With few exceptions, most of us would have rather had teachers like Mr. Moore (Head of the Class) or attended classes with Zack Morris (Saved by the Bell) then the ones we got stuck with in real life. TV shows set in the school classroom have often presented these as the ideal. As families are preparing to go back to school and all the joys that come with it, here is a list of some favorite school sitcoms, teacher crushes and even a little drama not to mention some interesting trivia too. Best of all – no homework.
Our Miss Brooks
- Aired: October 3, 1952– May 11, 1956 on CBS
- Starred: Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Richard Crenna, Robert Rockwell
Beginning as a radio sitcom for CBS in 1948, Our Miss Brooks could be found simultaneously on TV beginning in 1952. Interesting, the radio show outlasted the TV series by one year. Eve Arden played Madison High School teacher Connie Brooks who later taught at an upscale private school in 1955. The show balanced Brooks’ relationships with her students, colleagues and principal Osgood Conklin (Gordon). Arden later played a principal herself in both Grease movies.
The Emmy Award-winning series ran for 130 episodes. It was a well-loved series. Arden received an honorary membership of the National Education Association and received an award from the Teachers College of Connecticut’s Alumni Association in 1952 “for humanizing the American teacher”. She was able to present a realistic portrayal of a competent woman working in a profession that often did not receive the recognition it deserved. Our Miss Brooks was even adapted for the big screen in 1956.
Room 222
- Aired: September 11, 1969 –January 11, 1974 on ABC
- Starred: Lloyd Haynes, Denise Nicholas, Michael Constantine, Karen Valentine, Patsy Garrett
Set in the racially diverse Walt Whitman High School in Los Angeles, California, many of the stories literally took place in room 222, an American history classroom taught by Pete Dixon (Haynes). His lessons often reflected on tolerance and understanding during the political climate of the times including the Vietnam War, women’s rights, race relations and Watergate. Other characters in the series included guidance counselor Liz McIntyre (Nicholas), principal Seymour Kaufman (Constantine) and student teacher Alice Johnson (Valentine).
Room 222 was one of the first TV shows to feature a racially integrated cast. It also had a knack for balancing comedic situations within dramatic storylines. The show won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding New Series In 1970 while Constantine and Valentine won for Outstanding Supporting Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series. They were nominated the second year too.
Welcome Back Kotter
- Aired: September 9, 1975 – May 17, 1979 on ABC
- Starred: Gabe Kaplan, Marcia Strassman, John Sylvester White, Robert Hegyes, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Ron Palillo, John Travolta, Melonie Haller, Stephen Shortridge
Co-created by Kaplan, Welcome Back Kotter is about a teacher who returns to his own high school, the James Buchanan High School in Bensonhurst. It was a fictional version of Kaplan’s own school in Brooklyn (the real school is featured during the show’s opening credits) and many of the characters were based on Kaplan’s real classmates.
When Kotter was in school, he was a founding member of lazy students known as the “Sweathogs”. Years later, his classroom was full of them. With no motivation, these kids would eventually drop out of school. So instead of babysitting this crew, Kotter found unique ways to inspire his class. The class role call included Vinnie Barbarino (Travolta), Freddie ‘Boom Boom’ Washington (Hilton-Jacobs), Juan Epstein (Hegyes) and Arnold Horshack (Palillo).
Though Welcome Back Kotter was an instant hit for ABC, Boston’s local affiliate (WCVB-TV) refused to air the show due to the city’s controversial busing program which had caused protests and riots. The network was concerned that the show would only make matters worse. However, since the show usually portrayed the Sweathogs’ antics as juvenile rather than destructive, the show was brought to the Boston TV screens starting with the fifth episode.
In 1976, the show’s theme song, written and recorded by John Sebastian from The Lovin’ Spoonful, became a #1 hit. Lunchboxes were made and Mattel even created a set of Welcome Back Kotter action figures. However, the show’s ratings began to slip in during the third season. To bolster ratings, Angie Grabowski (Melonie Haller) was added as the first female Sweathog. Kotter also became the father of twin girls.
By the fourth season, Travolta became a big movie star. He was only able to appear in ten episodes. Kaplan himself also reduced his appearances on the show. As the show was winding down, three spin-offs were considered including one called Rich Man, Poor Man; Horshack! which was never developed outside of a backdoor pilot episode.
