Over two decades later, a 1999 cult TV show’s cancellation is still a sore spot for fans.
“Freaks and Geeks,” which aired for only one season before being canceled, has long been more than a one-hit wonder for fans, who often lament and question the cancellation.
The show’s creator, Paul Feig, and executive producer, Judd Apatow, recently revealed there was a secret proposal to renew it for a second season — but they didn’t move forward with the plans.
Feig and Apatow told Collider that the beloved show was actually given the opportunity for another season, but with MTV, not its originator NBC.
“When the show was canceled, there was an offer from MTV to continue making the show at a much lower budget,” Apatow said. “And we all decided we didn’t want to do a weaker version of the show.”
The pair explained that the show wouldn’t be able to carry on as they had initially envisioned in terms of production.
“I remember hearing that [MTV offered to pick us up],” Feig said. “We probably just had to lose so much stuff and music and budgets. We were already always strained on our budget as it was.”
Although a collective decision, Feig reflected on what could have been. “And then very quickly after the decisions were made, then you’re kind of like, ‘Oh my God, what did we do? Could we have pulled it off if we had done it?’ ”
However, Feig said he does not regret the decision to end the show and maintains the series finale did provide closure for the characters.
“That whole episode was about how everybody gets put on a different path,” he said. “And we do that at the end of the series because it’s like when you graduate high school, you don’t know where half the people you went to high school with go.”
All 18 episodes of “Freaks and Geeks” are available to stream on Hulu.