The most critically acclaimed television series to be canceled during its first season, Freaks and Geeks will finally debut as a six-DVD set on April 6th from Shout! Factory and DreamWorks Television. Starring Linda Cardellini (E.R., “Scooby Doo” series), John Francis Daley (View from the Top) and James Franco (Spider-Man), Freaks and Geeks follows two siblings and their friends as they experience the trials and tribulations as high school outsiders in a Detroit suburb circa. 1980.
When series producers Paul Feig and Judd Apatow discovered nearly 40,000 Freaks and Geeks fans had signed an online petition pledging to buy a future release of the DVD, they quickly prompted executives at Shout! Factory and DreamWorks to brave the music licensing issues and commit to a Freaks and Geeks DVD release. The result is a six disc set containing all 18 episodes, three of which never aired on network television, with original music intact and over 40 hours of bonus material.
Both Apatow and Feig have provided input and pulled materials to create a truly fan-worthy DVD set, and their feelings about the project are clear. “We’re thrilled that ‘Freaks and Geeks’ is finally being released on DVD, but what is most thrilling is that it is coming out with all of the original music. People said it would be impossible to release the show with all those great songs by artists such as The Who, Billy Joel, the Grateful Dead, and a zillion others. Shout! Factory made it happen. I don’t know how they did it; I just know I love them for doing it.”
“Freaks and Geeks – The Complete Series” DVD set is packed full of bonus materials, including a director’s cut of the pilot episode with behind-the- scenes footage, deleted scenes, outtakes, alternate cuts, blooper reels and no less than 28 audio commentaries by the actors, directors, network executives, crew members, obsessive fans, and even parents of cast members. A 28-page collectable booklet contains a Q&A with Apatow, an essay by Feig and plenty of geeky photos.