Square Pegs
- Aired: September 27, 1982 –March 7, 1983 on CBS
- Starred: Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Linker, Merritt Butrick, John Femia, Tracy Nelson, Jami Gertz, Claudette Wells, Jon Caliri
Well-adjusted but awkward Patty Greene (Parker) and her friend Lauren Hutchinson (Linker) just wanted to fit in at Weemawee High School. They were among the eight freshman featured on Square Pegs, a sitcom created by former Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts. Their friends included comedian wanna-be Marshall Blechtman (Femia), new wave Johnny “Slash” Ulasewicz (Butrick), valley girl Jennifer DiNuccio (Nelson), the dense Vinni Pasetta (Jon Caliri) and sassy LaDonna Fredericks (Wells).
Square Peg’s theme song featured music by The Waitresses who also appeared as a band playing at a school dance. Other musical talent who appeared on the show included former drummer for The Doors, John Densmore who played himself and the group Devo. Bill Murray even guest starred in one episode.
Despite good reviews from critics, Square Pegs struggled in the ratings. Ironically, it wasn’t the ratings that ultimately did the show in. Production of the show took place at the abandoned Excelsior High School. It was located about 20 miles from CBS Television in Los Angeles – what could go wrong? Embassy Television received a number of reports of drugs and alcohol abuse on the set in the presence of minors. It has also been reported that there was rampant drug abuse among the teen cast as well.
Fame
- Aired: 1983 and October 15, 1983 – May 18, 1987 and NBC and syndication
- Starred: Debbie Allen, Olivia Barash, Jesse Borrego, Loretta Chandler, Lee Curreri, Cynthia Gibb, Erica Gimpel, Albert Hague, Billy Hufsey, Carlo Imperato, Janet Jackson, Carol Mayo Jenkins, Valerie Landsburg, Ann Nelson, Nia Peeples, Gene Anthony Ray, Lori Singer, Ken Swofford
Partially sponsored by Yamaha musical instruments (which were featured prominently on the show), Fame was based on the 1980 motion picture of the same name. It followed the lives of students and teachers at the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. The fictional school was based on the very real Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts which was also located in New York. Despite this, most of the show was filmed in Los Angeles.
Four of the movie’s characters and stars also appeared on the show including introverted Bruno Martelli (Curreri), dancer Leroy Johnson (Ray), the German music teacher Benjamin Shorofsky (Hague) and dance instructor Lydia Grant (Allen). Allen was not only the show’s original choreographer, she also directed many of the episodes. Other characters taken from the movie (but played by different actors) included dancer Coco Hernandez (Gimpel), Montgomery McNeil (Paul) and English teacher Elizabeth Sherwood (Jenkins).
Fame won a number of Emmy awards, and in 1983 and 1984, was voted the Golden Globe Awards: Television, Best Series, Musical/Comedy. It showed a realistic portrayal of what life is like at a performing arts school. Critics raved about the series when it debuted on NBC, but the lack of ratings caused the network to cancel the show after two seasons. However, the show was picked up for syndication for four more seasons.
Head of the Class
- Aired: September 17, 1986 –June 25, 1991 on ABC
- Starred: Howard Hesseman, Dan Frischman, Dan Schneider, Tony O’Dell, Robin Givens, Kimberly Russell, Leslie Bega, Jory Husain, Tannis Vallely, Khrystyne Haje, Brian Robbins, Billy Connolly
Before becoming an actor, Michael Elias served as a substitute teacher. What he learned then help prepare him when he created the TV show, Head of the Class. Set at Millard Fillmore High School in Manhattan, the show followed a group of gifted students led by history teacher Charlie Moore (Hesseman). The students included nerdy Arvid Engen (Frischman), smart aleck computer whiz Dennis Blunden (Schneider), preppy, politically-minded Alan Pinkard (O’Dell), spoiled rich kid Darlene Merriman (Givens), perfectionist Maria Borges (Bega), exchange student Jawaharlal Choudhury (Jory Husain), 10-year-old Janice Lazarotto (Vallely), poetry-loving Simone Foster (Haje), tough guy Eric Mardian (Robbins) and Sarah Nevins (Russell), the most down-to-Earth student of the bunch..
Although the show was a reasonable hit and the show had its fans, Hesseman wasn’t one of them. He even called it a “disposable frivolity.” Hesseman left the show after the fourth season. The character of Charlie Moore was replaced by Billy McGregor (Connolly) explaining that Mr. Moore had gotten his big break to appear in a touring show of Death of a Salesman. When the show ended after five years, Connolly starred in a spinoff called Billy which aired for only one season.
