Undeclared

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Undeclared

Genre	Dramedy, Sitcom
Running time	22 Minutes
Creator(s)	Judd Apatow
Starring	Jay Baruchel Charlie Hunnam Timm Sharp Seth Rogen Carla Gallo Monica Keena Christina Payano Loudon Wainwright
Country of origin	USA
Original channel	FOX
Original run	September 2001–March 2002
No. of episodes	15, 2 unaired
IMDb profile

Undeclared was a U.S. television series that aired on FOX during the 2001–2002 TV season. The half-hour dramedy/sitcom was Judd Apatow's follow-up to the TV cult classic Freaks and Geeks. Undeclared centered on a group of college freshmen at the fictitious University of North Eastern California. Unlike Freaks, it was set in the current time rather than the 1980s. It gave a humorous (and humbly honest) look at the highs and lows of college life, from fraternity hazing to the dreaded freshman fifteen.

College is "the reward for surviving high school. Most people have great fun stories from college and nightmare stories from high school," Judd Apatow told the Los Angeles Times in 2006. He also speculated on why college shows find it hard to gain a foothold on network schedules.

"One reason for the dearth of college shows is that it's difficult to be honest about campus life on network or basic cable. It's hard to portray truthfully. The truth is, kids are high, drunk and having sex. No matter what you do, you're fudging it." [1]

Media outlets such as Entertainment Weekly gave the show generally glowing reviews. Despite a cult following, FOX cancelled the show in March 2002 after poor ratings. Viewership waned after a promising premiere, perhaps due to FOX airing the remaining episodes out of order and constantly moving the show across its scheduling grid. In total, 15 episodes were shown on FOX, while two unaired episodes were included in the DVD set released in the United States August 16, 2005.

1 Personnel
2 Episode Order
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Characters

Steven Karp (Jay Baruchel), the protagonist, was a celibate geek in high school who has a particular affinity for The Matrix. He grew up only ten minutes away from the U.N.E.C. campus. In college Steven is popular but still somewhat nerdy, lives in a suite with roommate Lloyd and suitemates Marshall and Ron, and dates Lizzie after she breaks up with her high school boyfriend. His major is left undeclared. He appreciates American Pie and Tenacious D, and briefly flirts with the idea of joining a fraternity.
Lloyd Haythe (Charlie Hunnam), the British ladies' man and theater major. Although he can annoy his roommate Steven with his habits of constant teasing and kicking Steven out of the room so he can have sex, Lloyd serves as an advisor in romantic affairs to all his suitemates. He goes through an existential crisis.
Marshall Nesbitt (Timm Sharp), who came to U.N.E.C. from Sioux City, Iowa. Although his father thinks he is a business major, Marshall is a music student. He is on the campus work study program and one of the best workers in the school cafeteria. He harbors a secret crush on Rachel.
Ron Garner (Seth Rogen), a wise-cracking, glasses-wearing, beer-guzzling Canadian business major who comes to U.N.E.C. from Vancouver. With his dry sense of humor, Ron is the brains of the group. He likes Maxim magazine and, surprisingly, romantic comedies aimed at women. He dates Kelly, a fellow student who gives campus tours.
Lizzie Exley (Carla Gallo), the neurotic, highly enthusiastic psychology major and object of Steven's affections. She flirts with all the guys, and sleeps with Steven on their first night at U.N.E.C., but mostly stays devoted to her possessive, much older boyfriend Eric from home. She dates Steven after breaking up with Eric, and considers joining a sorority.
Rachel Lindquist (Monica Keena), the self-proclaimed hottest girl in the dorm. She is prone to panic attacks, which likely stem from her over-protective and possessive mother, who once sent her to a rehab facility for six weeks for finding a joint in Rachel's room that she was too afraid to even try. She eventually breaks free of her anxiety and embraces a party girl mentality.
Tina Ellroy (Christina Payano), is Lizzie and Rachel's new suitemate, introduced mid-season who loves OMC's "How Bizarre."
Hal Karp (Loudon Wainwright), Steven's overprotective father, a recent divorcee who enrolls at NEC to finish his long-postponed degree. Hal is having a mid-life crisis and is a constant embarrassment to Steven.

