Freshman Sam Weir (John Francis Daley) is a geek. His sister, Lindsay (Linda Cardellini), is a freak. They, along with their offbeat classmates &mdash Rush-loving burnout Nick (Jason Segel), his buddy Ken (Seth Rogen), and nerd nonpareil Bill (Martin Starr) — try to make their way through high school circa 1980, a melee of big rock, Monty Python skits, and enough Star Wars to choke a Wookiee.
Judd Apatow: We wanted to do a show about the truth, which is that it was really hard in high school. Sometimes things didn't work out at all and all you had at the end of the day was your goofy friends, and maybe that was enough. You know, it was always about taking horrible physical and emotional beatings, but not about winning. It was never about winning.
Paul Feig: When I was that age, I wish somebody had given me an honest accounting of what they had gone through. That would have been much more comforting than watching TV shows where everyone is sexy and good-looking and has adult problems. I was afraid of girls, awkward with my friends, and just trying to get through the day without getting my ass kicked.
Jason Segel: My favorite moment is this scene where there's a fly ball, and the ball is coming toward Bill [Starr]. He's terrified, but he manages to get his glove up and catch the ball. It's this beautiful, victorious moment. And then they pull back, and you realize it's only the first out.
Apatow: They're actually losing the game. That was our version of a victory.
Freak to be You and Me
Segel: I got sent the Freaks and Geeks script and was blown away. It was just brilliant. What was interesting was that the characters were kind of undefined in the original script. It was like Freak 1, Freak 2, Freak 3, Freak 4.
Episode 10: The Diary Bill (Martin Starr), sick of being picked last for teams in PE class, at long last gets to pick his own team and makes the catch of a lifetime. Freaks and Geeks: "TM & © 1999, 2000 Dreamworks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Marketed by Shout Factory, LLC" For more, visit wired.com/video.
Episode 14: Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers Inspired by Pete Townshend, Nick (Jason Segel) composes a heartfelt rock ballad for his Lady L, Lindsay (Linda Cardellini). His attempt to let his inner songbird fly is thwarted by Ken (Seth Rogen), who is less than impressed. Freaks and Geeks: "TM & © 1999, 2000 Dreamworks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Marketed by Shout Factory, LLC" For more, visit wired.com/video.
Apatow: Paul had a very specific vision from the beginning in terms of its style and tone. But he hadn't really fleshed out the stoners, because he wasn't a stoner and didn't know the world that well. So we decided to read a lot of actors and then have Paul rewrite the script based on who he cast to play the freaks and the geeks.
Segel: So they literally did an international freak-and-geek search to find the seven strangest people.
Apatow: We brought in all these kids who would have never even been brought in to be on a TV show, because they didn't necessarily look like people you would see on a show about high school kids. At that time, everyone playing high school kids was gorgeous.
Feig: I was terrified we were going to get stuck with beautiful nerds. The infamous "Oh, she wears glasses, and she has her hair pinned up, so she's a nerd. But when the glasses come off…"
Apatow: So we held these open-call auditions, and thousands of really interesting-looking people showed up — people who had never even considered being actors, because most of the time people aren't looking for actors that look like real people.
Seth Rogen: I was 16 years old and doing stand-up comedy at the time, and I wanted to start making money, because it was clear I wasn't going to graduate high school. So I started auditioning for things. Freaks and Geeks was my second audition. Judd was there in Vancouver.
Apatow: Seth Rogen sent us a tape from Vancouver, and we saw him when we did an open-call audition there. He was so odd, much odder than he is now. He had this weird way of speaking, this anger that made us laugh. So we wrote a part for him.
Rogen: During the audition, we did a scene about growing pot, which for me was a somewhat familiar line of thought.
Feig: It was about growing pot underground, about how if the cops come you just light it on fire and blow up the entrance. And Seth came in to read in this voice of his, and Judd and I — our jaws just hit the ground. He was outrageously funny and someone you'd never seen before. That was the only time Seth had to audition.
Rogen: I remember walking out thinking, "Well they seemed to laugh a lot. If that doesn't get you the job I don't know what does."
