1
Networks Really Seem To Have It Out For Judd Apatow's Shows
Today, Freaks And Geeks is known as a cult classic that launched some influential Hollywood careers. But when it first aired, things weren't so great. The network president at the time went from boarding school straight to Princeton, so he didn't quite understand what the writers were going for with this more realistic portrayal of the average high school experience. This led to arguments over a "lack of victories" in the show, and the characters not being "cool." On top of that, the episodes were aired out of order over an erratic schedule.
When the ratings eventually began to take a hit, the creators created a website to promote the series online. NBC refused to share the URL because, according to creator Judd Apatow, "they didn't want people to know the internet existed. They were worried about losing viewers to it." Needless to say, it was canned, and TV eventually did indeed lose viewers to the internet.
Apatow's next project, Undeclared (this time on Fox), had pretty much the same issues as its predecessor. The network wanted to include a laugh track, "because otherwise, how will the audience know where the jokes are?" They would regularly give notes such as "We want it to be more like Road Trip."
When it became clear that Fox didn't have faith in the show as it was, they just dipped into NBC's bag and started airing the episodes out of order. Once again, the ratings suffered, and it was canceled after the first season. This is why we can't have nice things: The people in charge are both wildly out of touch and underwear-on-the-outside loony (see: "more like Road Trip").