All language subtitles for Freaks and Geeks The Documentary 2018

- [Jason] High school is where
yyou kinda become who you are.

- [Linda] Those years
are tough years.

Your emotions and your hormones
and everything runs so high

in a way that you've never
experienced them before.

- [Judd] All of those
things are universal

and will never change.

- You grow up, you
get different clothes

and become more confident
in your guesses.

- In high school, I wasn't like

at the bottom of the totem pole

and I wasn't at the
top of the totem pole,

but kinda somewhere
in the middle.

- When I was a kid,
I always thought

nobody understands
what's special about me.

I felt very alone.

- Childhood sucks and
adolescence sucks,

so I was like I want to
be anything but myself.

- Wait, does everyone's
life suck in high school?

Yeah, kinda.

- Those are growing pains.

You think you know so much
but you're just so relatively

small in the world, you're
just so young in the world.

- I'm so glad that the most
awkward moments in my childhood

were actually captured on film

in the context of a
really great show.

- This tiny little show, that
only lasted a couple months

from '99 to 2000 has
found so many people.

- They've all gone on not
only to be famous actors

but they're amazing writers,
producers, directors.

- And we all have,
I certainly do,

have a little freak and
a little geek in me.

- Did you ever go
to high school?

Yeah.

Okay, then it's about you.

And then 18 episodes later
they go that dude was right.

Dumbledore at the
mall was right.

♪ I don't give a damn
about my reputation ♪

♪ You're livin' in the past,
it's a new generation ♪

♪ A girl can do what
she wants to do ♪

♪ That's what I'm gonna do

♪ And I don't give a damn
about my bad reputation ♪

♪ Oh no

♪ Not me

♪ Oh no

♪ Not me

(electronic pop music)

(dramatic music)

- The Ranch was the place
where we all kinda converged.

It was just a really
shitty ranch house

in North Hollywood that
we trashed, of course.

- You know, it was a
bunch of lazy fat guys

hanging around mostly.

- Among the people
who went there

was Feig and Judd Apatow.

- We'd all go do stand-up
and then we'd come back

at the end of the
night every night

and we would just stay up and
play poker and drink coffee.

- [Judd] No drugs at all,
just Pepsis and cigarettes.

- [Steve] Judd was
younger than all of us.

- He had a really
funny stand-up act.

He does this thing
with his forehead.

Have you ever seen that one?

You should ask him
about that one.

(squeaking)

- That was as good
as my stand-up got.

It was just a lot of dreaming
of what we hoped we could do.

I didn't really
have a sense that

any of us would pull it off.

(soft music)
(typing)

- [Paul Feig] I had the
idea for a while

of wanting to do something
about high school.

It really came out
of just the fact that

I hadn't seen myself or the
people we went to school with

represented properly in
any high school show.

Everything at that time
you watched on television

was either about LA or New York.

The middle of the country

was just treated
sorta despairingly.

- Michigan in winter.

The late '70s.

All that stuff made
for an odd show.

- [Paul] It's based on
the town I grew up in,

which is Mount
Clemens, Michigan.

I need to be an advocate
for the Midwest.

I want to be an advocate
for real people.

It's where most of us grew up.

And so, I really started writing

and it just really
poured out of me.

I was in love with
the head cheerleader.

- [Cindy] Hi Sam.

- [Sam] Oh, hi Cindy.

- [Cindy] So, um,
what are you doing?

- [Sam] Just going home.

How about you?

- I'm cheering at the game.

- Oh, (chuckles) well
you're dressed for it.

- I wanted to ask her
to the homecoming dance

but I just kept putting it off
and the day of I asked her,

which is ridiculous but
she was really nice,

oh thanks, I have a date.

- I'm already going
with Dan Lewis,

he asked me two weeks ago.

- [Paul] So, I thought,
okay we can make that

the story for the geeks.

- Oh okay, I mean yeah
just thought I would ask

just in case you didn't
have anyone to go with.

- I wanted it to be about
a brother and sister

because I was an only child,

and I always wanted
an older sister.

What would Lindsey's story be?

And I just remembering think
well she's such a rebel,

what if she decided
she was gonna ask

the mentally challenged kid,

kinda an act of screw you
to the rest of the school.

- Hey Eli,

do you want to go to the
homecoming dance with me?

- Yes, yes, I do!

Yep, please.

- Good.

- We used to call the
burnouts, we called them Freaks

and so I was like, geeks
that rhymes with freaks.

Let's call it Freaks and Geeks.

My wife put her hand up and
she goes give me a hand five

and like, high fived me,

and goes like this is
the one you send to Judd.

- I did a deal with DreamWorks.

Very early on in the
deal, I said to Feig,

"Hey if you ever have any ideas
for anything, let me know."

Not necessarily
thinking he would.

He didn't talk to me about
it while he was doing it,

he just laid it on me
and it was impressive.

- [Paul] He goes, I love
it, were going to buy it

and it was just like oh
my god this is happening.

- I was the president of
DreamWorks Television.

Justin came into my
office one day and said

Judd has this spec script
written by this guy Paul Feig,

and I'm like who's Paul Feig?

You know, "I said
what's it about?"

And he said well, "Well,
it's set in a high school

"in the Midwest
in the late '80s"

and I was like, "We'll
never sell that,

"we'll never sell it."

- [Judd] The '99 shows
weren't as challenging.

(upbeat jazz music)

- [Jake] It was also a time
when network television

was still most of television.

- [Steve] NBC had
been a really dominate

number one in young viewers.

- Boy, those were the days, huh?

- [Shelley] Must See TV
was like a really big deal.

- [Busy] There was like the
proliferation of teen TV

in part due to the massive
success of Dawson's Creek.

- [Seth] WB was popular.

- [Garth] Charmed,
and 7th Heaven,

and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

- [Scott] Frasier,
Will & Grace, Friends.

- [Joe] What was that other one?

Uh, Malcolm in the Middle.

- A really great
show but you know,

a very heightened version of
childhood and the teen years.

- It was wish-fulfillment
television.

You know, soap opera type shows

but I think what we
were trying to do

was some sort of alternative.

- At that point,
there was really

four places you
could sell the show.

Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS.

We collectively thought the
place where we could sell this

is Fox and we're
going to sell it

as the next
iteration of a 90210.

Immediately, Fox passed.

We're going to have a harder
time with this than I thought.

