(Ratings remain low as the series becomes hard even for fans to find.)
Paul Feig: We were on for two weeks, off for four weeks because of the World Series, on for another six and then off for two months, moved, put up against Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. And then the nail in our coffin was definitely the Mary and Rhoda reunion show [an ABC TV-movie sequel to The Mary Tyler Moore Show that ran opposite the tenth aired episode of Freaks and Geeks].
Judd: We started a website, but NBC refused to let us put the address on any of our ads because they didn’t want people to know the Internet existed. They were worried about losing viewers to it.
Becky Ann Baker (actress, “Jean Weir,” Lindsay and Sam’s mom): They sent four of us to do the Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was a really cold, windy, icy day, and at one point we were on a street corner and the float was stopped and someone yelled up to us, “Who are you?!”
Scott Sassa: We had this constant battle with Judd about making things more upbeat. He thought we were going to put ponies and unicorns in, and we just wanted some wins for the characters—without losing the essence of the show.
Judd: There were tough episodes. The toughest was probably when Jason Segel tried to be a drummer, and he went out and auditioned, and he was horrible. And we really played that moment out there, when he realizes he’s not good enough to do the thing he dreams of doing.
Linda Cardellini: Life is filled with moments where you have to sit alone with yourself, and I think this show let our characters do that in a way that wasn’t normal at the time. You don’t really know what to say or do, so you just have to sit there in the uncomfortableness.
Bryan Gordon: The show played silences, and television is afraid of silences. But silences just speak to so much about teenagers.
(A series finale is shot as the last episode of the initial thirteen-episode order, in case of cancellation.)
Paul Feig: Judd came to me and was like, “This thing could be dead, so you should write the series finale now.” And then it was going to be the one I got to direct. It was terrifying, but it came out really well. Then the network ordered five more.
Judd: Paul was supposed to direct one of the first episodes, and at the last second I pulled him off it because we weren’t in a groove with the staff writing the show yet, and it was so much Paul’s vision that he couldn’t disappear. Then when I realized the show was probably going to get canceled, I said to Paul, “You should write and direct this finale.” And it’s clearly the best episode of the entire series.
Linda Cardellini: To do the last episode in the middle felt rebellious, like we were part of dictating our own fate.
Becky Ann Baker: In the finale I’m putting Lindsay on the bus, where she was supposedly going off to a summer college experience. “I miss you already” was the last thing I said to her. And that was all so unfortunately true.
Samm Levine: We’d be out on location. Judd’s phone would ring, and he would walk twenty feet away, and he’d be pacing on the phone for forty minutes. And I remember thinking, That can’t be a good phone call.
Judd: We were saying to the network, We need a full season [twenty-two episodes] to attract an audience. And the order wouldn’t come, and I would just rant and rave. It was like begging your parents not to get divorced, trying to save the show. And then they did order one episode.
Samm Levine: Judd said, “Scott Sassa said, ‘If you get a ratings share higher than my shoe size, we’ll order more episodes.’ ” And mercifully he was not a tall man.
Jake Kasdan: The thing they always used to say was “We want these kids to have a victory.” I think what they were trying to say was “Is there any way it could be a little less depressing?” And it’s a fair question when no one’s really watching. We were telling really unconventional stories where the victories were so small they could be confused with not actual victories.
Judd: Garth took me out to lunch once and asked for more victories. And so we did an episode where Bill plays softball. We have this triumphant moment where he catches the ball, but he doesn’t realize everyone’s tagging up. He’s celebrating catching the ball, but he’s actually losing the game by not throwing it to home plate. That’s as far as we could get.
Paul Feig: The irony was that the network was very, very supportive. The interference we had was the interference of people that wanted to make it as good as they could. But Judd was a screamer back then. He would take them on, hard-core.
Judd: We were willing to go down for the show. It would have been awful if one of us said, “Let’s do all these changes—I really want to keep this job.”
Jason Segeclass="underline" We didn’t really have to be told we were being canceled. We watched the craft service table: It started out with, like, cold cuts and delicious snacks, and it was reduced to half a thing of creamer and some Corn Pops by the end.
Judd: What happens is they shorten your order. Not that they officially shorten the order—they just don’t order any more. Then you’re in purgatory, wondering if someone’s going to say, “Next year we’re going to give you a better time slot because it deserves to be on the air.” That’s your prayer.
(One week after the wrap party, March 19, 2000)
Paul Feig: My mother died suddenly, and a couple of days later we got canceled. I was sitting with attorneys when Judd called. And I was just so bombed out from my mom and from the season, and the episode that aired the night before hadn’t done well at all. And so part of me is going, Of course we got canceled.
Judd: An underling calls and tells you the show is canceled and then they say, “Garth is going to call in a little bit.” They give you an hour to digest, so by the time he calls you don’t really have the energy to argue. I always wondered if Garth had me on speakerphone, with his underlings laughing as I cried and begged.
Leslie Mann (actress, “Mrs. Foote”): Dealing with all the ratings bullshit was hard, but then when it was finally canceled it was like Judd lost a family member. It was just horrible, horrible.
Paul Feig: I remember everyone at the network coming to my mom’s funeral. And Judd getting some secret joy of “Good, I’m glad they’re all here.” It made me laugh: He’s enjoying the fact that they had to come and see me in a diminished state.
Linda Cardellini: I was asked to go on David Letterman—a lifelong dream. So I fly to New York and I’m in the limousine on my way to the show and I got a call from my publicist, and she said, “I’m so sorry, honey, the show’s been canceled.” And I said, “David Letterman has been canceled?” And she said, “No, Freaks and Geeks.”
Judd: I felt like a father to everybody, and I felt like everyone’s world was about to collapse. I felt responsible, like I had to fight to have it survive so that their lives would be okay, so that their careers could get launched. And so to completely fail was devastating to me. And especially for Paul, because this was Paul’s story.
Paul Feig: We were still in postproduction on the last three episodes. The network was like, “Finish them up,” but we didn’t have anywhere to show them.
Judd: We stayed in editing for months, obsessing over every detail, in both rage and depression, for a show that had been canceled. I was so upset, I herniated a disk and had to have surgery.