Freaks and Geeks

Teenager Lindsay Weir and her younger brother, Sam, attend William McKinley High School during the 1980–81 school year. The show is set in the town of Chippewa, Michigan, a fictional suburb of Detroit (named after Chippewa Valley High School, which series creator Paul Feig attended). Lindsay joins a group of friends who are referred to as the "freaks" — Daniel Desario, Ken Miller, Nick Andopolis, and Kim Kelly — while Sam's friends, Neal Schweiber and Bill Haverchuck, constitute the "geeks." The Weir parents, Harold and Jean, are featured in every episode, and Millie Kentner, Lindsay's nerdy and highly religious former best friend, is a recurring character, as well as Cindy Sanders, the popular cheerleader on whom Sam has a crush. Lindsay finds herself attempting to transform her life as an academically proficient student, star "mathlete" into a rebellious teenager who hangs out with troubled slackers. Her relationships with her new friends and the friction they cause with her parents and her self-image form one central strand of the show. The other follows Sam and his group of geeky friends as they navigate a different part of the social universe and try to fit in. ==Cast and characters==

Main cast • Linda Cardellini as Lindsay Weir • John Francis Daley as Sam Weir • James Franco as Daniel Desario • Samm Levine as Neal Schweiber • Seth Rogen as Ken Miller • Jason Segel as Nick Andopolis • Martin Starr as Bill Haverchuck • Becky Ann Baker as Jean Weir • Joe Flaherty as Harold Weir • Busy Philipps as Kim Kelly Recurring cast • Dave "Gruber" Allen as Jeff Rosso • Steve Bannos as Frank Kowchevski • Tom Wilson as Coach Ben Fredricks • Natasha Melnick as Cindy Sanders • Sarah Hagan as Millie Kentner • Stephen Lea Sheppard as Harris Trinsky • Jerry Messing as Gordon Crisp • Chauncey Leopardi as Alan White • JoAnna Garcia as Vicki Appleby • Kayla Ewell as Maureen Sampson • Riley Smith as Todd Schellinger • Jessica Campbell as Amy Andrews • Trace Beaulieu as Hector Lacovara • Ann Dowd as Cookie Kelly • Kevin Tighe as Mr. Andopolis • Sam McMurray as Vic Schweiber • Amy Aquino as Lydia Schweiber • Claudia Christian as Gloria Haverchuck • Ben Foster as Eli • Lizzy Caplan as Sara • Shaun Weiss as Sean • Joel Hodgson as Joel, a disco clothing store manager and occasional DJ Guest stars and cameo appearances Guest stars included: • Samaire Armstrong as "Deadhead" Laurie • Alexandra Breckenridge as mathlete Shelly Weaver • Jack Conley as Kim Kelly's stepfather • Kevin Corrigan as Millie's delinquent cousin • Allen Covert as a liquor store clerk • Matt Czuchry as a student from rival Lincoln High • Alexander Gould as Ronnie, the boy Lindsay babysits while high • Steve Higgins as Mr. Fleck, the Geeks' A/V teacher • Rashida Jones as Kim Kelly's friend Karen Scarfolli • Bianca Kajlich as a nose piercing punk girl • David Koechner as a waiter, in an uncredited role • David Krumholtz as Neal's brother Barry • Shia LaBeouf as Herbert, the school mascot • Leslie Mann as school teacher Miss Foote • Ben Stiller as a Secret Service agent • Jason Schwartzman as Howie Gelfand, a disco clothing store assistant dealing in fake IDs The show's producers were resistant to stunt casting. For example, they resisted the network's suggestion that they have Britney Spears appear as a waitress in one episode; they thought such appearances would detract from the show's realism. Several of the screenwriters appeared on the show. Mike White played Kim Kelly's oft-discussed injured brother, and first appeared in episode 4, "Kim Kelly is My Friend". Paul Feig, Gabe Sachs and series composer Michael Andrews appear uncredited as members of the fictional band Dimension in "I'm With the Band". Numerous actors who starred on Freaks and Geeks would appear on Judd Apatow's later TV series Undeclared, including Rogen, Segel, Levine, Starr, Phillips and Melnick, among several others. ==Episodes==

The script for the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks was written by Paul Feig as a spec script. Feig gave the script to producer Judd Apatow, who sold it to DreamWorks, where Apatow was under an overall deal. DreamWorks sold it to NBC, who greenlit a pilot. Before the script was shot, Feig wrote a second episode at the behest of Apatow. He showed this second script to Apatow and pilot director Jake Kasdan, and they suggested that he combine the two episodes to form a stronger pilot. Notable additions include the introduction of Kim Kelly and Lindsay's recollection of her grandmother's death. The list below is ordered by the chronology of the storyline. Planned storylines In a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair, Paul Feig detailed what would have happened to the characters if the show had continued: Lindsay would become a human rights lawyer, years after following the Grateful Dead. Sam would have joined the drama club. Neal would cope with his parents' divorce by joining a swing choir in school. Bill would join the basketball team, becoming a jock and leading to tension with the geeks. Daniel would end up in jail. Kim would become pregnant on tour while following the Grateful Dead. Nick would be pressured by his strict father to join the Army. ==Media releases==

