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By Mike Thompson

Freaks and Geeks, we hardly knew ye. You were a victim of time-slot shuffling, a lack of promotion, and little viewer support. Granted, many internet users liked you, but not all internet users have Nielsen ratings boxes sitting atop their television sets. And the people who do possess those little boxes were the people that your parent network, NBC, was interested in. And those people just didn’t tune in. And now you are gone, leaving questions unanswered.

Freaks and Geeks, an hour-long comedy-drama about high school life in 1980 Michigan, won much critical acclaim when it debuted last fall. It was a show with an interesting premise and some interesting characters. The main character is Lindsay Beir (played by Linda Cardellini). Lindsay is an intelligent girl who is at that awkward point in her high school life that we all face (well, at least I did): She is growing self-conscious of her image, and wants to change it. So she starts hanging out with a group of burn-outs known as "the freaks." This group includes Daniel Desario (James Franco), Kim Kelly (Busy Phillips), Nick Andopolis (Jason Segel), and Ken Miller (Seth Rogen). Meanwhile, Lindsay’s younger brother, Sam (John Francis Daley), is an intelligent freshman who hangs out with the "geeks": Neal Schwieber (Samm Levine) and Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr). The series deals with the "freaks" and the "geeks" living high school life.

As you can see, Freaks and Geeks has a very interesting and wonderful premise. Whereas shows like Dawson’s Creek and the like display high school students as being glamorous, the producers of Freaks and Geeks chose to depict high school students as they really are: freaky and geeky. The kids on Freaks and Geeks are very much average-looking kids, not twentysomethings who appear as if they are students by day, and Neutrogena models by night.

What also separates Freaks and Geeks from the rest of the bunch is that it deals with issues that you and I probably dealt with in high school. This is opposed to the unrealistic soap opera issues (such as a girl with a boy’s name sleeping with her ex-boyfriend’s best friend) that are prevalent on other shows. Freaks and Geeks was designed to be free of unrealistic teen angst that we all know and hate (except for the WB network executives, who have formed a network based on unrealistic teen angst).

All of this would have been meaningless, and Freaks and Geeks would never have won so much critical acclaim, if the writing weren’t so good. The characters deal with everyday problems, and talk realistically to each other. In fact, the last episode NBC aired before pulling the plug (the March 20^th episode) dealt with Lindsay dabbling in marijuana for the first time. Now, the episode had the potential to be very preachy, as most episodes of television shows dealing with drugs or alcohol are. But with a couple of small exceptions, it wasn’t. The episode was entertaining throughout. Another episode of Freaks and Geeks found Neal discovering his father is having an affair. When Sam arrived home after helping Neal search for his father’s mistress, he discovers that his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Beir, have bought him an Atari 2600. Sam hugs his parents, but not so much because he is grateful for the Atari, but because he realizes how lucky he is to have two loving parents. It was such a sweet moment, it almost brought a tear to my eye.

Even though Freaks and Geeks possessed all these wonderful attributes, and did from its debut in September, NBC never found a good home for it. It debuted the show in a deadly Saturday night timeslot. The show was then bumped from the schedule for a month of baseball playoffs. It reappeared, only to be bumped again for the November sweeps. Finally, it was moved to Mondays in January. After only a few weeks, it was bumped again for February sweeps. It then reappeared on March 13^th, and lasted for all of two weeks before NBC finally cancelled the show outright last week.

The reasoning behind the cancellation? Not enough viewers. And they’re right, the show did regularly come in fourth place in the ratings. But it was never on for more than a month at a time. Had it been aired with any kind of regularity, it probably would have become a hit. But this was evidently not to be, and NBC pulled the plug. Six episodes that have already been filmed have yet to be shown, and NBC has indicated they will not be airing them. The show’s producers, however, are not taking this lying down. They are shopping the show to other networks. The show also had a large and vocal internet fan base, and they will likely not take the cancellation lying down either. You can find out how to help save the show at http://www.freaksandgeeks.com. Hopefully, the producers will find a taker for the show on another network. If not, Freaks and Geeks will join the likes of My So-Called Life and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. as excellent shows that didn’t make it beyond a single season. And that would be a shame. These Freaks and Geeks deserve a chance at stardom.