Fifteen years after it was canceled, Freaks and Geeks continues to hold a special place in the culture. In 2012 creator Judd Apatow assembled the cast again for his comedy issue of Vanity Fair. Just last week there was talk of a mini-reunion of the geeks. For a show that got canceled after only twelve episodes, it still gets a lot of people talking about it. Over the weekend, Seth Rogen finally met the man who made the decision to pull the plug on the show, and decided to ask him just what the hell he had been thinking. Rogen and Paul Rudd were backstage at Saturday Night Live when he realised the NBC executive was in the room. Rogen told The Huffington Post “I overheard someone say the name of the guy who canceled Freaks and Geeks. I know his name, obviously, because we’ve talked about how stupid he is for the last 15 years.” Rogen then pointed out the man to Rudd. “This is the guy who cancelled Freaks and Geeks.” Rudd asked “Oh, so you’re the guy?! What’s THAT feel like?!”
The unnamed executive defended his decision, telling Rogen that producer Apatow was ignoring the notes he sent to him. “He was like, ‘You know, Judd [Apatow, ‘Freaks and Geeks‘ executive producer] wouldn’t listen to my notes.’ I was like, ‘The notes probably were stupid,’” Rogen said. “He oddly dug in and kind of tried to justify it.” NBC apparently wanted Apatow to give the characters “a victory.” Rogen feels that’s because the man did not understand the show’s intentions because “he went to a private school and was very rich as a child.”
