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UNDECLARED

Judd Apatow, the man who brought you Freaks and Geeks, is back with a new half-hour comedy, Undeclared. Imagine a time when both freaks and geeks have finally graduated from high school and begin attending the University of Northeastern California. You’ve got something like Undeclared. First, A&F’s Patrick Carone talks with Judd about his new show. 
Then Guy Cimbalo talks with the cast—Charlie Hunnam, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogan, Monica Keena, Carla Gallo and Timothy Sharp—about life in a nationally televised dorm room. 
First off, I got to see the set of Undeclared, and that dorm looks exactly like mine did. It was kind of creepy. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make the hallways look like those horrible dorm hallways. And I said to my production designer after looking at his crappy office—which had carpeting that only went halfway up the wall—I said, "Why don’t we do that with our hallway?" And he was so upset, he kept saying, "It’s going to look terrible," and I said, "Yeah, it’s going to look terrible in the way that those dorms look terrible." Because I went to school at USC in 1985, the layout of the dorm is exactly the layout of Fluor Tower at USC. People there will be confused and amused. 
Besides the physical look of the show, are there other elements that come from your own time in college? The one aspect of the show that is similar to my experience is the geeky kid going to college. I always start with that one character who I feel is like me, and I send him off. So the show is about being an awkward kid who shows up at college with the intention of changing his reputation. "People at college don’t know I’m a geek—I can trick them into thinking I’m cool." That’s the subtle subtext. So he’s trying to shed his skin a little bit, but it’s not easy. That’s what I felt like when I went to USC—it was an opportunity to redefine myself. 
What did you study? I studied screenwriting at USC, not because I wanted to be a screenwriter, but because I was doing stand-up comedy at the time. I was trying to figure out a major that would be fun to do while I tried to be the next Jay Leno. 
When did you start doing stand-up? I started in high school and did it for about eight years. I would open for a lot of more successful comedians, like Jim Carrey. And slowly all of those comedians would ask me to write jokes for them, because my jokes were well-written, even if I didn’t perform them very well. That’s how I became a writer. But when I went to school, I was only 17 years old and had no idea how to be a writer and wasn’t really into it. I was very bad, because I had no life experience. There were so many people there who were so talented—I was actually in the same class as Macy Gray, who we knew as Natalie at that point—and especially when you’re 17, 18 years old, it can be very daunting. 
But you must have learned quickly; you were good enough to become the co-creator and executive producer of The Ben Stiller Show by the time you were 23. I met Ben Stiller in line at an Elvis Costello Unplugged concert. We both knew that HBO was looking for a sketch show, so we decided to come up with an idea. We pitched it two weeks later, and they bought it right away, but then they decided to sell the show to Fox. Before I knew it, I was the executive producer of this sketch show, and I had never even had a staff job. I had no idea what I was doing, but Ben knew what he was doing, and I learned as quickly as possible. Then I became so busy producing that show that I retired from performing. 
How far did you get with stand-up? I was on HBO’s Young Comedians Special with Janeane Garofalo and Ray Romano in 1992. I thought I should curse a lot ’cause I was on HBO. Now they show it all the time on Comedy Central, and they bleep me every six seconds. I look like I’m Richard Pryor. It’s so lame, it looks terrible. And none of the jokes needed curses; they were just thrown in for effect—it’s nothing I’m proud of. 
I wonder if I’ve ever seen it before—most people don’t really know what you look like. There’s no need for anyone to know what I look like—that is not going to help anybody out. 
And after The Ben Stiller Show? I worked on The Larry Sanders Show and a cartoon called The Critic. I just wanted to be around the best people to learn as much as I could, and Gary Shandling and James L. Brooks really are my idols. So it was a perfect year to learn how to write comedy much better than I was writing it. I also cowrote a kids’ movie for Disney called Heavyweights that’s actually pretty funny. It’s about a summer camp for overweight kids. Ben Stiller plays the bad guy—he’s the Tony Robbins–like evil guru of the camp. It’s like Stalag 17 with overweight boys. 
And then you created Freaks and Geeks—poignant, hilarious, critically acclaimed—and canceled after one season. At first, a lot of people at NBC were very, very passionate about it. They always knew it may not be the easiest sell to America—it’s both a comedy and a drama, it’s about kids suffering in a way that isn’t always amusing, it’s not escapist fare—but people there related to the show and really fought for it. And once we got on the air, even though we didn’t get a lot of promotional support, we were left alone. Overall, we were able to make the show we wanted to make—there isn’t a frame of that show that I’m not 100 percent happy with, and to me that’s the real success of the program: We didn’t have to sell any part of it out to get an audience. 
