig
** Gabe Sachs claims to have based Nick on himself, complete with giant drum kit.
* AuthorTract: "The Little Things" is pretty much one long political ad. Somewhat understandable, as it aired a few months before the 2000 election.
* BelatedBackstory: Alan gets one in "Chokin' and Tokin'", where we find out that the reason he gives the geeks a hard time is because they used to ignore him when he actually wanted to be friends with them.
* BettyAndVeronica: Initially, Lindsay's two main love interests, Nick and Daniel, seem to fit this trope, with Nick being the sweet, slightly shy one and Daniel being the stereotypical "bad boy." This gets subverted to hell and back when we find that [[spoiler: Nick is a stoner with [[StalkingIsLove an Edward Cullen complex]] and Daniel is actually a pretty good guy]]. Also played mostly straight with Lindsay's [[HeterosexualLifePartners gal pals]] Millie and Kim.
** Arguably ''re''verted when Nick starts getting his act together, but that's also left hanging.
* BittersweetEnding: Most episodes. ''Especially'' the finale.
* {{Blackmail}}: Mr. Rosso tries using this to get Lindsay to re-join the Mathlete team after he catches her cutting class in the pilot.
* BrainyBrunette: Lindsay and Millie. The former was a star mathlete.
* BrokenPedestal: Neal's idolization of [[spoiler: his father]] is destroyed upon learning of [[spoiler: his extramarital affairs]]. However, [[spoiler:the show takes pains to portray the senior Schweiber as a good husband and father who is likely in the midst of a mid-life crisis.]]
* BrotherChuck: There are a few unnamed extras in the freaks and the geeks that dont appear in later episodes after the pilot.
* ButtMonkey: The geeks. ''All of them''.
* CaliforniaDoubling: Gets pretty obvious by the Halloween episode.
* TheCastShowoff: John Francis Daley's accomplished dance moves were shown off during the mirror scene in "Looks and Books".
** It's even remarkable on its own that Daley was all of ''fourteen'' while working on ''Freaks & Geeks''.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Students and teachers smoking on campus.
* CoolLoser: Harris.
* [[DrillSergeantNasty Coach Nasty]]: Played with; Coach Fredericks can definitely be rather blunt, sarcastic and mean, particularly to the less-than-athletically talented geeks, but he's got a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]] underneath it all and is actually rather compassionate and kind, particularly when he's not on the sports field.
* ConvenientSlowDance: Subverted in the first episode. Sam gets Cindy out onto the dance floor just as the tempo (to Music/{{Styx}}' "Come Sail Away") picks up.
* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: Alan gives a heartfelt apology to the unconscious Bill, after he puts peanuts in his sandwich and Bill is rushed to the hospital, giving us some BelatedBackstory.
* ConversationalTroping: Both groups, constantly, although the geeks mostly talk comedy and science fiction, while the freaks are more into music.
* CosPlay: for the science fiction convention.
* CreatorCameo: Paul Feig plays Alex, the guitarist for Dimension, in "I'm with the Band".
* CringeComedy to spare. Two notable examples are Neal's ventriloquism act at his parents' party and ''definitely'' Nick's disastrous audition for a professional rock band.
** Nick serenading Lindsay with Styx's "Lady"...and, in a different episode, auditioning his own composition, "Lady L", to Ken.
*** "Smooching and Mooching" has a deleted scene in which Sam and Cindy dance while Sam sings, which everyone on the DVD commentary claims is ''the creepiest thing ever filmed''... which is accurate.
**** Surely Sam walking into school wearing a baby-blue Parisian nightsuit. The look on his face as he realises that everyone is laughing at him is priceless.
* CutShort: And it makes the final episode, "Discos and Dragons", into an inadvertent...
** [[GainaxEnding Mind-Screw Ending]]: Let's see, [[spoiler: Sam has become disillusioned with his best friends but Daniel has joined their gang. Nick and Lindsay are no longer a couple, he has also broken up from his circle of friends and Lindsay is off on a cross-country road trip while her parents think she's attending an academic summit. And Kim and Daniel's latest break-up may be the last.]] Lord knows where they would have taken this.
*** Actually, it was completely advertent. The final four episodes were written in the knowledge that the show wasn't being renewed.
* DawsonCasting: Averted. Only John Francis Daley was actually the ''same'' age as his character, but with the exception of James Franco, Busy Phillips and Linda Cardellini, the actors playing students were still teenagers when they made the show.
* DeadpanSnarker: Ken and Amy. Harris and Neal also fit this trope.
* DownToTheLastPlay: The basketball game in "We've Got Spirit".
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: RealLife example. Tons of F&G fanfics show Lindsay and Nick hooking up and living happily ever after, even though the series clearly suggests that the two make just as bad a couple as Sam and Cindy did.
* DreadfulMusician: Nick, although he is said to be getting better towards the end after taking lessons.
* DVDCommentary: Most episodes have at least two, some have ''three'', including fan commentaries and Rosso, Fredericks, & Kowchevski reviewing an episode in character.
* TheEighties: Or more specifically, the part immediately following (and thus still retaining a lot of the look and culture of) TheSeventies.
* EnforcedMethodActing: To make it look like Bill was laughing insanely at an Garry Shandling routine from ''Dinah'' (that actor Martin Starr found more annoying than anything), they filmed Bill's reaction shots without sound while Judd Apatow was standing off-camera telling the actor "''extremely'' dirty jokes".
* FanBoy: The geeks are fan boys of ''SaturdayNightLive'', science fiction, ''TheJerk'', and ''DungeonsAndDragons''. Bill is also very adamant about watching ''Series/{{Dallas}}''.