Then of course, CBS passed
and then ABC had passed, too.

We didn't hear anything
from NBC on Monday

and then on Tuesday
we got a call.

- I don't even remember
why they brought

it to us because it
didn't really seem like

an NBC show at the time.

- I know.

- So, Shelley called and
said, "This is unbelievable."

It spoke to her.

- And her famous line was
"If we don't make this show,

"I'm quitting the
television business."

Nobody says that, you know,

everybody is in the ass
protecting business.

- They so perfectly
captured that aching,

awkward pain of teenage years.

- It was a weird moment at
NBC because the president

of NBC programming
had just stepped down.

So, Scott Sassa, who
was the guy above

the head of programming, he
really wasn't the creative guy.

- It was the first
show when I read

the script that
really spoke to me

because it was how I
grew up in high school.

- It happened very fast,
NBC was super enthusiastic

and they were ready to go.

- They were like "We don't
even have any notes,"

which you're like "Oh my
god, I can't believe that."

- We just said we'll make it.

We don't want to touch it,
we just want to shoot it.

Yeah.
- Yeah.

- It was such a whirlwind from
writing this thing on spec,

not knowing what to do
with it and suddenly,

oh my god we're going
into production.

(soft music)
(people chattering)

- [Judd] A lot of the work
was figuring out who would

play these characters.

- I wanted an
awkward, normal cast,

who were going to come
in and bring their

personality and bring
their weirdness.

- I said, "Let's
find amazing kids."

- I seem to drawn to projects

where I don't have to
cast beautiful people.

Not interesting.

- [Jake] Allison started
setting up sessions.

- [Paul] Throw the doors open
wide, I want to see everybody.

Don't weed anybody out
if they don't even sound

like the description
of the kids.

- [Judd] Let's let
anybody show up.

- [Allison] Everybody's
niece and nephew.

- [Judd] Let's do
open call auditions.

- We sit down with the network,
alright this is the vision.

They're going to
make us cast a bunch

of handsome models
and call them nerds

and put tape on their glasses
but they're all super hot.

- Anybody who read
it, it was obvious,

you didn't want
those kind of kids.

You needed the kids
who got picked on.

- A thousand people
would show up.

1500 people would show up.

Given a line or two
and if someone was good

maybe we'd give
them a page to do.

- [Allison] Franco must have
been one of the first kids

that I brought in
for that because

he was so clearly that kid.

- Judd said just be you
and I was like, "Okay."

- and I didn't even think
James Franco was handsome.

We just thought he was
a weird looking dude.

He had this big
mouth and an attitude

and then people started looking
at the tape at the office

and seeing his headshot,
all the women were swooning

and we were like "Really?"

- Oh no!

Now I don't want him on the
show, I didn't know he was hot.

I thought he was goofy looking.

- My wife said,
"He's the kinda guy

"who works at the newsstand
who you make out with."

- It was me and James
Franco next to each

other in the waiting room
to go into the screen test.

James went in and then I
went in and did my thing

and then we waited
and then they told us

that we both got cast.

We were walking back to
the parking lot together

and I was so excited and
was trying to figure out

how it was going to work.

And I said, "Well I guess
maybe I'll be the goofy one

"and you'll be the cool one?"

And he went, "Yeah."

- [Allison] Seth
opened his mouth

and I'm sure they like him.

- I have a super
thick Canadian accent

that I don't really have
any more, in my audition.

Yeah, but who
cares, it's church.

The whole place is
full of paintings

of a bleeding guy on a cross.

That's way nastier than
any album cover I have.

I was doing stand-up
comedy at the time

I'd done that
since I was like 13

and it was like clear
I was just like

not going to graduate
high school.

- [Jake] It's just
this crazy story, right?

The kid walks into
an audition in Vancouver

and six years later
or whatever is one of

the biggest comedy
stars in the world

and he kinda never went home.

- I think what a lot
of people attribute

to some character choices
is literally just me

not quite understanding
what the hell I'm doing.

I had never acted,
ever, in anything.

- We didn't know what it was,

we just thought "That is
a weird. hilarious dude."

- What Paul had written
was very specific.

A smart, young woman who had sat

with her grandmother
while she died.

- She's questioning everything

and that leads her to
hang out with the freaks

instead of the smart kids.

So, you needed a girl that
looked like she could

straddle both worlds.

- I had concocted this image
of this girl in my head

who I didn't know, and
so when Linda walked in,

it was exactly the person
who I had envisioned.

- All the other
characters I had read were

rebelling against
their parents in a way

where you couldn't
actually still feel love.

The thing that separated
Lindsay is that she really

loved her parents, but there
were still those battles in

herself to rebel.

It's a great role.

- [Jake] Originally, Kim
was not in the pilot.

The character was supposed to
enter in the second episode.

- [Judd] We realized
that she was very special

and would need to be a
big part of the show.

- I wasn't outwardly
Kim Kelly in high school

but that's like, that
was my soul, like,

that's who I was, was that girl.

- Sam Levine, radio.

- Sam had sent in a video
of himself auditioning.

Not a great audition.

- [Woman] Uh oh, Incoming.

- [Woman] Hi, is
this your jacket?

- [Woman] You left
it in science.

I didn't want it
to get all dirty.

- [Judd] The worst
audition, ever.

- The sides I was reading
said he likes doing

impressions with his friends,
so I finished the read and say

I'm talking like this because
my girdle is killing me.

And that is the William
Shatner impression

that got me on Freaks and Geeks.

- I remember walking out
into the waiting room

and Martin was sitting
there with suspenders on,

looking like such a goober.

I was, like, "Oh please,
oh please, be good."

- I fell in love with
Martin immediately,

because he was so
much like the kid

I had based this on, which
was, he was a friend of ours.

He was in special ed
some of his classes,

but he wasn't in others.

- He was so authentic in
that role that everybody just

figured that was him,
which is what everybody

assumed for years.

- So many like, weird
characters that couldn't exist

if you were casting
anything else.

All these pieces fit
so well together.

It's very rare.

Think about it, that's
the future, death.

-All right, no boarders,
all right...

- I could actually audition
as a gym teacher in my sleep.

- Well they based Harris
on their impression of me.

- Watch this, ready?

Gruber.

- Oh hey, how's it going?

Ah, Mr. Rosso.

- [Allison] Lizzy Caplan
was great right away.

- [Paul] Rashida Jones
was just a young actress.

