The Ned and Daron Report, Volume 1:1
When I heard back in October of 2005 that FPJ (Freddie Prinze Jr.) was getting his own Television show on TV, I couldn’t have been more excited. But then, when I looked on ABC’s website for his new show Freddie, my anticipation shot through the roof - not only did Freddie obviously star FPJ, but it also co-starred and featured that actor that played David from Beverly Hills 90210, the rapper one that was friends with Steve and dated Donna for so long.
Unlike the role David played on 90210, here David plays Freddie’s next-door neighbor, and ultra-rich playboy best friend. No more waiting around for Donna to put out, only to be thrown out with the trash so that she can pursue some low-life, girlfriend-beating, jackassed singer/songwriter piece of shit (especially after David was so supportive of Donna when she made that really risqué music video), here David plays a full on ladies man, who spends most of his days meeting and bedding ladies, and hanging out with his Chef best friend (who he co-owns a restaurant with).
So now, a mere 8 months later, ABC is running the very last Freddie episode. They actually announced that they were canceling the show earlier this season, but I continued to hope for the best, and even tried to buoy up support by talking about it on my TV/Freddie blog, but to no avail. To add insult to injury, ABC decided to run the previously unaired Pilot as the series & season finale. Only now, these 22 episodes and 8 months later, are we finally formally introduced to Freddie, his buddy David, and his family (grandmother, sister, sister in law, and niece). Only now, after all this time, do we learn the circumstances that have forced his family to move in with him, cramping his free-living bachelor ways. Tears freely flowed down my cheek as I watched Freddie and his family & friends end their first episode looking so fresh and full of hope. It left me with so many unanswered questions…
What will their experiences be like together now that they are all living together? Will they learn to live together happily? Will Freddie’s buddy David get frustrated with Freddie’s little digs at him, and decide to start a restaurant of his own, only for it to end up in disaster? Will Freddie have an episode where none of his guests order desserts from him anymore, only to find out that they are going to a new desert place down the street because their deserts are fantastic? Will he then go there and meet the woman owner, and fall in love with her and want to date her, only to find out that she is engaged to some European guy? What about one where Freddie has an episode where he has to deal with a food critic? That would be awesome. Will Freddie meet a nice girl from Grams’ church, only to find out that she is a virgin and wants him to be her first? I don’t know. None of us do, now that ABC has prematurely canceled Freddie.
The only thing that has really been keeping me going since the Thursday, June 1st, 2006, when the Pilot & series finale aired, is the hope that Freddie and his friends & family can continue to live on in my heart. Just last night I made up the funniest ideas for some new episodes, and just laid back and let them run their course in my head. I am really hoping that there is enough of a fan base that a publisher will consider releasing paperbacks based on the Freddie characters and experiences. I already have half written one idea for an episode of a book where Freddie and David go on a cruise ship together to meet some girls, and then a lot of really funny stuff happens on the boat and maybe they would fight over a girl or maybe solve a diamond heist mystery.
The main thing for you to know though, is that just then, at that exact moment when they'd solved the heist and their friendship was revived by the mutual realization that they'd just been used and played off each other by the girl, who it turned out was actually responsible for all the jewel robberies and she wasn't even French but just had a fake accent, right then when I was both super sad and super excited mixed because of how sad it was that Freddie was cancelled and how exciting it was that I was a genius, it was at that moment that I suddenly realized that Ned and I were going to start a new Ned And Daron Report magazine and dedicate it to Freddie, and novelizations of him, and fan fiction, poetry, art, photographs, and anything else that anyone has to say about how good and tender he is.
So, I guess this is the first article in our first issue then, just like every single issue that will follow it, it is totally and completely dedicated to Freddie and doesn't have anything else in it besides stuff about him except for some stuff about Lindsay Lohan and some other stuff about how hypocritical it is that French fuckers always tell us we're pronouncing croissant wrong, but they never go to any effort to pronounce hamburger right. (Continue)
