S01:E12 I'm With the Band

[AgentRXS]

Quote

When Dean loses his position as first chair saxophone in the school band, Bill lays the pressure on him to earn it back. But after a talk with Lillian, Bill realizes he’s being a bit too harsh and forcing his own dreams upon Dean.

Original Airdate: January 19, 2022

[Raja]

I'm a few years behind Dean and when I was coming up all the student band leaders had years of church playing experience behind them. Coming from an organ and piano only church I was thinking "playing what at church?", especially for the drummers. I made first in the marching/concert band on clarinet but never on sax in the , we called it Jazz Workshop at my school, as they were all church and other secular band soloist

[Browncoat]

I think we were about 12 or 13 when we decided whether or not we wanted to play an instrument in school, and which one.  I remember checking out the clarinet, but didn't stick with it (good thing, too -- I am not musical).  Those who did stick with their instruments usually went on to join the marching band.  Mine was a very small school.  We didn't really have a middle-school band (or a middle school, for that matter), just the marching band in high school.

[bybrandy]

My dad was an amazing swimmer and I wish he'd have got me private swim lessons because my freestyle is not 100% perfect so he would never teach me a second stroke.  My freestyle is 99.8% perfect.  Decades after my father died and people still stop me when I'm swimming to tell me what a beautiful stroke I have but literally it was never good enough for him to pass me on to the next stroke.  

And what's worse when we took it in school I got put in the remedial swim group because it was the only stroke I could do and the advanced group had to know 4 strokes... but like... we only moved onto breast stroke in the last day of the class and butterfly was sort of like, "Um it is sort of like this" in the last 30 seconds.   Like I spent a whole six week session in remedial swim because I didn't know how to breast stroke and I never learned it. 

So I was so, so, so happy for Dean when his dad took him to be taught by somebody else.  

[Sarah 103]

I am confused about the timelime and I am hoping someone can help or correct me if I'm wrong. 

The series starts in April of 1968 and Dean is in 7th grade.

There is a time jump to December/winter of 1968, which means we skipped Dean's first semester of 8th grade. Brad's Bar Mitzvah takes place sometime in the first few months of 1969. This works for me. Some kids turn 13 in 8th grade. 

When does this type of fair take place? I usually think of them as being summer/fall but it may be different in Alabama. If it is summer/fall, that means the show pretty much skipped all of 8th grade and Dean and his friends should be starting 9th grade soon, which doesn't make sense at all. 

I have mixed feelings on the episode. I like that Dean got to have some father/son time and improved thier relationship by the end of the episode. I don't like that Dean made a commitment to the school band and was allowed to skip it because he wasn't the best any more. 

[Cherpumple]

13 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

I have mixed feelings on the episode. I like that Dean got to have some father/son time and improved thier relationship by the end of the episode. I don't like that Dean made a commitment to the school band and was allowed to skip it because he wasn't the best any more.

I had the same reaction. It seemed really out of character for Dean's dad to let him skip the concert when he's usually so big on commitment and hard work. There was plenty of time for father/son fun after the concert was over. I hope Dean got in trouble for it at school. I shudder to think what my high school orchestra teacher would have said if I bailed on a concert to goof around.

I also agree about the confusing timeline. It was a strange choice to start the show in April. I mean, I know the historical reason, but for a show that focuses so much on Dean's school life, why start the story near the end of a school year? And I assume they're going in actual chronological order, but maybe this is supposed to be more like the Goldbergs, where adult Dean is remembering various snippets of his life in no particular order. It's hard to tell.

And was I the only one who got nervous about the dad's pending tour across the south? I was waiting for a Green Book reference/discussion, and was glad the story went in another direction.

[stonehaven]

I played cello in Middle School. I was okay at it but never really good. I love music but never had the heart to play it well. Still Dean's comments about band rang true for the orchestra class. First chair violin was everything. The viola, cello and bass were just extras.

Still I have no regrets about taking music class and am glad the show did show music class. I agree for him to skip the band concert seemed strange and showed a complete lack of caring. Just because you aren't the center of attention anymore, doesn't mean your part isn't important.

[Sarah 103]

12 hours ago, Cherpumple said:

I also agree about the confusing timeline. It was a strange choice to start the show in April. I mean, I know the historical reason, but for a show that focuses so much on Dean's school life, why start the story near the end of a school year? And I assume they're going in actual chronological order, but maybe this is supposed to be more like the Goldbergs, where adult Dean is remembering various snippets of his life in no particular order. It's hard to tell.

New seasons of Mad Men premired during the summer, so for the people watching the calendar says August, but in the world of the show/for the characters its March. They made that clear in the episode and followed the calendar, and if they skipped a month or two they made that clear. 

