Published 20:15 IST, January 29th 2021
Why did 'Freaks and Geeks' get cancelled? Know All about the popular 90s show
Freaks and Geeks was a popular NBC show that aired between 1999-2000, and has now been released on Hulu. Find out why did Freaks and Geeks get cancelled.
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The American teen comedy show Freaks and Geeks has built a dedicated fan following over the years. Created by Paul Feig, the show aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season. The story of this teen comedy-drama, follows gifted high schooler Lindsay Weir, who befriends a gang of slacker "freaks", and her younger brother Sam. We get to follow around these characters they navigate high school during the 1980–1981 school year. Although the comedy show ended in 2000, it has been trending on Twitter again recently as its episodes have been made available on Hulu. Find out why was Freaks and Geeks cancelled?
Why did Freaks and Geeks get cancelled?
Freaks and Geeks was a revolutionary show when it came to portraying the lives of teenagers through a comedy-drama television series. According to a report in Screenrant, the show's popularity didn't explode until a decade after the show's initial airing. Its availability on Netflix was in part to thank for this. Many viewers who discovered the series so late have wondered why Freaks and Geeks was cancelled. In reality, there were multiple reasons that led to the show's fate.
Source: Still from Freaks and Geeks (Hulu)
No weekly releases of Freaks and Geeks episodes
The report in Screen rant reveals that Freaks and Geeks was basically destined for failure thanks to its time slot. NBC premiered Freaks and Geeks on the Saturday time slot, which was a night that never gained major viewers. The network did not give the show consecutive weekly air dates and instead took too many gaps in between the release of new episodes. Hence, the show never got a fair shot at building an audience. This lack of steady airings inevitably led to low viewership numbers thus prompting the network to not only cancel its second season but it stopped airing episodes beyond the twelfth one, although the makers had already shot eighteen of them.
Issues between NBC and show writers
Another issue surrounding Freaks and Geeks' fate was the discrepancies between NBC and the show's writers. NC had hired Garth Ancier to take over as president before the show's release, but the prep school-educated Ancier felt no connection to the lives of the high school students. He wanted the characters to be portrayed cooler and get a few wins once in a while but showrunner Feig never wanted that to be part of the narrative. As issues grew, Feig, Apatow, and the writers purposely disobeyed the network and pushed the boundaries within the storylines. Unfortunately, fans did not get more Freaks and Geeks seasons as a result.
20:15 IST, January 29th 2021