"Head of the Class" was a charming '80s sitcom about nerds in an honors program in a New York City high school. It starred Howard Hesseman and a cast of unknown twenty-somethings playing teenagers. A few of them became famous later, such as Robin Givens and Disney channel pervert Dan Schneider.
It ran for five seasons. The final season was without Hesseman, who grew to resent the series, claiming in one interview that they went a different direction with it than had been sold to him (he didn't elaborate).
I saw one of the earlier episodes taped live, in 1986. It was Season 1 episode "A Problem Like Maria", and was taped in Burbank, CA, despite the (fairly convincing) New York setting of the show. I remember the weather being really bad that night, and having to wade in 3 inches of water to get to the bathroom outside.
Anyway, I did enjoy the show for the first four seasons, before giving up on it when Howard left, because the fifth and final season looked awful. Yes, I realize it was somewhat of a ripoff of Welcome Back Kotter.
Now they're rebooting it on HBO Max.
https://deadline.com/2021/01/head-of...ot-1234675694/
HBO Max has rounded out cast for multi-camera comedy pilot Head of the Class, a reboot of the popular 1980s ABC sitcom. Jorge Diaz (Jane The Virgin), Dior Goodjohn (Glee), Brandon Severs (Walk the Prank), newcomer Adrian Matthew Escalona and Christa Miller (Scrubs) join previously announced Isabella Gomez, Gavin Lewis and Jolie Hoang-Rappaport in the reboot.
The reimagined Head of the Class revolves around a group of overachieving high school students who meet their greatest challenge — a teacher Alicia Adams (Gomez), who wants them to focus less on grades and more on experiencing life.
Diaz plays Elliot Olsen, a goofy English teacher who loves his job and is genuine to a fault. Goodjohn is Robyn Rook. Stem queen turned Twitch streamer, Robyn’s the defacto leader of the class – though she’d never admit it. Severs will portray Terrell Smith, is a year-round athlete, who is uber-positive and all about team mentality. Escalona is Miles Mendelson, the shy, introverted, overthinking coder, who’d rather spend time with computers than people. Miller recurs as Principal Maris, an intimidating, tough love boss that always puts the students first.
Sounds lame.
"Stem queen turned Twitch streamer"?
Oh boy.
This is projected for sometime in early 2022.