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What is Shout! Factory, Anyway?CNN.com has an interesting article about the founding of Shout! Factory. There’s no mention of MST3K, but the article points out that the company got its start by rereleasing another TV show familiar to most MSTies: “Freaks and Geeks”
19 Replies to “What is Shout! Factory, Anyway?”Commenting at Satellite News
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Another factoid that they do not mention here is that Shout! Factory was originally called Retropolis. But the internet leads one to believe that that might have been a hard name to clear.
As an older MSTie, I’m afraid I missed the whole Freaks and Geeks thing completely. The oldest person I’ve had mention it to me is a good ten years younger… what’s the deal ? what’s that show ‘about’ ( not ‘about’ like ‘plot’, more like ethos )?
It’s about nerds and stoners in 1980 and features appearances by Joel, Trace and Dave (Gruber) Allen. Weight, is it *Gruber*? I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to look it up.
Weight? Stupid homonyms!
I did forget that. I was mostly trying to remember how Gruber punctuates his name.
majorjoe23,
Yep, it’s Gruber. And don’t forget that Josh was a writer for the show. :smile:
Weird, how did my response to you end up before your post?
#6 : majojo, there’s been a lot of that going on lately… post-dated posts as it were. cause ? no idea.
yes, IMDB has Josh as writer on 2 episodes. Plus I see members of both the extended and nuclear MST family showing up from time to time.
Freaks and Geeks was an awsome show, kinda like the wonder years for the 80’s. It only lasted one season, which sucks. It also featured alot of actors from Judd Apatow’s films…Joel was in a few episodes and plays a disco guy while Trace plays a teacher. Rent it from Netflix you wont be dissapointed.
I’ll take your word for it. With the exception of MST3K, I sort of gave up on contemporary ‘TV shows’ around 1995 and haven’t felt the need to go back. I’ve never seen an episode of The Wonder Years or Friends or the Sopranos.
Man, it’s been 20 years later and Josh Weinstein STILL gets the last laugh. >:-\
A roommate had Freaks & Geeks so checked it out and was very impressed and then angry once again at network TV for canceling such an original show. I’m so sick of whats on most of TV that I programed my set to skip all but a few channels as to not have to see the constant deluge of reality TV that is stupefying America.
Now I’m thinking of getting the hundred dollar plus year book edition of F & G. I’ll shop around a bit first though.
INaMIaP, I think I’m older than you (I can see 50, let’s not discuss which side I’m looking from), and I started watching Freaks & Geeks about 3 eps before it was cancelled. It truly is one of the few worthwhile contemporary shows I’ve seen. There’s lots of very uncomfortable humor, which not everyone might appreciate, but which I found funny; the writing is sharp, despite some juvenile bathroom jokes (from the geeks, so it seemed appropriate). There are several mentions of MST on a few commentaries, and of course getting to see Trace and Joel made it even more worthwhile for me. You definitely might consider renting the series, and make sure to give it a chance for a few eps. If you watch “Carded and Discarded” (which has Joel and Trace), and maybe “Kim Kelly Is My Friend” or “Choking and Toking” you might enjoy those at least. In a time without many creative, original shows, I like to encourage people to go for the good stuff…and since you’re already a big fan of MST, well….
majorjoe23 is a homonymophobe!! :shock:
Now now, mstgator, don’t be an insti-gator too.
I’m a young-un, so I learned about Shout Factory with Home Movies.
Freaks and Geeks was great. The idea behind the show was to show what life was like for the “other” kids in high school – not the jocks and cheerleaders, and not the ultra-nerds, but the people near the middle…mostly delinquents and burnouts for the older kids, and “Square Pegs” for the younger kids. The interactions between the two groups were great. I always thought of it as Dazed and Confused, only without the John Hughes party element, and much more realistic. Realistic is a good descriptor for the show. I pretty much believed every second of it, because of the great acting and great writing. Lots of people got their start on that show: Linda Cardellini went on to ER, Busy Philipps is all over the place, she’s been on Dawson’s Creek, also ER, and was on that Terminator show for a few episodes, Seth Rogan is now huge, Jason Segal is now one of my favorite actors, and is approaching huge, John Daley is on Bones (and is a great actor, by the way), and James Franco is James Franco, enough said. It sucks that it only lasted 18 episodes, but they packed a LOT of great TV into those 18 episodes. The DVDs are a must-own, if only for the 28 commentary tracks (yes, there are more commentary tracks than episodes, and some of them are done in-character), and the heap of other extra features. I’m definitely grabbing the Yearbook edition that’s about to be released.
I had no idea Freaks and Geeks was Shout! Factory’s first release. That’s pretty cool.
I have that yearbook box set of “Freaks and Geeks” when it first came out about 2 or 3 years ago. That show is one of the best things I have ever seen. If you were the age of those characters around that time they are depicting then you will recognize the era. They did a very good job of not hitting you over the head with the idea of it being 1980. The show balanced its depiction of that time with funny and dramatic, real character moments.
Judd Apatow tried to recreate the dynamic of that show with “Undeclared”, which was a half-hour college sitcom. He thought it would be easier to write it but found it was much more difficult, as you had less time to get enough story in with the humor. “Freaks and Geeks” was a one-hour show, so it had time to be funny, develop characters, play out it’s dramatics and humor, allow touching and real, honest human moments.
“Freaks and Geeks” was brilliant television.
Yeah, back when those MST-alum appearances were happening I was taping the episodes and found myself wanting to tape as many as possible. The show really grew on me. It was great all the years later to finally catch some of the “un-aired” episodes on the Family Channel. One of these days I want to watch the whole show in order. I loved the first Joel episode. Reminded me of a time this kid i knew wore an MC Hammer outfit to school. :neutral:
Shout! Factory also re-released SCTV; that alone makes them the coolest DVD company running!