In 2001, after Mike White wrote on “Freaks and Geeks” - but before he authored the screenplays for “School of Rock,” “The Good Girl,” “Orange County” and Jack Black’s upcoming Mexican-wrestling comedy “Nacho Libre” - he created a primetime soap about a homicidal publishing family with a penchant for pedophilia. It was easily 100 times smarter, funnier and darker than “Desperate Housewives.”
Thirteen hours were shot; Fox only aired four, two of them less than a month after 9/11. It starred Alison Lohman (“Matchstick Men,” “Big Fish”), Natasha Gregson Wagner (“High Fidelity,” “The 4400”), Dana Delany (“China Beach”), Balthazar Getty (“Lost Highway”), Mark Valley (“Keen Eddie,” “Boston Legal”), Martin Donovan (“The Opposite of Sex”), Chris Marquette (“Joan of Arcadia”), Nicole Paggi (“Hope & Faith”) and Philip Baker Hall (“In Good Company,” “The Amityville Horror”).
Fans of the final few episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” will be amused to discover that Nathan Fillion turns up late in the series in a recurring role as a horny clergyman.
SoapNet (262 on DirecTV) is colorcasting all 13 episodes on Monday starting at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT. Dana Delany even taped some wraparounds.
If you can’t watch the whole thing, try to catch the first three and the last three episodes, all of which were penned by White himself.