Freaks & Geeks: Why Did NBC Cancel The Best Show of the 90s?

After a bit of a break, Gone But Not Forgotten is back — and this time we’re looking at one of the best shows ever to air on network TV, Freaks and Geeks! Despite only lasting one season, this show put a dazzling array of talent on the map, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, James Franco, and Seth Rogen all got their start on it, as did a ton of recognizable faces including Lizzy Caplan, Busy Philipps, and so many more. Plus, Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, who would soon become A-list writers and directors in film, served as the showrunners.

In a lot of ways, Freaks and Geeks was for the 2000s what Fast Times at Ridgemont High was for the eighties, in that it introduced so many people who would have an outsized impact on pop culture. Critically acclaimed and boosted by a rabid fanbase, Freaks and Geeks is one of the most important shows of its era. But why, then, did it only last one season?

The show followed the misadventures of Linda Cardellini’s Lindsay Weir who, as a high school student in 1980, starts to question her reputation as a goody two-shoes and falls in with a group of “freaks” — meaning school rebels — who soon offer her a new surrogate family/friend group. Then there’s her brother, Sam (John Francis Daley — who recently directed Dungeons & Dragons), who, along with his buddies, falls into the “geeks” category. The show follows both groups as they grow up at the start of a new decade, and it’s one of the most nostalgic, beautifully written shows ever to air.

Of course, it was probably too good to last on network TV, serving as an example of the kind of show that would have thrived on premium cable or streaming had it been made a generation or two later. In this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten, we take a look at how the show got made… and unmade.

The post Freaks & Geeks: Why Did NBC Cancel The Best Show of the 90s? appeared first on JoBlo.