- [Allison] Ben Foster
is so great in it too.

- [Jake] Shia was a trip,
even when he was twelve.

- I was so envious
of all those actors

and I wanted to be a regular
on that show, so badly.

You know, I totally forgot
what my character's name was.

- Within the first
week, we had, like,

half of the principle cast.

The one character who
we were really sort

of struggling to find was Sam.

- [Judd] We were watching
the tapes from New York,

and there's John Francis Daly.

- [Judd] He was really
young, I think he was 13.

- Producers only want to use
kids who are 18 to look 13.

- (laughs) I sounded
totally like a girl,

so I didn't think that I had
a chance because of that.

- [Judd] And as I'm watching,
I go, like, "Oh my God."

- [Judd] It almost
didn't feel like it was

an actor doing it.

- He has like a glass head.

Because you look in those eyes,

you see everything
he is thinking,

you know everything that
kid is going through.

This is what was great
about high school

and terrible about
high school is everyone

went in at a different
maturity level.

He's the kid that's kind of
too young to be in school.

- [Jake] Finding John was
kind of a definitive moment.

We were very comprehensive,

we were very thorough,
but we found this,

just astounding group of people.

(soft music)

- [Director] Quiet please.

- We had a really unique
and unusual experience

making that pilot.

- There was like,
jokes about doing

shrooms and stuff like that.

There was a Hitler joke.

And I remember being like, "Oh
this is actually very funny."

(yelling)
(laughing)

(yelling)

- [Paul] We shot the pilot,
and it was like shooting

a little indie movie.

- The whole process, to
me, of making the show,

had the naivety of youth.

Like, we had no reason
to believe we couldn't

do the coolest thing ever.

- Paul was very set
on having a family

that liked each other.

Not everyone's fighting, and I
thought, "Yeah, that's great.

"That's something that
didn't exist in my house."

- [Jake] The Weir
family is so solid.

- The Weirs are hopeful.

Sam.

Did Mom and Dad
ever tell you that

I was the only one with
Grandma when she died?

- No.

- Yeah.

- I was surprised
that the network had

no issue with the
conceit of the show.

A girl who's now questioning
her spirituality,

discovering God does not exist.

- If you're brought up
religiously, there's like,

always a safety net, of
kind of like, something

and the minute you break
that, you're free falling

and like, oh
my god, you know?

We're just organisms on
this world and you know,

is there anything after death?

So, I said like, you
know, can you see God

or Heaven or a
light or anything?

What did she say?

- "No.

"There's nothing."

- It's a really
sad, heavy scene.

It's a true loss of innocence.

But no one mentioned it, ever.

Compassion.

Kindness.

Trying to figure
out how to grow up.

Paul did so many
things to that pilot

that should not work
that don't sound like

an appealing pilot concept.

Girl loses faith in God and
becomes a pot head, you know.

A mentally challenged kid
falls and breaks his arm.

The dance sequence just found
a way to put it all together.

♪ Carry on

(soft music)

♪ I look to the sea

- Hi, Cindy.

- Hey Sam.

- I was wondering, um,

you said you'd save a dance
for me, so, can I have it now?

- First of all, it's
not what you see

all the time in television.

You don't see that
cheerleader say

yes to giving the
dance to that guy.

And then you don't see her
being so sweet about it.

♪ We lived happily forever

- I was standing behind
the camera just watching,

and it was just like,
goosebumps, goosebumps,

goosebumps, goosebumps.

- And having that Styx song.

♪ Best as we can

- And he gets up the nerve
to dance with the girl,

I said "Son, Styx
is not dance music."

- [Paul] And then suddenly,
it becomes a fast dance song.

- [Dennis] The minute
the rock part comes in,

the look on his face.

It's like he's been betrayed
by the Gods of the universe.

Just this look of, like,
like he wants to die.

- You know, his life is
flashing in front of him.

- But he just does it, and
as he starts having fun.

What seems like is not a
victory, is actually a victory.

And that's really what
the show's all about.

- I was at the school
dance in 11th grade

and I was in love
with this girl,

but I was so scared
to walk up to her that

it took three
quarters of the song.

So, we start having to slow
dance which was my dream,

and then, like having to
dance, but I don't really

know how to dance.

And then it just
ended really fast.

I remember sitting in
editing and just crying.

Just feeling like oh
this completely works.

This is beautiful.

And I could cry every
single time I watch it.

Because it's kids reaching
out to each other,

and it's so hard to do as a kid.

It's so hard to
offer your heart.

It's so hard to try to connect.

- We all have inside
of us this deep

insecurity about
life and things,

but particularly in adolescence.

Even if you're one of the
kids that thinks they're cool,

you're still putting
on airs that you've

got it all together out here,

but in here, you know the
ducks, they're runnin' around.

(people chattering)

(piano playing)

- As soon as we started
cutting the show,

we felt pretty confident
that it was gonna be

a really good pilot.

My thought was this doesn't
really seem like a TV show.

And it'll be interesting
to see whether

anyone wants to put it on NBC.

- The pilot, you know,
it didn't blow me away.

So, at that point, I wasn't
sure whether this was just

something that resonated
to me that I liked

in my personal ear or
it really was something

that everybody else
would relate to.

- We got a new
network president.

We started having
like a new network

president every couple of years.

And I think, like,
Freaks and Geeks came

at really the beginning
of the revolving door.

- You hope you have
an executive that says

I so believe in what
you're doing creatively.

You pray that you
get that champion.

- We had Garth Ancier come in.

I don't think it's a secret.

He did not like it.

It was a hard way
to meet somebody.

I'll tell you that.
(laughing)

It was not the best
way to be introduced.

- Other than Freak
and Geeks at the time,

there was very few
single camera comedies.

It wasn't a genre
that was popular.

You weren't a sitcom.

And you weren't an hour drama.

You were right in the middle.

And right now, everything
is in the middle.

That's what modern
television is.

- Comedy's gotten more
behavioral and it was always

what myself and Judd and all
our actors found the funniest.

It's not jokes.

- You were used to
seeing joke, joke, joke.

And this was a little different.

It had story, it had drama,

it had a little
bit of heart in it.

I think people relate
to the underdogs.

- They ordered 12 episodes,

so that plus the pilot brought
us to 13 episodes total.

(upbeat rock music)

- [Paul] And then suddenly,
you're flying to New York.

