C'mon now...

This is a borrowed rant, but I hope I'll do it justice.

In August of 1998, Fox launched "That 70's Show," a retro drama/comedy that focused on the lives and shenanigans of off-beat high schoolers. The show featured a cast of mostly unknowns: the "floozy" (Mila Kunis), the "sexy male loser" (Ashton Kutcher) a nerdy male protagonist (Topher Grace), a wisecracking, world-weary, side-burn adorned hanger-on(Danny Masterson), and a startlingly attractive but mysteriously "uncool" female lead (Laura Prepon). (And who could forget Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), who fluctuated between being a below-the-belt jab at Desi Arnaz and a remarkable display political incorrectness...)

You may remember the show as primarily a comedy, and not a drama, but that's simply because the show was about thirty times better as a comedy than it was when it tried to be anything like dramatic. But that didn't stop it from trying! The show ran for 8 consecutive seasons, served as the principle launching pad for the (extremely mediocre) careers of its stars, and was basically a fairly competent sitcom. I mostly hated it.

Hysterical side-note: This is literally the *only* show that survived the 98-99 Fox broadcast lineup. Family Guy and Futurama were both scrapped by Fox the same year, along with literally every other show on the Fox lineup. Both of those shows were, incidentally, so popular that they basically had to come back from the dead. I mean, "That 70's Show" was okay, but it was no Futurama. I would trade all 8 seasons of "BUUURRRRN!!!1!!!" for even one more season of the original Futurama.

If you think that's my rant, you have another think coming.

What if I told you that the very next year, during the 1999-2000 television season, there was another retro drama/comedy that focused on the lives and shenanigans of off-beat high schoolers. It featured a "floozy," a "sexy male loser," a nerdy male protagonist, a wisecracking, world-weary, side-burn adorned hanger-on, and a startlingly attractive but mysteriously "uncool" female lead. Sound familiar?

Except instead of being created by the people who brought you "Coneheads," and "The Brady Bunch Movie," this show was created by a guy who directed 13 episodes of the US version of "The Office" and 8 episodes of "Arrested Development." Instead of being produced by the guy who produced "3rd Rock from the Sun," this *other* show was produced by the producer of "Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy," "Superbad," and "Pineapple Express."

You have an inkling of where I'm going with this yet?

This other little show was called "Freaks and Geeks." It was produced by the now legendary Judd Apatow, directed by Paul Feig. It ran for less than one season before NBC killed it. In that time, it was nominated for three Emmys and received one. Time called it one of the best 100 shows of all time. Entertainment Weekly called it the 13th best show in the last 25 years, in 2008, ten years after the show left the air.

To give you an idea of how good this show is, let me just briefly note that it was also, miraculously, a launching pad for its stars. Yes, even though it ran for less than one season, I guarantee you will recognize some names.

You know that wisecracking, world-weary, side-burn aficionado in "That 70's Show?" Danny Masterson, in case you forgot (it's alright, his career has been pretty much kaput for years now). Well in Freaks and Geeks, this same archetypical character is played by...

drumroll....

An 18-year-old Seth Rogen. You heard me. Think, just for a moment, about what this implies.

"Sexy male loser?" Move over Kutcher. You make camera commercials now.

We're replacing you with... wait for it... a twenty-year-old James Franco.

Are you starting to get the idea now?

This show created two mega-stars (so far) and started at least two more fairly strong working careers (Marshall from "How I Met Your Mother," and Velma from the Scooby Doo movies.) Also, Shia LaBoeiuaf was in an episode. (I don't know how his stupid name is spelled. I just put all the vowels in to be safe. Sometimes I include a 'y'.)

All this in one season. Measuring by star power, that means that this show is way, way better than "That 70's Show."

If we estimate that Mila Kunis, Topher Grace, and Ashton Kutcher *put together* have roughly as much star-power as James Franco,* and we figure that they took 8 times as long to be "launched," then that computes to Freaks and Geeks being over 24 times as good as "That 70's Show"...

It would be 24 times better, that is, if the show hadn't launched Mr Rogen's career. And for that matter, Judd Apatow's. (For what it's worth, Franco's net worth at this time is estimated around $22 million. Rogen's got about $25 mill. Apatow has got $40 million to his name. 22+25+40=87 87-22=55 Franco pulls down less than a quarter of the total: so Rogen and Apatow put together are about three times as successful as he is.)

I don't know about you, but by the back of my envelope, it looks like "Freaks and Geeks" has, very conservatively, about 100 times as much star launching power as "That 70's Show."

All of the above is simply to say: there's a reason this is a rant. I submit that "Freaks and Geeks" is 10,000% as good as "That 70's Show." Not even a full season ran on the air.

And I really mean it, too. F&G is amazing. The drama is heart wrenching, the humor is quite literally the funniest thing I've ever seen on TV. I don't want this show to ever stop running, and I know it will stop all too soon, and it just tears me up inside. I'm not even pissed off, really. I'm just sad. I don't want "Freaks and Geeks" to have an ending.