I had heard of Freaks and Geeks before, but it wasn't until it was available on Netflix that I had the opportunity to watch it. I was blown away by the show: the characters, the writing, the storylines, the nuanced way they captured that awkward struggle to fit in and find oneself in high school. It was all so above and beyond what I had come to expect from a TV series.
The following article from Vanity Fair is an incredible retelling of the creation of Freaks and Geeks through the people involved.
Initial reaction from the network:
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DAN McDERMOTT (then head of DreamWorks Television): Within 24 hours, I’d say, we got a pass from Fox, from CBS, from ABC. A day or two later, we heard from Shelley McCrory, a development exec at NBC. She said, “If we don’t make this show, I’m quitting the television business.”
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On casting James Franco:
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JUDD APATOW: We didn’t think of him as handsome. We thought his mouth was too big for his face and he seemed perfect to be a small-town cool guy who wasn’t as cool as he thought he was. When all the women in our office started talking about how gorgeous he was, me and Feig started laughing because we just didn’t see it.
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The creator of the series:
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JUDD APATOW: Paul remembered every detail of everything that had happened to him in high school: every happy moment, every humiliation. The running gag in the writers’ room was that Paul would tell a horrible story and I would say, “How old were you when that happened?” Implying probably 12, and it was always 17. I had seen him as this cool comedian. I hadn’t realized he had all these incredibly funny, dark stories. He was the guy who wore the “Parisian night suit” to school [as Sam does in the episode “Looks and Books”].
PAUL FEIG: There was a store I used to shop in during high school, a disco-flavored men’s clothing store. One day one of the salesmen drags me over. He goes, “This is the hottest thing, man,” and shows me this big denim jumpsuit with the flare pants and the big collar. To this day if I get a new piece of clothing I can’t wait to wear it. So I could not be stopped from wearing it to school, and the minute I walked in the front door I knew I had made a huge mistake. It was fun, on the show, re-creating the most horrific moments of my past.
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On its ultimate demise
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JUDD APATOW: Part of the problem of the show was it should have been on HBO. Everything that’s popular now you might call “independent television.” Mad Men is a little like indie TV. But there was no home for us in 1999. It wasn’t niche television—you were competing against Regis Philbin hosting a game show.
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Too many great quotes. Enjoy!
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/...s-oral-history
Protip: Click the "Single Page" link at the bottom of the first page for the entire article to appear on one page. I wish all sites had this option.