Line #26 Series/Undeclared


1	[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/undeclared-logo_9730.jpg]]
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3	A {{Sitcom}} produced by Creator/JuddApatow, coming fresh off his critically-acclaimed but ratings-deprived and [[ExecutiveMeddling executive-meddled]] ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks''. This show was no more successful, with only 17 episodes and equal amounts of ExecutiveMeddling, but was similarly on ''[[Magazine/TimeMagazine Time]]'' magazine's "Top 10 New Shows." The show was produced in autumn 2000, but didn't air on Creator/{{Fox}} until autumn 2001.
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5	Steven Karp (Creator/JayBaruchel) is a brand-new freshman at North East California University who is excited with his chance to escape his {{geek}} status from high school. The title comes from Steven having an [[TitleDrop "Undeclared"]] major. Despite feeling overwhelmed by being out on his own for the first time and with roommates who are slightly aloof to him, he trudges forward in an attempt to be less awkward then he really is. One of the bright spots of Steven's first day was striking a friendship with a [[GirlNextDoor girl in the dorm across the hall]], Lizzie (Carla Gallo). During the first party of the year, his dad shows up and with news that he is getting divorced from his Mom. Steven tries to be his Dad's friend but it ends up overwhelming him and he spends time in his room alone crying.
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7	Lizzie accidentally stumbles into his room and tries to console him and herself, the reason being that her long-distance boyfriend Eric can go from affectionate and loving one minute and then yelling and dumping her the next minute, only to apologize the next day and start the pattern all over again (A male version of a {{Tsundere}}). Lizzie, tired of it all, proposes sex with Steven to help them [[ItMakesSenseInContext acclimate to the college experience.]]
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9	The next day Lizzie is surprised and a little ashamed at what she did, expecially when Eric calls and apologizes. Steven, on the other hand, can't get her out of his mind and feels that she is his future girlfriend. And this is all on the first episode.
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11	Subsequent episodes elaborate more on Steven's roommates and Lizzie's roommate Rachel (Creator/MonicaKeena). While Steven has not quite shed his geek image, his roommates warm up to him. Lloyd (Creator/CharlieHunnam) is a Theatre Major from England and shares the same bedroom with Steven. He is quite popular with the ladies and becomes a sort of mentor to Steven. Ron (Creator/SethRogen) is a Business Major and for the most part the more sensible one of the group, though he has his own issues with girls and dating. Marshall (Creator/TimmSharp) is a Music Major with a big crush on Rachel and who could be slightly neurotic, trying to pick up on Lloyd's mannerisms.
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13	Steven and Lizzie are the main characters and the entire show is mostly about him trying to get the girl and then keep her. Steven becomes cooler and more confident in himself. He and his roommates grow into a close-knit, [[TrueCompanions protective circle]] -- defending themselves against other groups at the college. An especially troublesome group is the Fraternity that Steven earns the ire of. Rachel is trying to find her own identity and slowly finds herself becoming a bit of a party girl. Steven's recently divorced dad Hal (Creator/LoudonWainwrightIII) becomes close friends with his roommates.
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15	The show did not use a laugh track and relied heavily on improvisation from the actors. The characters' personalities were actually based on the actors; the first episode was not written until the actors were cast. The series strove to be as true to the college experience as possible on network television; parties, sex and drugs are alluded to but are not explicit. Creator/JuddApatow said that he didn't intend for the show to be as autobiographical as it became. Seth Rogen was one of the writers, which made no end of jokes on his behalf when he wrote the episode where his character makes out with a LoveInterest.
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17	The actor playing Lizzie's boyfriend Eric, Creator/JasonSegel, was actually the one Apatow wanted to play Steven, but the network wanted more of an underdog or [[TheEveryman everyman]] for the role. (Opinions may vary but part of Baruchel's appeal in the show was that he subverted the male HollywoodHomely type, something Segal would not have done.) As a result, Eric made an appearance in nearly every episode, either on the phone or in person as a sort of TakeThat to the network. By coincidence the last episode focused more on Eric than the other characters.
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20	!!''Undeclared'' provides examples of...
21	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Tina, to Lloyd. She's more than a little creepy around him.
22	* AirVentPassageway: Subverted. Steven tries to escape from Eric in the laundry room and the vent collapses.
23	* CelebrityParadox:
24	** Will Ferrell is referenced in the fourth episode as a cast member of "Saturday Night Live", which makes it odd that he cameos as a guy named Dave in episode 7, as a dealer in term papers.
25	** Also, Amy Poehler is in a couple episodes (Granted, they filmed in 2000, and she didn't join "SNL" until fall 2001, but it makes it seem like they would've seen her around the same time the show aired).
26	** Kyle Gass plays one of Eric's co-workers but there's a Music/TenaciousD poster in one of the dorms. There are also several pieces of ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' memorabilia, despite Fred Willard playing a professor.
27	* CloudCuckooLander: Marshall.
28	* CollegeIsHighSchoolPart2: For the most part, averted. Although the show's characters seem alarmingly unambitious and carefree for college students.
