Pilot Episode (Freaks and Geeks episode)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Freaks and Geeks episode |
| "Pilot Episode" | |
| Episode No. | 1 |
| Prod. Code | 100 |
| Airdate | September 25, 1999 |
| Writer(s) | Paul Feig |
| Director | Jake Kasdan |
|
Freaks and Geeks Season 1 |
|
|
|
| List of all Freaks and Geeks episodes... | |
"Pilot Episode" is the first episode of Freaks and Geeks. It was written by Paul Feig and directed by Jake Kasdan. It first aired on September 25, 1999.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Lindsay Weir, seemingly losing interest in her more academically minded-friends, begins hanging out with a crowd of burnouts, courtesy of an invitation from Daniel Desario. Her affiliation with this gang of freaks worries her family and her once best-friend Millie. Meanwhile, Sam Weir struggles to find the courage not only to confront his bully Alan, but to ask cheerleader Cindy Sanders to the homecoming dance.
[edit] Expanded Overview
Sam, Neil and Bill are being taunted by Alan and crew until Lindsay interferes to stop her little brother from being accosted. After being called a freak and Sam not showing appreciation for her intervention, she states her distaste for high school.
As the Weirs have dinner together, Sam mentions his intentions to skip the homecoming dance in order to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail with his friends, and Lindsay too expresses her intention to not go believing it was an activity for the "popular kids". Their parents believing it important to participate in social events commands the two of them to go.
The next day at the school cafeteria, Alan again tries to antagonize the geeks, where after further taunting Sam calls for mister Kowchevski to intervene, who after dealing with the situation tells Sam "to be a man". Meanwhile, Lindsay tries to flirt with Daniel Desario, and hangs out with his group and asks if any of them would participate in the dance. Lindsay's friend Millie comes by amazed by the fact that Lindsay was haging out with the freaks, not joining the Mathletes in the Academic Decathlon and also choosing not to help sell drinks at the dance to fundraise for a computer.
While Neil suggests methods of preventing Alan's antagonism, Sam's love interest Cindy comes by to return a jacket he had left behind in class. After leaving, this sparks a conversation between about her chances of her having a date to homecoming, and Sam's chances about going with her.
Daniel, Lindsay, Nick discuss cheating in the upcoming test using material stolen by Ken. Kim is offended by Lindsay's prescence, believing her to be a poser trying to anger her parents. Kim pours out the contents of Lindsay's purse and goes to cut school. The others except Daniel leave her to sort out belongings.
Sam mentions in the locker room that Lindsay had been acting strangely ever since her grandmother's death. He is interrupted by Alan, who continues to antagonize them after Bill asks what was the point of his actions. Due to Alan deciding to pick on Bill as well, Neil is unsure about getting involved.
Some of the jocks are being mean to Eli, a mentally retarded student. He tries to find a date to the dance, but is constantly being laughed at the girls he asks. After some taunting from a jock, Lindsay tries to be nice and aks Eli out to the dance where he happily accepts.
In celebration of the homecoming dance, Coach Federicks lets the class play dodgeball, resulting in two sets of imbalanced teams causing the geeks to ponder on different painless methods of getting out. Sam beeing left last on his team manages to catch Alan's ball causing him to be out, causing him to be aggrevated and threaten him, followed by Sam being hit by a volley of dodgeballs from the other team.
Eli is being laughed at by two bullies, joking around. After Lindsay's intervention, he maintains that the two were his friends, causing them to laugh incessently at him. Lindsay states that they were making fun of him for being retarded, which causes him to lose his temper and break off his date with her and run away, tripping over and break his arm. In the guidance councilor's office, Mr Rosso wonders why she didn't participate in the academic decathlon, trying to relate to her, allowing her to call him "Jeff". However, she insists that nothing is wrong.
Sam and company consult Harris and Collin, slightly older geeks on how to deal with the situation. Harris suggests fighting Alan once, as it would result in him tending to leave them alone, having once used that technique on his own freshmen bully with successful results. Neil suggests just avoiding Alan for the next four yeears and walks away from the discussion, only to bump into an angry Alan.
Meanwhile, Lindsay is bored in class and accepts Nick's invitation to cut class the next period, wanting to show her something that she might liked to see.
In the hallway, Sam and Cindy smile and exchange glances only to realise that Kim was between their gazes. She thinks he was staring at her, and at the urging of her friends decides to torment him, thinking maybe he had a crush on her.
Lindsay goes with Nick to his garage, where he shows her his 29 piece drum set, telling her that it was his passion and reason for living. Nick says that everyone needs their resason for living, and that she needs to find her "own gigantic drum kit", which she happily replies that she might by a clarinet. As they walked down the street, Rosso drives by and tries to drop the charges against her cutting class if she joined the Academic Decathlon, hoping that she wouldn't become a "burnout". Refusing, he forces her serve drinks at the dance.
Lindsay weeps while looking at a picture of her grandmother. Sam enters and discusses the probability of defeating Alan in a three on one fight. At Millie's behest Sam asks why she is throwing away her life, and it is revealed that she was alone in the room as their grandma died, fearing the afterlife seeing no bright light, only nothing. As Sam leaves, Lindsay says that he would probably win in a fight along with his friends.
Neil and Bill await to ambush Alan, discussing with Collin who is their to watch, the numerous yet unlikely ways to die in a fight. Sam is held up by Cindy, and before Neil can bail, Alan arrives. Pushing Collin and Neil, Bill takes off his glasses and dives into the fray. Sam asks out Cindy to the dance, who as it turns out is taken buy is willing to save him a dance. As Sam rushes to the fight, Alan's shirt is ripped and is tired out, running away on his bike. The geeks are impressed by their victory, and Sam tells them that he was going to the dance.
Sam has his dance with Cindy, while Lindsay serves drinks with Millie. Glad that Sam is dancing, she tells Millie and Jeff, who tells herm to call him Mr. Rosso again that she was going to dance with Eli who was all alone.
[edit] Music
The following songs are featured in this episode.
| Song title | Artist | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Runnin' With the Devil" | Van Halen | Van Halen | 1978 |
| "I'm Alright" | Kenny Loggins | Kenny Loggins Alive | 1980 |
| "Renegade" | Styx | Pieces of Eight | 1978 |
| "Come Sail Away" | Styx | The Grand Illusion | 1977 |
[edit] Deleted scenes
The following scenes were edited out from the final cut of the episode, but can still be found on the series DVD.
- Alan brings Sam another twinkie at Mr. Kowchevski's request.
- Neal and Bill have a discussion in Mr. Kowchevski's biology class. (The series would later establish Mr. Kowchevski as an algebra teacher.)
- Millie asks Sam why his sister Lindsay is throwing her life away during class. The teacher hears them talking and asks Millie if she has anything to "share with the class". Millie is shocked that she has gotten in trouble.
- Lindsay sees Eli outside of school after he has broken his arm. She asks him if she can sign his cast. He replies "no" and walks away anxiously.
- Guidance counselor Jeff Rosso stands at the dance, smiling and speaks the line: "Some days, I've got the best job in the world!" (This was the original ending to the episode. The crew wisely decided that keeping this scene would detract from the subtle and honest atmosphere the dance sequence created and cut it from the episode.)
