Reboots and reunions are the name of the game in showbiz nowadays, and it’s hard not to look back at favorite shows of years gone by and hope for another installment. One TV show that many fans would want to see a reunion for is the late lamented Freaks and Geeks, which lasted for only a single season but has lived on in popularity in the years following. Luckily for the team behind the comedy, the cast and executive producer went onto do other great things, and there’s no reason why they couldn’t find the means to make a reunion happen at some point. At the TCA winter press tour, Freaks and Geeks came up, and Apatow spoke out about the chances. Here's what he had to say:
You never know, it could happen. This year it won’t happen, but we’ll see. I think James Franco has already made a series of Freaks and Geeks and hasn’t told us yet.
Judd Apatow's comments (per The Wrap) are both good and bad for fans of the show. Apatow not ruling out the possibility of a reunion someday gives us reason to be optimistic, and dropping the news in January that 2016 won’t be the year for a reunion can keep us from wondering about the possibilities. Still, word that a reunion won’t be anytime soon is a bummer. We can at least count on the fact that Apatow would certainly be willing to bring the cast back for another go.
Although he's (assumedly) joking about the Franco thing, if any actor were capable of putting together a reunion without actually telling anybody else involved in the original, it would be James Franco. Franco played stoner heartthrob Daniel Desario during the single season of Freaks and Geeks; unlike many other film stars who got their starts young on TV, Franco loves to talk about his past show. His AOL web series Making A Scene even featured a musical mashup between Freaks and Geeks and Saved by the Bell, because of course it did.
Judd Apatow and James Franco aren’t the only Freaks and Geeks alums still harboring a certain degree of resentment about the cancellation. Despite his success on the big screen, Seth Rogen didn’t hesitate to have words with the executive behind the end of Freaks when the opportunity arose. He’s been a busy guy, but we can probably count on him being willing to bring Ken Miller back for a reunion.
The whole cast has been pretty busy in the years since the cancellation. For those of us who didn’t discover Freaks and Geeks until the series hit Netflix, the season is practically a treasure trove of actors who would make it big. The regulars included Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, Martin Star, Busy Philipps, and John Francis Daley in addition to Franco and Rogen.
We may not have gotten a second season back when Freaks and Geeks was still on the air, but the idea of a reunion at some point in the future is awfully appealing. Judd Apatow’s resounding “maybe” could be much worse. In the meantime, we can always re-watch the original a few more times.