** Eli really, really likes ''ThreesCompany''.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: All Nick wants to do is play drums, but his father sells his drum set "for his own good" and threatens to send him to military school.
* TheFellowshipHasEnded: At the end of the series, the Freaks have all joined different groups. Lindsay and Kim are off to follow TheGratefulDead, Daniel has become one of the geeks and Nick had gotten into ''disco''. Ken's a bit of a loose plot thread, though.
** Ken was ultimately the least developed of the show's main characters, and the one character who was never really able to progress much beyond being a simple joke machine (although it was clearly intended that he would once his relationship with Amy went further).
* FindingABraInYourCar: The garage door opener.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the Halloween episode, the geeks go trick or treating and one woman gives them circus peanuts. Bill asks "Are there any peanuts in those peanuts? Because if there are, I could die." Later in the season, a bully slips peanuts into Bill's sandwich. He nearly dies from an allergic reaction.
** "Looks and Books" offers some foreshadowing during the conversation between Harris and Daniel: [[spoiler: Harris is reading a ''Dungeons and Dragons'' book, and comments that Daniel would make a great Dungeonmaster]]. "Smooching and Mooching" also foreshadowed with a brief cameo of some [[TheGratefulDead Deadheads]].
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: This series was ''full'' of it. The cast and crew [[LampshadeHanging called it]] the "clean dirty" on the DVD commentaries
** Just one humorous example:
--> '''Maureen:''' Wow Bill, your [[DoubleEntendre rocket's huge!]]
--> '''Bill (who is holding a large toy rocket):''' Oh, it is? I hadn't noticed.
* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Nick has some black-and-white vertically-striped ones in "Smooching and Mooching." The print itself isn't so goofy, but the fact that the underwear was a pair of small, revealing briefs raises the hilarity.
** In the DVD booklet, Paul Feig even commented, "Kudos for Jason Segel for allowing us to show him in his underwear."
* HalloweenEpisode: "Tricks and Treats"
** Which finds Halloween turning out to be [[CrappyHolidays kind of a bummer]] for Lindsay, Sam, and their mom.
* HeldBackInSchool: Daniel Desario.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lindsay and Kim
* HiddenDepths: Naturally it occurs in the main cast, but recurring characters receive it as well. For example, Gordon Crisp is introduced early as just a fat kid, but he proves himself to be rather intuitive.
* HighSchool
* HighSchoolDance: In the pilot episode.
* HippieTeacher: Mr. Rosso
* HotMom: Bill's mother, even according to Neal:
--> '''Neal''': I can kinda see why Coach Fredericks is dating her. She is kinda hot.
--> '''Sam''': Oh, God, she's your friend's mother! Weirdo.
* HypocrisyNod: The big basketball game is against Lincoln High, and the students put up posters everywhere that say "Assassinate Lincoln!" But their own school is named after President [=McKinley=].
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: "_____ and _____". And it usually rhymes.
* InWithTheInCrowd: Sam, in "The Little Things".
* ItsAlwaysSpring: The entire show seems to have been shot in the fall.
* JerkassFacade: Alan, as it turns out, in "Chokin' and Tokin'" thanks to some BelatedBackstory.
* JerkJock: Subverted with Mr. Fredricks. He initially appears to be a cliched asshole gym teacher, but is later revealed to be very compassionate and understanding, even when dealing with students who don't do well in gym (Sam and Bill.)
** Mr. Fredricks is definitely a JerkWithAHeartOfGold as well. He risks losing his job to have a more frank discussion about sex with Sam after realizing that he's seen a pornographic movie and makes a good effort to bond with Bill after he starts dating Bill's mom.
** Also subverted with Cindy's boyfriend Todd. He starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy.
** Played straight, though, with Seidelman. The enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Most characters, when not subverting the JerkJock and Libby stereotypes, are some form of this.
** Harold Wier starts out as a typical unreasonable OverprotectiveDad to Lindsay, but actually treats Nick quite well, stands up for him to his own dad and does genuinely care about his daughter.
** Coach Fredericks, when he's not doing his [[DrillSergeantNasty Coach Nasty]] act, is actually rather kind and sweet.
* LeftHanging: [[InvokedTrope Deliberately invoked]] by the series finale when each of the "freaks," with the exception of Ken, finds him- or herself among a new group.
** Arguably Ken is left in flux as well, given his relationship with Amy in the previous episode. Amy can snark with the best of the freaks, but she's still the tubist in the school's marching band.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: At one point Cindy tells Sam, "You're so easy to talk to. You're like my sister."
* LimitedWardrobe: Lindsey's everpresent green Army surplus coat, and Bill's blue-and-white horizontal-striped shirt.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Neal's brother and mother knew about his father's affairs long before he did, poor kid.
* LukeNounverber: Meta-subverted by a first-time D&D player, Carlos the Dwarf.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: Although never directly stated, definitely so when it comes to the Geeks, but this when Daniel talks with Harris:
--> '''Daniel:''' Am I a loser?
--> '''Harris:''' Well, you're having sex, so no.
* MonochromeCasting: There really are very few people of color with speaking roles, and a grand total of one recurring Hispanic character.
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since the setting is Suburban Detroit where you could realistically have an all-white case even in the present.
* MostWritersAreAdults: A rare aversion for for a show about highschool students. The kids actually act like kids their age, and deal with relatively realistic issues.
* MusicVideoSyndrome: Averted. Feig and Apatow wanted the emotional scenes that would, on most teen dramas, be underscored by music from hip new bands, to simply speak for themselves. The results speak for themselves.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Sam gets caught naked in the school hallway in "I'm with the Band".