29	** Even at the most prestigious universities, you're bound to meet at least one or two people like that. So, to a small extent, this may be TruthInTelevision.
30	** [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Also, the generally mundane lives of most college students probably wouldn't make for very interesting television]].
31	** Nevertheless, the classrooms appear to resemble high school classrooms more often than not (lecture halls, for example are rarely seen), and the professors tend to act like befuddled high school teachers. The subject matter they present is often startlingly lowbrow (even for a freshman 100-level course) and full of silly editorializing. In "God Visits," for example, the Philosophy professor introduces Existentialism by declaring "Existentialists believe that the universe is meaningless, and that human beings have no purpose." Which is not only an absurd oversimplification, but inaccurate. He then proceeds to apologize for going over time and interrupting their lunch (as though all students would be having lunch at the same time) on "Taco Tuesday. Ben Stein's famous "Beuller...Bueller" lecture sounds more like a freshman-level lecture, albeit a (deliberately) boring one.
32	%%* CoolOldGuy: Hal is this to Steven's roommates, especially Lloyd. Much to Steven's chagrin.
33	%%* CreditCardPlot
34	%%* CringeComedy
35	%%* DeadpanSnarker: Ron.
36	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Steven. Woobieness aside, taking Lizzie's phone and calling Eric just to dick around with him and talk about how him and Lizzie are getting married wasn't smart.
37	* DVDCommentary: The series DVD has one for every episode, but sometimes they throw in about 5 commentators and they go off on tangents not related to the show at all.
38	* {{Expy}}: Jason Segal's character Eric, the overly-devoted boyfriend, is very similar to the his character Nick from ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks.''
39	** Seth Rogen's character Ron also shares similarities with his former character Ken from ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks.''
40	* {{Fanservice}}: The opening of one episode has Lizzie and Rachel casually walking into the guys' suite in their bras, as a sign that they consider the guys to be [[LikeBrotherAndSister like brothers]].
41	%%* GenreSavvy: Perry, moreso than any freshman should.
42	%%* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Rachel
43	* Hypocrite: Tina. Can't stand her original roommate for practicing the same song over and over; then irritates Rachel by playing her own song, over and over.
44	* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: Lizzie. In one episode she walks around in her underwear to see if she can get a reaction from Steven, and interprets his averted gaze as a sign of disinterest and not him trying to give her respect.
45	* PrettyBoy: Lloyd is so beautiful that EvenTheGuysWantHim.
46	-->'''Perry''': You're hotter then most chicks! What are you doing in college, anyway? People like you don't even need to know how to read!
47	* ReadingTheStageDirectionsOutLoud: In episode 11, Perry does this while trying to help Lloyd read a play - "As your mother, I am very disappointed that you want to kill your brother, she sighs and exits with her luggage".
48	* {{Sexiled}}: Steven given Lloyd's womanizing tendencies. Though Steven got to do this to Lloyd a few times, some just out of spite and a couple of times for real with Lizzie.
49	* SoundtrackDissonance: Played for laughs. When Eric is chasing Steven all over campus, the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' theme song plays, even though Steven is running for his life and spends the entire episode trying to avoid a fistfight.
50	* SpecialGuest: Creator/AdamSandler and Ted Nugent playing themselves. Creator/WillFerrell, Creator/BenStiller, Kyle Gass and [[Series/{{Numb3rs}} David Krumholtz]] played minor characters in certain episodes.
51	* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'', albeit with a lighter tone. Apatow specifically said that after making a rather serious high school drama he figured he would try for a light-hearted college comedy. Unfortunately it suffered the same fate of being ScrewedByTheNetwork.
52	* TheThemeParkVersion: While the show did depict and address several true to life college issues (The Freshman Fifteen, religious confusion, sex, partying, etc.), it was still a pretty unrealistic depiction of college life, due in no small part to the heavy amounts of ExecutiveMeddling it suffered from.
53	%%* ThoseTwoGuys: Ron and Marshall, Greg and Eugene.
54	* VillainEpisode: Sadly the last episode, meaning the main characters were hardly in it.
55	* WackyFratboyHijinx: Downplayed. Steven and his friends get into some pretty crazy situations with the Theta Delta Zeta fraternity, but most of them are realistically awkward and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
56	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Brits unaware of Charlie Hunnam (Lloyd) would assume he's an American actor as he cannot do a convincing English accent. In reality, Hunnam is English. Maybe he was told to do a posher [[{{IAmVeryBritish}} Received Pronunciation]] rather than his native North East via Cumbria dialect, but his accent in ''Series/QueerAsFolkUK'' wasn't particularly strong. That some producer could tell the finer differences between his normal accent and the Queen's English but not the final catastrophic alternative is particularly bemusing.
57	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Various clues place UNEC in the Sacramento area. Or do they?
58	* WillTheyOrWontThey: Partially averted. Considering the first episode was Steven and Lizzie hooking up, it was more a matter of when they'll get back together. There was never really a push for this, but it was always left on the table. For example, Steven and Lizzie tried to be JustFriends for a few episodes but quit after things became too awkward.

Context Series / Undeclared