Freaks and Geeks’

Samm Levine:

William Shatner Is a Gigantic %&?@$#!

Call it The Revenge of the Geek. For years, Samm Levine – who’s featured in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming WWII Nazi-hunting flick Inglourious Basterds – had been a William Shatner fan. But after coming face-to-face with the original Captain Kirk at a Billy Joel-Elton John concert recently, Samm isn’t exactly singing his praises. The one-time standup comic recounts how his impression of William helped him land the role of geek Neal Schweiber on Freeks. Later in the show, when asked, “Is Shatner aware that he’s responsible for your acting career?” Samm tells how the actor snubbed him repeatedly. Then he says, “There are only two reasonable excuses for that. One: He’s a gigantic a - - - - - -. Or two: He’s clearly just an old man with mad cow disease.”