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Undeclared
The cast of Undeclared
Genre	Comedy-drama
Created by	Judd Apatow
Starring	Jay Baruchel Carla Gallo Charlie Hunnam Monica Keena Seth Rogen Timm Sharp Loudon Wainwright
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	17 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Judd Apatow
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Apatow Productions DreamWorks Television
Broadcast
Original channel	Fox
Original run	September 25, 2001 (2001-09-25) – March 12, 2002 (2002-03-12)

Undeclared is an American comedy television series that aired on Fox during the 2001–2002 season.

Premise

The half-hour comedy-drama was Judd Apatow's follow-up to the TV cult classic Freaks and Geeks, which also lasted for one season. Undeclared centered on a group of college freshmen at the fictional University of North Eastern California. Unlike Freaks, it was set in the current time of the early 2000s rather than the 1980s. It gave a humorous look at the highs and lows of college life, from young adult relationships to the dreaded freshman fifteen. It takes its name from the status of an undergraduate who has not yet decided, or "declared", a specific major of study they wish to take.

Critique

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 death 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, though the general audience did not seem to share the same opinion of the show, as Fox canceled the show in March 2002 after poor ratings. In total, 15 episodes were shown on Fox, while two unaired episodes were included in the DVD set released in the United States on August 16, 2005.

Characters

Main characters

Recurring characters

• Perry Madison (Jarrett Grode), bland, sarcastic dorm-mate who can DJ and free-style rap. (12 episodes)
• Tina Ellroy (Christina Payano), Lizzie and Rachel's suitemate introduced mid-season. Moves into the vacated room in Lizzie and Rachel's suite during the unaired episode "God Visits". (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. (8 episodes)
• P.B. (P.B. Smiley), student who lives on the gang's floor. (6 episodes)
• Trent (Jim Brooks), student who lives on the gang's floor. (4 episodes)
• Lucien (Kevin Rankin), nerdy RA on the gang's floor who has an obsession with Hillary the RA. (4 episodes)
• Hillary (Amy Poehler), another RA who hits on Lloyd; and at one point, dates Hal. (2 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 episodes)
• Kelly (Busy Phillips), an attractive tour guide on campus who Ron develops a crush on and later begins dating. (2 episodes)
• Susuki (Joanne Cho), Tina's roommate, whose constant violin practice annoys Tina. (2 episodes)

Guests and cameos

• Jenna Fischer (as Sorority Girl, "Prototype" and Betty, "Sick in the Head")
• Simon Helberg (as Jack, "Prototype")
• Tom Welling (as Tom, "Prototype")
• Fred Willard (as Professor Duggan, "Oh, So You Have a Boyfriend")
• Ted Nugent (as himself, "Full Bluntal Nugety")
• Mike White (as Pet Store Employee, "Eric Visits")
• Allen Covert (as himself, "The Assistant")
• Jonathan Loughran (as himself, "The Assistant")
• Adam Sandler (as himself, "The Assistant")
• Jordan Black (as Card Guy, "Addicts")
• Will Ferrell (as Dave, "Addicts")
• Felicia Day (as Sheila, "God Visits")
• Mary Kay Place (as Mrs. Lindquist, "Parents' Weekend")
• Kimberly Stewart (as Amanda - Lloyd's sister, "Parents' Weekend")
• 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")
• Martin Starr (as Theo, "The Perfect Date")
• Youki Kudoh (as Kikuki, "Hal and Hilary")
• Ben Stiller (as Rex, "Eric's POV")

Episodes

Ratings

The show averaged 7.3 million viewers and was #93 in the rankings during its only season.^[2]

Episode order

Undeclared DVD cover art

On the DVD, the episodes were ordered by production number. However, according to Judd Apatow, this was a mistake.^[3] The preferred viewing order (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 Hillary
• 17. Eric's POV

DVD releases

On August 16, 2005, Shout! Factory released the complete series of Undeclared on DVD in Region 1. The four-disc boxed set contains special features such as an unaired episode and the script for an un-filmed episode.

Undeclared- The Complete Series
Set details			Special features
Studio: Shout! Factory 17 episodes 1.33:1 aspect ratio English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround) Subtitles: None			A never-before-seen episode Director's cut of popular episode with Ted Nugent 18 commentaries with directors, writers & cast Deleted scenes, auditions, outtakes,rehearsals and extended takes Loudon Wainwright live concert footage Museum of Television & Radio Q&A 28-page booklet Script for unproduced episode
Release date
North America	16 August 2005

Trivia

• The show was given the production name Slammin' 40s.^{[citation needed]}

• 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, "Lloyd's Rampage", which was written for the show's second season. 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 shits 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 between Judd Apatow and That 70's Show co-creator Mark Brazill.^[4]

• 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, including 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. Also, in the episode "Hell Week", a fraternity trashes the main characters' room; one of the phrases spray-painted on the walls is "Greeks Not Freaks".

• During a question-and-answer session, Judd Apatow stated that if the series had been picked up for a second season, there would have been an episode entitled "Eric's Birthday" in which Lizzie and Steven would go to the birthday party mentioned in episode "Eric's POV". Linda Cardellini of Freaks and Geeks would have played his new girlfriend. In the episode, Eric would have had a cake with a picture of him and his new girlfriend printed on it. Lizzie would have been given the piece with Eric's new girlfriend's face. At the time Jason Segel was dating Linda Cardellini.

• Charlie Hunnam's then-wife Katharine Towne appeared in the episode "Sick in the Head" as Lloyd's girlfriend, Rebecca.

• Seth Rogen wrote one episode of Undeclared ("Sick in the Head") and co-wrote four others.^[5]

• Famous directors that have directed Undeclared episodes include Jon Favreau (Swingers, Made, Iron Man) Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks), Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard, Orange County), Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Greg Mottola (Superbad), John Hamburg (I Love You, Man, Along Came Polly), 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. Ted Nugent guest-starred, but his scenes were cut.

• The bar that the girls go into in the episode "The Day After" is Jacks in Pittsburgh on the South Side.

• Lloyd and Stephen's room has a Tenacious D poster on the door. Kyle Gass, one half of the parody rock duo, guests on the show as Eugene.

• In the show Eric (played by Jason Segel) is said to be eight years older than Lizzy (played by Carla Gallo) when in reality Gallo is 5 years older than Segel.

• During the filming of Undeclared, Seth Rogen showed Judd Apatow the script for the film Superbad, and they had a table read with the cast. Rogen read for Seth (played by Jonah Hill), Jason Segel read for Evan (played by Michael Cera), and Martin Starr read for Fogell (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse).^{[citation needed]}

• Jason Segel (who played Eric) and Carla Gallo reunited in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Segel wrote and starred in. Gallo had a cameo as one of his post-breakup dates. A hidden scene on the collector's edition DVD references their characters on Undeclared.

• The show's opening theme is "Solid" by The Dandy Warhols.^[6]

• The show was filmed at USC's Marks Hall dormitory.^{[citation needed]}

International

Country	Broadcasting	TV Network(s)
Germany	Saturday at 13:35	ProSieben
Netherlands	Saturday and Sunday at 11:40	RTL 4
Peru	Monday to Friday at 03:30	Frecuencia Latina

References

External links

• Undeclared at the Internet Movie Database
• Undeclared at TV.com