| Genre: | Sitcom |
| Creator: | Judd Apatow |
| Starring: | Jay Baruchel Carla Gallo Charlie Hunnam Monica Keena Seth Rogen Timm Sharp Loudon Wainwright |
| Theme Music Composer: | The Dandy Warhols |
| Opentheme: | "Solid" |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 17 |
| Executive Producer: | Judd Apatow |
| Camera: | Single-camera |
| Runtime: | 22 minutes |
| Company: | Apatow Productions DreamWorks Television |
| Network: | Fox |
Undeclared is an American sitcom created by Judd Apatow, which aired on Fox during the 2001–02 season. The show has developed a cult following, and in 2012, Entertainment Weekly listed it at #16 in the "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years".[1]
The half-hour comedy was Judd Apatow's follow-up to an earlier television series he worked on, Freaks and Geeks, which also lasted for one season. Undeclared centers on a group of college freshmen at the fictional University of Northeastern California. Unlike Freaks and Geeks, it is set contemporaneously (early 2000s) rather than the early 1980s.
| Name | Actor | Major | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steven Karp | Jay Baruchel | Undeclared | A celibate geek in high school, Steven has a particular affinity for The Matrix and The X-Files. He grew up only ten minutes away from the UNEC campus. In college, Steven is fairly popular among the students, but he is still somewhat nerdy. | |
| Lizzie Exley | Carla Gallo | Psychology | Steven's highly enthusiastic, somewhat neurotic floor mate and eventual girlfriend. She initially dated Eric (Jason Segel) but she dumped him after she'd slept with Steven during their first day at UNEC. | |
| Lloyd Haythe | Charlie Hunnam | Theater | Steven's English roommate. He often makes Steven leave their room so that he can have sex. Despite constantly picking on Steven, Lloyd is very protective of him and usually tries to look out for his best interests. Due to his popularity with women, Lloyd often serves as an adviser in romantic affairs to all his suite mates. He frequently emphasizes his "Britishness" and mannered temperament, however, Lloyd is shown to be the most aggressive of the group, and very quick to anger. | |
| Rachel Lindquist | Monica Keena | Undeclared | Lizzie's roommate. Is initially nervous at the prospect of living away from her family, but eventually breaks free of her anxiety and embraces a party girl mentality. | |
| Ron Garner | Seth Rogen | Business | Steven's wise-cracking, glasses-wearing, beer-guzzling, chubby Canadian suite-mate who comes to UNEC from Vancouver. With his dry sense of humor, Ron is the brains of the group. Briefly dates Kelly (Busy Philipps), a campus tour guide. | |
| Marshall Nesbitt | Timm Sharp | Music | Steven's suite-mate who came to UNEC from Sioux City, Iowa. His parents still believe that he is a business major, although he switched courses at the last minute. Despite his less-than-stellar work ethic, he is Mr. Burundi's (Gerry Bednob) favorite worker at the cafeteria. He has a big crush on Rachel, but never has the courage to ask her on a date. | |
| Hal Karp | Loudon Wainwright III | (N/A) | Steven's father, who experiences a mid-life crisis after being divorced by Steven's mother. Hal sometimes spends time socially with the gang, which often results in Steven's embarrassment. | |
| Tina Ellroy | Christina Payano | Unknown | Lizzie and Rachel's suite-mate introduced mid-season. Moves into the vacated room in Lizzie and Rachel's suite during the unaired episode "God Visits". |
Numerous actors from Freaks and Geeks appeared on Undeclared portraying new characters, including Rogen, Segel, Levine, Starr, Phillips, and Melnick, among several others.[2]
When first shown on network television, many episodes were aired out of order, much to Apatow's dismay. When originally released on DVD, the episodes were presented in their production order, which was a mistake according to Apatow.[3] However, newer versions of the DVD present the episodes in the correct chronological order, restoring all storylines and character developments. In addition, an alternate version of the second episode, titled "Full Bluntal Nugety" is included on the DVD release of the series.
The DVD contains the script to an unproduced episode, "Lloyd's Rampage" (written by Lewis Morton), 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 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 defecates in 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 Apatow and That '70s Show co-creator Mark Brazill.[4]
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 titled "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, Segel and Cardellini were dating.
In June 2010, it was announced that the Independent Film Channel had acquired the rights to air both Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks.[5] Undeclared premiered on IFC on November 5, 2010.[6] Both Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks began rerunning on the TeenNick network on June 13, 2011.[7] Netflix also had Undeclared (in the past) and had the episodes in their original chronological order.
On August 16, 2005, Shout! Factory and DreamWorks Home Entertainment released the complete series of Undeclared on DVD in Region 1. The four-disc boxed set contains all 17 episodes, including an unaired episode and a bonus director's cut.
According to Apatow, the producers were unable to get clearance for all the music in the series (not being able to use about 10 songs). Since the uncleared songs were considered to not play a significant role in the series, they were switched with a suitable substitute.[3]
| Undeclared: The Complete Series | |||||
| Set details | Special features | ||||
| Factory/DreamWorks Home Entertainment
|
| |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release date | |||||
| Region 1 | August 16, 2005 | ||||
Undeclared received critical acclaim from television critics. On Metacritic, the series earned a score of 85 out of 100, based on 24 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[8] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 93% with an average score of 8.18/10 based on reviews from 30 critics. The website's critical consensus reads, "Undeclared lives in the shadow of its Apatow-produced predecessor but still delivers an insightful and sweet year of self-discovery on campus."[9]
In 2020, Briana Kranich of Screen Rant named Undeclared as one of the 10 Most Underrated Shows Of the Noughties.[10]
The show averaged 7.3 million viewers and was #93 in the rankings during its only season.[11]