* {{Nerd}}: The "geeks" in the show, who are everything you ever think of when you heard the word "nerd". Neal's older brother is rather noticeable in that he is awkward, not too handsome, and completely uncool, but knows and accepts this unashamedly.
** However, it's never implied that the geeks are particularly smart. Bill, in particular, comes off as being surprisingly dumb at times. So this might actually be an ''aversion'' in some sense.
* NoEnding: About the only downside to discovering the show on [=DVD=].
* NotNamedInOpeningCredits: Busy Phillips
* OddFriendship: Lindsay and Kim (starting with "Kim Kelly Is My Friend"), Millie and Kim ("Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers"), Daniel and the Geeks ("Discos and Dragons", although it technically began when Daniel lent Sam a porno in "Tests and Breasts").
* PickedLast: Bill had a history of being picked last. This actually drove him to ''prank call his gym teacher!'' After his teacher finds out he was the one who made the call, Bill is awarded [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming the opportunity to captain a team for a day]].
* PictureDay: Opening credits.
* PowerWalk: The Geeks and Maureen, in "Carded and Discarded".
* PresentDayPast: Mostly averted. And, since the show's 1980 setting was really more about averting TotallyRadical (see below) than wallowing in period nostalgia anyway, it's pretty easy to forgive the occasional anachronism.
* PretenderDiss: Kim initially resents Lindsay hanging out with the Freaks, viewing her as "just some rich kid who's trying to piss off her parents".
* PrimalScene: Interestingly used. The Geeks enter the Weir house, and Sam calls out for Jean; he hears Harold and Jean in their bedroom and makes a disgusted face. Both Bill and Sam walk away, but Neal listens in...
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "I. Have. Herpes."
* RazorApples: Discussed by the geeks (along with other rumored foreign objects tainting Halloween candy) in "Tricks and Treats".
** Not to mention the other mom who accompanies her kids' trick-or-treating and refuses Jean's homemade cookies for fear of this.
** Acceptable in that Detroit was where the Razor Apples first showed up, as well as other laced candies.
* RealSongThemeTune: "Bad Reputation" by JoanJett.
* RefrainFromAssuming:
--> '''Lindsay:''' [[SarcasmMode God, how could I be so awful to actually suggest that you play an entire song correctly all the way through!]] God knows [[Music/LedZeppelin Zeppelin]] only play half of "Stairway To Heaven" and TheWho never even ''practices'' "Teenage Wasteland."
--> '''Ken:''' "Baba O'Riley."
--> '''Lindsay:''' [[FlatWhat What?]]
--> '''Ken:''' The name of the song is "Baba O'Riley"... It's on ''Who's Next''?
* RightBehindMe:
-->'''Neal:''' The previous mascot was as funny as a car wreck.
-->'''Previous mascot:''' Hey!
* SadClown: Neal in particular, though a good portion of the male characters have their turn too.
* SadistTeacher: Mr. Kowchevski.
* SatelliteLoveInterest: Justified with Cindy. We know next to nothing about Cindy when Sam gets together with her, and this comes to bite him in the ass later, as they have nothing in common and never really have any fun.
* ScareEmStraight: In "Beers and Weirs", the students are shown a slide presentation depicting students who suffered alcohol-related fatalities.
** Harold Weir: "I had a friend that used to smoke. You know what he's doing now? He's ''DEAD!''"
* SceneryCensor: "I'm with the Band"
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The usual sad story. Aired out of order, shuffled around the schedule, barely advertised, and so on.
* SeinfeldianConversation: The freaks engage in these frequently, especially Nick.
* ShoutOut: To nearly all the musical cult favorites of the late '70s, which is probably one of the reasons why it took so very long to clear the rights for the [=DVD=] release. Bill watching Garry Shandling qualifies, as Judd Apatow was a writer on ''TheLarrySandersShow'' before ''Freaks and Geeks''.
* ShowerShy: Sam in the episode "I'm with the Band," when the school starts requiring students to shower after PE. Things only get worse for him when he finally tries to overcome his fear, only to be pushed out of the locker room and into the hallway without clothes or a ModestyTowel.
* ShownTheirWork: Set in the Detroit suburbs, regional brands are often seen and Japanese cars are conspicuously absent.
* SingleMomStripper: In one episode, Bill worriedly asks his mom if she's going to start "dancing" again.
* SoUnfunnyItsFunny:
-->'''Neal:''' Friday night; always a good night for some ''[[Music/BlackSabbath Sabbath]]!''
* SpinTheBottle: "Smooching and Mooching"
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''{{Undeclared}}''. The two shows even shared several actors, namely Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, Samm Levine, and Martin Starr.
* StealthPun: Alan keeps calling Sam Weir things that rhyme with his second name (Sam Queer, Sam Rear, etc.) but Sam Weird never seems to occur to him.
** In the orignal pilot script Alan calls him Sam Weird.
* TheTalk: Sam and Coach Fredricks in "Tests and Breasts".
* TechMarchesOn: "Help buy our school a computer!" Later in the (1980-81) school year they have 4 or 5 of 'em.
** When the AV club faculty advisor scores an 8mm filmstrip copy of ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', it's a [[SeriousBusiness very big deal]] and major treat for the geeks. This was a few years before home video reached a tipping point.
* TeensAreShort: Averted. Nick is six foot four and played by nineteen year old Jason Segel while the rest of the cast are quite tall. The only exception is Sam who is noted as being short for his age.
* TenMinutesInTheCloset: Bill and Vicki Appleby, in "Smooching and Mooching".
* ThisIsYourSong: "Lady L".