It must have been kind of depressing. It is very depressing, but not for an enormous amount of time. I just wanted to create another show—Undeclared—so I could continue working with all of the great people that I had been collaborating with. 
Did what happened with Freaks and Geeks—both its successes and failures—affect how you went about doing Undeclared? When I sold Undeclared, part of the pitch was, What if we did a show about college that wasn’t about the pain of high school, but was about the freedom of college? You survived high school and college is your reward, but you have to deal with the fact that you are given all of this freedom, but at the same time you have to deal with the responsibility of getting good grades and trying to figure out what kind of adult you’re going to be. And this show would be much more of a comedy than Freaks and Geeks, but still have a lot of the warm human moments that Freaks and Geeks has. 
Guy Cimbalo speaks to the cast 
Have you guys done the college thing in real life? Charlie No. I would be there now. I’ve visited my friends, though. Carla I did. I went to Cornell University, so I had a very typical college experience. Charlie Yeah, I went to college in the Lake District in England—Cambry College for Art and Design. I did film and writing and acting, just a general two-year course. It wasn’t like "college" college. Monica I’m still enrolled at NYU, and this show seems like a more accurate college experience than my real one. 
Are there jocks on the show? Who are you guys? Jay- I’m sure you can tell by my physique that football’s my strong suit on the show—and off. I’m being sarcastic. Monica- I think who I am is just... who am I? But isn’t that the question? And that’s probably what my character is thinking right now. Timothy- Marshall is definitely not the cool guy in the generic sense, in the expected sense of cool. But in his own way he’s cool. Carla- My character goes through a little bit of a... I don’t even wanna say a self-realization, ’cause I don’t really know if she ever does realize. She comes to school having a boyfriend, and they learn that it’s not gonna work. Then she finds out about the boys across the hall, and the trouble begins. Charlie- Just a guy that I think got sick of being in England and decided that he wanted to become an actor, and so California was the place to go and study. Seth- I’m not so respectable, I’m a little conniving here and there. Very self-serving, which is good. Who else are you gonna serve? That’s what I say. 
Since some of you guys have done college, some haven’t, maybe we can do a little role playing; understand Undeclared in a larger sense. Most important, what distinguishes Undeclared from Saved by the Bell: The College Years? Jay- Oh, well, you know—that’s pretty much the gold standard, so everything we do is striving towards that. Undeclared isn’t pretentious; it’s honest and then it’s honest and it’s funny. Carla- I definitely caught the high school years, but I didn’t see the college ones. But I think I can venture to guess what they were like. I think mostly that Judd Apatow has a knack for touching on reality, like he did with Freaks and Geeks. Monica- Unfortunately there’s no Screech. 
Imagine your character is living with a roommate and you find out that he’s actually a white man, taking tanning pills and posing as a black man so that he can get a scholarship. Do you confront him? Jay- It’s just that C. Thomas Howell is so damn likable. Timothy- Tanning pills? They have pills? Charlie- I don’t think Lloyd would really care much. In an episode we just taped, I stopped wearing clothes, stopped believing in the rules, and decided I can just go off and do whatever I want. Thankfully, before the curtain closes I realize that’s no way to live. Seth- I’d probably say something to him. I’d feel like I was lied to. 
I got a Back to School vibe from the first episode, where Jay’s father comes for an extended visit… Jay- Actually, yeah. He gets drunk with a friend of mine and then hangs out. I assure you, it’s very embarrassing. 
Did you guys do much acting before Undeclared? Carla- It is my first regular role. I’ve done episodes of shows, but I’ve never been one of the regulars. I’ve made cameos, oh yeah. I mean, you could call them cameos ’cause it was so quick, but I wasn’t anyone with an actual name. Seth- I was a minor on Freaks and Geeks, so I could only work 10 hours, but now I can work, like, as long as they want. But I’m never gonna complain I’m here too long. Charlie- Yeah, I did a thing in England called Queer as Folk that was the big show. 
Was it weird for you, Charlie, coming here? Queer as Folk was huge in the U.K. Charlie- Yeah, I mean, I was.... In England it happened really quick. As soon as Queer as Folk came out, it blew up. I mean, it was huge and it was just crazy. And it’s just tough when something of that kind of nature blows up, and everyone knows you and everyone’s got an opinion about it. So it was kinda tough. I was glad to get away; I was glad to come to America and just get away from all of that. People would actually scream "Fag" at me and stuff as I was walking down the street. It wasn’t easy. 
And finally, do you have anything to declare? Jay- Canada’s the greatest country in the world. Timothy- Always have a good time and wear your party pants. Carla- I’ll let you know if I think of something. Monica- Not at this time. Charlie- Nothing to declare. Nothing.