They make that decision
at the last minute

then you fly to the up fronts,

where they present to
all the advertisers.

- [Narrator] Freaks and geeks.

- Dad, are any of
your friends alive?

-[Narrator] Coming
this fall to NBC.

- [Paul] There you are
in these giant parties

and you're glad handing
and you're doing

presentations of
your show and there's

your cast up on stage,
and you're up on stage.

- It wasn't easy to tell
Sam Levine he's a geek.

He'd never heard it before.
(audience laughing)

- People were so
pumped about the future

of Freaks and Geeks.

- We really hoped
it would be a hit.

It didn't have any of the early

indications that it
would be a big hit.

- They're picking us up.

Yay, for eight
o'clock on Saturday.

Oh no, what?

What the hell was that?

Anybody who would watch
our show would be out.

- [Narrator] NBC
Saturday at 8/7 central.

- [Jake] Saturday night
is essentially dead air.

Nobody programs Saturday night
with their great material.

We thought maybe we
could do well there

and they'll move us off
that night and put us

into a better time period.

(rock music)

- [Paul] Okay!

Welcome back everybody.

Yay.

- The Freaks and Geeks
pilot got picked up.

We put our staff
together and said,

"Let's get as many amazing
stories as we can."

We wanted people who
had lived a little bit.

People who'd done things.

People who'd done bad things.

- And basically, the first two
weeks of us getting together

was just this weird
group therapy session

where all of us just plumbed

the depths of our humiliating

and gut-wrenching
experiences from high school.

- We never wanted to leave.

Like I'm, I'm serious.

- We were there all the time.

- [Paul] I wrote up a
questionnaire of 20 questions.

Like, "What's the worst
thing that ever happened

to you in high school?"

"What's the best thing?"

- The most you ever got in
trouble with your parents.

What's your best
drug experience?

What's your worst
drug experience?

- Who did you fall in love with?

Who did you hate?

Blah, blah, blah.

And everyone had to fill
it out in great detail.

- [Judd] And there were
hundreds of amazing stories,

or just moments.

- [Judd] These people were
sharing really painful

parts of their lives.

If the show was successful,

it would vindicate the
things that happened to them.

- Everybody involved
was digging down

to expose who they really were.

- You would say the
most embarrassing thing.

Everyone groaned
at the same time,

they'd go, "Okay let's do that."

And then Paul would go,
"Um, I have another story."

And then it would top it!

- My favorite personal
story from the show

was the Parisian night suit
which truly happened to me.

I was really into disco
and there was a store

in the mall called Silvermens.

One day, the guy's like,
"Hey, check it out.

"We just got it in, man.

"It's a disco jumpsuit."

I was like, "That's
gonna be awesome."

So, I put this
thing on and thought

I just rock in front of
the mirror of my bedroom,

just like, "You are the king."

And wear it to school, and
the second I walk through

the doors, realize I made the
biggest mistake of my life.

People start laughing, other
people are just like "What?"

And you're trapped.

You wanna go home, you just
wanna get out of there.

And you couldn't.

So, I had to spend
all day walking around

in this disco jumpsuit.

- What was funny about
Paul was he would tell

a story of childhood
humiliation,

someone would say, "How old
were you when that happened?

"12, 13?"

And he would always say, "17."

(laughs) It was always
much later than we thought.

- [Sarah Hagan] Sometimes they
would even change lines

based on the table read.

I heard about what she does
in the yearbook darkroom.

- What she does?

- I eventually tell her
that she fornicates.

- What?

When I read it, I was like,
that doesn't make any sense.

She fornicates it, okay?
(laughing)

But I also didn't know
what fornicated means.

- Fornicating it.

Oh, it was so cute.

- Oh yeah.
(laughing)

She fornicates, okay?

I was so confused.

Like, why everyone was
like busting out laughing.

And so, anyway, they
kept it like that.

- [Woman] Okay, we're rolling.

(buzzer sounds)

- I heard about what she
does in yearbook dark room.

She fornicates it, okay?

- [Director] And that's a cut.

(all laughing)

- [Gabe] Paul was looking
to tell the stories

of the group of kids
that were simply

not represented on
television at that time.

- [Linda] It was pretty obvious

that this was not
about the people

that you'd been watching
typically on television.

It kinda zooms
past them and goes

to the stoners
under the bleachers.

- Real characters who could

be called freaks and geeks.

- [Judd] Everybody made
these giant contributions,

'cause everyone was being brave

about what they
had been through.

- So I told my mom I was
eating at your house,

and Bill told his mom.

- My parents separated
and my dad moved away,

and he wouldn't tell
us where he lived,

so I went to go find him.

I knew that it had to
be on the south side,

so I went over there, and
I took the garage clicker

out of his car, and I
drove around looking.

- Clicking these
doors, and opened up,

and there was his dad's car
in another woman's house.

- [Jeff] Just watching
the door go up,

I would never have though when
I did this at 15-years-old,

something that happened
to you that you wrote,

and then here it is happening.

- We just were like,
oh my god, like

Jeff, that's horrible that
happened to you,

and we so have to
use that on the show.

- You're about to film the
wonderful bike walking scene

where I get all angry and pissy
that they're about to leave.

- I was always trying
to inject stories

of divorce into the show,
because that's something

that I had been through.

Martin Starr's mom.

We kind of implied that
she stripped at some point,

but she's a waitress
and single mom,

and we see that he's a
bit of a latchkey kid.

He comes home from school
and he's by himself,

and then he did
what I did as a kid,

which is he made grilled
cheese sandwiches

and ate Entenmann's
Cake and would watch

comedians on The
Dinah Shore Show.

And the comedian that he
watches is Garry Shandling.

(lively music)

Jake Kasdan said, "That's
the most personal thing

you've ever done, and it's the
best thing you've ever done,"

and that made me realize
that that was the direction

I needed to go in
for my entire career,

that I should just go
deeper and more personal,

and that's where
the good stuff was.

We weren't sure what it
was in the beginning.

We were figuring
it out as we went,

and if you watch the episodes,

you can feel us finding it.

- We were a dramedy.

For every moment where a freak
or a geek made you laugh,

they were gonna have a moment
where they made you cry.

- [Director] Cut, that was nice.

- [Crew Member]
Great, very nice.

- [Samm] And I think
that that's real life.

- That's the only way
that comedy really works,

is if there's such a strong
element of truth in it,

it will invariably
have pain in it.