* TotallyRadical: Averted. The whole show was explicitly set in 1980 to avoid this. Although the guidance counselor is prone to the '80s equivalent of this.
* TroubledButCute: Daniel has a bad home life and does poorly in school, but Lindsay is still interested...
* TrueCompanions: Two separate groups with the Weir siblings as the connection.
** Though they were not the leaders; Alan Sepinwall identifies Daniel and Neal as the heads of their respective groups.
* TVTeen: Hugely averted. The characters deal with girls/boys, body image (Sam), sexual identity issues (Ken), fitting in and generally finding yourself (Lindsay). It's all amazingly real.
* UnconventionalSmoothie: "Tricks and Treats" begins with Bill accepting [[TheBet a wager]] to drink one of these. Sam and Neal mix cayenne pepper, mustard, pickle juice, pickles, a generous handful of salt, sardines, vinegar, soy sauce, chili, a spoonful of grape jelly, powdered dairy creamer, and after-dinner mints. Bill actually ''likes'' it.
* UnusualEuphemism: "Cutting the cheese" refers to farting.
** That's considered arcane now? Man, this troper feels old.
*** (Possibly the first troper was from somewhere other than North America, it's not commonly used elsewhere)
* {{Ventriloquism}}: Taken up by by Neal in "Noshing and Moshing".
* VerySpecialEpisode: "Chokin' and Tokin'" deals with marijuana.
** It's considerably more subtle than most examples, however. The show's portrayal of the first time getting high is largely TruthInTelevision.
* VindicatedByReruns
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Sam Weir was originally meant to be ''tall'' for his age (as Feig had been).
** Had there been a second season, Paul Feig wanted to have [[spoiler:Sam breaking with Bill and Neal to find a new group of friends, Lindsay struggling with drug addiction, Kim Kelly getting pregnant, Bill's mom marrying Coach Fredricks and Neal's parents divorcing]]. And Sam ''would'' have gotten tall; John Francis Daley grew almost a foot in the year after cancellation.
** Feig also wanted [[spoiler: Lindsay and Daniel to eventually end up together]].
** On the topic of how Sam was supposed to be tall, Daniel was supposed to be Hispanic, and Ken was supposed to have long blonde hair. Neal was supposed to be named Art Thompson, Lindsey was supposed to be 15, etc.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Did Nick win the dance competition in the final episode?
** Was ShiaLaBeouf asleep because he was concussed or just because he was really tired? Did he ever wake up?
** Where did Alan go after making peace with the geeks?
** Was Lindsay really smoking as her mother accused her of in the pilot? This troper's instinct is no, but it was never really elaborated on in the rest of the episode...or the rest of the series.
** Then there's Britt and Ashley, the football player and cheerleader seen in the very first scene of the first episode. We see them have a brief discussion about their relationship, then the camera pans down below the bleachers they're sitting on to where the freaks are hanging out...and we never see or hear from them again. (Of course, since the whole show is depicted from the perspective of kids whose social orbits are light-years removed from that of the school's Britts and Ashleys, this only makes perfect sense.)
* WhatIsThisFeeling: Played subtly with Ken, when he gets a crush on Amy:
-->'''Lindsay:''' Oh my God...you really like her, don't you!
-->'''Ken:''' ...I feel odd.
* WildTeenParty: Subverted in "Beers and Weirs". [[spoiler: The "beer" is actually non-alcoholic. And yet everyone [[PlaceboEffect still *acts* drunk]]]].
** [[TruthInTelevision Try it sometime. It works.]]
** Also subverted in that [[spoiler: nothing that bad really happens, most of the crises you'd expect never occur, and to all intents and purposes the kids get away with it.]]
* WrongGeneticSex: This is a major plot point in one episode, when [[spoiler: Ken's new girlfriend Amy tells her she's one of these. There was no DNA test or anything - the conflict came from Amy getting upset at Ken telling his friends her big secret]].
* YokoOhNo: In-universe, Lindsay inadvertently becomes this in "I'm with the Band", where she splits up the freak's band when actually trying to get them to improve. Ken even calls her Yoko at one point, although they're all back together by the end of the episode.
** He teases her about it again in a later episode, referring to the time she broke up their band so she could make out with Nick. She doesn't correct him that she actually made out with Nick in part ''because'' she felt bad about breaking up their band.
----
{{Dramedy}} created by Paul Feig and Creator/JuddApatow for Creator/{{NBC}}, based on the former's experiences, about two groups of teenagers in the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} suburbs in 1980. The "[[TheSlacker Freaks]]" are into rock (''not'' disco!), pot and just hanging out. The "[[{{nerd}} Geeks]]" are into comedy, the AV club, role-playing games and are just getting into computers. Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) is at the fringe of the Freak group, while her younger brother, Sam (John Francis Daley), is at the core of the Geeks.
Eighteen episodes were made in 1999-2000. Compare its fellow TooGoodToLast high school drama ''MySoCalledLife'', and Apatow's follow-up TooGoodToLast college comedy ''{{Undeclared}}''.
Has a [[Characters/FreaksAndGeeks character sheet.]]
----
!!''FreaksAndGeeks'' is the TropeNamer for the following tropes:
* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes
----
!!''FreaksAndGeeks'' provides examples of:
* AbortedArc: Sam's beginning frustration with Neal and Bill (as well as Gordon and Harris) in "Discos and Dragons" was to translate into the next season with Sam wanting to break away from the Geeks as he started with puberty, as well as the relationship between Coach Fredericks and Gloria Haverchuck (Bill's mother), and the divorce between the Schweibers. [[AsYouKnow No further explanation is needed]].
