One of the bizarre twists of our streaming lifestyle is that music rights issues become a headache for filmmakers who simply didn’t have to consider their show moving to other mediums during their creation. You got the rights for the episode, the episode airs, and you likely maintain those rights for reruns. Beyond that, no one in the late 90s was thinking of a DVD boom and certainly didn’t consider that TV shows could stream over the Internet. But now that’s happened, and it creates an awkward situation for shows likeFreaks and Geekswhere the music is so integral to the overall vibe of the series.
We spoke withFreaks and Geekscreator Paul Feig for his latest seriesZoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and he revealed that no matter whereFreaks and Geeksends up in the streaming landscape, it’s going to have the music now:
Freaks and Geeks is now streaming at Hulu with its original soundtrack, which itsounds like something that was holding up its availability. Were you ever worriedthat the show wouldn’t be more available for people to be able to watch again, orto discovery for the first time, because of the music?
FEIG: The funny thing is, I didn’t realize that there was an option to have the show without the original music. Now that I know that there is, I’m gonna put a stop to that. I’d rather not have the show out there than to have it out without music because that’s like cutting Lindsay (Linda Cardellini) out of the show. you may’t do it. We’ve streamed it, in the past. There was a time that we were on ABC Family, which was not streaming, but on their schedule. And we were on Netflix for awhile. Every time the licensing runs out and they take you off of whatever it is, it was always very sad because less people would get to discover it again. So, every time we come back, I’m so happy. I was very surprised to see that having the original music was an issue. It’s not going out without the original music. I will kill it. I guarantee it. It immediately takes you out of it. And if you’re seeing it for the first time, you’re not getting the full experience. There’s nothing worse than somebody telling somebody, “Oh, my God, it’s so great,” and then they watch it and go, “That wasn’t so good.” And then, you find out that it was missing something.
It’s great to see Feig so protective of the series even though licensing rights can be a major headache. If you haven’t seenFreaks and Geeksbe sure to binge the series on Hulu now, but be warned that you’ll be sad there’s only one season of it.
