Undergrads

This article is about the television show. For the educational term, see undergraduate education.
Undergrads
Created by Pete Williams
Starring Pete Williams
Susan Dalton
Jene Yeo
Yannick Bisson
Josh Cagan
Robert Tinkler
Edward Glenn
Opening theme The Click by Good Charlotte
Country of origin Canada/United States
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) David McGrath
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s) MTV Animation
Click Productions
Decode Entertainment
Helix Animation
Distributor DHX Media
Paramount Television
Release
Original network MTV2 (US)
Teletoon (Canada)
Adult Swim (Latin America)
Original release April 1 – August 12, 2001
Website

Undergrads is a Canadian animated television series centered on the lives of four college undergraduate freshmen. Originally broadcast on MTV in 2001, only thirteen episodes were created. It has since been shown on Comedy Central in the United States, Teletoon in Canada, and Trouble in the United Kingdom. The show was conceived by Pete Williams, when he dropped out of college at the age of 19. Willams does most of the voices on the show. The series was produced by David McGrath.

Overview

The show depicts what might be a typical first-year college experience. Characters in the show represent stereotypical college types; including the everyman (Nitz), the "frat boy" (Rocko), the "ladies' man" (Cal), the nerd (Gimpy), the cool girl (Jessie), and the "ditz" (Kimmy). Typical situations depicted in the show include student loans, bad cafeteria food, questioning of identity, fraternity rivalries, odd traditions, unpleasant RAs, money problems, peer pressure, and the "freshman fifteen". Few episodes depict the characters in class; the one exception is Rocko's ROTC class in the episode, Financial Aid.

The location in the show has never been named. It appears to be a typical North American college town. However, it has been hinted in several episodes that the show takes place in New England, and Pete Williams, the show's creator, attended a university in this region. Episode 2, Traditions, features the "Xposed Xpo," a naked run, and a classic tradition of the University of Vermont. In episode 12, Risk, there is a free Ben & Jerry's day, as well as a Spring Fling, another UVM tradition. In the episode Drunks, both Jessie and Nitz hold fake New York state driver's licenses. The episode Identity Crisis takes place at the start of the second semester and reveals bare trees and snow, conditions more likely to be found in northern states in January. However, in episode 1 Gimpy disguises Mump as a California Highway Patrol Officer to follow Rocko.

Characters

Main characters

Secondary characters

Recurring characters

Episodes

Note: All episodes were directed by Jerry Popowich

No.TitleWritten byOriginal air dateOriginal air date (Teletoon)[2]Prod.
code
1"Party"Josh A. CaganApril 22, 2001June 30, 2001101
After arriving at college Nitz realises after a week he hasn't done anything so tries to cram a weeks college experiences into a day in order to have something to talk to Kimmy about.
2"Traditions"Scott SonnebornApril 29, 2001July 1, 2001102
Tradition Week at the colleges. State U's eXposed eXpo means that during the first snow fall of the winter all of the freshman run naked through the college quad.
3"Virgins"Nahnatchka KhanMay 6, 2001September 8, 2001103
Nitz is a virgin but thinks that Kimmy wants to have sex with him when she invites him to the clinic where she works.
4"New Friends"Andy RheingoldMay 13, 2001September 9, 2001104
Nitz's friends forget about his birthday so he decides to start hanging out with Jessie and her friends. At the same time at Tekerson Tech, Gimpy has lost command of his band of minions and must fight Number One for control.
5"Drunks"Josh A. CaganJune 8, 2001September 16, 2001109
Nitz who is underage tries to get into a bar so he can talk to Kimmy. Rocko vows never to drink again after hallucinating about a giant whiskey bottle.
6"Roommates"Julie Rottenberg, Elisa Zuritsky, Josh A. Cagan & Andy RheingoldJune 15, 2001September 23, 2001110
After Cal begins to make Nitz go crazy he starts sleeping in Jessie's room, whose roommate has gone for the week. Nitz suddenly realises that he's attracted to Jessie but then tries too hard to get her. Gimpy falls in love with a girl hacker.
7"Jerks"Josh A. CaganJune 22, 2001September 30, 2001107
Gimpy, unable to further tolerate Rita's tyranny, enlists Cal to woo her into submission. But the plan works a little too well. Kimmy tells Nitz that she is moving to England so he offers her his travel clock even though he doesn't have one. Rocko drags Nitz around town all night and then destroys the travel clock that Gimpy found for Nitz.
8"Rivalries"Brad Sonneborn & Scott SonnebornJune 29, 2001October 7, 2001112
Nitz and Gimpy enter a trivia competition but end up competing against each other in an inter-college competition.
9"Financial Aid"Nahnatchka KhanJuly 6, 2001October 14, 2001113
Nitz does not receive his financial aid check and so joins the local student action group. Rocko joins the local college ROTC.
10"Identity Crisis"Josh A. Cagan, Andy Rheingold & Pete WilliamsJuly 22, 2001October 21, 2001105
After returning from winter break, nobody seems to remember Nitz so he locks himself in his room to create an identity. Rocko converts Cal into a version of Rocko.
11"Work Study"Scott SonnebornJuly 29, 2001October 28, 2001111
Nitz receives a credit card from his parents but goes over his limit so must get a job. He ends up working at the library while Rocko, Cal and Gimpy manage to get large amounts of money without trying.
12"Risk"Andy Rheingold & Pete WilliamsAugust 5, 2001November 4, 2001106
Gimpy finds his Risk board and invites the rest of the clique around for a game. But Nitz has promised Kimmy that he would help at the Spring Fling carnival. Gimpy schemes so that Nitz cannot leave and Nitz's absence causes a fire.
13"Screw Week"Josh A. Cagan, Andy Rheingold & Pete WilliamsAugust 12, 2001November 11, 2001108
During the final week of college, Nitz tries desperately to attract Kimmy. Jessie becomes more annoyed with Nitz for ignoring her obvious attraction to him.