* ActorAllusion: [[MST3K Joel Hodgson]] selling Sam a jumpsuit.
** The whole reason for the Halloween episode was to give them an excuse for Joe Flaherty to dress up as a vampire, recalling "Count Floyd" from ''{{SCTV}}''.
* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. The Weir parents generally give well-meaning and sometimes helpful advice to their children. However, generational differences in particular (they are, after all, pre-Boomers while the kids are early Gen-X'ers) often diminish the value of their advice.
* TheAllegedCar: Kim Kelly's Gremlin, Nick's Maverick...It's 1980, it's Detroit, if the series had lasted pretty much every marginal American car from the '70s would've shown up...
* AlliterativeName: Kim Kelly, Daniel Desario, Cindy Sanders
* AmbulanceCut: Sort of. In "Chokin' and Tokin'," Alan yells at Bill that he put peanuts in his sandwich. Cue his OhCrap face as he realizes Bill really is allergic to peanuts, and then cut to Bill on a gurney being rushed down the hall to the waiting ambulance.
* AudienceSurrogate: Arguably, any of the main characters.
* AuthorAvatar: Sam Weir = Paul Feig
** Gabe Sachs claims to have based Nick on himself, complete with giant drum kit.
* AuthorTract: "The Little Things" is pretty much one long political ad. Somewhat understandable, as it aired a few months before the 2000 election.
* BelatedBackstory: Alan gets one in "Chokin' and Tokin'", where we find out that the reason he gives the geeks a hard time is because they used to ignore him when he actually wanted to be friends with them.
* BettyAndVeronica: Initially, Lindsay's two main love interests, Nick and Daniel, seem to fit this trope, with Nick being the sweet, slightly shy one and Daniel being the stereotypical "bad boy." This gets subverted to hell and back when we find that [[spoiler: Nick is a stoner with [[StalkingIsLove an Edward Cullen complex]] and Daniel is actually a pretty good guy]]. Also played mostly straight with Lindsay's [[HeterosexualLifePartners gal pals]] Millie and Kim.
** Arguably ''re''verted when Nick starts getting his act together, but that's also left hanging.
* BittersweetEnding: Most episodes. ''Especially'' the finale.
* {{Blackmail}}: Mr. Rosso tries using this to get Lindsay to re-join the Mathlete team after he catches her cutting class in the pilot.
* BrainyBrunette: Lindsay and Millie. The former was a star mathlete.
* BrokenPedestal: Neal's idolization of [[spoiler: his father]] is destroyed upon learning of [[spoiler: his extramarital affairs]]. However, [[spoiler:the show takes pains to portray the senior Schweiber as a good husband and father who is likely in the midst of a mid-life crisis.]]
* BrotherChuck: There are a few unnamed extras in the freaks and the geeks that dont appear in later episodes after the pilot.
* ButtMonkey: The geeks. ''All of them''.
* CaliforniaDoubling: Gets pretty obvious by the Halloween episode.
* TheCastShowoff: John Francis Daley's accomplished dance moves were shown off during the mirror scene in "Looks and Books".
** It's even remarkable on its own that Daley was all of ''fourteen'' while working on ''Freaks & Geeks''.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Students and teachers smoking on campus.
* CoolLoser: Harris.
* [[DrillSergeantNasty Coach Nasty]]: Played with; Coach Fredericks can definitely be rather blunt, sarcastic and mean, particularly to the less-than-athletically talented geeks, but he's got a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]] underneath it all and is actually rather compassionate and kind, particularly when he's not on the sports field.
* ConvenientSlowDance: Subverted in the first episode. Sam gets Cindy out onto the dance floor just as the tempo (to Music/{{Styx}}' "Come Sail Away") picks up.
* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: Alan gives a heartfelt apology to the unconscious Bill, after he puts peanuts in his sandwich and Bill is rushed to the hospital, giving us some BelatedBackstory.
* ConversationalTroping: Both groups, constantly, although the geeks mostly talk comedy and science fiction, while the freaks are more into music.
* CosPlay: for the science fiction convention.
* CreatorCameo: Paul Feig plays Alex, the guitarist for Dimension, in "I'm with the Band".
* CringeComedy to spare. Two notable examples are Neal's ventriloquism act at his parents' party and ''definitely'' Nick's disastrous audition for a professional rock band.
** Nick serenading Lindsay with Styx's "Lady"...and, in a different episode, auditioning his own composition, "Lady L", to Ken.
*** "Smooching and Mooching" has a deleted scene in which Sam and Cindy dance while Sam sings, which everyone on the DVD commentary claims is ''the creepiest thing ever filmed''... which is accurate.
**** Surely Sam walking into school wearing a baby-blue Parisian nightsuit. The look on his face as he realises that everyone is laughing at him is priceless.
* CutShort: And it makes the final episode, "Discos and Dragons", into an inadvertent...
** [[GainaxEnding Mind-Screw Ending]]: Let's see, [[spoiler: Sam has become disillusioned with his best friends but Daniel has joined their gang. Nick and Lindsay are no longer a couple, he has also broken up from his circle of friends and Lindsay is off on a cross-country road trip while her parents think she's attending an academic summit. And Kim and Daniel's latest break-up may be the last.]] Lord knows where they would have taken this.
*** Actually, it was completely advertent. The final four episodes were written in the knowledge that the show wasn't being renewed.
* DawsonCasting: Averted. Only John Francis Daley was actually the ''same'' age as his character, but with the exception of James Franco, Busy Phillips and Linda Cardellini, the actors playing students were still teenagers when they made the show.
