Undeclared - or another "how come nobody told me" thread

I think there's something on one of commentary tracks for F&G about how their scheduling got screwed up by the playoffs, too.

Awesome show. Great casting.

 

They never let the show develop. How a show with three hot chicks and a comic book premise could die so quick...I have no clue

 

Not sure if someone pointed this out, but pilot of Undeclared was scheduled to air.....
Sept. 11, 2001.

Needless to say, it didn't air and the show never had a set schedule.

 

Absolutely true. It started on Saturdays before the playoffs then got shelved for the playoffs. Then it came back on Mondays, I believe, but it got shelved AGAIN after just one or two airings b/c the ratings weren't great and it was November sweeps. Then it came back in January on Mondays and got a couple airings before it was shitcanned for good.

The special features on the DVD (I got the super extra special yearbook edition for my birthday a few years back, it is awesome) make it clear the cast and crew knew the writing was on the wall, that a bunch of fucking suits who fashioned themselves as cool hip cats and figured every kid should look like he came out of an abercrombie and fitch catalogue would never allow a show about real kids--and starring actors who looked like real kids--to succeed. Apparently, the show got 60 seconds of promotion in the week before its final airing.

Knowing they were doomed, the writers just went balls out doing what they wanted. Along those lines, the last show to air in its scheduled time slot, I believe, was the one where Seth Rogen's character realizes his girlfriend is a hermaphodite. The next day, at like 9 am, the show was cancelled. Judd Apatow is convinced some stiff suit saw the show for the first time the previous night and said there is no way we can allow a show with a hermaphodite to continue airing.

Viewer demand led to NBC showing three unaired episodes on a Saturday night in the summer of 2000. It got boffo ratings (for a Saturday night, at least).

The show deserved a far better fate, but I give Apatow and Paul Feig a ton of credit for writing a perfect one-season show and crafting an almost perfect, if vaguely foreboding, ending to a series that they probably envisioned lasting far more than one season.

It's encouraging, too, that Apatow is now one of the hottest "A" guys in Hollywood. The easiest thing to do would have been to wallow in despair, but he stuck to his guns and managed to beat the fuckers at their own game. I wonder if any of the skullfucks at NBC circa 1999-00 have the balls to say they knew him when.

 

Because...it kind of sucked. Hate to say it, but it's true. I watched the first episode because of the Batman/eye candy angle and was bored.
"Undeclared" -- that was a great show. They really nailed the whole thing about college life. Thank God Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen became Hollywood "A" listers to show that life is somewhat fair.

 

Rogen's starring in another movie this year, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." I'm sure that'll be entertaining, to say the least.

 

As for Undeclared, I always thought of it as Freaks and Geeks in which the geeks sleep with hot girls. I liked the show, it was funny and it reminded me of my own dorm daze, but it was nowhere near as good as F&G. It was like Apatow and Co. modified F&G to fit the acceptable standards of a sitcom. You could see how talented the cast and crew was, but c'mon...could Apatow really believe in what he was writing re: hooking up Steven and Rachel when he'd already written the truest teenage love arc at F&G, where Sam lusts after Cindy and briefly lands her only to find out she's vain and shallow and a complete waste of space?

 

Holy shit you're weird.

 

That's what clinched it for you?

 

Good point.

 

Hey Pall blow it out your ass!!!

And way to buddy up with the winner Mike311GD, who hasn't been laid since Monica Lewinsky had a clean dress. I think I saw you two at a bar the other night:

 

That's awesome, you glorious idiot!