The Brilliance (and Bulking) of Bill
Feig: You really throw the doors open wide, and all these kids come in. You're like, "That kid could be it, or maybe that kid." Then Martin Starr walks in and does Bill, and you're like, "That's the kid." It was like a bomb went off.
Apatow: When I first saw Martin Starr do Bill on tape, I didn't quite get how great it was. Only after we started rehearsing the pilot did I see what he was doing.
Rogen: I remember seeing Martin Starr doing Bill and being like, "Holy shit. That's the funniest thing ever."
Segel: I am a giant Martin Starr fan. I think that kid is a genius.
Apatow: Paul's vision for Bill was that you'd see a guy like that and think he was the school brain, but actually he's not very smart.
Martin Starr: I was 16 when I got the part of Bill. I was a weird kid in many different ways — not like Bill, but in other ways. I think being a strange and uncomfortable kid helped create that strange and uncomfortable character.
Rogen: He was putting it on, but I'd say his acting on Bill was about a 70/30 split. He obviously knew what was funny about it, so he wasn't completely unaware, but at the same time, there are times where you want to shake Martin, wake him up a little bit.
Apatow: Martin was the only person on the show who was really doing a character, because Martin doesn't act like that. Which makes it even more impressive.
Starr: In my personal life, I was the opposite of Bill. Six months before I started the show, I decided I wanted to work out more and you know, fill out my frame, but the producers weren't happy about that. They would get upset with me all the time. There was a gym on the lot, so I would go and work out, and they didn't like that at all.
Apatow: We kept telling Martin Starr to stop working out. I was like, "Bill can't have big guns on him!"
Starr: There's the one where I have to take my shirt off — it's an episode where we all dress up for Halloween and I'm in the bra — you can tell I'm not exactly the scrawny kid I played.
Apatow: He wouldn't stop. He'd put on long-sleeve shirts. In one episode, he climbed the rope in gym class, and I said, "This is terrible! You can see huge muscles in your arms! You're killing us!"
Rogen: I can imagine it must have been frustrating for him because his first time out of the gate, he was handed the greatest role ever, especially for him.
Starr: After Freaks and Geeks, I did feel in auditions this pressure to do "Bill" or to, like, really rock it. I think people would see Freaks and Geeks and see a lot of potential and they'd be like, "Oh that kid's awesome!" And I'd be afraid they'd be disappointed.
Rogen: I think recently he's kind of found his new comedic voice, and in Knocked Up he fucking kills me.
Apatow: Martin gets some huge laughs in Knocked Up.
Bill Gets His Freak On
Apatow: I had a meeting with a head of the network when we were making the show, and he said, "These kids need more victories." We played around with them having major turning points, and there's an episode where Bill's playing spin the bottle and had to go into the closet with a pretty girl at a make-out party, and she kisses him.
Starr: They were trying to decide what should happen with the spin the bottle episode, and I had thrown out Joanna Garcia's [Vicky Appleby] name because I had a huge crush on her. Judd was just sitting there talking to some of the other writers, and I was like, [voice cracking], "I dunno, maybe Joanna Garcia would be a good idea!" and then fake-casually walked away. I think they ended up using that actress because I had a crush on her already, so it would make for an interesting dynamic. That ended well. She was 24 [ed: actually, 21] at the time, and I was 16 so there was a gap there, but it was beyond interesting. I had to play this character who was so inept and uncomfortable, so I couldn't kiss her back and do what I wanted to do. I had to just sit there. The great thing was that the director did six or seven takes. That was the best thing ever. But I had a cold and my nose was running, so I kept worrying that while she was kissing me my nose would run on her. And I felt so bad, just for her, having to do that. And I didn't even have the gumption to say, "Uh, by the way, I gotta lot of snot going on."
Information > Innocence?
Apatow: Paul always talks about the show as occurring before technology separated everybody. The early '80s was the era right before technology took over the social life of kids. My daughter's 9 years old, and she's begging me for a phone; I have to fight to get her off the email. If I turn around for five minutes, she will google the word "murder." I asked her what she saw, and she says, "I just saw all these people with blood all over."
Feature Writer-Director (and Geek God) Judd Apatow Invites You Into His Mind