* DeadpanSnarker: Ken and Amy. Harris and Neal also fit this trope.
* DownToTheLastPlay: The basketball game in "We've Got Spirit".
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: RealLife example. Tons of F&G fanfics show Lindsay and Nick hooking up and living happily ever after, even though the series clearly suggests that the two make just as bad a couple as Sam and Cindy did.
* DreadfulMusician: Nick, although he is said to be getting better towards the end after taking lessons.
* DVDCommentary: Most episodes have at least two, some have ''three'', including fan commentaries and Rosso, Fredericks, & Kowchevski reviewing an episode in character.
* TheEighties: Or more specifically, the part immediately following (and thus still retaining a lot of the look and culture of) TheSeventies.
* EnforcedMethodActing: To make it look like Bill was laughing insanely at an Garry Shandling routine from ''Dinah'' (that actor Martin Starr found more annoying than anything), they filmed Bill's reaction shots without sound while Judd Apatow was standing off-camera telling the actor "''extremely'' dirty jokes".
* FanBoy: The geeks are fan boys of ''SaturdayNightLive'', science fiction, ''TheJerk'', and ''DungeonsAndDragons''. Bill is also very adamant about watching ''Series/{{Dallas}}''.
** Eli really, really likes ''ThreesCompany''.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: All Nick wants to do is play drums, but his father sells his drum set "for his own good" and threatens to send him to military school.
* TheFellowshipHasEnded: At the end of the series, the Freaks have all joined different groups. Lindsay and Kim are off to follow TheGratefulDead, Daniel has become one of the geeks and Nick had gotten into ''disco''. Ken's a bit of a loose plot thread, though.
** Ken was ultimately the least developed of the show's main characters, and the one character who was never really able to progress much beyond being a simple joke machine (although it was clearly intended that he would once his relationship with Amy went further).
* FindingABraInYourCar: The garage door opener.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the Halloween episode, the geeks go trick or treating and one woman gives them circus peanuts. Bill asks "Are there any peanuts in those peanuts? Because if there are, I could die." Later in the season, a bully slips peanuts into Bill's sandwich. He nearly dies from an allergic reaction.
** "Looks and Books" offers some foreshadowing during the conversation between Harris and Daniel: [[spoiler: Harris is reading a ''Dungeons and Dragons'' book, and comments that Daniel would make a great Dungeonmaster]]. "Smooching and Mooching" also foreshadowed with a brief cameo of some [[TheGratefulDead Deadheads]].
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: This series was ''full'' of it. The cast and crew [[LampshadeHanging called it]] the "clean dirty" on the DVD commentaries
** Just one humorous example:
--> '''Maureen:''' Wow Bill, your [[DoubleEntendre rocket's huge!]]
--> '''Bill (who is holding a large toy rocket):''' Oh, it is? I hadn't noticed.
* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Nick has some black-and-white vertically-striped ones in "Smooching and Mooching." The print itself isn't so goofy, but the fact that the underwear was a pair of small, revealing briefs raises the hilarity.
** In the DVD booklet, Paul Feig even commented, "Kudos for Jason Segel for allowing us to show him in his underwear."
* HalloweenEpisode: "Tricks and Treats"
** Which finds Halloween turning out to be [[CrappyHolidays kind of a bummer]] for Lindsay, Sam, and their mom.
* HeldBackInSchool: Daniel Desario.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lindsay and Kim
* HiddenDepths: Naturally it occurs in the main cast, but recurring characters receive it as well. For example, Gordon Crisp is introduced early as just a fat kid, but he proves himself to be rather intuitive.
* HighSchool
* HighSchoolDance: In the pilot episode.
* HippieTeacher: Mr. Rosso
* HotMom: Bill's mother, even according to Neal:
--> '''Neal''': I can kinda see why Coach Fredericks is dating her. She is kinda hot.
--> '''Sam''': Oh, God, she's your friend's mother! Weirdo.
* HypocrisyNod: The big basketball game is against Lincoln High, and the students put up posters everywhere that say "Assassinate Lincoln!" But their own school is named after President [=McKinley=].
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: "_____ and _____". And it usually rhymes.
* InWithTheInCrowd: Sam, in "The Little Things".
* ItsAlwaysSpring: The entire show seems to have been shot in the fall.
* JerkassFacade: Alan, as it turns out, in "Chokin' and Tokin'" thanks to some BelatedBackstory.
* JerkJock: Subverted with Mr. Fredricks. He initially appears to be a cliched asshole gym teacher, but is later revealed to be very compassionate and understanding, even when dealing with students who don't do well in gym (Sam and Bill.)
** Mr. Fredricks is definitely a JerkWithAHeartOfGold as well. He risks losing his job to have a more frank discussion about sex with Sam after realizing that he's seen a pornographic movie and makes a good effort to bond with Bill after he starts dating Bill's mom.
** Also subverted with Cindy's boyfriend Todd. He starts out as the RomanticFalseLead keeping Sam from dating Cindy, but turns out to be an unusually decent guy.
** Played straight, though, with Seidelman. The enormous football player who torments, well, just about everybody whenever he appears.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Most characters, when not subverting the JerkJock and Libby stereotypes, are some form of this.
** Harold Wier starts out as a typical unreasonable OverprotectiveDad to Lindsay, but actually treats Nick quite well, stands up for him to his own dad and does genuinely care about his daughter.
** Coach Fredericks, when he's not doing his [[DrillSergeantNasty Coach Nasty]] act, is actually rather kind and sweet.
* LeftHanging: [[InvokedTrope Deliberately invoked]] by the series finale when each of the "freaks," with the exception of Ken, finds him- or herself among a new group.