I don't have a problem with the series starting in April. The big problem was skipping an entire semester of school so the series could do a Christmas episode. I accept your theory that it is an adult remembering random snippits and that it is not going week by week/month by month.

The more I think about it, the more I wish that the series had started with the start of the school year and for everyone who remembers the original waiting for the big moment of tragedy in the first episode, it doesn't happen. It would have clearly set up this series as something different and seperate from the original. Showing the first semester of an integrated school and how Brad and Dean became friends or how they were already friends would be a great story worth telling. Have the King assasination towards the end of the season. 

 

 

[Cherpumple]

11 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

The more I think about it, the more I wish that the series had started with the start of the school year and for everyone who remembers the original waiting for the big moment of tragedy in the first episode, it doesn't happen.

Out of curiosity, I looked up a list of events that happened near the beginning of Dean's 7th grade school year and I saw that August 30, 1967 was the date Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Supreme Court Justice. If the showrunners had chosen to subvert the expectation of tragedy, as you suggested, they could have included this event as the pilot episode's big emotional moment instead. It could have been interesting to see this uplifting milestone juxtaposed against Dean facing the challenges of starting 7th grade in a newly-integrated school.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Cherpumple

[Sarah 103]

10 hours ago, Cherpumple said:

Out of curiosity, I looked up a list of events that happened near the beginning of Dean's 7th grade school year and I saw that August 30, 1967 was the date Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Supreme Court Justice. If the showrunners had chosen to subvert the expectation of tragedy, as you suggested, they could have included this event as the pilot episode's big emotional moment instead. It could have been interesting to see this uplifting milestone juxtaposed against Dean facing the challenges of starting 7th grade in a newly-integrated school.

That is beyond brilliant in so many ways. I absolutely love it. It would have been a great way to bookend the season. Start in August with Thurgood's Marshall confirmation, end in April with King's assasination, including the aftermath/fallout. So much of the 1960s, especially the late 1960s is about triumph and tragedy. Make that juxtaposition the theme of the season. 

I think part of the problem is that the writers were not sure if they were going to get a second season, so they felt like every idea that they had needed to be done this season. It would explain why they are rushing through the year and why they are overstuffing the episodes with multiple ideas/issues/plotlines, because they feel as though if they don't get to do it this season, they may not get another chance. 

[andromeda331]

18 hours ago, Cherpumple said:

Out of curiosity, I looked up a list of events that happened near the beginning of Dean's 7th grade school year and I saw that August 30, 1967 was the date Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Supreme Court Justice. If the showrunners had chosen to subvert the expectation of tragedy, as you suggested, they could have included this event as the pilot episode's big emotional moment instead. It could have been interesting to see this uplifting milestone juxtaposed against Dean facing the challenges of starting 7th grade in a newly-integrated school.

That would have been a great idea.

[Cherpumple]

12 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

Start in August with Thurgood's Marshall confirmation, end in April with King's assasination, including the aftermath/fallout. So much of the 1960s, especially the late 1960s is about triumph and tragedy. Make that juxtaposition the theme of the season.

That was my thought exactly! The contrasting highs and lows were such an important hallmark of that time period.

[tennisgurl]

On 1/23/2022 at 3:04 AM, Cherpumple said:

Out of curiosity, I looked up a list of events that happened near the beginning of Dean's 7th grade school year and I saw that August 30, 1967 was the date Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Supreme Court Justice. If the showrunners had chosen to subvert the expectation of tragedy, as you suggested, they could have included this event as the pilot episode's big emotional moment instead. It could have been interesting to see this uplifting milestone juxtaposed against Dean facing the challenges of starting 7th grade in a newly-integrated school.

That would have been so great! I like this show, but I feel like its not doing everything with its premise that it could be doing. Be it as a Wonder Years remake or as its own thing. 

I'm glad that Dean's dad decided to just let him make his own choices as to his music, but it feels out of character for him to let Dean skip out on something he already committed to, even if it was as fourth chair. 

[possibilities]

The show isn't really representing the era at all, if you ask me. It feels very much like most episodes could be set in the present. 

They make an occasional reference, but overall, it doesn't feel like the 60s, to me.

[bybrandy]

I don't think we're supposed to think too hard about the timeline.  Think of it more like The Goldbergs.  These are Dean's recollections of how and when things happened so they are going to get a bit jumbled.  

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Too bad Bill's band can't book a summer tour.  Colleges often have a full three months without classes during summer break.  Of course, it would be really hot, and air conditioning was not ubiquitous.

[Raja]

Speaking of timelines while Dean was practicing perhaps the most famous Jazz sample used in Hip-Hop so I get why they used it. For his era it was a relatively obscure Jazz Rock Fusion cover of a Jefferson Airplane song by Tom Scott.