Freaks and Geeks only ran for 12 episodes back in the 1999-2000 season but it's a show that has stayed with me, and many other fans, as one of the best shows to end way too soon. The high school dramedy from Paul Feig and Judd Apatow featured a cast of "look at them before they were famous" faces that include Seth Rogen, James Franco, Busy Phillips, and Linda Cardellini, and it still continues to rank as one of the best of its genre over 20 years after its cancellation. As it turns out, a second season could've been possible at MTV but Apatow reveals that it would've been a weaker version of the show they were trying to produce.
During a chat with "Collider", Apatow talked about how he and Paul Feig received an offer from MTV to produce a second season of Freaks and Geeks when NBC canceled the series. As Apatow further explains, they ultimately declined the offer with Apatow saying, "When the show was canceled, there was an offer from MTV to continue making the show at a much lower budget. And we all decided we didn't want to do a weaker version of the show." It makes sense that Apatow wouldn't want to diminish the quality if MTV couldn't provide the budget necessary to produce the best possible show. I think fans would've quickly identified that the quality had downgraded during the move from NBC to MTV if that was the case.
Paul Feig, in a subsequent interview, offered up his own reasoning regarding the duo's decision to turn down MTV's proposition. Feig revealed that his mother had died two days before the series was canceled and he wasn't in the right mindset to focus on MTV's proposal for a second season. Feig does back Apatow's thoughts about the limited budget, which he feels would've significantly affected the quality of the show's production. Feig went on to say, "I mean, you say it looked like a movie, that's really how we treated it. So, we were ready to drop at the end of those 18 episodes."
Freaks and Geeks followed a gifted high schooler named Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) who befriends a gang of slacker "freaks", and her younger brother Sam (John Francis Daley), as he and his geek friends navigate high school. In addition to those already mentioned, the cast included Jason Segel, Martin Starr, and Samm Levine. The series also has frequent guest stars that have since gone on to have great careers such as Rashida Jones, Lizzy Caplan, Ben Foster, Shia LaBeouf, David Koechner, Jason Schwartzman, David Krumholtz, Kevin Corrigan, and Leslie Mann. Even though Freaks and Geeks was beloved by critics and had a very loyal fanbase, the show only drew 6.77 million viewers and ranked #93 during its only season. These numbers would make the show a huge hit now but back in 1999-2000, live ratings still reigned supreme and these numbers just didn't cut it on NBC at the time.
There was also a strained relationship between the creative duo and Garth Ancier, who was the newly-instated president of NBC that arrived after the network had already greenlit Freaks and Geeks. During the time of production, Feig days that Ancier did not truly understand the narrative objectives of the series, which had a goal to present a multifaceted and authentic portrayal of adolescence. The network wanted the writers to show that high school was "cool" while the creative team tried to explain that the show was centered on the awkwardness of growing up. These clashes resulted in unpredictable scheduling, subpar advertising, and inserting the show into weak time slots, which also affected the ratings.
In the years since its cancellation, the show continues to be a cult classic and its one and only season is still highly regarded as one of the best of its kind. It would've been nice for the series to continue but if it would've diminished the quality, I'm happy to have one solid season of superb television. If you're trying to revisit Freaks and Geeks, NBC only aired 12 of the series' episodes before its cancellation but 18 were completed and they can all be found on Hulu!
Would YOU have liked a second season of Freaks and Geeks on MTV?