Cliffnotes: Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek by Thea Glassman

Sure, I’ve only watched one of the TV shows referenced in the title, but Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television by Thea Glassman is a book that was right up my teen drama alley.

In her examination of the teen television genre, Glassman focuses on seven shows: “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “My So-Called Life,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “Freaks & Geeks,” “The O.C.”, “Friday Night Lights,” and “Glee.” In addition to “Dawson’s Creek” and “The O.C.”, the only other one I’ve seen is “Fresh Prince.”

“Friday Night Lights” and “Glee” have been on my watch list for years and I know I really need to watch “Freaks” and “My So-Called Life,” too, but you know what they say — so many shows, so little time. Glassman broadly categorizes all of these programs as “teen shows,” though I prefer to put them into sub-genres. For example, as shared in my look at the types of teen dramas, I classify “Glee” as a “musical teen drama.”

In any case, I’ve spent years reading about all of these series and I was excited to dive in a little deeper through Glassman’s book. I was hooked from the start thanks to a foreword by bestselling author

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

, whom I’ve long admired and have communicated with about my own dream to write a book about TV. Armstrong’s commentary here reminded me of my essay on why teen dramas aren’t taken seriously.

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Throughout Glassman’s book, my favorite aspect was the inclusion of episode dialogue. For the shows I’ve seen, I could hear those lines in my head in the characters’ / actors’ voices. My least-favorite aspect of the book was probably Glassman both giving credit to and dissing “Beverly Hills, 90210” and wrongly referring to it as “90210” — one of my pet peeves.

Cast members Glassman interviewed from “Dawson’s Creek” and “The O.C.” include Kerr Smith (Jack, Dawson’s Creek), Dylan O’Neal (Doug, Dawson’s Creek; though he wasn’t quoted), Mark Matkevich (Drue, Dawson’s Creek), Tate Donovan (Jimmy, The O.C.), and Michael Cassidy (Zach, The O.C.).

Below are some of the things that stuck out to me as I read each show-focused chapter.

“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”

• As a former entertainment journalist, I’ve read about Benny Medina for years and years and years. Somehow, though, I never knew his involvement in this series.

• I never realized this show’s Andy Borowitz is the same Borowitz as “The Borowitz Report” satirist.

“My So-Called Life”

• I had no idea Claire Danes was only 13 when she was cast — the opposite age directionally than most teen drama castings.

• I didn’t know Patrick Norris was a costume designer on this show before directing our teen dramas.

• I had no idea this show sparked the first-ever online campaign to save a series… all the way back in 1995. I never would’ve thought those kinds of fan movements started back then.

• I was surprised that Danes was kind of blamed for the show’s cancellation, under the auspices that she wanted to move on

• This chapter incorporates an old quote from Joe Davola, then an MTV executive long before he became an executive producer for “One Tree Hill,” about reairing the show in syndication.

“Dawson’s Creek”

• This chapter touches on some things executive producer Paul Stupin previously shared in our 2009 interview.

• I absolutely can’t picture Katie Holmes (Joey, Dawson’s Creek) as Buffy (as in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), but apparently that was a possibility.

• Of course Wilmington is mentioned and described.

• Glassman cites another good book I read back when it came out: Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of The WB and UPN.

• I didn’t know “Dawson’s Creek” was the first TV show to be advertised in movie theater previews.

• Glassman quotes producer David Semel, who also worked on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” I loved what he said about the show’s dialogue, which is something haters / critics like to mock.

• I also loved Semel discussing Joey and Pacey’s season 1 chemistry — on and off screen.

• I had no idea Howard Stern raved about the show.

• Co-executive producer Gina Fattore is quoted extensively. Director Michael Lange was interviewed too. 

• I have to quibble with the two references to Dawson finding out about Joey and Pacey’s “kiss.” It wasn’t just a kiss or one kiss. He found out they were seeing each other.

• Also, the series finale didn’t take place five years after they graduated college. It took place five years after we last saw them, which was sophomore year of college.

• I have never before heard of Dawson fans sending the writers daisies or Poey fans calling themselves “Project Hellmates.”

• I don’t agree that Mitch’s death cast a pall over season 5. Or if it did, it didn’t bother me.

• It was really interesting to learn of 9/11’s impact on the show.

• It was really stunning to learn of James Van Der Beek (Dawson, Dawson’s Creek) and executive producer Tom Kapinos’ falling out. Now it makes sense that Van Der Beek’s episode count was so reduced in season 6.

• It was sad to read that the cast would make fun of the show (though I do agree “Four Scary Stories” was a bad episode) and also sad to learn just how bad things got between Van Der Beek and Joshua Jackson (Pacey, Dawson’s Creek).

