Freaks and Geeks, creator Paul Feig and executive producer Judd Apatow's short-lived but highly relatable and much loved single-camera high school comedy set in the early 1980s, was one of DreamWorks Television's earlier sitcom productions. The series, which ran for one season of 18 episodes on NBC, centered on star-student Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini, Green Book) and her little brother Sam (John Francis Daley). While Lindsay tries to expand her social cred by hanging out with the academically challenged slacker "freaks"—Daniel (James Franco), Ken (Seth Rogen), Nick (Jason Segel), and Kim (Busy Philipps), Sam and his geeky friends Neal (Samm Levine) and Bill (Martin Starr) merely try to survive high school and the constant threat of bullies from day to day. Joining the key cast were Lindsay and Sam's parents, Harold (Joe Flaherty) and Jean (Becky Ann Baker).

And while Freaks and Geeks may not have found a broad audience during its network television run, the show's cult popularity has kept it very much in the public eye with a vaunted home video release and success on streaming services decades after its original broadcast. The show also proved a nexus of talents that would go on to become some of the biggest names in television and feature comedy, including Feig, Apatow, Rogen, Franco, Segal, Starr and Daley—all either top comedy directors, writers or performers at this writing.