DVD and Blu-ray On April 6, 2004, a six-DVD Freaks and Geeks box set was released through Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. 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. In July 2015, Shout! Factory announced it had begun preparing for a Blu-ray release of the series. It was subsequently confirmed in December 2015 that Shout! would release the complete series on Blu-ray on March 22, 2016, and the set would contain all special features from the previous releases and the episodes in both their original aspect ratio and widescreen. As of July 1, 2021, all U.S. DVD and Blu-ray releases have been discontinued and are out of print. Books In October 2004, Newmarket Press released two Freaks and Geeks books: Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Scripts, Volume 1 and Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Scripts, Volume 2. Each book covers nine scripts from the series, compiled by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow. Extra content includes behind-the-scenes memos and notes, photos, additional plot lines and excerpts from the Freaks and Geeks series bibles. Soundtrack Freaks and Geeks creators made it a priority to feature genuine, period-specific music that would help to create the show's tone. Clearing such names as Billy Joel, Cheap Trick, the Grateful Dead, Rush, Styx, The Moody Blues, The Who and Van Halen required much of the show's budget. Eventually, this became an obstacle in releasing the show on DVD due to the difficulty and expense of clearing all of the music rights for the series. Music cues were changed or removed for Freaks and Geeks when it aired in reruns on Fox Family. However, Freaks and Geeks creators chose to wait to release the DVD until they could find a company willing to pay for the original music. Shout! Factory, a music and video company specializing in comprehensive reissues and compilations, eventually brought Freaks and Geeks to DVD with all of its music intact. ==Appearances==

In February 2000, the cast of Freaks and Geeks competed against the cast of The WB teen drama Popular for a special week of the game show Family Feud, hosted by Louie Anderson. ==Reception==

Critical reception At Metacritic, Freaks and Geeks has a score of 88 out of 100, based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a score of 100% with an average rating of 9.7 out of 10, based on 34 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Freaks and Geeks lampoons real-life adolescence while affectionately embracing every growing pain along the way with refreshing honesty." Ratings The show averaged 6.77 million viewers and was #93 in the rankings during the only season it ran. Awards and nominations The series received three Emmy Award nominations: creator Paul Feig was nominated twice for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, for the episodes "Pilot" and "Discos and Dragons", and it won for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series (Allison Jones, Coreen Mayrs and Jill Greenberg). It was also nominated for two Television Critics Association Awards, for New Program of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Drama. For acting, the series won for Best Family TV Series – Comedy and was nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series – Young Ensemble at the Young Artist Awards. For the YoungStar Awards, John Francis Daley and Sarah Hagan were nominated for Best Young Actor/Performance in a Comedy TV Series, and the ensemble was nominated for Best Young Ensemble Cast – Television. The series also received several other nominations in other categories. The series appeared on Time magazine's 2007 "100 Greatest Shows of All Time" list, and placed third on the magazine's list of greatest television shows of the 2000s. In 2004 and 2007, respectively, Freaks and Geeks ranked No. 25 and No. 21 on TV Guides Top Cult Shows Ever. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly ranked it the 13th-best series of the past 25 years. The same year, AOL TV named it the Best School Show of All Time. In 2013, TV Guide included it in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time, and ranked it No. 1 on their list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon". In 2016, it was named the 11th-greatest television series of all time by Rolling Stone. ==Cancellation and legacy==

One of the cited reasons for its early cancellation was its inability to gain an audience due to its "erratic scheduling" and poor time slots, competing with the high-rated Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The producers created a website for the series, but NBC would not share its URL because "they didn't want people to know the Internet existed; they were worried about losing viewers to it", as explained by Judd Apatow. Freaks and Geeks was only averaging under 7 million viewers, while other NBC series such as Frasier and Friends were averaging over 14 million viewers each. NBC and the creative directors of Freaks and Geeks did not have the same vision for the series. After the network picked up the pilot, Garth Ancier replaced Scott Sassa as president of NBC Entertainment. McDermott states that Ancier "doesn't understand public school" and its relevance because he went to a boarding school and then on to Princeton. Creator Paul Feig expressed the irony of the situation, as everyone involved wanted Freaks and Geeks to be a success, but the network did not understand the concept of realistically showcasing life as ordinary teenagers. Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow had multiple arguments with the network concerning the lack of victories in the script and that the characters needed to be cool. The writers wanted to produce something that would represent the average high school experience, but the network wanted to produce something that would make high school seem cool. Because the network did not think the series would be a success, they let the writers add story lines that they would not have otherwise, such as the story line when Ken discovers his girlfriend was born with ambiguous genitalia. Apatow said in 2014 that "Everything I've done, in a way, is revenge for the people who cancelled Freaks and Geeks." Syndication At the beginning of February 2006, the show's underlying ownership shifted from DreamWorks to Viacom (now known as Paramount Skydance). That month, they acquired the rights to Freaks and Geeks and all other television shows and live-action movies DreamWorks produced since their inception, following their $1.6 billion dollar purchase of the company's live-action film and television assets. The show has since been distributed by Paramount Pictures and its related television divisions. In June 2010, it was announced that IFC had acquired the rights to air both Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, another DreamWorks-produced show which was later acquired by Viacom/Paramount. Freaks and Geekss 18-episode run on IFC finished with all episodes having aired as of October 29, 2010. Undeclareds IFC run began on November 5, 2010. Both shows also joined the Viacom-owned TeenNick's lineup on June 13, 2011. Cast reunions A reunion of several cast members and producers of both shows took place at the Paley Center for Media's PaleyFest on March 12, 2011. Documentary A documentary directed by Brent Hodge chronicling the history and production of Freaks and Geeks and featuring interviews with the cast and crew, Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary, debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018. The documentary had its television debut on July 16, 2018, on A&E. ==References==