Cancellation and attempts at revival

Airing to extremely mixed reviews and failing to attract much of an audience, Undergrads was regarded as both a critical and financial failure. As such, it was canceled before the second season could be produced. The series was originally set to continue, with Teletoon and DHX Media producing as they did for the first season. However, at the last minute, MTV discontinued its funding, which halted production. The show was taken to Comedy Central to see if they would renew the show, but this attempt failed.

Pete Williams stated that he was interested in reviving Undergrads, and Teletoon and Decode maintained for a time that they too were interested in continuing the series, but the funding did not present itself. In a blog post on January 27, 2006, Williams stated that he still wished to continue with the program.[3] Williams stated that Teletoon had put up half of the production cost for its second season, and urged fans to add Undergrads as a MySpace friend to encourage a possible second season. On July 18, 2006, Williams urged fans to bombard both Cartoon Network and Comedy Central with emails and letters asking them to revive Undergrads. Teletoon soon after agreed to a second season, subject to finding another major broadcaster to pick up the second season.

In a blog post on December 18, 2008, Williams stated that Teletoon had passed on a second season. Williams added that he had pitched them an entirely new animated concept entitled We Got Issues, in which he would reintroduce characters from Undergrads. The pitch never made it to development. Williams also expressed interest in "producing some kind of UG comic book or webisodes in lieu of a second season", and had been in talks with Decode Entertainment about the proposal.[4]

Williams and co-writers Andy Rheingold and Josh A. Cagan appeared together at a panel for the Calgary Expo in 2012.[5] They have stated they do not have any legal rights to the series and will continue to bring it back. The creators have since started an Official Facebook "Groupville"[6] in hopes of getting a second season green-lit. Fans have shown their support by posting fond memories of the show as well as "Bring Back Undergrads" videos, which are planned to be used for a viral campaign to spark interest in the continuation of the show. The first official "Bring Back UnderGRADS" video went live on YouTube August 21, 2013.[7]

To help the revival of the show, on April 26, 2013, Williams started an official "Bring Back Undergrads" Facebook page[8] in hopes to "garner a healthy 'like' count to prove that the series still has a fan base."

Williams attended "ConBravo" in July 2013 where he answered fan questions about the creation of the show as well as the current status of bringing the show back.[9] During the panel he mentioned that the creators were "pretty close" on getting permission from MTV and DHX to continue the story. Williams added that they were currently unsure on if they would fund a full second season, do a one time movie answering the lingering questions left over from season one, or do a movie to "re-introduce UnderGRADS to a new audience and try to get the second season that way."

On the podcast My So Called 8-Bit Life Pete Williams, Josh A. Cagan and Andy Rheingold talked about being in talks with both companies, and how it was a long process to get even as close as they are to some sort of revival to the series. They were also quick to say that one of the biggest hurdles even if they were to get the permission to make more content would be the cost. Williams has also stated that he, Rheingold and Cagan are currently finishing up a treatment for a one-off Undergrads movie. Once approval is made by DHX and MTV, production on a script, followed by the movie, shall commence.

Music

The theme song, "The Click", is written and performed by the band Good Charlotte, who appear in the episode Risk. Much of the music featured in Undergrads include songs from various indie rock bands and Canadian artists, such as Vibrolux, Alkaline Trio, Knacker, Sam Roberts, Reggie and the Full Effect, Sloan, Planet Smashers, The Brodys, and The Rosenbergs, among others. The score of the show was composed and produced by Jono Grant. A list of bands and songs used in each episode can be found at the show's official website.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 "Pete Williams, creator of underGRADS". Thedetour.ca. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  2. "Television Program Logs". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. 2016-03-02. Archived from the original on 2016-05-16.
  3. "The Detour on TELETOON – underGRADS – Blog". 2006-04-23. Archived from the original on 2007-01-01. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
  4. "Checking in...long overdue! - MySpace-blog | van UnderGRADS". Blogs.myspace.com. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
  5. Video on YouTube
  6. "Facebook". Facebook. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  7. Video on YouTube
  8. "Bring Back Undergrads". Facebook. 2014-01-31. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  9. Video on YouTube
  10. "Undergrads : Episode Song Lists". Undergrads.tv. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
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