Freaks and Geeks/Trivia


 * Actor Allusion: In the episode "Beers and Weirs", Bill says he always watches Dallas with his mom. Bill's mom is played by Claudia Christian, whose first acting job was on Dallas.
 * In "Tricks and Treats", Mr. Weir wears a vampire cape, a direct allusion to his sketch as Count Floyd on SCTV.
 * The Danza: Mark played by Mark Allan Staubach.
 * Dawson Casting: Averted. Only John Francis Daley was actually the same age as his character, but with the exception of James Franco, Busy Phillips and Linda Cardellini, the actors playing students were still teenagers when they made the show.
 * Enforced Method Acting: To make it look like Bill was laughing insanely at an Garry Shandling routine from Dinah (that actor Martin Starr found more annoying than anything), they filmed Bill's reaction shots without sound while Judd Apatow was standing off-camera telling the actor "extremely dirty jokes".
 * Hey, It's That Guy!:
 * Sam's dad is Count Floyd!!
 * Gloria Haverchuck's played by Claudia Christian, a bit of a geek icon for her role as Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5.
 * Lizzy Caplan (Sara) is better known for Mean Girls, Cloverfield, and Masters Of Sex.
 * Ben Foster (Eli) went on to play Angel in X-Men: The Last Stand.
 * Karen Scarfoli's played by Rashida Jones from The Office and Parks and Recreation.
 * Coach Ben Fredericks is Biff Tannen!
 * Screwed by the Network: The usual sad story. Aired out of order, shuffled around the schedule, barely advertised, and so on.
 * Unintentional Period Piece: Deliberately set in 1980-81 to avoid the tendency of teen shows to fall into this.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * Sam Weir was originally meant to be tall for his age (as Feig had been).
 * Had there been a second season, Paul Feig wanted to have . And Sam would have gotten tall; John Francis Daley grew almost a foot in the year after cancellation.
 * Feig also wanted.
 * On the topic of how Sam was supposed to be tall, Daniel was supposed to be Hispanic, and Ken was supposed to have long blonde hair. Neal was supposed to be named Art Thompson, Lindsey was supposed to be 15, etc.