60FREAKS AND GEEKS - TIE

Aired: NBC, 1999-2000

The title itself was an ironic statement about the pejoratives that get attached to those kids who don't quite buy into the aspirational idea of fitting in. Or, as creator Paul Feig described the experience of high school: "You dump all these kids into this cinderblock building and hope they'll socialize. The odds are pretty much against it." Feig, one such outsider, had been a comedian, an actor, and a filmmaker before his spec script for Freaks and Geeks was guided to primetime by his friend Judd Apatow. At the time, Apatow was coming off of writing on The Larry Sanders Show. Feig and Apatow's series was instantly embraced by critics and a legion of fans for taking their high school world seriously enough to make it thoughtfully funny, but NBC cut the run at the end of season one for lack of a critical mass of viewers.