Sunday, August 22, 2010

Rockin the Undergrads Reruns

I was flipping through the channels earlier this evening and lucked onto Teletoon just as they were starting an Undergrads marathon. Haven't watched this animated series in years, so I've parked myself on the couch for the night to relive the first six episodes (the back half will be aired next Saturday).

It's primarily a parody of college life and the character stereotypes you inevitably run into on campus, but the show's also a geek's dream, with SF references flying like smoke off a reefer at an ultimate match. Our cast of freshmen adventurers includes Nitz, the more-or-less normal - if slightly clueless and down on his luck - guy; Cal, the chick-magnet with the IQ of a chicken mcnugget; Rocko, the brawny, drunken idiot; and Gimpy: leader of nerds, dorm room shut-in, and Star Wars obsessive.

While I love the entire series (which lasted only one season, focussing on the the boys' first year at their respective post-secondaries), for sheer geeky goodness, my favourite installment is episode 4: New Friends, where Gimpy is forced to defend his status as boss nerd against a rival who tries overthrow his cult of Star Wars and steer the students towards the Star Trek way.

If you missed Undergrads when it originally aired around 2001, and you can't pick up a copy of the DVD, be sure to look for it on YouTube - it looks like someone's uploaded all of the episodes (each broken into 2 parts).

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