The things that are
incredibly painful are funny,

ultimately, or we don't
survive them in a way.

- There was always this
kind of low-level depression

right underneath the
surface of the stories.

By and large, they're more
about failure than success.

People are humiliated,
or find themselves

in some mortifying situation.

- Watch it, Romeo,
you're on my hair!

- Hey we're busy here.

- Sorry.

- Oh, hey Lindsay.

(Kim laughs)

- It's easy to say, oh, in 1979

people were more innocent.

The truth is is that
everyone at a certain point

is really just
uncomfortable about sex.

- All these other shows
seemed kind of cool with sex,

and they were just so mature.

- In most high school
shows, they'd show sex

being scary a little
bit, but not awkward.

And it's awkward.

Having a kiss for the
first time is awkward.

Which way do you turn your face?

- Boys are supposed
to know what to do.

How?

Based on what?

- That was just
not my experience.

We were so terrified
of everything.

- [John] The porno that I
was given by Daniel Desario.

I remember all of that vividly.

- It's a naked woman.

- What's she doing?

- Who cares what she's doing?

She's naked.

- [John] It was an actual porno,

and I looked at it
as much as I could.

(John laughs)

- Those were the first
kisses of our, mine at least.

- Joe and I even have a big
sex scene in one episode.

- We had just finished lunch

and I was walking
back to the trailer.

James, he was down on the curb

and he said, "Hey, did you
see next week's script?

"Oh, you got a hot love
scene with your wife, Becky."

And I said, "No, get out."

"Yeah, I'm tellin' ya."

I looked at script, whoa!

We gotta make out.

- I had gotten a
little bronchitis.

I was really husky and
it was kind of perfect.

It sounded like I was having
really great, husky sex.

- Where's mom and dad?

- In their room.

- Are they fighting?

- No.

- [John] The television press

was quick to embrace the show.

- [Judd] The reviews
were incredible.

It was the best
reviews you could get.

- Critics loved the show.

They loved Freaks And Geeks.

- The top new T.V. show in Time
magazine before we came out.

- Is Freaks And Geeks too
good for television, you know?

- Our launch was coming up,
Saturday night at 8 o'clock,

which we knew was
in a good spot,

but we're still, we're
about to come out

and it was so exciting,
and we did a party.

They had it up on
this big screen.

God, we're just standing there

just choking up and just like,

"Oh my god, my dreams
are coming true."

And the ratings were
actually pretty good.

We were shooting on that Monday

and I remember coming
into the cafeteria set

with this piece of paper
and getting up on the table

and announcing to everyone,
gathered everyone around,

and I read out our ratings.

Yay, this big cheer.

- [Karey Burke] In those
days at NBC, we could

hit a share in the mid-20's.

Friends was a 30-share.

That was the bar.

- The first episode
ratings were okay.

I think we got an 11-share.

- Our ratings hit the halfway
point of the pilot dropped,

'cause it's right around
when Eli falls off

the bleachers and
breaks his arm.

- I'm not retarded, I'm special!

I don't wanna go to
the dance with you.

- [Lindsay] Please, I'm sorry!

(Eli yells in pain)

- So there's a poor
mentally-challenged kid

screaming in pain, and you just
heard America go like nope,

and turning the channel.

Next week our
ratings just go boom.

Into the toilet.

- After the show first
show it just, whoo.

- Joe Flaherty at
one point goes,

"Yeah, Paul never came
into the cafeteria

and announced the ratings again.

Yeah, we're doing terrible.

I don't know what to tell ya.

- In fact, he was
pretty hard to find

for a few weeks after that.

kind of went from
we got it made,

Hollywood here we come, before
the first episodes came out,

to like wow, we're on this
show and nobody's watching us.

Nothing has really changed.

- NBC held a party.

Garth Ancier, who was
running the network,

was out there
talking to some guy,

and I just go, "Hey, Garth."

And he goes like,
"Deliver the goods.

"Deliver the goods.

"Don't be like this guy."

And he pointed at the other guy.

The other guy kinda
had this sheepish look,

and I just walked away
like, "What is happening?"

So you immediately
go like, oh god.

We gotta suddenly dealing
with network politics.

- He really studied the
metered market ratings,

and he would come in and show me

how much the show dropped
off from Jeopardy,

and that meant it
was doomed to fail.

- What a name, Garth.

I'd be so curious to hear
his perspective on this.

- I now ask, I'm
not your editor,

but cut directly to
that interview now.

- Certain shows shouldn't really
be on broadcast television.

I, It was a quirky show.

Everyone knew it
was a quirky show.

They told me that going in.

The term in the industry
is three jokes a page.

Freaks and Geeks is a
little slower than that.

- Even though, look, we had
7 million loyal viewers.

- The amount of people who were

watching would be
a huge hit today,

but back then it was
like, you dropped a point.

We may have to cancel you.

And that's
terrifying, and really

bad for creativity I think,

'cause you're making stuff
with a gun to your head.

I couldn't live in the
reality of the show,

and the fun of shooting
it, because part of my day

was the nuts and
bolts of our survival.

- Together we would
go call and say,

"They didn't love
the rough cut,"

or "Can you make these changes?"

- [Paul] I was so mad at
the network that I thought,

no let's go farther.

Lets challenge ourselves.

You want us to be safer?

Well then we're gonna be bolder.

- The first show I did was
called Kim Kelly is My Friend.

And action!

- I just remember
reading it going wow!

- It's a really difficult
episode to watch.

- The network was
terrified of it.

I was kind of terrified of it.

- You are a lying brat.

- Knew it.

I told ya.

- I'm not lying, you
guys just can't believe

that I can make a friend
who's rich and smart.

Oh, I knew Kim Kelly
in high school.

Oh my god, I could tell
her life just was dark.

It allowed me to put
forth this other side

of myself on camera that
was really inside me,

and was really
wanting to get out.

You have to always look
at the impetus for why

someone is behaving the
way that they're behaving.

You got to see
behind the curtain

of this kind of
horrible girl. (laughs)

'Cause you are a slut, you slut.

- It was jarring to be in
there during those scenes.

- Did you call me?

What did you call me?

- [Busy Voiceover] Yeah,
I hit him really hard.

- Hey, calm down!

- Just don't lie to me!

- I'm not lying.

- And his face was turning red

and then everyone was concerned.

