Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

so-so

This felt like 6 shows that had adults playing teens, and 1 that actually cast teens. After Fresh Prince, So-Called, and Dawson‘s, it felt like the book deteriorated into ways show business is horrible to people - people in show business, fans, and people in general - and how that was expressed in the next four shows.
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

GingerAntics There was a lot of “no one had ever done this before,” but she said the exact same thing about the show before it when it did pretty much the same thing. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 2w

GingerAntics Maybe I‘m not the target audience? I grew up watching Fresh Prince and Dawson‘s Creek. The rest of the shows I never watched and hadn‘t even heard of some of them. I have seen some episodes of Friday Night Lights, but everyone I knew who watched that show was a middle aged woman, so I never saw it as a teen show. When I asked these fans now, they were all baffled that anyone would call it a teen show. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 2w

GingerAntics “It had teens in it, but it wasn‘t specifically aimed at teens. It was a family show maybe” was the general consensus. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 2w

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GingerAntics If Glassman was trying to bring new fans to these shows, she utterly failed. At first, I thought I‘d check out the shows I hadn‘t seen before, but that quickly deteriorated. I do want to check out My So-Called Life. Hearing about the crappy way Apatow treated the Freaks and Geeks cast, I‘m not about to support that. Five minutes into the discussion of The OC the creators were quoted as saying “too Jewish” twice. Nope. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 2w

GingerAntics Then it turned out the directors and crew talked crap about the actors behind their backs. Double hope. I was actually really excited to watch Glee. I knew several fans when it was on the air, and I just didn‘t watch it for whatever reason. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 2w

GingerAntics Then she talked about the writer/creator of Glee venting his own body shaming, homophobia, racism, and general bad humanity through the characters - making actors say and do horrible things to each other for his own joy? Hard pass. 2w

GingerAntics #TheaGlassMan #FreaksGleeksAndDawsonsCreek #TeenTV #unpopularopinion 2w

TheBookHippie 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 I‘ve watched zero of these shows 👵🏼 I did see a few Fresh Prince episodes 🤷🏻‍♀️but that‘s it. 2w

Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick I'm intrigued because I've watched 5 of the 7 (not Glee nor FNL), but not sure if care enough about them to read behind the scenes drama. 15 years ago, sure. Today? Meh. If you can watch My So-Called Life, I'd suggest that one of the bunch. One short season, a 90s time capsule, and pretty Jared Leto if you're into that. 2w

GingerAntics @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick yeah, it‘s less BTS and more (supposed) cultural importance. There is a bit of BTS type stuff. I don‘t think I would have gotten through the whole book if it was just BTS stuff. My favourite to hear about, honestly, was Fresh Prince. lol 2w

GingerAntics @TheBookHippie lol that‘s fair… this was pretty niche watching, so if you didn‘t have someone in the right age group who actually watched these shows, you‘d really have no reason on to watch them. This was definitely a millennial anthem in a sense. Glee probably did have some gen Z and Fresh Prince had some younger gen X, mostly millennial shows. 2w

TheBookHippie @GingerAntics I find it interesting my childhood shows still run 😂 I mostly watched old movies with my grandma and I‘m so grateful. I watched Gilmore Girls with my daughter, Fraiser with Mr BookHippie- but we mostly watched VHS BLOCKBUSTER 😂 I worked more than two jobs 14-40 so not much TV for me 🙃 2w

GingerAntics @TheBookHippie yeah, long work hours do make it hard to do much outside of work. Gilmore Girls was a brilliant show. I really love that show! VHS Blockbuster seriously brings back memories. lol 2w

GingerAntics @TheBookHippie I feel like Gilmore Girls would have made a better teen show than some of the nonsense that was listed in this book. Maybe more men need to get comfortable with that show, because seriously that is a show full of powerful women and girls! 2w

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GingerAntics

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

Perhaps Glassman should have called ANY Celtic Thunder fan, ANY Damian McGinty fan, ANYone involved in creating Celtic Thunder or literally ANYone in all of Ireland. It‘s really bad when you mispronounce the name of an internationally famous band. Just saying. This ain‘t Boston where they are so disconnected from the Irish Celtic roots they think a C sounds like an S. 🤦🏼‍♀️
#TheaGlassman #FreaksGleeksAndDawsonsCreek #CelticThunder

GingerAntics Never mind the multiple Celtic Thunder DVDs where they are literally introduced correctly as Celtic Thunder. Oh my god, I liked this book, but now I‘m questioning my feelings. 2w

16 likes1 comment

GingerAntics

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

This was the BIGGEST show among my friend group when it first came out. We. Were. Obsessed. Somehow, I don‘t remember a lot of it.
#DawsonsCreek #TheaGlassman #FreaksGleeksAndDawsonsCreek #90sTV

Caroline2 Me too!! I‘ve been rewatching it on Prime, nostalgia heaven! 😂 2w

GingerAntics @Caroline2 I‘ve been meaning to look up where to watch it. Thanks for saving me the trouble! 🧡🧡🧡 2w

19 likes2 comments

GingerAntics

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

This show still holds up! The 20-something at my daycare back in the early 90s laughed so hard when I did the whole theme song. Everyday, he‘d say “do it! Do it!” And I‘d do the whole theme song again.
#FreshPrince #WillSmith #TheaGlassman #FreaksGleeksAndDawsonsCreek #90sTV

