Holy shit, the '90s right? And while the decade that gave us grunge, gangsta rap, wallet chains, Quentin Tarantino knockoffs, Guy Ritchie knockoffs, Pogs and all kinds of other stuff, is experiencing a bit of a nostalgia wave, thanks to every indie band who released an album between 1990 and 1999 reuniting, one group that won't be getting back together is the "Freaks & Geeks" crew. Though the resurrection of "Arrested Development" has given hope to every canceled show out there, creators Judd Apatow and Paul Feig have revealed they aren't likely to go down that path.
In case you don't know the story of "Freaks & Geeks," the critically acclaimed show lasted barely one season, with the studio suits at NBC having no idea what to do with a property that had the revolutionary idea of trying to accurately capture teenage life and that was far from the sitcom format that was preferred at the time. Bounced around various time slots with weeks sometimes separating new episodes, the show never had a chance to find an audience and was eventually axed. But the 18 episodes that did get made are some of the finest television ever produced, launching the careers of people like Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini, Martin Starr, Jason Schwartzman, Jason Francis Daley and more. It was unbelievably funny but also tremendously moving and it thankfully lives on in the must-own DVD box set (it's now streaming on Netflix too). It ends with Lindsay setting out on her own path at the end of the season finale, and it's kind of the perfect grace note for the show. And Apatow and Feig want to leave it that way.
"I love the question mark at the end of the series, so I never want to know more than that. It is the reason why you don’t want to find out what happened, like when they got off the bus in 'The Graduate,' Apatow told EW when asked if he would ever do a movie with these characters. Though he concedes: "That’s the main reason why it doesn’t feel interesting to do. But whenever we see any of the actors together, they have just such ridiculous chemistry that you could tell you could put them in any situation and they would be really interesting to watch, and sparks would fly. So there’s a chance I’m just completely wrong."
As for Feig, he would rather not ruin the legacy of the show. "I mean it could be great, but if it’s anything less than great, then it just waters down the memory of the rest of the show. For some reason that becomes the last thing you’ve done, and I always feel like if you don’t get it right it erases the memory of what came before it. But I don’t know. If we came up with a great idea, who knows?"
And while some will latch onto that open question as hope that maybe they'll change their minds, we kind of doubt it…and we prefer "Freaks & Geeks" just the way it is.
