"Freaks and Geeks" and Sync Licenses... Oh My!
- Oct 22, 2016
- 2 min read
Ah, the 80’s. The hair, the clothes, the music. I certainly wasn’t in high school during the 80’s, but everyone’s cult favorite Freaks and Geeks so accurately depicted what it might have been like that I almost believed I was. Every time I run out of shows to binge watch on Netflix, I always go back to Freaks and Geeks. Its dorky/cool, relatable charm makes it a classic in my book. Even though it was canceled after only airing twelve episodes, it will always be my favorite, and, yes, I did wait months to watch the last episode because I didn’t want it to end.
Anyone who has ever watched Freaks and Geeks knows that the show was pretty iconic for using quite a bit of time period appropriate music. When one of the characters is obsessed with John Bonham, you can’t not have a plethora of Led Zeppelin in your score. I was watching an episode recently, and it dawned on me to question how they were able to purchase the rights to that much music, especially huge names like Styx, Van Halen, Cream, Billy Joel, Joan Jett, Journey, Grateful Dead, and literally any other artists of that time. It is said that over 120 songs were featured in the show. President Newkirk’s presentation on copyright taught me that surely they had to have had a synchronization license for usage. After a bit of research, it turns out that, indeed a large portion of the show’s budget was used for purchasing the rights to music, which proved to be a problem when it came to releasing the show on DVD. In fact, when reruns were played on Fox Family, the network replaced some of the original songs with cheaper, generic ones to avoid paying fees. Eventually Shout! Factory gave the rights to the creators of the show, so that they were able to release the DVD.
These thoughts would have never crossed my mind if I wasn’t taking this class, and I’m so grateful that I have an opportunity to learn about topics in the business that are genuinely interesting to me. There’s much more to show business than what meets the eye. Now, without further ado, please enjoy the best opening credits of any television series ever, featuring Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” Now I’m off to continue swooning over a young Jason Segel and James Franco (let’s face it, I’m swooning over this entire incredible cast).
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