Jason Segel Says Judd Apatow Made ‘Freaks and Geeks’ Cast Stars Out of ‘Revenge’ for Series Cancellation

Judd Apatow didn’t want his freaks to disappear from Hollywood.

The multi-hyphenate writer/director/producer behind short-lived cult classic NBC series “Freaks and Geeks” was determined not to let the rising stars of the series fall to the wayside after the show’s untimely cancellation, according to actor Jason Segel.

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“Freaks and Geeks” revolved around siblings Lindsay (Linda Cardellini) and Sam (John Francis Daley), who try to make friends in their new Detroit high school in 1980. Segel, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Busy Philipps, Martin Starr, and Samm Levine rounded out the ensemble cast for the teen series that ran from 1999 to 2000. Apatow executive-produced the series, created by Paul Feig.

According to Thea Glassman’s new book “Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television,” Apatow did not want the series’ cancellation to deter the career paths of the cast.

“Freaks and Geeks” star Segel said, “[It was] a ‘Count of Monte Cristo’–style revenge mission on Judd’s part that he will systematically make every one of these people a star.”

Segel went on to collaborate with Apatow for “The Five-Year Engagement,” “This Is 40,” “Get Him to the Greek,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and “Knocked Up,” which also starred fellow “Freaks and Geeks” alum Rogen. Meanwhile, Rogen has appeared in a slew of films produced and directed by Apatow like “Pineapple Express” with former collaborator James Franco, “Superbad,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” and more.

Rogen recently addressed the possibility of a “Freaks and Geeks” revival, saying that he would be hesitant to mess with perfection.

“It’s so rare that you do something in your career that is actually just viewed as good,” Rogen said. “I know enough now not to fuck with that, to just let it be good and not try to go revisit it, and just let it exist.”

Executive producer, writer, and director Apatow previously revealed that there was an offer from MTV to continue the series at a “much lower budget” back in 2000, but the “Freaks and Geeks” team “decided we didn’t want to do a weaker version of the show.”

Former head of The WB Garth Ancier said in Glassman’s oral history book that the network regretted canceling the series at the time.

“It’s easy to cancel a show when the show is just god-awful. Then you’re basically saying to someone without saying it, ‘Your show is god-awful. I’m irritated that we gave you all this time and all this money to make it work and it didn’t work,'” Ancier said. “The hard cancellation is when everyone thinks the show is very special but no one is watching it. Then you sort of get into this position of, Well, now I feel like I’m clubbing a baby seal.”

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