The Paley Festival gathered the cast of Judd Apatow’s Freaks and Geeks last night to reminisce. James Franco — who played too-cool-for-school Daniel Desario on the NBC series, and seemed to channel his old character at the Oscars — sent in a taped message, joking that he was gearing up to host the Emmys. But cast members recalled him fondly: “He carried around heavy books like Proust and Dante’s Inferno,” they noted. Busy Philipps said Franco created a backstory for his character, unbeknownst to his co-stars, in which Daniel had been abused by his father. While filming a spat scene with his onscreen lover, Franco veered from the script. “Don’t you fucking touch me!” Philipps recalled him saying. “He threw me to the ground.” While it was happening, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel were confused. Apatow explained to his former cast: “[Franco] is method. He is the only one among all of you to be nominated for an Academy Award.” Apatow also revealed story lines for the second season that never happened: Kim Kelly got pregnant and starred in the school play, Lindsay Weir came back home after acid tripping and ending up on a stretcher, Neal Schweiber joined the choir, and Bill Haverchuck became a jock! [LiveFeed/HR, PopWatch/EW]