James was such a badass like,

"I don't care, would
Marlon Brando get hit?"

- All right, this is like
Brando stuff, you know.

I had these ideas about
being a young actor,

and I was like I need to look
cool and tough or whatever.

And Busy's tougher than I am,

and so she kept punching me.

- It really captures the sex

and violence of
being a teenager.

- The network got
scared of that episode,

because it was as
bold as anything

that I'd seen in a network show.

- My memory of it
is Garth coming down

to our offices and
being just like

what the hell is this?

What is this?

- That's what happened.

- What's happening?

This is not funny!

- They didn't wanna air it,

and we realized, oh
they're just scared.

They're scared of what this is.

- [Linda] There was always
some note of changing

something to make
it more palatable.

- The language they
would always use

to describe that
was more victories.

- Which was their way of
saying that the show was sad,

but it was build into the
DNA of the show that it was

about failing and how
you survive failure,

and it was about
how your friends

support you in difficult times.

So it didn't really
make sense to us

to have everything go great.

- He wasn't thrilled
about that note.

I didn't know if that
was the answer or not, I...

but I certainly said can you
give 'em some more victories?

- There was an episode where
we tried to take that note.

Bill was playing baseball.

The ball comes to him
and he catches it,

and Rocky music plays.

("Overture" by Conti)

But then he doesn't realize
that people are tagging up,

and so everybody just scores.

That was a close as we
could get to a victory.

(phone rings)

(busy signal beeping)

- I would engage in
discussions with Judd

about why are we not
connecting with the audience?

- I was the person
on the phone saying,

"I'm not gonna change anything."

- I'd hear just
screaming off in a field,

and there'd be
Judd on a cellphone

just screaming into the phone.

- Paul and I agreed
on something early on,

which is we're not
gonna screw this up.

We're not gonna sell it out.

- This was clearly
very important to Judd.

- There is magic happening here,

and I am not letting
anybody (beep) with this.

- Maybe give a little
more James Franco

because it was very
clear James Franco

had real star quality about him.

Maybe a happy ending now and
then, maybe would be good.

- I've almost never seen a show

that wasn't doing
very well suddenly

become a huge hit
because the network

executives gave
really good notes.

Let's have happy endings?

That's trying to change
your tires on the freeway

when you're rolling
75 miles an hour.

You can't do it.

- Well, when's Sam
gonna get the girl?

It's episode three,
when's he gonna get her?

We're like, when he's 30?

What was the other one?

When's Franco gonna
take his shirt off?

Right, right,right.
It's like, he's not.

- People tend to wanna
walk away from a T.V. show

or a movie like something
good has happened.

- But isn't it
better to have a show

that affirms that the
life that they're living

is not so terrible,
and that other people

are going through the
same kind of struggles,

and sometimes it doesn't
end the way you want it to,

and you kinda have to
make the most of it?

- [Shelley Mccory] Surviving
is the victory.

When this thing happens to you,

and at the end of the
episode you're still alive,

that's the victory.

- The show's also about dreams.

Will your dreams come true?

Do you have the
courage to dream?

Those episodes about Jason Segel

playing the drums
are really tough.

He wants to be as good
as the guy in Rush,

and he realizes that he's
not, and it's heartbreaking.

(sighs)

- Sometimes I go
down into my basement

and I put on a live album.

I can see myself on the stage,

do you understand what I mean?

I can see it, and I'm
play a 10-minute solo.

Oh, man.

(sighs)

I'm not gonna be that guy.

I'm never gonna be that guy.

- We all have to decide
what we wanna do.

How hard do we wanna
work to get it?

Are we gonna give up?

And you hope that in your life,

if you're strong
and you work hard

that you get to
have your moment,

and I always like to think
that a lot of these characters,

after this period,
had their moment.

- See ya.

- It's on.

- When a broadcast network
launches your show,

the audience has one
opportunity to see it.

- Freaks and Geeks
didn't get a lotta luck.

- The show would
be on for two weeks

and then off for two weeks.

And then on for one week,
and then off for three weeks.

And that is a textbook way,
in that era, to kill a show.

The most important
thing that you can get

when a network
show is launched is

just a straight run of original
episodes, uninterrupted.

- Well the show was
on 13 out of 26 weeks,

so it was just off the air
as much as it was on the air.

- So there were just
weekends where they'd

shovel three episodes
off on a Sunday,

'cause they were like, "We
gotta air 'em somewhere."

- We got a order for 13
episodes, then they'll

give you the back 9
so you go up to 22.

This they gave us like two,
then they gave us like one more.

- We'd been on Saturday nights,

and then they announced
they were moving us Mondays.

- [T.V. Announcer] An
all-new Freaks and Geeks.

NBC Monday at 8/7 central.

- There's more
available audience.

- But also more competition.
- Right.

- The big story
in T.V. around that time

was Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire?

That show had come
out that fall also,

and it was such a
ratings monster.

- [Judd] It was like
a Destructo Machine,

rolling around television.

And they started putting it
on three, four times a week.

- [Paul] They're knocking off
scripted original programming

to broadcast Regis Philbin
trying to give away

a million dollars to
a couple of idiots.

- And there would a guy waiting
to figure out an answer,

and he'd be like this and
thinking and thinking.

That 15 seconds on an episode

that we were writing
would be so important.

- Finally, they put
it on against us

and just wiped us out.

(static)

- [Jeff] Suddenly it
did feel like there was

a ticking clock on
the life of our show.

- Everyone was doing CPR, trying
to get people to watch it.

Trying to get the
network to promote it.

The New York Times did
a big piece saying,

"Please everyone,
watch this show.

"The ship is sinking
but it's great.

"You really should watch this."

But you know, no one did.

(crew chattering)

- When you work on a
T.V. show or a movie,

there's an area
called craft service.

This craft service
table is filled

with lavish baked
goods and cold cuts,

and then slowly as
the show went on,

it became reduced to a box of
Corn Puffs and some creamer,

at which point we realized
we were in trouble.

- And I remember Judd coming
up to me and saying like,

"You should write
the final episode."

We always had a
sense that the show

was not going to survive.

If there's anything I hated more

than a show getting
canceled in the middle

and not having a
conclusion to the story,

that's how nervous
and paranoid we were.

- We gotta do it.

This might be the last episode.

- We'll have a season
no matter what.

(jocks yelling)

(gentle music)

- You get called geeks,
girls don't even look at ya.

