Where Are They Now: Freaks and Geeks Edition, Part Two

Read Part One here.

Joe Flaherty (Harold Weir): Comedy legend Joe Flaherty quickly jumped onto a recurring role on The King of Queens, and is now apparently hosting an Adult Swim-style animation showcase called Uncle Joe’s Cartoon Playhouse for some obscure Canadian station called Bite TV (you can watch a promo here) . The pilot has already been picked up for series, and may be imported to the States soon. He’s also currently filming a wacky kiddie camp flick called Summerhood with Christopher McDonald. Meanwhile, the latest edition of Shout Factory’s SCTV discs is a best-of compilationfeaturing new commentary from Flaherty.

Becky Ann Baker (Jean Weir): Becky is a longtime character actor who’s had no problem racking lots of dramatic roles since playing Sam and Linday’s pleasant, rosy, and frequently embarrassing mother, from multiple Law & Order appearances to a starring role in last year’s controversial Death of a President. She does however appear in the low-budget teen comedy Gretchen, also starring Stephen Root, which made the festival rounds recently and will hopefully land on DVD soon.

Sarah Hagan (Millie Kentner): Playing the uber-geek on Freaks paved the way for Hagan to play a recurring, D&D-loving uber-geek on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's final season, until she was eaten by a mega-vamp. Since then, she landed a juicy role on a (probably angst-filled) episode of Grey’s Anatomy, and now she’ll be appearing in a small supporting role with Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, and Rachel Dratch in the middle-aged dance party Spring Breakdown, which is set for release early next year.

Dave “Gruber” Allen (Jeff Rosso): Dave was belting out comedy classics semi-professionally long before he treated our boys to his smoking acoustic Alice Cooper covers, as the naked half of the LA live staple Naked Trucker and T-Bones, which has now of course blossomed into an over-advertised, cameo-plastered cable variety show. He’ll also team up with Zach Galifianakis in a new concert film by Jon Brion, another mainstay of Hollywood’s live music (and sometimes comedy) scene. No word yet on whether his minor cult classic Comedy Central series Higgins Boys and Gruber will ever see the light of day on DVD.

Steve Bannos (Frank Kowchevski): Kowchevski, who also wrote for the show, continued roaming high school halls in the Nickelodeon series Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide (Declassified to its true fans), but recently left for a role in the amusing but quickly cancelled Ted Danson group-therapy sitcom Help Me Help You. Meanwhile, his good buddies Paul Feig and Judd Apatow have been keeping him more than busy with quick and easy film roles in 40-Year-Old Virgin, Unaccompanied Minors, and the upcoming Drillbit Taylor, and he’ll also appear with Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Will Arnett, Rob Corddry, Andy Richter, Andy Daly, and a ton of other hilarious people in next year’s anticipated Semi-Pro.

Stephen Lea Sheppard (Harris Trinsky): After scoring a major (and friggin’ hysterical) role in The Royal Tenenbaums, this king-of-the-geeks seems to have willfully withdrawn from acting to focus instead on writing werewolf-themed role-playing games, meaning he’s closed the gap more than anyone here on the difference between his character and his real life activities. (EDIT: Oops, Sheppard himself just informed us that he actually works on Exalted, which is a mythical fantasy RPG. No werewolves. Sorry to misinform, and our thanks to Stephen!)

Tom Wilson (Coach Ben Fredricks): Known a million times better for shouting at Marty McFly than for wooing Haverchuck’s mom, Wilson’s had no trouble keeping hella busy maintaining a hella bizarre resume, from providing all manner of voices for Spongebob to nabbing supporting roles in grating Hollywood shitfests Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and Zoom. He also joined Steve Bannos on the short-lived Help Me Help You. But more importantly (to him, anyway), he’s been pushing himself as a live comedian with his own…special brand of…musical…er, comedy… which you can watch at his personal web site, and even buy his new CD Tom Wilson is Funny!, although we’re a bit more partial toward his other hobby, painting pop art.

Jake Kasdan (Director/Consulting Producer): Kasdan, who directed the pilot and most other key episodes, has continued to follow his famous father’s footsteps, directing Orange County and The TV Set, the latter of which opened in limited theaters today, and whose lead character is openly based on Judd Apatow. The film follows the trials and tribulations of working with network heads on a labor-of-love TV show, which is based heavily on real-life experiences behind the scenes of Freaks, and also possibly from Kasdan’s failed Alan Cumming pilot based on his fantastic debut film, The Zero Effect. Now Kasdan is filming his next movie, the absolutely delicious sounding musical bio-pic spoof Walk Hard, co-written and produced by Apatow.

Judd Apatow (Director/Writer/Executive Producer): Apatow has gone on to become literally the biggest name in contemporary comedy. Maybe you’ve heard of him. After following up Freaks with the similarly themed, similarly beloved, and similarly cancelled Undeclared, Apatow tried to get two other series off the ground, Life on Parole and Sick in the Head (working with Freaks creator Paul Feig on the latter), before giving up on TV altogether and instead making The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which made about a trillion dollars and is frequently called the best comedy of the century so far. Meanwhile, he continued exerting the producing muscle he exerted on Freaks, the Larry Sanders Show, and the Ben Stiller Show into film, producing all of the Adam McKay/Will Ferrell vehicles and fleshing out his Apatow Productions company into a machine gun of comic quality. He has now set up no less than seven upcoming projects, including all the ones we’ve already mentioned in other sections of this feature, plus the Adam Sandler vehicle You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which Apatow wrote with Sandler and Robert Smigel. His next project as writer/director, Knocked Up, comes out this summer, and will surely blow you away.

Paul Feig (Writer/Producer/Series Creator): Feig quickly fell into directing after the end of the series, with the indie melodrama I Am David, as well as many episodes of Arrested Development and the American Office. Last Christmas saw the release of his critically panned family holiday flick Unaccompanied Minors, filled with several friendly faces to F&G fans and comedy fans in general. Next he’ll direct Stargirl, based on a teen-friendly novel about a popular high school boy and the quirky underdog girl who loves him. If that’s not familiar territory, what is?

Next week: Arrested Development