Freaks and Geeks is
an American
comedy-drama television series, created by Paul Feig and produced by Judd
Apatow, that aired on NBC during the
1999–2000 television season. Eighteen episodes were
completed, but the series was canceled after only twelve had
aired.
A
fan-led campaign caused NBC to
broadcast three more episodes in July 2000; the last three would
not be seen until September of that year, when the cable network
Fox Family Channel aired them in
syndication. The complete
series was later released on DVD.
Despite a quick cancellation and only one season with 18 episodes,
Freaks and Geeks developed a devoted cult following. The
series appeared on
Time
magazine's 2007 "100 Greatest Shows of All Time" list, and in 2008
Entertainment Weekly
ranked it the 13th-best series of the past 25 years.
Plot
The show centered on a
teenage girl,
Lindsay Weir (
Linda Cardellini),
and her brother, Sam (
John Francis
Daley), both attending William McKinley
High School during the 1980–1981 school year in
the town of Chippewa, Michigan, a fictional suburb of
Detroit.
Their friends, respectively, constituted the "
freaks" — Daniel Desario (
James Franco), Ken Miller (
Seth Rogen), Nick Andopolis (
Jason Segel), Kim Kelly (
Busy Philipps) — and the "
geeks" — Neal Schweiber (
Samm Levine) and Bill Haverchuck (
Martin Starr) — of the title. The Weirs'
parents, Harold (
Joe Flaherty) and Jean
(
Becky Ann Baker), were featured in
every episode. Millie Kentner (
Sarah
Hagan), Lindsay's nerdy, highly religious former best friend,
was a recurring character, as was Cindy Sanders (
Natasha Melnick), the pretty, popular
cheerleader on whom Sam had a crush.
The show's starting point was Lindsay's transition from her life as
an academically proficient student, star
mathlete, and proper young girl, with Millie as her
like-minded best friend, to an Army-jacket-wearing teenager who
hangs out with troubled slackers. Her relationships with her new
friends, and the friction they cause with her parents and with her
own self-image, form one central strand of the show; the other
follows Sam and his group of geeky friends as they navigate a very
different part of the social universe trying to fit in.
Cast and characters
Weir family
Geeks
Freaks
Teachers
Guest stars and cameo appearances
Early on, the creators of the show were not open to the idea of
having guest stars on the show. A denied suggestion from NBC was to
have a pop icon like
Britney Spears
to appear as a waitress in one episode. Many of the program's crew,
including producer
Judd Apatow, thought
that such guest-star appearances would greatly detract from the
show's quality and realism. However, lesser-known "guest stars"
would make occasional unhyped appearances on the show. As the
producers began to fear an imminent cancellation, Apatow's old
friend
Ben Stiller made an appearance as
a
Secret Service agent
in the second-to-last episode of the program, but the appearance
only aired after the series had been cancelled.
Other notable guest appearances were made by
Thomas F. Wilson (in the recurring role of Coach
Fredericks),
Joel Hodgson (in the
recurring role of a salesman who loves
disco),
David
Koechner (as a waiter),
Kevin
Corrigan (as Millie's delinquent cousin),
Jason Schwartzman (as a student dealing in
fake IDs),
Allen Covert (as the liquor
store clerk),
Matt Czuchry (as a
student from rival Lincoln High),
Claudia Christian (as Bill's mother),
Shia LaBeouf (as the school mascot that
gets hurt),
Samaire Armstrong (as
"Deadhead" Laurie), and
Ben
Foster (who appeared as the mentally handicapped student Eli,
and often hyped the show while promoting the film
Liberty Heights),
Alexander Gould as Ronnie, the boy Lindsay
babysits while high. Veteran character actor
Kevin Tighe also appeared in two episodes as
Nick's father.
Many of the writers appeared on the show at one point or another.
Mike White, for instance,
played Kim Kelly's oft-discussed injured brother, first appearing
in the fourth episode "
Kim Kelly is
My Friend".
Paul Feig and
Gabe Sachs appear uncredited as members of the
fictional band "Dimension" in "
I'm With the
Band".
Michael
Andrews, the original score composer for the series, plays the
role of Dimension's lead singer.
Steve
Bannos played the recurring role of the math teacher Mr.
Kowchevski.
Other notable guest stars include
David
Krumholtz as Neal's brother Barry,
Lizzy Caplan as Sara, and
Rashida Jones as Karen Scarfoli, first
appearing in the fourth episode, "
Kim Kelly is
My Friend".
Punk rock band
Diesel Boy appears and
performs in the "
Noshing and
Moshing" episode.
Opening sequence
The series's opening sequence depicts each of the main characters
having their high school yearbook photo taken as the song "
Bad Reputation" by
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
plays.
Episodes
The show ran in twelve episodes on TV, in late 2000;
ABC Family (then Fox Family) showed the next
three episodes in syndication; and the last three episodes were
found on the DVD. In the summer of 2000, the final three episodes
were premiered at the
Museum
of the Moving Image prior to being broadcast on television.
Most episodes on the DVD set have two commentaries each and deleted
scenes with optional commentaries by creator
Paul Feig and chosen cast and crew members.