What?

I'm accepted at an
Ivy League college?

Hey, chicks dig smart guys.

Who knew?

And yes, Mr. Jock
who cleaned me out?

I will have fries with that.

(all laughing)

- I don't want a story
to go on forever.

I just wanna go like, "Oh good.

"We've sent them
off into the world."

(gentle music)

- [Judd] Paul and I
were sitting around,

and we said, "What
happens to this girl?"

And we realize, I think
she becomes a deadhead.

That's where she would go.

- [Linda] I'm so happy that they

managed to sneak in the ending.

- [Judd] It's hard to even
understand why it worked so well

because it doesn't
end any storyline,

but yet it does
feel like the end.

- I'm left, when I
watch that last episode,

feeling a little like
I wanna cry. (laughs)

A little like I wanna
have some hot tea.

Maybe that's just me.

Maybe I have other
stuff going on.(laughs)

- [Seth Rogan] We kinda
did everything right,

and it still just didn't work.

- [Samm Levine] They said,

well we're gonna
reevaluate it in May

and everybody sort
of knows that there's

not a prayer in hell they're
gonna order the show.

- It was a decision that I
kinda knew was gonna happen

months in advance but
things had to just play out.

- There are two things
that a show needs

to survive and become
a hit and that is

creators who know
what they're doing,

and then a network
that believes in it

and will put everything
they have behind it.

- There were conference calls
that we arranged because Garth

felt like it was too dark,
it wasn't interesting,

I don't like these kids,
they're not attractive.

When that happens
you stop getting

promos on Thursday nights.

You're not getting
a promo on Friends

saying "Watch Freaks
and Geeks this weekend",

and once that starts
it's just a slow slide.

- When we were heading for
cancellation I was like,

just dreading it, it's the
toughest thing to cancel a show

when it's not just
a piece of business,

it's something from their soul.

- I believe that it
was open and shut

that we needed to cancel it.

Personally I felt really
invested in the show working.

But hope is not a business plan.

We all wanted it to
succeed but there's a point

you kinda have to give it up.

- If you can't see signs
of life in the show

that you can't articulate
to your management

you will be fired if
you don't do that.

- [Busy Philipps]
You're gonna be right

in the television business
more often than not

if you say "no" or you
bet against something.

Most things fail.

- No one ever has seconds
thoughts about canceling a show

that's creatively failing,
but they certainly have

second thoughts about a show
that is creatively working

and is unique and different
and fulfilling it's promises.

And I have often thought,
what could I have done to

get this to work?

- [Paul Feig] So
for like the person

who gets it the least
to be the guy that

can say "yay" or "nay" had to
be so heartbreaking for Judd.

- For me it was like a
complete nervous breakdown.

It tapped into all my
issues from when I was a kid

about families separating, like
my childhood divorce issues.

Like, oh no, we must keep
this together at all costs.

The sadness and depression and
rage of a family breaking up,

of potential being incinerated.

No, we can't do this.
What, we can't do this?

Never make anymore
again and don't talk

to each other ever again, you're
allowed to say that to me?

You have the power
to make that happen?

It was very hard for
me to accept that

that's how show business worked.

- I felt like we let them down.

It was our job to
protect it and keep it on

and let it grow and we
didn't, we couldn't.

(clapping)

- Final day of shooting
we're all breaking down,

I mean Linda and I especially
were just disasters.

- [Linda Cardellini] It hurt.

- [Camera Man] You upset?

You gonna be okay?

- [John Francis Daley] Yeah.

(dramatic, sad music)

- [Judd Apatow] You
guys are on fire!

- [Steve Bannos]
Judd gives a speech

and Paul gives a speech
and you could just feel it

and everyone's trying
to keep it together.

- I'm kind of flustered right
now because I didn't think

the last day was gonna
hit me this hard.

That's gonna be the
hardest part is not

getting to see
everybody every day.

(applause)

- There was a wrap party
that was pretty crazy.

That was kind of
the last goodbyes.

(emotional rhythmic music)

- Everyone came.

When you got to the party
you knew it was over with.

- It felt like the
last day of high school

which I didn't have because
I didn't finish high school

but it felt like what I imagine

the last day of high
school feeling like.

- [Judd Apatow] Three of
the cast members on our show

have just graduated
from high school.

- As it may be, this
is the only graduation

I will ever have so, uh...

(laughter)

I'd like to thank y'all for
coming down and ah,

I don't know, every
rose has it's thorn and ah

all that junk.

- So, we would like to present
these gents with their diplomas.

(cheering)

- [Martin Starr] This was
a better high school than I

could have ever hoped
for or imagined.

Learning on this show and
growing up on this show.

(mellow music)

- I don't have super clear
memories of high school.

I was very poorly treated by

everybody else in my peer group,

I was weird, our
family was poor,

my clothes were shoddy,
I had no social skills.

That time on set was
the very first time

in my whole life
that I was surrounded

by people who were
treating me with respect,

and listening to
what I had to say.

So much of who I
am was formed by

the experience of
Freaks and Geeks.

- If you're on a show and
you're young and it hits

there's a catapult into
a different stratosphere.

And that didn't happen to us.

- There was like years
I was unemployed.

It made me angry
for years and years.

I was probably a pretty
unpleasant person to be around.

- It is a weird thing for
someone at the age of 14

to feel like, where do I go now?

Cause that's generally,
for most people,

the starting point
in their lives.

- When you start out with
a really high standard

you sort of are comparing
everything after that.

- I didn't know
how great I had it

or how lucky I was, really, to
be working with those people.

- Where television has gone now,

it's because of
Freaks and Geeks.

- You look at Freaks
and Geeks and it's like,

well, it's a single
camera sitcom,

that happens all the
time now, you know.

It's got antiheroes in it,
that happens all the time.

What these guys did
was brought a show

that broke a lot of conventions.

Without Freaks and
Geeks you wouldn't have

the style of real dramadies,
it just wouldn't of happened.

- It was the birth
of the antihero

and it served as, I
think, a cautionary tale

about shows that had a small
but devoted fan base that would

scream from the mountaintops
how good this show was.

- To be able to
have done that show

on a network at that
time, I'm just so happy

that it still exists
so people can see it

and it can still have
this life beyond itself.

- Otherwise it would have just

disappeared forever
in some dark library

in the bottom of the NBC
dungeon, I don't know.

