NEW YORK — Judd Apatow is back on the small screen, in a big way.
More than 15 years after his short-lived Freaks and Geeks, created by Paul Feig, was axed by NBC, executive producer Apatow is in the midst of a TV takeover with three other comedies: HBO's Girls, now shooting its sixth and final season; Netflix's Love, back next year; and Pete Holmes' semi-autobiographical Crashing, due on HBO in early 2017.
USA TODAY sat down with Apatow, 48, last week on Crashing's Brooklyn set, where he discussed his current slate:
Q: Between Girls, Love and now Crashing, do you find that you're gravitating more toward TV?
A: Well, there's a lot of opportunity now because there's a big need and a lot of freedom, so I find it irresistible. It's what I always dreamed of: that you can make TV and everyone would get out of your way and you follow your vision without watering it down. I feel like it's a golden age for television. You can do weird things on TV — there are happy stories, sad stories, dark stories. But with a movie, it always has to end satisfying. Unless you're the Coen brothers, and it ends with somebody getting shot in the head.
Q: What's different about producing for HBO vs. Netflix?
A: It's not very different. They both have very smart people who have great taste and believe in the talents. If you work on network TV, they want to pick your casts, dictate your story and how your show works. ... It just becomes creativity by committee, which is never good.
Q: You just wrapped Season 2 of Love, which explored some heavier topics of addiction and depression during its first season. What drew you to the project?
A: Well, I was working with (co-creator/star) Paul Rust on (Pee-wee's Big Holiday). He was co-writing, I was producing. He started talking about an idea he and (Love's) Lesley Arfin had, and I started talking about an idea I had — theirs was a movie, mine was a TV show. We thought, "We can combine all this." It's a fun idea, to follow a couple very slowly and show every nook and cranny of their relationship.
Q: You're also finishing work on Girls. How would you like to see that end?
A: We're writing the last episode as we speak. It's a really strong season, but it feels like it's time. It's the end of their twenties and (creator/star Lena Dunham) felt like it was a show about that period. Lena has had a vision for how she would end it, so now we're just working on those scripts.
The ideas she expresses at the end are important and she's got a great take on it. But it's very sad, because she's brilliant and it's been nothing but fun to interact with her for the last seven years. It's just beginning to hit everybody that this is about to be over.
Q: In general, do you find it's easier for smaller shows with niche audiences to survive?
A: Yeah, way easier. In the old days, you'd have almost no chance to get any of these shows on the air. People really wanted them to appeal to everybody. There was a moment where Friends was on the air and everyone was trying to rip off Friends, and there wasn't a lot of creativity happening. When you tried to be creative, the networks were mad at you. They weren't happy we were doing Freaks and Geeks, they were truly angry.
Q: Why?
A: They didn't see it as appealing to people. That was before there were a lot of shows about antiheroes or types of people that weren't talked about on TV. For a long time, TV was just the land of handsome, beautiful people, and now it's the opposite.
Q: Do you think that Freaks and Geeks would've stuck around longer now?
A: Sure, absolutely. Freaks and Geeks would've stayed around for 20 years, if it had only been today.
Q: Paul Feig, who created the show, has gotten a lot of unfair backlash for his Ghostbusters reboot. What do you make of the online reactions to its female casting and trailers?
A: It's all silly. The types of people that get all worked up about who's playing Batman next never interest me. It's fine that they have hobbies that they care about, but ultimately, it's a movie and it's meant to make you happy, and once it comes out, people are going to love it. There's a lot more important things happening in the world to get worked up about than that.
Q: What's your favorite TV comedy right now?
A: Well, I'm missing Mad Men a lot and I'm missing Louie a lot. Those are probably the shows that I enjoy the most. I haven't watched (Louis C.K.'s Horace and Pete) yet. I loved Lady Dynamite. That's my new favorite comedy. Maria Bamford is a genius and that show does an incredible job of finding a way to express her vision of the world.
