1.15.2007

Get naked

Those who have studied my works (and there are, of course, many) will know of my endless devotion to what is clearly the greatest TV show of all time, "Freaks and Geeks." Now, some may have expected "Saved by the Bell" to follow that introductory phrase, but those folks have really only scratched the surface of Tinsel and Rot. And to that I say, "Please stop scratching the surface; you are ruining the paint job."

But back to "Freaks and Geeks," the greatest TV show of all time, criminally mistreated by programmers at NBC and cancelled after only one season. It's a damn near perfect season, though, and you can view that season on the "normal people" boxed set or, like me, shell out the big bucks for the special high school yearbook edition, which remains one of the greatest purchases I've ever made. I cherish it even more than I cherish my Singing and Dancing Bocephus (I actually have Singing and Dancing Bocephi, but I only purchased one).

As great as the DVD set is, it its still sad and unfortunate that there will likely never be another show as good as "Freaks and Geeks." But the actors who made it such a fantastic show are still out there. Some have appeared on shows that didn't exactly work out (John Francis Daley [Sam Weir] on "Kitchen Confidential," Busy Philipps [Kim Kelly] on "Love, Inc."), and some have landed on halfway-decent shows (Jason Segel [Nick Andopolis] on "How I Met Your Mother," Linda Cardellini [Lindsay Weir] and, ta da, Busy Philipps on "ER"). But there is no "Freaks and Geeks"-related show that I am more excited about than the upcoming "Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show" on Comedy Central.

The show stars David Koechner (Champ Kind from "Anchorman" and, yes, a waiter in one scene in "Freaks and Geeks") as Gerald "T-Bones" Tibbons and Dave "Gruber" Allen (guidance counselor Jeff Rosso on "Freaks and Geeks") as the Naked Trucker, whose guitar covers up his, er, area. The Naked Trucker generally only does shows in L.A., but I did get to see the show as part of an ultra-serious political show at the Knitting Factory in New York a few years ago. Many people in the audience seemed stunned and unable to really laugh, which was pretty unfortunate. Because it was damn funny. Plus, I got Gruber to sign the aforementioned DVD yearbook and found out that playing Rosso on "Freaks and Geeks" probably wasn't much of a stretch for him. One of the coolest celebrity encounters ever.

Anyway, I'd been hoping the Naked Trucker show would come back to NYC, but then I heard about the TV show. And I became giddy. The clips I've seen so far are pretty fantastic. It may not be for everyone, but if it aint for you, maybe you should rethink reading this blog.

Here's a video clip from comedycentral.com. The premiere show is Wednesday night at 10:30. Plan your lives accordingly.

2 comments:

Mr. Bad Example said...

There are more clips at Comedy Central's site that are almost as funny. But so far, nothing beats T-Bones' harp solo, which kills me every time. Along with several other things in that video.

And your best of 2006 CD will go out sometime this week.

Anonymous said...

I was excited enough about that show, but to know that Mr. Rosso is the Naked Trucker...well, that's just a whole new level of TV happy.