I was familiar with the existence of Undeclared, though I didn't know much about it. I knew it was created by Judd Apatow and that it was kind of a sequel-type show to Freaks and Geeks. F&G is generally one of the first names to come up when people talk about shows with unfairly short original runs, and unfortunately, Undeclared also had that fate.
I wasn't sure what I was going to get out of this show at first. The cast is talented and the writers and directors are some of the best comedy has to offer, but the general themes that the show tackles have been done so much in the past that I feared that the show would be a merely okay offering of things we've basically seen before. But because of such talent surrounding the show, Undeclared was able to touch on themes we've seen so often in college coming-of-age shows/movies (the first one night stand, the first relationship, getting a job, fraternities, temptations to slack off and cheat) with its own fresh wit. It also tackles issues that I didn't really see coming in a show like this, such as an episode in which one character adopts Christianity while another takes his philosophy professor's words of "Everything is pointless" to heart.
Undeclared lasted for one season of 17 episodes. It's yet another cancelled-too-soon casualty of the dreaded Fox network, joining its brothers Firefly and Arrested Development. But while it was cancelled so shortly, the comedy scene of today might be drastically different if its cast and crew were preoccupied with the making of this series. Three members of the main cast only moved on to various guest-star and supporting roles for various movies and shows, but Charlie Hunnam moved on to star on the critically acclaimed drama Sons of Anarchy, Jay Baruchel moved on to roles in films such as Million Dollar Baby, How to Train Your Dragon, and This is the End and Seth Rogen is one of the most successful comedic writer/actors working today. Supporting cast members also moved onto bigger and better things. Jason Segel got a role on How I Met Your Mother and then various leading roles in other comedies. Jenna Fischer, who appears as a supporting character in two episodes, moved onto The Office. Kevin Hart became one of the most successful stand-up comedians out there.
But the biggest impact on modern day comedy came from the writers/directors room. Talent such as Paul Feig (The Office, Arrested Development, Bridesmaids), Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Muppets), Jay Chandrasekhar (Broken Lizard, Arrested Development, Community, Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland, Paul), and John Hamburg (Zoolander, I Love You Man) were some of the names involved with this show, and if Undeclared continued, some of these projects might not exist, if they would even exist at all. But the biggest impact would be the fate of Judd Apatow. After so much failure in the television, Apatow went to the realm in which his career started: film. He then became probably the most influential producer/director in the realm of movie comedy today. He brought upon the trend of raunchy R-rated comedies that weren't just gross-out gags, but also had heart to them. He directed critically acclaimed and commercially successful hits like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. He produced movies like Anchorman, Superbad, Walk Hard, and Pineapple Express. If Undeclared continued, Judd Apatow may have kept working in the world of television and the realm of comedy as we know it could be very different.
I recommend Undeclared. I recommend it quite highly. It's probably one of the most well-done, best written coming-of-age college comedies I've seen in any medium. But I'm not gonna shake my fist at Fox too much for cancelling it so soon, because I'd rather have Anchorman and Knocked Up than a few more episodes of a TV show that wouldn't have gone longer than four seasons anyway.