Saved by the Bell (Good Morning Miss Bliss)
- Aired: July 11, 1987 –May 22, 1993 on Disney Channel and NBC
- Starred: Hayley Mills, Dennis Haskins, Joan Ryan, Max Battimo, Dustin Diamond, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Heather Hopper, Lark Voorhies, T.K. Carter, Mario Lopez, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, Ed Alonzo, Leanna Creel
Former child star Hayley Mills headlined this sitcom created by NBC for Disney Channel. Miss Bliss (Mills) was a teacher at John F. Kennedy Junior High School in Indianapolis. Among the students were Zack Morris (Gosselaar), Lisa Turtle (Voorhies), Samuel “Screech” Powers (Diamond), Mikey Gonzalez (Battimo) and Nikki Coleman (Hopper). Haskins played the school principal, Mr. Belding.
Good Morning Miss Bliss was cancelled after 13 episodes, but NBC kept the rights to it creating a new name, a new location (Bayside High School in Bayside, California). The show kept the characters of Zack, Lisa, Screech, Mr. Belding, but dropped Miss Bliss, Mikey and Nikki. Then they added A.C. Slater (Lopez), Kelly Kapowski (Thiessen) and Jessie Spano (Berkley).
Saved by the Bell ran for three seasons ending with a graduation episode on December 21, 1991. But almost as soon as the credits rolled up the screen, the show was picked up for a fourth year. The problem was that Thiessen and Berkley had already moved on to other projects, so the producers added a new character, Tori Scott (Creel) to the mix. The show officially ended on May 22, 1993. But that wasn’t really the end.
In 1992, NBC created the made-for-TV movie, Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style which took the teens to the wedding of Kelly’s grandfather, Harry Bannister (Dean Jones) in Hawaii.
Then in 1993, the spinoff series Saved by the Bell: The College Years debuted on prime time. Initially, the show was only to feature Zach, Slater and Screech but Kelly was later added to the dorms. The show lasted only one season, but ended on a cliffhanger, so NBC created yet another made-for-TV movie, Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas which brought the whole six original character together again for the wedding for Zach and Kelly.
Saved by the Bell: The New Class
- Aired: September 11, 1993 to January 8, 2000 on NBC
- Starred: Robert Sutherland Telfer, Isaac Lidsky, Jonathan Angel, Bianca Lawson, Natalia Cigliuti, Bonnie Russavage, Dennis Haskins, Christian Oliver, Sarach Lancaster, Spankee Rogers, Dustin Diamond, Richard Lee Jackson, Salim Grant, Samantha Becher, Ben Gould, Lindsey McKeon, Anthony Harrell, Ashley Lyn Cafagna, Tom Wade Huntington
In 1993, NBC was doing double duty. While they were creating the Saved by the Bell: The College Years spinoff series, they were also creating another spinoff series for Saturday morning audiences. For Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Mr. Belding (Haskins) was back and so was Screech (Diamond) to serve as his administrative assistant. What could go wrong?
The New Class had an amazing seven-year run, longer than any of the other series, however the show’s stars never received the fame that the original cast did. This was partially due to the show’s multiple casting changes. With each new season, new characters were added and older ones left. In the end, only Mr. Belding appeared in all seven seasons of the show.
Freaks and Geeks
- Aired: September 25, 1999 –October 17, 2000 on NBC
- Starred: Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Samm Levine, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Martin Starr, Becky Ann Baker, Joe Flaherty, Busy Philipps
The short-lived Freaks and Geeks series by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow was set in William McKinley High School in Chippewa, Michigan near Detroit. The high school was named after Feig’s own high school. Set during the 1980-1981 school year, the show focused on Lindsay Weir (Cardellini) and her brother Sam (Francis Daley) who attending the school as new students. The normally academically smart Lindsay tried to shed her smart girl image by hanging out with a group of slackers or “freaks” while Sam settled in with the “geeks.”
Although the show was cancelled after just 12 episodes, it became more popular off the air than when it was on. It is a show has been remembered fondly by many and often makes the list of best TV shows of all time.
Friday Night Lights
- Aired: October 3, 2006 –February 9, 2011 on NBC and DirecTV
- Starred: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Gaius Charles, Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, Taylor Kitsch, Jesse Plemons, Scott Porter, Aimee Teegarden, Michael B. Jordan, Jurnee Smollett, Matt Lauria, Madison Burge, Grey Damon
Developed by Peter Berg, the sports drama series was inspired by H. G. Bissinger’s nonfiction book and the 2004 movie of the same name. High School football was a big deal in the small town of Dillion, Texas. Eric Taylor (Chandler) had his work cut out for him when he served as the team’s coach. His wife Tami (Britton) served on the school’s faculty.
