F And G

I didn't catch Freaks And Geeks the first time around. It was easy to miss. Though critically lauded, no one watched and it was canceled after twelve episodes (though six more were later aired). It's being rerun on the Independent Film Channel and I'm catching up.

I'm not sure, ten years on, if it's possible to watch the show the same way I could have watched it then. Now, you simply marvel at all the big names who came out of this flop.

For instance, the three main "freaks" are James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel, all of whom have become leading men in movies. You've also got many other names now well known in TV or movies--Shia LeBeouf, Ben Foster, Linda Cardinelli and Busy Philipps, among others. (Maybe the most fun for me is seeing Martin Starr playing one of the geeks--he's essentially playing the same character grown up on my favorite new canceled sitcom Party Down--and his co-star Lizzy Caplan also appears on the show).

In addition, the show runner was Judd Apatow, who's since become one of Hollywood's top writer-directors. And it was created by Paul Feig, now one of TV's top directors.

I've met Feig a few times. Once we had a nice talk about what it was like to grow up in Detroit. In Clinton Township, to be exact. The difference is he got to do a TV show about it.

PS It's a weird sensation to hear local references from my childhood on a TV show. The person in charge of closed captioning must have it rough. On a recent episode, someone mentioned Cobo Hall in passing--a reference anyone from Detroit would get--but the CC had it "Coble" Hall.