Reel Time - Jonathan Melville

Thursday, 27 August 2009

Freaks and Geeks: The Movie?

Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Do those names ring any bells? Don't worry if not, you're not alone.

Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are two American TV series from 1999 and 2001 respectively which only ran for a total of 35 episodes between them.

Almost a decade later these near-forgotten series have gone on to spawn the careers of some of the most powerful players in Hollywood today including Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jason Segel.

So where did it all go right?

While Freaks and Geeks focused on the lives of a group of High School students in 1980 as they coped with exams, love and growing up, Undeclared was set in a present day university where the young students coped with, well, exams, love and growing up.

Both series were screened in the UK at viewer-unfriendly times of the day and night, the lucky few who stumbled upon them rewarded with high calibre scripts, impeccable acting, inspired direction and faithful production standards which made them both stand up to repeated screenings.

Misunderstood by the US TV networks, who aired them at the wrong time of night for the audience they were aimed at, Freaks and Geeks was cancelled in 2000 while semi-sequel Undeclared, featuring many of the same actors and production crew, came along a year or so later before suffering the same fate.

But that wasn't the end of the story.

As with many cancelled TV shows, DVD has been the saviour for those wanting to celebrate both series, Freaks and Geeks in particular getting both the standard and Special Edition treatment a few years ago.

Through comprehensive episode commentaries (every episode has at least two of them, some more) we're given an unrivalled behind-the-scenes look at the genesis, creation and death of a TV series from the people who were there.

Not only are the actors involved, but so are the directors, creators, producers, parents of the actors and even the network executives who cancelled the show! Everyone is candid (to a fault) about what went right and wrong during the production process and it's both heartbreaking and uplifting to hear the various sides of the story.

Thankfully, unlike the casts of many series that fade and die, the last few years have seen something of a comeback for those involved in the two shows.

Producer, writer and director Judd Apatow struck it big with 2005's The 40 Year Old Virgin and hasn't looked back since. Claiming that he still feels guilty about the effect the cancellation of Freaks and Geeks had on his young cast, he's set about forming his own unofficial repertory group of familiar faces who show up in his films and now produce, write and direct their own hit movies.

Perhaps the best known of the ex-Freaks is Seth Rogen (Ken Miller), who first popped up in 2004's Anchorman with Will Ferrell (Ferrell also did a guest spot on Undeclared). Since then Rogen has had a stream of hit films, from Superbad to Pineapple Express right up to Apatow's most recent feature, Funny People.

One of the most memorable characters in Freaks and Geeks was Bill Haverchuk, played by Martin Starr. Bill was a gangly, bespectacled kid who got many of the best lines and it was with great joy I watched Martin Starr turn up in the soon-to-be-released comedy Adventureland. He's also due to appear in Ricky Gervais' new film The Invention of Lying, no doubt making it worth the price of admission.

Sticking with comedy, Jason Segel (Nick Andopolis) is also doing great guns at the box office, Forgetting Sarah Marshall probably his best known film. Segel is also producing the next Muppet movie, surely a sign that he's hit the big time.

Co-starring with Rogen in Pineapple Express, James Franco (Daniel Desarion) is carving out a niche for himself in more dramatic roles, his appearance in Milk with Sean Penn particularly memorable.

Elsewhere Samm Levine (Neal Schwaber) is one of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Linda Cardellini (Lindsay Weir) spent a number of years starring in TV's ER and her little brother in Freaks, John Francis Daley (Sam Weir) is a regular on US series Bones.

If you haven't been lucky enough to see any Freaks and Geeks or Undeclared then do yourself a favour and invest in a Region 1 box set, getting to know the students and staff of McKinley High across 18 fantastic episodes.

Whether or not Apatow will decide to reassemble the cast for a Freaks and Geeks movie is unknown, though with the star power available to him now the chances are he'd have a hit on his hands.

Should the petition for Freaks and Geeks: High School Reunion start here? Do we want to see the further adventures of Bill, Sam, Ken and the rest? Or is it enough to enjoy the DVDs?

Let me know in the comments below.

Meanwhile, here's a clip of Bill and the other Geeks getting ready for Halloween...

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posted by Administrator at 23:15

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

A F&G movie would be an awesome way to finish up one of the best shows to have hit the air waves in the last decade.

5 April 2010 at 23:23  

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