This also falls under While I Was Out, but I thought it deserved a post of its own: IFC is airing (actually, started airing Friday) reruns of Freaks and Geeks and, this fall, will also air Judd Apatow’s follow-up college comedy, Undeclared. (Apatow produced Freaks, which was created by Paul Feig.) I utterly loved both shows, Freaks especially, while they were on the air, but if you had asked me back then if I thought either would be influential (let alone successful), I probably would have said no: I would have expected them to fall under the heading of brilliant-but-cancelled shows that are much-loved but little imitated after the fact.

A decade later, though, I would make the argument that Apatow’s shows have been extremely influential, not just on TV but movie comedy—more so, in fact, than plenty of other comedies that were more successful at the time or since.