- Judd and I both went
aside and went like,

are we about to ruin
these kids lives?

I didn't want anybody to turn,
we loved these kids so much.

- I remember Judd saying,
look, we're not on the air,

and at some point, at some time,

people are gonna watch
these, so just keep working.

- In my head I was trying
to keep this group together.

Even though we were canceled
I was trying to think

we should all be doing stuff,

we can't let them
shut this down.

If we want to we should try to
control our creative destiny.

It felt like a very special
thing that I didn't want

to go away and it
hasn't gone away.

It's like a tree with a lot
of branches, reaching out.

This show led to a lot
of good stuff coming out.

And that's something
that I'm very proud of.

- Judd's a real teacher.

If he sees that talent he
really loves to nurture it.

I really credit Judd for giving

those guys a launch
pad in movies.

- I just did everything I
could to fight against it.

Oh, you think this show is over?

And that we're never
gonna work together again?

Well then I'm gonna make a
show that's very similar.

- Undeclared
definitely we saw as

sort of a sequel to
Freaks and Geeks.

- [Judd Apatow] A lot of people

were in the cast like Seth and
Jason, and then other people

like Martin came on
and did guest spots.

- Judd and Paul are two big ones

that constantly use
the same people.

Very loyal, yeah.

- It's almost like hoarding.

You're not gonna throw
away my bottle of piss

and my 1978 Newsweek,

I'm keeping it forever
because I may need it.

I kept working with
a lot of the writers,

and directors, and actors,
and actresses in movies.

But in my head I
would always think,

this is just an episode
of Freaks and Geeks.

- Judd had done an amazing run.

Anchorman, 40 Year Old
Virgin, Knocked Up.

- [Judd Apatow] What is
the 40 year old virgin,

it's a guy that's just
afraid to ask out the girl.

Which is all the geeks
are on Freaks and Geeks,

it's just now they're 40.

- I wouldn't be acting
now I don't think

if I hadn't been able
to do Knocked Up.

- [Karey Burke] It's super cool.

- [Shelley McCory] It is
super cool.

- Especially
because we were told

they would never be
big stars. (laughs)

- Yeah.

They don't have this, they
don't have this, they don't

have this, they don't have
this, it's not gonna work.

- There was another
thing that was at play,

a Count of Monte Cristo style

revenge mission on Judd's part.

And that I will
systematically make

every one of these
people a star.

You're wrong, Seth's a
star, Jason's a star, watch.

- Part of me thinks the only
reason I was in Knocked Up

and 40 Year Old Virgin
is so Judd could

prove some NBC executive wrong.

Which is totally okay with me,

it doesn't diminish
it in my eye.

I'm totally okay
to have a career

that's based on
vengeance and rage.

- [Judd Apatow] It sounds
kind of demented, but it was

the driving force of a lot
of my approach to my career.

- [Woman] Judd is
fearless, he started

doing a project with Seth Rogan.

- Superbad is like the dream
of Freaks and Geeks as a movie,

edgier where you don't have
to keep it clean for NBC.

It's the perfect
version of that.

- [Paul Feig] Forgetting
Sarah Marshall was coming out

and I ran into Judd
and he said, "I did it".

What did you do?

And he said, "I promised
myself I wasn't gonna stop

until Jason became
a huge movie star."

- Judd said to me
after Freaks and Geeks

look, the only way
you're gonna make it

is if you write
your own material.

"You're kind of a weird
dude", was specifically

what he said to me
and then he literally

showed me how to write and it
felt like an apprenticeship.

- [Judd Apatow] It feels like

what I always thought
they could do,

and I didn't want it to
happen without me around.

- [Seth Rogan] We started
writing Pineapple Express

after Freaks and
Geeks was canceled.

- I would only realized like
years later when I came back

and did Pineapple with
Judd and Seth like, oh,

I kinda do need those guys,
they are my family, you know?

- I helped launch
the show The Office.

Brought along certain Freaks
and Geeks ideas to that work.

- The kind of story telling
that we're interested in

all of it traces back
to Freaks and Geeks.

- Jake directed Bad
Teacher. What did I play?

A math teacher.

- I love that Becky Ann Baker is

leading them as well on Girls.

- [Dave Allen] Why
don't these two guys

be the nutty neighbors on Love?

- [Judd Apatow]
Busy Phillips wrote

the story for Blades of Glory.

John Daley directed Vacation
and wrote Spider Man.

- We made a movie
about animated food

grounding every scene in a
relatable, real life scenario.

And that's all from Judd.

- [Shelley McCory] Paul Feig
is doing female comedies.

- [Karey Burke] Bridesmaids was
so special, wasn't it?

- He did that
Ghostbusters thing, right?

That female Ghostbusters,
yeah, what the hell.

Why should I worry about
these guys? (laughs)

(uplifting music)

- [Dennis Deyoung] Even
though Freaks and Geeks died

the family behind it
continued to live and prosper.

- It survives just in
the work of everybody

who was a part of it.

I just acted in a movie
that James Franco directed.

And that's the end of
all the permutations.

When I'm acting in the
movies they've directed.

They become your kids,
and so when suddenly

they're doing well that
must be what you feel like

when you have
successful children.

So I have successful
kids, it worked out.

And I didn't have to send
any of them to college.

(piano music)
Styx, "Come Sail Ayay"

- Once in a while the universe

has gotta spin in
your direction.

And when it's
spinning towards you

you better stand
up and take notice.

Freaks and Geeks was not a
success and they let it go.

But all the things had to come
together in the right way.

As they say, the
cream goes to the top.

It doesn't always, but
it did in these cases

and so I say, hot diggity dog.

♪ I'm sailing away

♪ Set an open course
for the virgin seas ♪

- Wow, what would
it have been like

if the show went on for
five years and we were all,

and then was a big
hit or something.

- Maybe there's actually
something pretty special

about getting it as
just this little slice

of their life, as one
year in their life.

- You know, shows
often get terrible.

- I don't wanna see
sad, old Kim Kelly.

- It's just kind of exactly
what we wanted it to be.

I miss it and yet I don't
want to do any more of them.

♪ To carry on

- We could do some big
high school reunion

where everybody comes back.

- Reunion shows, I don't know,
I don't know how you do it.

- I have no idea.

- Like a reboot?

- I hate reunion shows, I
gotta be honest with you.

They bum me the (beep) out.

- You don't think that's it?

That probably is it.