Friday Night Lights was praised for his authenticity. It was even filmed on location and hired local extras. The dealt with a lot more than school life too. They show dealt with topics like family values, racism, drugs, abortion and more. While appreciated by critics and fans alike, Friday Night Lights just couldn’t drum up good ratings. The show ran for two years on NBC before the network cancelled it. However, due to passionate fans, NBC was able to strike a deal with DirecTV to co-produce the show for three more seasons allowing the service to air the new episodes to their customers months before they would be shown to everyone else on NBC.
Glee
- Aired: May 19, 2009 –March 20, 2015 on FOX
- Starred: Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Jessalyn Gilsig, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Matthew Morrison, Amber Riley, Mark Salling, Jenna Ushkowitz, Heather Morris, Mike O’Malley, Naya Rivera, Darren Criss, Harry Shum Jr., Chord Overstreet, Jacob Artist, Melissa Benoist, Blake Jenner, Alex Newell, Becca Tobin, Dot-Marie Jones
Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, Glee was a musical comedy-drama series centered on New Directions, the glee club at William McKinley High School. While practicing for upcoming choir competitions, the students would deal with a variety of issues each week including race, sexuality, relationships and occasionally homework.
When the show debuted, the large cast included club director Will Schuester (Morrison), Will’s wife Terri (Gilsig), Sue Sylvester (Lynch) the mean cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester bent on axing the glee club’s budget and guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Mays). The students consisted of pregnant cheerleader Quinn Fabray (Agron), gay student Kurt Hummel (Colfer), wheelchair-bound Artie Abrams (McHale), self-important Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), quarterback Finn Hudson (Monteith), vocal diva Mercedes Jones (Riley), delinquent Noah Puckerman (Salling) and shy girl Tina Cohen-Chang (Ushkowitz).
Glee was one of the most success musical TV shows ever to air on TV. The songs covered on the song were released on iTunes during each week’s broadcast and were also compiled on CDs. Over 36 million digital single sales and eleven million album sales were made worldwide. The cast even toured with live concerts in 2011 and Glee: The 3D Concert Movie was produced.
During its first season, Glee was nominated for 19 Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, six Satellite Awards and 57 other awards! During the show’s 121 episodes, over 729 music performances were presented.
Community
- Aired: September 17, 2009 – April 17, 2014 on NBC and Yahoo! Screen
- Starred: Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, Chevy Chase, Jim Rash
Similar to the roots of Welcome Back Kotter and Freaks and Geeks, Community was inspired by the creator’s own community college experiences. Dan Harmon also served as the showrunner for the show’s first three seasons. The sitcom took place at the fictional Glendale Community College in Glendale, Colorado.
The cast of school clowns included Jeff Winger (McHale) a former lawyer suspended for falsely claiming to have a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, atheist Britta Perry (Jacobs), film student Abed Nadir (Pudi), divorced mother and devoted Christian Shirley Bennett (Brown), overachiever Annie Edison (Brie), former high school quarterback Troy Barnes (Glover), unstable Spanish teacher Ben Chang (Jeong), the dean of Greendale Craig Pelton (Rash) and millionaire Pierce Hawthorne (Chase).
Community was praised by critics and has been nominated for many awards. However, like other great shows, the series struggled with the ratings. Even so, there is still talk of a new Community movie in the works.
A. P. Bio
- Aired: February 1, 2018 – September 2, 2021 on NBC and Peacock
- Starred: Glenn Howerton, Lyric Lewis, Mary Sohn, Jean Villepique, Tom Bennett, Patton Oswalt, Paula Pell
A.P. Bio was set at the fictional Whitlock High School and centered mostly around teacher Jack Griffin (Howerton) who refused to teach on the subject of AP Biology because he had been denied a professorship at Harvard University. Instead of teaching his students, he ignored them or used them for his own selfish purposes. Not exactly the best role model.
The rest of the cast included history teacher Stef Duncan (Lewis), art teacher Mary Wagner (Sohn), home economics teacher Michelle Jones (Villepique), Stanford professor Miles Leonard (Bennett), Principal Ralph Durbin (Oswalt) and his secretary Helen Demarcus (Pell).