DVD, CD and book releases
On April 6, 2004, a six-
DVD Freaks and
Geeks box set was released through
Shout! Factory. A limited "yearbook edition" set
including two additional discs was also available through the
official website for the show. Fans who had signed an online
petition to get the show on DVD got priority in purchasing the
special set. A
CD soundtrack was released on September 14,
2004.
In November 2004, two
Freaks and Geeks books were
released, titled
Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Scripts, Volume
1 and
Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Scripts, Volume
2. Both published by
Newmarket
Press, each book covers nine scripts from the series as
compiled by
Paul Feig and
Judd Apatow themselves. Extra content includes
behind-the-scenes memos and notes, photos, additional plotlines and
excerpts from the
Freaks and Geeks series bibles.
On November 25, 2008, the deluxe "Yearbook Edition" boxed set was
re-released. The set features all of the episodes, commentaries,
and special features of the "Complete Series" six-DVD set, plus two
extra discs and deluxe packaging. It is packaged as a 80-page color
yearbook with essays, pictures, and episode synopses.
| Freaks and Geeks: The Complete
Series |
| Set
details |
Special
features |
- Studio: Shout! Factory
- 18 episodes
- 1.33:1 aspect ratio
- English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
- Subtitles: None
|
- 29 audio commentaries by the actors, writers, directors,
network executives, parents of cast members, teachers in character
and dedicated fans of the show
- Over 60 deleted scenes and outtakes with commentary
- 28-page booklet with an essay by series creator Paul Feig, and
a Q&A with producer/writer Judd Apatow.
- Cast auditions
|
| Release date |
| North America |
April 6, 2004 |
Soundtrack
One of the distinguishing characteristics that separated
Freaks
and Geeks from similar television series at the time was its
authentic soundtrack. The creators made it a priority to feature
genuine, period-specific music that would help to create the tone
of the show. Clearing such names as
The Who,
the
Grateful Dead, the
Moody Blues, and
Billy
Joel would prove to require much of the show's budget.
Eventually, this would become an obstacle in releasing the show on
DVD due to the difficulty and expense of clearing all of the music
rights for the series.
Many television shows (such as Dawson's Creek
and WKRP in
Cincinnati) had music cues changed or removed in order to
facilitate relatively inexpensive DVD releases. The creators
of
Freaks and Geeks, however, chose to wait to release the
DVD until they could find a company up to the challenge of gaining
clearance for the music, as not to upset the fans of the show.
Shout! Factory, a music and video company
specializing in comprehensive reissues and compilations of classic
and sometimes obscure pop culture eventually brought
Freaks and
Geeks to DVD with all of its music intact.
Awards
The show was nominated for two
Emmy Awards in
2000: one for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Paul Feig,
"Pilot") and one for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series
(
Allison Jones, Coreen Mayrs and Jill
Greenberg). The show won the Emmy for Outstanding Casting.
The show was nominated for an Emmy once again in 2001 for
Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Paul Feig, "Discos and
Dragons").
In addition to the Emmys, the show has been nominated for and won
numerous awards for writing, directing and acting.
Detroit/Michigan references
The show is set in the fictional town of Chippewa, Michigan,
although the town is unnamed until the fifteenth episode, "Noshing
and Moshing". The series was partly based on creator Feig's
experiences at
Chippewa
Valley High School – located in
Clinton Township, Michigan –
from which he graduated in 1980. Though the town's geography is
never clearly established, in the episode "Looks and Books" Harold
Weir mentions that they live near Detroit.
There are
many other references to the Metro
Detroit area, including mentions of institutions specific to
the Detroit area, such as Faygo, Cobo Arena
, Detroit Lions,
Pontiac
Silverdome
, Farmer Jack, party stores, General Motors, the Mile Road System, and the
North American
International Auto Show.
Undeclared and beyond
In 2001, several of the actors featured in
Freaks and
Geeks appeared in a new
Judd Apatow
college half-hour comedy called
Undeclared, which aired on
Fox Network. Apatow fought with the network to
include
Freaks and Geeks actors, but only picked up
Seth Rogen (who was already committed to
the show as a writer) as a regular cast member. However,
Jason Segel became a recurring character, and
Samm Levine,
Busy Philipps, and
Natasha Melnick guest-starred in
multi-episode arcs, as did prominent
Freaks and Geeks
guest stars
Steve Bannos and
David Krumholtz.
Martin Starr was prominent in another episode,
and a scene with
Sarah Hagan was shot,
although it was cut for television broadcast. Despite garnering a
cult following, the show was also canceled abruptly during its
first season.
Six years later, actors from the two shows comprised the bulk of
the starring cast of Apatow's film,
Knocked Up, with
James Franco making a brief cameo appearance as
himself. In addition, many of the extras starred as teachers and
principal tertiary characters from both shows. Martin Starr, Steve
Bannos, and David Krumholtz all appeared as extras in
Superbad, which was produced by Apatow
and co-written by Rogen (who also has a supporting role in the
film).
Walk Hard featured Bannos,
Krumholtz and Starr in minor or cameo roles.
In 2008, Rogen and Franco co-starred in the Judd Apatow-produced
comedy film
Pineapple
Express.
References
-
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/completelist/0,,1651341,00.html
-
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207339,00.html
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