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Press tour: Judd Apatow talks 'Girls,' 'Bridesmaids' sequel and 'Freaks and Geeks'

Comedy mogul returns to TV for the first time in a decade with HBO Lena Dunham comedy

By Alan Sepinwall Friday, Jan 13, 2012 4:12 PM

<p>"Bridesmaids" producer Judd Apatow is returning to TV with the HBO comedy "Girls."</p>

"Bridesmaids" producer Judd Apatow is returning to TV with the HBO comedy "Girls."

Credit: AP
PASADENA - "I was hurt and wounded and sad from my television experience," Judd Apatow said of that strange period a decade ago when he was a fixture at press tour with a pair of shows - "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" - that were beloved by critics and mistreated by their networks.
 
Things turned out okay for Apatow - and Paul Feig, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segel and almost everyone else he worked with on those two adored but low-rated series - and he was far more serene and confident when he came back to TCA to discuss "Girls," the new HBO comedy series he's producing with writer/director/star Lena Dunham ("Tiny Furniture") and former "Undeclared" writer Jenni Konner.
 
In "Girls," Dunham plays a young woman having a series of professional and sexual misadventures in Brooklyn. The show premieres on HBO on April 15, and I liked the three episodes I've seen a lot, in addition to being a longtime fan of Apatow's work. ("Freaks and Geeks" was the first series I revisited episode-by-episode.) So after that panel ended, I joined in a small scrum to talk to Apatow about coming back to TV 10 years later, about the satisfaction of finding so much success in the movies with very similar material to what failed on television, and also about the reports of difficulty in getting a "Bridesmaids" sequel going as well as that movie's Oscar chances.
 
Let's start with "Bridesmaids," actually, since Apatow insisted recent reports that a sequel was endangered were premature and/or inaccurate, since "we're still in the fog of war" of promoting the original film.
 
He said he, Feig, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy and the rest of the gang would all be happy to do another film, but only if they have a good idea for it first.
 
"It truly is one of those situations where if there is an idea that makes everyone incredibly excited to do it, it could happen," he said. "If we feel that it's just a business proposition, it won't happen. And that's how it should be. I like sequels. I just made 'This Is 40,' which is a kind of spin-off of 'Knocked Up' with Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd, and 'Get Him to the Greek' was a kind of sideways spin-off of 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall.' I wish we could have done another 'Superbad,' so I always wish there could be another one, but it really shouldn't be done unless the idea is fantastic."
 
He called the idea of McCarthy, or anyone associated with the film, getting an Oscar nomination "hilarious and wonderful… I have to admit I voted for us," and said in terms of Wiig, "I think it's easy to underestimate how brilliant and complicated that performance is. People tend to reward negative emotions: a lot of crying and pain. But people who can find the truth of a character, but be hilarious and delightful and you also feel for them, it's a rare talent. It would be amazing for Kristen, for Melissa, for the writing. Anything.
 
Does he expect major nominations, though?
 
"I always feel like we're the 14th-best movie of the year," he said.
 
As for his return to TV, Apatow said he would have only done it at HBO, since the only wholly satisfying professional experience of that phase of his career was writing for "The Larry Sanders Show." Though he hasn't been back on television long, and is back in the HBO cocoon, I asked if he felt the business had changed in the 10 years since FOX canceled "Undeclared."
 
"I don't," he said, "but only because I'm sure network television is still a nightmare and I know that HBO is still a fantastic place to work. It doesn't feel any different than when we did 'The Larry Sanders Show,' and they were very smart and supportive. They seemed to balance their level of involvement in a way that really made you feel supported. It hasn't changed at all, other than cable television seems even more the place where you can stretch your wings. Every now and then a network television show, someone does something amazing. It happens, but it's really a miracle when it happens, whereas it feels like much less of a miracle at HBO because they encourage that."
 
I asked if he takes any satisfaction in the success he and his collaborators from those canceled shows have had with material that is in many ways very similar.
 
"Absolutely," he said. "It was heartbreaking when 'Undeclared' and 'Freaks and Geeks' weren't given a chance to find an audience, they weren't scheduled and marketed properly. I always believed in that group of actors and writers - Jenni Konner was one of the writers of 'Undeclared,' Nick Stoller was on 'Undeclared,' Seth Rogen wrote for it, Paul Feig created 'Freaks and Geeks' - so this was the group that we believed in. Just because they weren't going to let us do these stories doesn't mean we weren't going to try to find a way to continue collaborating. It's been a very joyous experience to find some mainstream success without selling out on what we thought was funny."
 
Does he ever cross paths with the network executives who pulled the plug back in the day?
 
"Yeah, I bump into everybody every once in a while. I know you have to make a lot of decisions: what to cancel and what to keep on the air. I know it's very complicated, and I'm not privy to how much pressure they're getting from GE or Rupert Murdoch's nephew at any given moment. I was certainly very hostile at the time. I'm more understanding now, now that I'm older. But what I really take from it that I was right to believe in James Franco and Seth Rogen and Linda Cardellini(*) and all those people. I wasn't insane."
 