People didn’t really know what to think about A.P. Bio. The show received mixed reviews from critics and was not a ratings hero.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series
- Aired: November 8, 2019 – August 9, 2023 on Disney+
- Starred: Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett, Matt Cornett, Sofia Wylie, Larry Saperstein, Julia Lester, Dara Reneé, Frankie Rodriguez, Mark St. Cyr, Kate Reinders, Joe Serafini
Inspired by Disney’s High School Musical film series, this show was created for the new Disney+ streaming service. The mockumentary musical drama was set at East High School in Salt Lake Utah (where the original movie was filmed) and follows the school’s new drama teacher, Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) and her desire to present a stage version of the first HSM movie. The second season focused on the kids bringing Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to life and Frozen during the third.
The cast of characters included musical theater enthusiast Nini Salazar-Roberts (Rodrigo), guitarist, skateboarder and former flame of Nini Ricky Bowen (Bassett), E.J. Caswell (Cornett) and jock theater enthusiast, transfers student Gina Porter (Wylie), Big Red (Saperstein) the understudy stage manager, feminist Kourtney Greene (Renee), choreographer Carlos Rodriguez (Rodriguez), STEM teacher Benjamin Mazzara (St. Cyr) and Seb Matthew-Smith (Serafini).
The show was criticized by some in being too much like the show’s source material to stand out on its own, and similarities to Glee were made, but the show, like the entire HSM franchise, did just fine.
Saved by the Bell (Sequel and Revival)
- Aired: November 25, 2020 – December 1, 2021 on Peacock.
- Starred: Haskiri Velazquez, Mitchell Hoog, Josie Totah, Alycia Pascual-Peña, Belmont Cameli, Dexter Darden, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiesessen, Lark Voorhies
In 2020, one of the crown jewels for NBC’s new streaming service Peacock was a new version of Saved by the Bell. The series served as both a sequel and revival of the original series. It was not filmed in front of a live audience, was a little edgier and had some unneeded language thrown in too. The new show actually mocked the original’s wholesome charm.
Berkley and Lopez appeared in every episode as Jessie Spano (Berkley-Lauren) serving as a school counselor and A. C. Slater (Lopez) as a P.E. teacher. Gosselaar and Thiessen also reprised their roles as Mr. and Mrs. Morris, the Governor and First Lady of California. Voorhies appeared in one episode as a grown-up Lisa Turtle working as a fashion designer living in Paris. Screech did not appear as the actor, Dustin Diamond had passed away. However, Screech was remembered during one episode. The show attracted adults who were fans of the original series and could watch it with their kids.
The new cast of students included underprivileged Daisy Jimenez (Velazquez), Mac Morris (Hoog) son of Zack and Kelly, Lexi-DeFabrizio (Totah) a transgender cheerleader, Aisha Garcia (Pascual-Pena) an ultracompetitive quarterback, Jamie Spano (Cameli), the dumb-as-rock football captain (and son of Jessie) and drama student Devante Young (Darden).
The new Saved by the Bell attracted a lot of attention when it first aired, but the show lost steam by the end of season two.
Abbott Elementary
- Aired: December 7, 2021 – Present on ABC
- Starred: Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, Sheryl Lee Ralph, William Stanford Davis
One of ABC’s biggest hits of 2021 didn’t even air until December 7 as a midseason replacement series. Abbott Elementary not only stars Quinta Brunson, but she created the show as well. The comedy mockumentary series takes place at an underfunded and predominantly black, Philadelphia public school where the teachers are being recorded for a fictional documentary.
Brunson plays Janine Teagues, a second-grade teacher who is determined to make a difference in the lives of her students while making the lives of her fellow teachers more complicated. It’s a tough job. Most of the new teachers don’t make it past year one. Janine’s coworkers include the experienced kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard (Ralph), the tough but loveable second grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti (Walter), the nerdy history teacher Jacob Hill (Perfetti), the tone-deaf school principal Ava Coleman (James), and the introvert teacher Gregory Eddie (Williams).
Abbott Elementary has been received well by critics and audiences alike and has won numerous awards. It is a hilarious comedy with heart and just might inspire new teachers into the field.
Your Turn
What TV schoolteacher was your favorite? Which school did you wish you could go to? Did I miss a favorite school-themed show? Let me know in the comments below.
Main Image: Pixabay with logos from the TV series Glee, Saved by the Bell and Abbott Elementary added
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