** Arguably Ken is left in flux as well, given his relationship with Amy in the previous episode. Amy can snark with the best of the freaks, but she's still the tubist in the school's marching band.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: At one point Cindy tells Sam, "You're so easy to talk to. You're like my sister."
* LimitedWardrobe: Lindsey's everpresent green Army surplus coat, and Bill's blue-and-white horizontal-striped shirt.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Neal's brother and mother knew about his father's affairs long before he did, poor kid.
* LukeNounverber: Meta-subverted by a first-time D&D player, Carlos the Dwarf.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: Although never directly stated, definitely so when it comes to the Geeks, but this when Daniel talks with Harris:
--> '''Daniel:''' Am I a loser?
--> '''Harris:''' Well, you're having sex, so no.
* MonochromeCasting: There really are very few people of color with speaking roles, and a grand total of one recurring Hispanic character.
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since the setting is Suburban Detroit where you could realistically have an all-white case even in the present.
* MostWritersAreAdults: A rare aversion for for a show about highschool students. The kids actually act like kids their age, and deal with relatively realistic issues.
* MusicVideoSyndrome: Averted. Feig and Apatow wanted the emotional scenes that would, on most teen dramas, be underscored by music from hip new bands, to simply speak for themselves. The results speak for themselves.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Sam gets caught naked in the school hallway in "I'm with the Band".
* {{Nerd}}: The "geeks" in the show, who are everything you ever think of when you heard the word "nerd". Neal's older brother is rather noticeable in that he is awkward, not too handsome, and completely uncool, but knows and accepts this unashamedly.
** However, it's never implied that the geeks are particularly smart. Bill, in particular, comes off as being surprisingly dumb at times. So this might actually be an ''aversion'' in some sense.
* NoEnding: About the only downside to discovering the show on [=DVD=].
* NotNamedInOpeningCredits: Busy Phillips
* OddFriendship: Lindsay and Kim (starting with "Kim Kelly Is My Friend"), Millie and Kim ("Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers"), Daniel and the Geeks ("Discos and Dragons", although it technically began when Daniel lent Sam a porno in "Tests and Breasts").
* PickedLast: Bill had a history of being picked last. This actually drove him to ''prank call his gym teacher!'' After his teacher finds out he was the one who made the call, Bill is awarded [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming the opportunity to captain a team for a day]].
* PictureDay: Opening credits.
* PowerWalk: The Geeks and Maureen, in "Carded and Discarded".
* PresentDayPast: Mostly averted. And, since the show's 1980 setting was really more about averting TotallyRadical (see below) than wallowing in period nostalgia anyway, it's pretty easy to forgive the occasional anachronism.
* PretenderDiss: Kim initially resents Lindsay hanging out with the Freaks, viewing her as "just some rich kid who's trying to piss off her parents".
* PrimalScene: Interestingly used. The Geeks enter the Weir house, and Sam calls out for Jean; he hears Harold and Jean in their bedroom and makes a disgusted face. Both Bill and Sam walk away, but Neal listens in...
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "I. Have. Herpes."
* RazorApples: Discussed by the geeks (along with other rumored foreign objects tainting Halloween candy) in "Tricks and Treats".
** Not to mention the other mom who accompanies her kids' trick-or-treating and refuses Jean's homemade cookies for fear of this.
** Acceptable in that Detroit was where the Razor Apples first showed up, as well as other laced candies.
* RealSongThemeTune: "Bad Reputation" by JoanJett.
* RefrainFromAssuming:
--> '''Lindsay:''' [[SarcasmMode God, how could I be so awful to actually suggest that you play an entire song correctly all the way through!]] God knows [[Music/LedZeppelin Zeppelin]] only play half of "Stairway To Heaven" and TheWho never even ''practices'' "Teenage Wasteland."
--> '''Ken:''' "Baba O'Riley."
--> '''Lindsay:''' [[FlatWhat What?]]
--> '''Ken:''' The name of the song is "Baba O'Riley"... It's on ''Who's Next''?
* RightBehindMe:
-->'''Neal:''' The previous mascot was as funny as a car wreck.
-->'''Previous mascot:''' Hey!
* SadClown: Neal in particular, though a good portion of the male characters have their turn too.
* SadistTeacher: Mr. Kowchevski.
* SatelliteLoveInterest: Justified with Cindy. We know next to nothing about Cindy when Sam gets together with her, and this comes to bite him in the ass later, as they have nothing in common and never really have any fun.
* ScareEmStraight: In "Beers and Weirs", the students are shown a slide presentation depicting students who suffered alcohol-related fatalities.
** Harold Weir: "I had a friend that used to smoke. You know what he's doing now? He's ''DEAD!''"
* SceneryCensor: "I'm with the Band"
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The usual sad story. Aired out of order, shuffled around the schedule, barely advertised, and so on.
* SeinfeldianConversation: The freaks engage in these frequently, especially Nick.
* ShoutOut: To nearly all the musical cult favorites of the late '70s, which is probably one of the reasons why it took so very long to clear the rights for the [=DVD=] release. Bill watching Garry Shandling qualifies, as Judd Apatow was a writer on ''TheLarrySandersShow'' before ''Freaks and Geeks''.
* ShowerShy: Sam in the episode "I'm with the Band," when the school starts requiring students to shower after PE. Things only get worse for him when he finally tries to overcome his fear, only to be pushed out of the locker room and into the hallway without clothes or a ModestyTowel.
* ShownTheirWork: Set in the Detroit suburbs, regional brands are often seen and Japanese cars are conspicuously absent.
* SingleMomStripper: In one episode, Bill worriedly asks his mom if she's going to start "dancing" again.
