Included in that group was Drexell's Class, which was an elementary school version of, say for example, Welcome Back, Kotter or a contemporary ABC hit of the period, Head of The Class.
Dabney Coleman had struck out at ABC (The Slap Maxwell Story) & NBC (Buffalo Bill) in trying to establish himself as just as big a star on television as he was in movies (i.e. "9 to 5", "Dragnet"). He pulled double duty on Drexell, getting an additional credit as a consultant. Drexell was another hard luck loser, this one taking a job as a teacher in order to pay off his back taxes.
Perhaps the most publicity this series got in its six month run was a guest appearance by "Problem Child" co-star Michael Oliver. Unfortunately, we won't see Michael in this sample clip. The supporting cast includes future stars Cleavant Derricks (later of Sliders), Jason Biggs ("American Pie"), A. J. Langer (later of My So Called Life) and the late Brittany Murphy, who later returned to Fox with the animated King of The Hill before her untimely passing.
Edit, 4/26/22: Had to change the video. This features the rap group Digital Underground, featuring Tupac Shakur, and this would not be his last primetime acting gig.
So why did it fail? It was on Thursdays, and NBC still owned the night.
No rating.
So why did it fail? It was on Thursdays, and NBC still owned the night.
No rating.
10 comments:
I remember tuning in to an episode of this show (up to that point I had only read about it) and IIRC, toward the end of its' run Drexel's Class was about anything but him being a teacher. In the one episode I saw the writers had given Drexel a hot teenage daughter or 2 (because FOX) and some long-haired surfer dude guy who was appearing in a series of McDonald's commercial at the time played one of their boyfriends. It had just because Drexel and company...doing stuff basically.
A hasty change in order to goose ratings. That happens.
I was 10 when this show premiered and I loved it at first but then they shifted focus from the classroom and his students to his home life and after that it sucked.
As I explained to Silverstar, Grant, Fox wanted to make changes to improve the ratings, but it didn't work.
Yeah but I didn't understand that as a 10 year old lol. I just remember liking it because he taught 5th grade and I was in 5th grade at the time. If you came into the series late you'd never even know he was a teacher. I just remember being disappointed that it suddenly had literally nothing to do with his class anymore.
I'm beginning to think Fox might've wanted to retool it and make more of a then-modern riff on the 70's classic, "Welcome Back, Kotter", which divided time between home and the classroom as well.
Only problem with that theory is the early episodes already did divide the focus between the classroom and home and the later episodes didn't show the classroom at all.
Oh, ok. They dropped the classroom angle? Recipe for disaster.
Yeah really. I wonder how The Simpsons managed to survive on Thursday nights back then. It came on right before Drexell's class. Here's another full episode in case you're interested: https://youtu.be/FQpLdbs6Xe4
It actually is a different episode than the one you linked to even though whoever uploaded it put the same title on there.
Thanks.
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