It was a short life for NBC’s teen show ‘Freaks and Geeks’ with only season 1 out there in the open. After almost two decades, could ‘Freaks and Geeks’ come back for season 2? Keep reading to find out more!
NBC’s cult teenage drama, ‘Freaks and Geeks’, came to a rude halt after completing the first season. While most of the fans wished for a season 2 of ‘Freaks and Geeks’, it turned out to be a distant dream. Despite being quite ahead of its times and a favourite for many, the reason for the show’s premature cancellation is still lost on many. However, it has been decades since the curtains were dropped on this gem of a show and with many old shows being revived, we wonder if ‘Freaks and Geeks’ Season 2 still stands a chance.
Highlights —
- ‘Freaks and Geeks’ broke grounds
- ‘Freaks and Geeks’ cancelled after season 1
- ‘Freaks and Geeks’ coming for season 2?
‘Freaks and Geeks’ broke grounds
Created by Paul Feig with Judd Apatow as the show-runner, ‘Freaks and Geeks’ had received a warm welcome even though it was short-lived. The show follows a group of teenagers navigating through life and school in the 1980s. The comedy-drama offered a revolutionary touch to the usual ’90s teenage shows and that is where the show earned its popularity.
Mostly, the show followed around Lindsay Weir who gets involved with the so-called “freaks” of the school and her younger brother, Sam, who is the essential “geek”. Although it was Netflix that is to be credited with the show’s exploding popularity now, the truth is that ‘Freaks and Geeks’ was way ahead of its time in terms of the content and themes that it promoted. Naturally, when viewed in perspective today, it is unbelievable that ‘Freaks and Geeks’ never received the chance to go ahead into season 2.
That being said, Jason Segel or as most of us know him, Marshall from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ believes that teenagers today will find it difficult to contextualise the show. He told “Entertainment Weekly”,
“For a kid watching Freaks and Geeks now, it’ll be hard for them to contextualize that that took place in [the 1980s], even though we filmed it in 2000. They’re just going to think that’s what 2000 was like. I don’t know what the experience would be like to watch something from 20 years ago. That’s insane to me”.
‘Freaks and Geeks’ cancelled after season 1
One of the major reasons why ‘Freaks and Geeks’ was deemed to fail always was because of its time slot. NBC allotted ‘Freaks and Geeks’ a Saturday night slot, which was a low blow since most viewers were never at home watching the television. Moreover, there was a huge inconsistency in the airing of the episodes. The second episode of ‘Freaks and Geeks’ aired one week after the first one. However, it took three weeks after that for the third episode to make it to the screens. Again, episode 5 was held off for weeks until it was cancelled. Approximately six episodes of the show never made it to the screen. Evidently, it was NBC that ruined the show for themselves and the viewers, even though it had the potential and could have brought in traffic.
Another reason for the cancellation of ‘Freaks and Geeks’ before it could enter season 2 was the rapid fall in the viewership ratings. While the major reasons for the declining ratings are the ones stated above, it’s true that ‘Freaks and Geeks’ could never compete with the shows like ‘Who Wants to Be A Millionaire’ and ‘Frasier and Friends’ that were already in place at the time. That aside, there were also some creative differences between the network and the creators with none of them willing to give up their side. Naturally, ‘Freaks and Geeks’ had to come to an end.
‘Freaks and Geeks’ coming for season 2?
More than two decades have passed, and all the William McKinley High School teens have grown up into big stars. There have been no talks about ‘Freaks and Geeks’ coming back with season 2 yet. However, even if it does it will obviously not be with the OG cast. Nevertheless, creator Paul Feig and Judd Apatow had definite plans for ‘Freaks and Geeks’ season 2 in place even though it never happened.
In an interview, Apatow had revealed, “Well, the next season of ‘Freaks and Geeks’ was supposed to be all about Lindsay being on acid. What would happen to her? She would be on acid. Just an extended acid trip”.
“We wanted to show how parents in the eighties dealt with when their kids were really badly on drugs. That was something we had talked about”.
He further elaborated on the context and said
Would you like to see ‘Freaks and Geeks’ return with season 2? Let us know in the comments below!
