Franco Fights Back in Web Series Premiere

Not one to let his critics have the last word, James Franco answered the angry backlash to his new web series "Undergrads" in the show’s first episode, which aired on his website Thursday.

Franco capped off the three-and-a-half minute episode—the majority of which featured a girl studying—with a mocking rant seemingly aimed at those who accused the show’s trailer of painting USC in a bad light by showcasing the drunken debauchery of a group of USC students.

“I can’t believe they showed us drinking,” Franco cried in a pseudo-fit of outrage in the episode's final scene. “Nobody drinks in college!”

While Franco speaks for himself in the video, his producing partner and the show’s co-creator Vince Jolivette said the episode was intended to counter the negative reaction the show’s trailer received.

Much of the response "seemed like an overreaction to the fact that we showed college students partying,” Jolivette said. “This was a response to that.”

Created in the last week, this first episode strayed from Jolivette and Franco’s original vision for the show, but future shows will be around five to nine minutes long depending on the response they get, Jolivette said.

“We have footage from all over the country,” Jolivette said. “We may not even show the SoCal stuff anymore.”

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