‘Freaks and Geeks’ Co-Creator Paul Feig on Why He Won’t Revisit the Short-Lived Series [Exclusive]

At a special screening of Another Simple Favor, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with filmmaker Paul Feig for a Q&A to talk about sequels, editing, and the challenges of working in Hollywood. Before the night was over, the conversation simply had to turn to one of Feig’s most beloved — and famously short-lived — projects: Freaks and Geeks. The cult classic high school dramedy aired for just one season between 1999 and 2000, yet it left an indelible mark on television history, launching a genuinely stunning wave of future stars — seriously, the cast included Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Martin Starr, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, Samm Levine and Seth Rogen to name just a few — and gaining a second life through streaming, DVD box sets, and endless critical praise. But for all the fans’ hopes of a revival, Feig made it clear: the show’s ending is exactly how he always wanted it. He told Collider:

“For 25 years, people have tried to get us to do a reunion movie or bring it back, and I’m just like, ‘We got away with that one.’ We worked our asses off on that. People always go, ‘Don’t you wish you had closure on it?’ To me, it’s perfect. I’m so happy with that last episode that I wrote and directed, which was nice to get to do. It just puts everybody in a different place, which that was my high school experience. You’d go away to summer vacation and come back, and your friend, who was a nerd, is a burnout. Now somebody is a jock who used to be something else.”

Feig Believes Shows With Hard Endings Are Few and Far Between

Feig added that, in life — and storytelling — we are rarely given a tidy resolution, because characters and people continue to grow and move on with their own existences.

“I would say, the only TV show that ever had a complete ending was Six Feet Under, because the last episode, they showed you how everybody died, and you go, ‘That’s the only time that life stops is when you die,’ because the characters just keep evolving and stories keep evolving. So, there is no real ending to something.”

Thankfully, Feig is committed to preserving the legacy of Freaks and Geeks, with its flaws and imperfections — just the way it was meant to be, and even 25 years later, the story still feels unfinished but in the best way imaginable.

Freaks and Geeks is streaming now on Pluto, Prime Video, and Paramount+.