AnnCrystal 💝💝💝. 2w

16 likes1 comment

Sharpeipup

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

Feeling the need to binge watch My So Called Life now…📺

Soubhiville I loved this show when it first came out. 🙂 1y

robinb Memories…🩷 1y

Bookwormjillk The memories! 1y

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DebinHawaii

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

pick

#ReadAway2024

I find books about the behind-the-scenes of television shows/movies interesting & I have had this one in my TBR for a while. I‘m glad it was one of my #Roll100picks for February (# 50) as it was a quick & mostly enjoyable read. Although I was beyond my teen years in the 90s, I have nieces & nephews so some of the 7 shows I was more familiar with than others (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Glee, Dawson‘s Creek) & this got me ⬇️

DieAReader, Andrew65, PuddleJumper, GHABI4ROSES

DebinHawaii … interested in watching a few others & I‘m currently watching Freaks & Geeks & plan to finally check out My So-Called Life. It‘s a pretty shallow dive into each show but engaging enough if you like the backstories. 1y

DieAReader 🥳Great 1y

PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 1y

48 likes3 comments

Kimberlone

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

so-so

I randomly picked this up on a kindle deal, but I would definitely recommend it as a borrow not buy situation. Other than the section about The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I didn‘t really learn that much substantive about the teen shows featured. For the shows that were included, it didn‘t really feel like the comprehensive “teen show deep-dive” that I was expecting going in. Ending with Glee as the last chapter felt very arbitrary.

58 likes

Megabooks

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

pick

Truly enjoyed this audiobook! If you came of age in the 90s/00s this is for you. She delves deep into the evolution teen television and how it grew to encompass more weighty topics and more interesting production/directorial choices. I‘m a teen who loved watching Jordan lean (My So-Called Life) and devoured Dawson‘s Creek in college because it was partially filmed at Duke. Later shows (the OC and Glee) I missed but still enjoyed Thea‘s insights.

Megabooks Full list of shows: Fresh Prince, My So-Called Life, Dawson‘s Creek, Freaks and Geeks, the OC, Friday Night Lights, Glee (Early January #roll100) @PuddleJumper (edited) 1y

Ruthiella I love this kind of pop culture analysis! Stacking! 1y

Deblovestoread Although not my demographic this sounds fun. I did love Glee and FNL. 1y

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Suet624 Jordan ❤️❤️❤️ My So-called Life was a great show to watch with my teenage daughter. We both loved and swooned over the same characters. 1y

Megabooks @Suet624 yes! I am the same age as Angela and often use Generation Catalano to describe my micro generation between X and Millennials. I do not remember my parents enjoying it. They thought Friends was risqué ??, so I watched most TV in my room. 1y

Megabooks @Deblovestoread I especially liked the chapter about FNL. They took a lot of risks with the style of filming, and it really paid off. The interviews of writers, directors, producers, and some cast members were v interesting! 1y

Megabooks @Ruthiella enjoy! 👍🏻👍🏻 1y

peaKnit I rewatched all of Dawson‘s Creek during the pandemic, I‘m going to have to read this! 1y

Megabooks @peaKnit yes! Lots of interesting insider info on that! 1y

peaKnit It is 3.99 on kindle, so I just had to get it! 1y

78 likes4 stack adds10 comments

Megabooks

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

Lots to choose from for #roll100 in January! I‘m actually reading Freaks, Gleeks… already, and it‘s great!

PuddleJumper

BarbaraBB The Wonder is good! 1y

janeycanuck I second @BarbaraBB! But don‘t read the jacket copy, there are definitely spoilers in it. 1y

Megabooks @janeycanuck I think I did when I bought it, but I won‘t refresh. Thanks! 1y

PuddleJumper 💜💜 1y

68 likes4 comments

ShananigansReads

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

pick

Squeezed one more in before the end of #Scarathlon @Emilymdxn #SkeletonCrew

Even though it has nothing to do with Scararhlon 🙃

Emilymdxn This sounds like such a cool book! 1y

16 likes1 comment

Hooked_on_books

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

pick

From The Fresh Prince of Bel Air through Glee, Glassman looks at 7 teen shows that were different from what was already on tv and how each one paved the way for change and innovation. I watched some of these shows and was aware of all of them. I really enjoyed this!

Itchyfeetreader This is my kind of thing 2y

Librarybelle Oh! Stacking! 2y

intothehallofbooks This sounds so fun! Thanks for sharing about it! 2y

GingerAntics This sounds like a fun read! 2y

53 likes6 stack adds4 comments

LeslieO

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

#AugustReadingRecap
✔️#bookspin
✔️#doublespin
✔️#SeriesLove2023
✔️5⭐️ I loved the tagged book. Even though I only watched two of the shows.
✔️✔️✔️ #nonfiction2023

33 likes

jackilynn

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

pick

Pure nostalgia!! I watched most of these shows in high school/college and now I kind of want to rewatch them. Much like when I was watching these shows...I laughed & I cried while reading this book but I wouldn't change one thing.

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MaggieCarr

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television | Thea Glassman

pick

Not having watched all the shows mentioned I only read, and thoroughly enjoyed, the introduction and chapters on Fresh Prince & Dawson's Creek. Ahead of their time and yet so profound. I think that is why I get so disgruntled with the fakeness of shows today that feel the need to have things other than real-life storylines.

17 likes

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