• It’s interesting that creator Kevin Williamson, who penned the series finale, has never mentioned Holmes’ personal feelings factoring into the decision to make Pacey be Joey’s endgame, but here, both Kapinos and Stupin cite her influence.

“Freaks & Geeks”

• How did I not know or realize that Paul Feig starred on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”?

• Notably, Busy Philipps (Audrey, Dawson’s Creek) is only mentioned here and not in the “Dawson’s Creek” chapter. Same for Mike White (producer, Dawson’s Creek).

• “90210” creators Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs are mentioned. I admittedly wasn’t aware of their “Freaks” involvement.

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“The O.C.”

• It’s interesting that executive producer Stephanie Savage doesn’t think, as she says here and has said elsewhere, that there was a soap rooted in male friendship before this. Was “Beverly Hills, 90210” not rooted in Brandon and Dylan’s (or Brandon and Steve’s) friendship? Was “Dawson’s Creek” not rooted in Dawson and Pacey’s?

• Lange was interviewed for this chapter too. He recalled trying to teach Ben McKenzie (Ryan, The O.C.) a lesson about professionalism and fame by telling him a story about Ian Ziering (Steve, Beverly Hills, 90210). The tale reflected well on Ziering in terms of on-set behavior but poorly in regard to how NOT famous he became when the show was over.

• When Marissa’s death is discussed, it’s entirely framed within the context of the network wanting a big way to end season 3. Nothing is said about Mischa Barton and any issues she had with the show.

• Another accuracy issue: Ryan didn’t become a cage fighter so he could fight Volchok and avenge Marissa’s death. He did it because he wanted to feel the pain of getting beat up and because pummeling other people was a way to direct his grief toward something. 

“Friday Night Lights”

• Having never seen the Friday Night Lights movie, I had no idea Connie Britton played the wife in both the film and TV versions.

• I don’t agree with Gaius Charles saying mental health wasn’t “featured very much on mainstream network television” at this time. My sections here on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “The O.C.”, and “One Tree Hill” are proof otherwise. However, I do of course agree we weren’t getting it from an African-American perspective.

• It’s hard for me to not be upset over “Friday Night Lights” pieces like this that don’t mention “One Tree Hill.” While “FNL” received acclaim and was seen as groundbreaking, I can’t help but think “One Tree Hill” did the “sports teen drama” angle first, even if arguably not as well.

• I have to question executive producer Jason Katims calling it “revolutionary” of the show to write off the original main cast and transition to a new group of high schoolers. Isn’t that what “Saved By the Bell: The New Class” did long before this? And “Degrassi”?

“Glee”

• I didn’t care for this chapter’s celebration of a Gleek who has all this “Glee” merchandise and memorabilia. As I’ve argued before, I don’t think that’s a fair way to judge people’s fandom. There’s probably someone out there who owns nothing and yet is an even bigger “Glee” fan than this guy.

• I enjoyed the praise for Mike O’Malley. Watching him as a young kid, I never would’ve guessed the host of Nickelodeon’s “Guts” would go on to do such great work on a show like “Snowpiercer” (still waiting for the final season of that to come out...).

• It wasn’t mentioned that Kevin McHale playing a disabled character when he himself is not disabled hasn’t aged well, at least in my opinion. But problematic dialogue from the show was highlighted.

• I appreciate what the teen dramas were to writer Jess Meyer, as she described here.

• Ali Adler, who also worked on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” was interviewed and shared a moving story about how Santana’s coming out was inspired by her own.

• In this chapter, Donovan compared directing on “Glee” to directing on “The O.C.”

• Multiple paragraphs discussed Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera’s deaths, as well as Lea Michele’s on-set behavior. Just one was spent on Mark Salling.

• I don’t agree that “Glee” was the first time a teen show was finally allowed to be its whole self.

The book covers seven shows in 208 pages, so you get a decent overview of each series and definitely a lot of interesting detail, but I still felt like it was only scratching the surface. What if it was 100 pages dedicated to each show? (Yes, 700 pages in all.) I’ve thought about doing an in-depth book like that on what I see as the core six teen dramas, the ones I cover here on TeenDramaWhore. Or what if it was a dedicated book, not just chapter, for each show? Consider, for example, the newly released Welcome to the O.C. (which will be the subject of a “Cliffnotes” post next month). Writing something similar on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” one book solely focused on that series, is my dream (I have a basic outline so far... and nothing else). 

Notably, the point of Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek was to show how these seven teen series changed television. I wished that was emphasized and threaded a little more throughout the text rather than summed up quickly at the end. But don’t get me wrong — if you’re a fan of even one of these seven shows, you’ll find the book fascinating, as I did. It just left me wanting more.