(*) People often ask me when or if Apatow might work with Cardellini again, since she was the heart of "Freaks and Geeks" and is one of the only significant actors from those shows to not appear in any of his later work. He said he would love to, and that, "I never worked with a better actress." He said eventually, he'd like to find parts for her, John Francis Daley, Samm Levine, etc.   
 
Apatow tried to downplay his role in producing "Girls" - when I interviewed Dunham and Konner later in the day (look for that story to run much closer to the premiere date), both of them said Apatow was being far too modest about his contributions - but said he was dazzled by "Tiny Furniture," the movie Dunham wrote, directed and starred in that played the festival circuit a few years back.
 
"I was truly blown away," he said of the film, which co-starred Dunham's mother and sister was largely shot in her mother's apartment. "As someone who just made a movie with his entire family, I respect people who do personal work. And it's both hilarious and heartbreaking. It's everything that I like. I couldn't believe that when I called her and said, 'If you ever need any help with anything, just call me,' and she said, 'Well, I'm working on this HBO show with Jenni Konner, your close friend.' I thought this seemed to be written in the stars."
 
One aspect of the show Apatow will take credit for is the title.
 
"I have to say it was my idea," he said. "I've had many different types of titles, but I've found that clarity seems to be important. And at the time, we didn't realize every show on television was going to have the world 'Girl' in it. But it seems to capture the spirit of the show, in that it's both immature and sexy at the same time."
 
Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Related Searches: TCA, TCA Press Tour, TCA 12, Girls, Judd Apatow, Bridesmaids, Freaks and Geeks, Awards Campaign, Alan Sepinwall
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  • Default-avatar

    mgrabois

    For those who weren't around back in the day, in 2007 Alan's summer show was retro-reviewing "Freaks & Geeks" episodes weekly, via the DVD. Sundance is currently showing the series and is about halfway through it. The nice thing is that I get to watch an episode daily and then go back to Alan's detailed reviews on his old site at http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/search/label/Freaks%20and%20Geeks.

    January 13, 2012 at 5:33PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    lucky

    Cardellini was fantastic in Freaks and Geeks. It would be nice to see her in something good again.
    Oh, and I love this quote: "I always feel like we're the 14th-best movie of the year,". It's funny and sad. And it's kind of true.

    January 13, 2012 at 5:36PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    BigTed

    I always thought "Freaks & Geeks" didn't work on network TV because it was too truthful about the high school experience -- the joys and the pains combined. There was wackiness, but there was some really dark humor as well. It definitely would have been more fitting for a cable network like "HBO."

    On the other hand, "Undeclared" was lighter in tone and didn't succeed either, so who knows? Maybe shows about young people don't work unless the characters are all rich, have magic powers, and are played by incredibly attractive 25-year-olds.

    January 13, 2012 at 7:26PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Tim riggins

    This new series sounds promising, but it sounds a lot like a series that was gonna be developed for Lizzy Caplan on HBO a few months back, is this the same show?

    January 13, 2012 at 11:23PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Tim riggins

    This show sounds promising. But it sounds a lot like a show HBO was developing for Lizzy Caplan a few months back, is this the same show?

    January 13, 2012 at 11:25PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    DinoChow

    Really excited for this. Huge Apatow fan, especially of "Freaks and Geeks," which I actually just discovered after years of hearing Alan wax poetic about it. I run a film/TV review blog myself, and I've just started reviewing "Freaks and Geeks" episode-by-episode as well, trying to get in depth with analysis. There's so, so much to talk about with each episode. If anyone's interested, here's the link: http://www.jonathanlack.com/search/label/Freaks%20and%20Geeks ("Freaks and Geeks" reviews post each Wednesday)

    Anyway, I'm excited for this "Girls" series for a number of reasons, but I'm also really happy to see that "Bridesmaids" wasn't just a random accident, and that Team Apatow is focusing on female-driven comedies from strong, fresh female voices. We need more of that. Lots more. "Bridesmaids" was the first step in that direction, and I'm very glad we're getting more.

    January 14, 2012 at 12:02AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    rosengje

    As Alan's article suggests, a lot of the substantive coverage of "Girls" will likely be held until closer to the show's premiere April. It does bother me a bit, however, that nearly all of the press out of the TCA panel was about Judd Apatow. I get that he's a huge film name and that he's involved with so many things beloved by critics, but "Girls" is by no means an obvious show for HBO to be involved with and I wish we could hear more about mastermind Lena Dunham.

    January 14, 2012 at 1:16AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    aw

    lets hope the Apatow/Cardellini link up is soon.

    January 14, 2012 at 11:28AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Nick

    Alan,

    Have you ever considered reviewing S1 of The Larry Sanders Show during the summer?

    January 15, 2012 at 1:18PM EST Reply to Comment

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