Trivia / Freaks and Geeks

• California Doubling: Various Los Angeles neighborhoods doubling for Michigan. It gets pretty obvious by the Halloween episode.
• The Cast Showoff: John Francis Daley's accomplished dance moves were shown off during the mirror scene in "Looks and Books".
• Children Voicing Children: The show had a good percentage of its cast close to or of high school age (24-year-old Linda Cardellini and 21-year-old James Franco being exceptions). John Francis Daley, playing a very small and scrawny 14-year-old, was the same age as his character.
• Corpsing: When found out that he had Lindsay help him cheat on a math test, Daniel breaks into a monologue about how he was pushed into the dumb kids group and how it affected his self-esteem. When he finished, everyone in the room (teacher, guidance counselor, Lindsay and her parents) are all silent. That is, until Lindsay breaks into hysterical laughter because he had used, word for word, the EXACT same monologue to guilt her into helping him cheat in the first place.
• Creative Differences: Seth Rogen claimed that the reason the show never took off was because the TV executives all came from wealthy upbringings and, therefore, couldn't relate to the middle-class underdog mindset of the characters.
• Dawson Casting: Averted by John Francis Daley (14), Martin Starr (16), Samm Levine (16) and, surprisingly, Seth Rogen (17). Downplayed with Jason Segel (19) and Busy Philipps (19). Played straight by James Franco (21) and Linda Cardellini (23).
• DVD Commentary: Most episodes have at least two, some have three, including fan commentaries and Rosso, Fredericks, & Kowchevski reviewing an episode in character.
• Hostility on the Set: James Franco and Busy Philipps despised each other so much that Franco pushed Phillips during an argument, despite playing love interests.
  • Samm Levine and Martin Starr would argue on set, despite playing best friends.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The show's use of real music cues was one reason that it took so long to get a DVD release, as it was necessary to clear the recording rights.
• Screwed by the Network: The typical sad story. Aired out of order, shuffled around the schedule, rarely advertised, and so on.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sam Weir was originally meant to be tall for his age (as Feig had been).
  • Had there been a second season, Paul Feig wanted to have Sam breaking apart with Bill and Neal to find a new group of friends (causing conflict between the trio), Lindsay struggling with drug addiction, Kim Kelly being pregnant, Bill's mom marrying Coach Fredricks and Neal's parents divorcing. And Sam ''would'' have gotten tall; John Francis Daley grew almost a foot in the year after cancellation.
  • Feig also wanted Lindsay and Daniel to eventually end up together.
  • Ken's family was supposed to be a working-class family with the father repairing cars from his home (and getting into conflict with their neighbors because his front yard was full of wrecked cars and spare parts), while in the show it's implied that Ken's family is quite wealthy (at one point he says he was raised by the maid).
  • On the topic of how Sam was meant to be tall, Daniel was meant to be Hispanic, and Ken was meant to have long blonde hair. Neal was meant to be named Art Thompson, Lindsey was mean to be 15, etc.
  • If the show had continued, Lindsay was going to become a performance artist in Greenwich Village after high school, then ditch the artistic lifestyle and go to law school to become a human rights lawyer. In addition, Sam would have become a member of Drama Club, Neal would have gone into Swing Choir, Bill would have transformed into a jock, Daniel would end up in jail, and Nick would have been forced to enlist in the Army against his will.
  • Shia LaBeouf auditioned for Neil Schweiber.
  • Kim was initially only created as a Romantic False Lead who would quickly break up with Daniel so he and Lindsay could hook up, followed by Lindsey being torn between the high-strung but dangerous Daniel and the calm but nice Nick. But the whole crew was so impressed by what Busy Phillips brought to the short-written role that they kept her around and beefed up the character considerably.
  • MTV offered to pick the show up for a second season, but at a massively reduced budget. Paul Feig decided to end the show rather than continue in a lesser form.

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