* SoUnfunnyItsFunny:
-->'''Neal:''' Friday night; always a good night for some ''[[Music/BlackSabbath Sabbath]]!''
* SpinTheBottle: "Smooching and Mooching"
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''{{Undeclared}}''. The two shows even shared several actors, namely Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, Samm Levine, and Martin Starr.
* StealthPun: Alan keeps calling Sam Weir things that rhyme with his second name (Sam Queer, Sam Rear, etc.) but Sam Weird never seems to occur to him.
** In the orignal pilot script Alan calls him Sam Weird.
* TheTalk: Sam and Coach Fredricks in "Tests and Breasts".
* TechMarchesOn: "Help buy our school a computer!" Later in the (1980-81) school year they have 4 or 5 of 'em.
** When the AV club faculty advisor scores an 8mm filmstrip copy of ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', it's a [[SeriousBusiness very big deal]] and major treat for the geeks. This was a few years before home video reached a tipping point.
* TeensAreShort: Averted. Nick is six foot four and played by nineteen year old Jason Segel while the rest of the cast are quite tall. The only exception is Sam who is noted as being short for his age.
* TenMinutesInTheCloset: Bill and Vicki Appleby, in "Smooching and Mooching".
* ThisIsYourSong: "Lady L".
* TotallyRadical: Averted. The whole show was explicitly set in 1980 to avoid this. Although the guidance counselor is prone to the '80s equivalent of this.
* TroubledButCute: Daniel has a bad home life and does poorly in school, but Lindsay is still interested...
* TrueCompanions: Two separate groups with the Weir siblings as the connection.
** Though they were not the leaders; Alan Sepinwall identifies Daniel and Neal as the heads of their respective groups.
* TVTeen: Hugely averted. The characters deal with girls/boys, body image (Sam), sexual identity issues (Ken), fitting in and generally finding yourself (Lindsay). It's all amazingly real.
* UnconventionalSmoothie: "Tricks and Treats" begins with Bill accepting [[TheBet a wager]] to drink one of these. Sam and Neal mix cayenne pepper, mustard, pickle juice, pickles, a generous handful of salt, sardines, vinegar, soy sauce, chili, a spoonful of grape jelly, powdered dairy creamer, and after-dinner mints. Bill actually ''likes'' it.
* UnusualEuphemism: "Cutting the cheese" refers to farting.
** That's considered arcane now? Man, this troper feels old.
*** (Possibly the first troper was from somewhere other than North America, it's not commonly used elsewhere)
* {{Ventriloquism}}: Taken up by by Neal in "Noshing and Moshing".
* VerySpecialEpisode: "Chokin' and Tokin'" deals with marijuana.
** It's considerably more subtle than most examples, however. The show's portrayal of the first time getting high is largely TruthInTelevision.
* VindicatedByReruns
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Sam Weir was originally meant to be ''tall'' for his age (as Feig had been).
** Had there been a second season, Paul Feig wanted to have [[spoiler:Sam breaking with Bill and Neal to find a new group of friends, Lindsay struggling with drug addiction, Kim Kelly getting pregnant, Bill's mom marrying Coach Fredricks and Neal's parents divorcing]]. And Sam ''would'' have gotten tall; John Francis Daley grew almost a foot in the year after cancellation.
** Feig also wanted [[spoiler: Lindsay and Daniel to eventually end up together]].
** On the topic of how Sam was supposed to be tall, Daniel was supposed to be Hispanic, and Ken was supposed to have long blonde hair. Neal was supposed to be named Art Thompson, Lindsey was supposed to be 15, etc.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Did Nick win the dance competition in the final episode?
** Was ShiaLaBeouf asleep because he was concussed or just because he was really tired? Did he ever wake up?
** Where did Alan go after making peace with the geeks?
** Was Lindsay really smoking as her mother accused her of in the pilot? This troper's instinct is no, but it was never really elaborated on in the rest of the episode...or the rest of the series.
** Then there's Britt and Ashley, the football player and cheerleader seen in the very first scene of the first episode. We see them have a brief discussion about their relationship, then the camera pans down below the bleachers they're sitting on to where the freaks are hanging out...and we never see or hear from them again. (Of course, since the whole show is depicted from the perspective of kids whose social orbits are light-years removed from that of the school's Britts and Ashleys, this only makes perfect sense.)
* WhatIsThisFeeling: Played subtly with Ken, when he gets a crush on Amy:
-->'''Lindsay:''' Oh my God...you really like her, don't you!
-->'''Ken:''' ...I feel odd.
* WildTeenParty: Subverted in "Beers and Weirs". [[spoiler: The "beer" is actually non-alcoholic. And yet everyone [[PlaceboEffect still *acts* drunk]]]].
** [[TruthInTelevision Try it sometime. It works.]]
** Also subverted in that [[spoiler: nothing that bad really happens, most of the crises you'd expect never occur, and to all intents and purposes the kids get away with it.]]
* WrongGeneticSex: This is a major plot point in one episode, when [[spoiler: Ken's new girlfriend Amy tells her she's one of these. There was no DNA test or anything - the conflict came from Amy getting upset at Ken telling his friends her big secret]].
* YokoOhNo: In-universe, Lindsay inadvertently becomes this in "I'm with the Band", where she splits up the freak's band when actually trying to get them to improve. Ken even calls her Yoko at one point, although they're all back together by the end of the episode.
** He teases her about it again in a later episode, referring to the time she broke up their band so she could make out with Nick. She doesn't correct him that she actually made out with Nick in part ''because'' she felt bad about breaking up their band.
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