[edit] Minor characters

Perry Madison (Jarrett Grode), bland, sarcastic dorm-mate who can DJ and free-style rap (11 episodes)
Eric (Jason Segel), Lizzie's obsessive ex-boyfriend who she breaks up with after sleeping with Steven. Eric had been dating Lizzie since she was in high school, and he is several years older than her. Eric works as the manager of a copy shop. (7 episodes)
Adam (Leroy Adams), student who lives on the gang's floor (5 episodes)
Trent (Jim Brooks), student who lives on the gang's floor (4 episodes)
Lucien (Kevin O. Rankin), nerdy RA on the gang's floor who has an obsession with Hillary the RA (3 episodes)
Hillary (Amy Poehler), another RA who hits on Lloyd; and at one point, dates Hal (3 episodes)
Luke (Kevin Hart), a religious African-American student on campus who converts Steven to Christianity (3 episodes)
Greg (David Krumholtz), Eric's close friend and co-worker at the copy shop (2 episodes)
Eugene (Kyle Gass), Eric's other close friend and co-worker at the copy shop (2 episodes)
Mr. Burundi (Gerry Bednob), Indian boss at the school cafeteria where Steven and Marshall work (2 appearances)
Kelly (Busy Phillips), an attractive tour guide on campus who Ron develops a crush on and later begins dating (2 appearances)

[edit] Guests and Cameos

Tom Welling (as Tom, "Pilot")
Simon Helberg (as Jack, "Pilot")
Mike White (as Pet Store Employee, "Eric Visits")
Jordan Black (as Card Guy, "Addicts")
Will Ferrell (as Dave, "Addicts")
Allen Covert (as himself, "The Assistant")
Jonathan Loughran (as himself, "The Assistant")
Adam Sandler (as himself, "The Assistant")
Sarah Hagan (as Jordanna, "Eric Visits Again")
Samm Levine (as Books, "Rush and Pledge"/"Hell Week")
Natasha Melnick (as Jenni, "Rush and Pledge"/"Hell Week")
Fred Willard (as Professor Duggan, "So You Have a Boyfriend")
Mary Kay Place (as Mrs. Lindquist, "Parent's Weekend")
Martin Starr (as Theo, "The Perfect Date")
Ben Stiller (as Rex, "Eric's POV")
Jenna Fischer (as Sorority Girl, "Prototype," and Betty, "Sick in the Head")
Kimberly Stewart (as Amanda - Lloyd's sister "Parent's Weekend")

[edit] Episode Order

On the DVD, the episodes were ordered by production number. However, according to Judd Apatow, this was a mistake. [2] The preferred order to watching the series (with the story in chronological order) is as follows:

1. Prototype
2a. Oh, So You Have A Boyfriend?
2b. Full Bluntal Nugety
3. Eric Visits
4. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
5. Sick in the Head
6. The Assistant
7. Addicts
8. God Visits
9. Parents Weekend
10. Eric Visits Again
11. Rush and Pledge
12. Hell Week
13. Truth or Dare
14. The Day After
15. The Perfect Date
16. Hal and Hilary
17. Eric's POV

In the order found default on the DVD, pressing "Play All" would be incorrect.

[edit] Trivia

The DVD box set contains one episode, "God Visits", that was produced but never aired on American television.
The DVD also contains the script to an unproduced episode that was written for the show's second season. It was written by Lewis Morton, and it was titled "Lloyd's Rampage". It revolves around Lloyd getting into a fight with Kieran, the star student of his acting class, and deciding that he wants to experience real life. So, Steven and Lloyd go to a bar and end up in a fight with some working class men, which impresses Kieran when Lloyd tells him about it. A subplot in the episode revolves around Marshall getting extremely drunk and throwing up in a bar. When he is throwing up, Perry takes a picture and video, and makes T-shirts and posters and puts them around campus. Marshall is embarrassed at first, but he is glad when he finds out about all of the attention that he gets as "Puke Dude." Unfortunately for him, this doesn't last long when everyone forgets about him after another student poops his pants in the library. Perry's last name is revealed to be Madison in this episode. The role of Kieran was written for That 70s Show star Topher Grace, but he never appeared in the episode because of a dispute with 70s show co-creator Mark Brazill. [3]
Creator Apatow also served as an executive producer, director, and writer for the series Freaks and Geeks. Many Freaks and Geeks alumni have appeared on Undeclared. They include regular Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, Samm Levine, Sarah Hagan, Martin Starr and Natasha Melnick. Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig directed several episodes of Undeclared.
Famous directors that have directed Undeclared episodes include Jon Favreau (Elf, Made), Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks), Jake Kasdan (Orange County) and Broken Lizard's Jay Chandrasekhar.
Included on the DVD, episode 2B ("Full Bluntal Nugety") is a director's cut of episode 2 ("Oh, So You Have a Boyfriend") as it aired. Some scenes were deleted and others were re-filmed in order to trim time off the length of the episode. This was explained in the literature that came with the DVD. See here.