NBC Wanted Britney Spears on ‘Freaks and Geeks’

Originally running for just 12 episodes from 1999-2000, the NBC comedy Freaks and Geeks has the reputation for being a tragically short show despite having a cast full of stars who would go on to have successful acting careers.

The cast included Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, John Francis Daley, Martin Starr and Busy Phillips, with comedy directors Judd Apatow and Paul Feig as the executive producer and creator respectively.

But for as stacked as the cast was, NBC had another major star in mind to be on the show — pop singer Britney Spears.

“One of the things was that [NBC] really wanted us to try and write Britney Spears into this,” Feig said during the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary on Saturday. “They were like, ‘She’s really popular now, maybe she could play a waitress or something.’”

For reasons Feig did not divulge, Spears was unable to make an appearance on the show. But during the same year Freaks and Geeks was airing, Spears made cameo appearances as herself in Donny & Marie, Keenan & Kel, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Famous Jett Jackson, Médico de familia and Hooves of Fire.

Spears has had a busy April, helping her little sister Jamie Lynn Spears welcome her second child into the family back on April 12.

“I could not be more excited to welcome baby Ivey to this world. Congrats to [Jamie Lynn Spears] and the whole family — I love you all so much!!!” Spears wrote.

Jamie Lynn explained the middle name was chosen to honor a deceased relative.

“Her middle name, Joan, is to honor my Aunt Sandra, who passed away 10 years ago from ovarian cancer. She was the most graceful woman I’ve ever known,” Jamie Lynn wrote.

Elsewhere in her personal life, Spears has been approached by ex-husband Kevin Federline’s legal team multiple times in the past few months, demanding that the original child support settlement the two made back in 2007 be adjusted now that Spears makes tens of millions of dollars more with her more recent success.

“Jamie and Britney Spears sent a response to Kevin’s request for an increase to his child support payments to his lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan. Kevin has flatly rejected it,” a source told Us Weekly.

“Kevin truly wanted to try and settle the child support payment increase without getting the courts involved out of respect for Britney, and of course, their two sons,” the source added.