# Your high school years: ''Freaks and Geeks'' or ''Beverly Hills 90210''? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 23, 2001, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056 "2001-04-23T22:01:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/21 "2001-04-24T23:22:47Z")
Freaks and Geeks. I saw the first episode of that show, and thought “Wow, what a great show.” while at the same time knowing that I’d never watch another episode, because it was way too close to my highschool, and way too painful to tune into once a week. You’d think 9 years (now 10) would have been enough time. Guess not. -amarinth ---
**Author:** ![Skelji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/22 "2001-04-24T23:54:08Z")
I wish my HS years could be more like the Watergate tapes, with 3 years mysteriously erased. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/23 "2001-04-25T02:27:56Z")
High school, high school, let me see now… Take 1 part _Deliverance_, 2 parts _Cool Hand Luke_, a tablespoon of _A Clockwork Orange_, and finally just a small pinch of _The Reservoir Dogs_, and I think you would have it. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/24 "2001-04-25T04:42:56Z")
I haven’t seen either show, but my HS experience made F&G look positively utopian in comparison. When I was a teenager, I was shy, insecure, had no sense of humor, and was perfectly miserable being something of a non-entity. It didn’t help that I also suffered a near-constant bout of depression that caused me to spend a month in a psychiatric hospital for treatment. Ah, well. That was over 10 years ago. No use worrying about it now. Robin ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/25 "2001-04-25T06:05:47Z")
Definetly _Freeks & Geeks_. I hung out with the ohter smart kids from my math, science, and technology magnet program, and we tried to avoid other people. All other people. We were usually successful. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/26 "2001-04-25T09:21:52Z")
Freaks and Geeks? Yes. Both. I was a stoner that hauled 20 lbs of books everywhere. I used my stack of books as a weed-smoking seat in the graveyard across the street from the high school. I was a National Merit Scholar. I took the PSATs while stoned. (It earned me a measly $1000 for college.) I scored 1580 SAT and habitually cut class to smoke pot and do the nasty. I dated Samantha, a suicidal wiccan pothead babe and drama club teaser. (Imagine a teenage Kathleen Turner with a tarot deck, a bong, and morbid depression.) I tutored the Senior Class President and Valedictorian in physics. While stoned. She went on, two years later, to drop out of the same college Engineering program I attended. There is no way any TV series based on my High School experience could make any money whatsoever. No one could possibly relate. ---
**Author:** ![Davidbw1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7993a0/32.png) [@Davidbw1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Davidbw1)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/27 "2001-04-26T02:18:01Z")
Well…I actually go to the high school that “Freaks and Geeks” was based on…so pity me. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/28 "2001-04-26T11:06:17Z")
Let’s see … Marching band (1st school wore donald duck-style sailor suits [except WITH pants], the second wore kilts), yearbook photographer, drama club vice president (my eventual college major)… I’d say F & G. Luckily, when you’re a 200-pound, 6’-2" guy, people don’t give you too much of a hassle about being a geek. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/29 "2001-04-26T11:09:06Z")
Oh! AND I ran the student store in the mornings! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056/30 "2001-04-26T14:20:05Z")
> [@](#): > > _bughunter wrote_ > There is no way any TV series based on my High School experience could make any money whatsoever. No one could possibly relate. Oh, I think I could. You’d have to substitute “beer” for “pot,” and “Fiona” for “Samantha,” but other than that, your post is pretty close to what my experience was over twenty years ago. Pretty good with schoolwork, but didn’t fit the mold of those who were good with schoolwork. Always reading something, asking questions in class, debating certain teachers on points of fact. Nearly failed a class because I didn’t unquestioningly accept the teacher’s opinion as fact. One of the few who could get away with calling the school’s toughest teacher by his first name. Played on our school’s academic team for the high school quiz TV show; but kept ducking out for cigarettes between tapings. (Rolled handmade cigarettes during health class, too.) Could have had lunch in the school caf, but opted to join my buddies for our version of a three-course meal: a sandwich and a couple of beers. Supported school activities: was one of the troublemakers in the stands during football games, and worked backstage on drama club productions, but writing for the yearbook wasn’t quite the fun I thought it would be. (Mind, the editor basically told me that they didn’t want uncool people like me working on the book.) I went on to university and excelled. Was published by the time I was 20. Used the grapevine to let the high school yearbook editor know. Apparently, she was quite pissed to hear that. Neither “Freaks and Geeks” nor “Beverly Hills 90201,” I guess. More like Brian, Bender, and Ally Sheedy’s character from _The Breakfast Club_ all in one person. At least that’s how I remember it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-high-school-years-freaks-and-geeks-or-beverly-hills-90210/63056.md?page=1)