Linda Cardellini Says Her Daughter Looks Like Freaks and Geeks' Lindsay Weir

Though it was only on the air for one (short) season, Freaks and Geeks remains the stuff of legend. Before NBC sitcom juggernauts like The Office and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the gone-too-soon comedy earned a cult following that's only grown in the 25(!) years since it was on the air. Star Linda Cardellini talked to Jimmy Fallon about the early 1980s-set series' enduring legacy during her December 10 visit to The Tonight Show — and shared that her daughter reminds her of her iconic character, Lindsay Weir.

Cardellini marveled at how "crazy" it is that the show turned 25 this year, and pointed out that the show didn't even last for a full season. "It was supposed to be 20-something [run] and they cut it off at 18," she told Fallon.

"But why do I remember it so well?" Fallon asked (and same).

"I think back in the day, when something got canceled, you never saw it again. But now, with streaming it's around, still," Cardellini said. "But it was such a great show and great people."

Indeed it was: Created by Paul Feig, director of films like Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor, and executive-produced by Judd Apatow, the Freaks and Geeks cast was packed with performers who are household names now, including Cardellini, Busy Phillips, Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Jason Segel.

Actress Linda Cardellini appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Season 20 Episode 66. Photo: Todd Owyoung/NBC

Linda Cardellini tells Jimmy Fallon her daughter Lilah-Rose is a total Lindsay Weir

"I mean, the whole cast was fantastic," Fallon raved.

"It was so much fun," Cardellini said. Fallon whipped out a photo — "I think Seth Rogen posted this," he said — depicting Cardellini as Lindsay Weir with actress Sarah Hagan, who played her childhood best friend, Millie.

"Look at how much fun you're having on set," Fallon said.

"This is Sarah," Cardellini told Fallon, adding that they're still friends who hang out. "We saw this picture and I said, 'Oh, my God, it looks so much like our daughters!" Cardellini gave birth to her daughter, Lilah-Rose, on February 29, 2012.

"It's crazy," Cardellini mused. "We're that old now."

Then Cardellini told Fallon the funny-in-retrospect story about how she found out the show was being pulled off the air. 

Linda Cardellini learned Freaks and Geeks was canceled in a limo to Letterman

It turns out Cardellini got the news when she was en route for an interview on Late Show with David Letterman. 

"This was such a big moment for me, because I loved David Letterman, and it was one of the very first talk shows that I did," she told Fallon. "And they were going to have me on the show! I remember I landed in New York so excited, so nervous."

"And I got a phone call in the limousine — which I was in a limousine, which was great, I had not had that before either—and it was somebody calling to tell me that the show was canceled," Cardellini related. 

"You're in the limo on the way to Letterman?" Fallon asked in disbelief.

"Yes! And I thought, 'Oh, my God, David Letterman is canceled?!' And they said, 'No, honey, it's your show. It's canceled,'" Cardellini recounted. "And I was like, Oh. Do I still get to go on 'David Letterman'?"

The answer, thankfully, was yes. "So then when I was sitting there with him, it was one of those moments where it kind of didn't sink in because I was still kind of in the euphoria of being on David Letterman," Cardellini continued. "And then David Letterman was like, 'I'm so sorry your show got canceled."

"He was so kind," she added.

Thanks to the miracle of streaming TV and DVDs, Freaks and Geeks has gained many fans in the 25 years since. In an ideal world, we'd get a reunion movie featuring Lilah-Rose as Lindsay's daughter.