Have You Seen This Scene From “Freaks and Geeks”?
The “Freaks and Geeks” producer Judd Apatow — who once said this was the most personal scene he had ever made — had been a “comedy geek” as a kid
and later worked with Shandling on “The Larry Sanders Show.”
Note: Bill doesn’t react when Shandling comes on.
He’s not watching to watch Shandling; he’s watching to watch TV for company.
By JAMES PONIEWOZIK UPDATED August 13, 2017
Eight little things (a scene, a joke, a building, a pizza, a dance, a painting, a lyric, a sound) worth your time.
Shandling gets closer, too, as the routine goes on, and Bill becomes absorbed in it
“I’m One” by the Who, from the 1973 album “Quadrophenia.” It builds from mournfulness (“I’m a loser / No chance to win”) to a defiant chorus.
It didn’t appear until after NBC canceled the series, and its single 18-episode season reran on the Fox Family Channel in fall 2000.
Bill turns on the tube just as Dinah Shore introduces the stand-up comic Garry Shandling.
And now he’s framed tighter, after Shandling comes on.
He has a routine, and the episode is partly about his dealing with having that routine disrupted.
And he learns, in this episode, that his mom is seriously dating his gym teacher, whom he hates.