10 Best One Season Wonder TV Shows
1. Freaks And Geeks
On the one hand, it’s churlish to bemoan Freaks And Geeks’ sole season. The 18 episodes produced are almost all perfect, and it kickstarted more careers than just about any show in history: Cardellini, Starr, Franco, Rogen, Philipps, to name just a few.
Even so: how we’d have loved just one more season of this heartbreaking, hilarious ‘80s set comedy drama. A coming of age tale in a Detroit high school, it captures the formative years of the titular outcast groups, the freaks (stoners, burnouts) and the geeks (lovers of Star Wars and Steve Martin).
We’re introduced by way of older sister Lindsay and younger brother Sam. She’s a straight A student looking to experiment following the death of her grandma, he’s a goodhearted drip wishing to be cool. Its scope is so much greater than this, though. With great warmth and no judgement, it introduces dozens of characters and gives us at least some insight into all of them.
NBC had no idea what to do with the show, bouncing it around the schedule and often dropping several episodes at a time. No one involved in the show was surprised when it was cancelled, but it remains devastating all the same. Nevertheless, these 18 episodes stand up against just about anything else in TV history. Perfection.