History Series / VicePrincipals

''Vice Principals'' is a 2016-2017 comedy series airing on HBO starring Creator/DannyMcBride and Creator/WaltonGoggins as co-vice principals vying for the Head Principal position at fictional North Jackson High School in small-town South Carolina.

* BreakTheHaughty: The objective of team Neal-Russell

* DisproportionateRetribution: Gamby & Russell's response to someone else getting the new Principal job? [[spoiler: They burn their house down.]]

** Dayshawn, one of the cooks at the school, also qualifies. He's a good worker, supportive and friendly all the time to Neal even though Neal doesn't really deserve it, going so far to hook him up with a school lunch so he can sit at the teacher's table, or offering comfort to Neal when he thinks he's been jilted by Lee.

* WorkCom: Inspired in part by 80s high school comedies ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' and ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'', ''Vice Principals'' shows High School comedy from the adult's perspective. Even though it concentrates on the rivalry between Gamby, Russell and Brown, the day-to-day goings on of an average high school are always present.

''Vice Principals'' is a 2016 comedy series airing on HBO starring Creator/DannyMcBride and Creator/WaltonGoggins as co-vice principals vying for the Head Principal position at fictional North Jackson High School in small-town South Carolina.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2016_07_15_vice_principals.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"I get it. But it might take a little while for it to sink in with this one here."]]

* PositiveDiscrimination: Subverted and deconstructed with Belinda Brown. She's a highly respected, well-educated, progressive, liberal black Doctor of Education who is obviously brought on board to show the small town, backwards thinking white men how to educate the children. But Belinda is married to a deadbeat, philandering husband and has two disrespectful, delinquent sons over whom she has no control without threats of beating their asses when they misbehave, transforming into a stereotypical ScaryBlackWoman when pushed to the limit. Belinda is deeply frustrated and embarrassed with her family situation, having moved to South Carolina purely to try and give her sons a better life, but they want nothing more than to go back to Philadelphia. Furthermore, it's hinted that she and Gamby actually share a measure of respect for each other, and might actually have been able to develop a good working relationship had Gamby not felt passed over in getting the promotion to Principal.

* PositiveDiscrimination: Subverted and deconstructed with Belinda Brown. She's a highly respected, well educated, progressive, liberal black Doctor of Education who is obviously brought on board to show the small town, backwards thinking white men how to educate the children. But Belinda is married to a deadbeat, philandering husband and has two disrespectful, delinquent sons over whom she has no control without threats of beating their asses when they misbehave, transforming into a stereotypical ScaryBlackWoman when pushed to the limit. Belinda is deeply frustrated and embarrassed with her family situation, having moved to South Carolina purely to try and give her sons a better life, but they want nothing more than to go back to Philadelphia. Furthermore, it's hinted that she and Gamby actually share a measure of respect for each other, and might actually have been able to develop a good working relationship had Gamby not felt passed over in getting the promotion to Principal.

* VillainProtagonist / PerspectiveFlip: In an interview with NPR, Danny [=McBride=] pointed out that Neal and Lee are essentially the villains, and that in any other show, the story would have had Belinda as the hero as she tries to outwit these two jackasses.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Lee is catty, obsessed with his appearance, is prone to sashaying when he walks, and in an LSD-fueled hallucination seems to relish kissing a hated rival [[spoiler: before blowing his head off with an imaginary gun.]] It's commented on (and even assumed) by many characters in the show that Lee is living in the closet.
** Although he's absolutely devastated when [[spoiler: his wife leaves him and seems to truly love her]].

* BittersweetEnding: Gamby, with Russell and Snodgrass' help, [[spoiler: puts Abbott behind bars and saves the school.]] Unfortunately, the school couldn't ignore Gamby & Russell's trail of destruction any longer. [[spoiler: Gamby becomes principal, but of a nearby middle school; him and Snodgrass celebrate her new book. Russell is fired entirely from the school district; he is last seen as the regional manager of a high-end clothing store.]] At a mall, Gamby and Russell [[spoiler: exchange a HeldGaze across the food court, appreciative of all that the other has done for them, before each heading off to the next chapter of their lives.]]

* EnemyMine: The entire premise of the show.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The previews for season one made it look like the arc of the show is Lee and Neal fighting each other over the principal position. Instead of the two [[spoiler: performing an EnemyMine against Belinda.]]
* NiceGuy: Ray Liptrapp, Neal's ex's new husband and stepfather to Janelle. Ray is almost oblivious to Neal's scorn, is friendly, understanding and super supportive of Neal in spite of the ultra-dickish way Neal treats him. Almost every time you see Ray, you think Neal should be buying the guy a beer.

* WorkCom: Inspired in part by 80's high school comedies ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' and ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'', ''Vice Principals'' shows High School comedy from the adult's perspective. Even though it concentrates on the rivalry between Gamby, Russell and Brown, the day-to-day goings on of an average high school are always present.

* UnfortunateImplications: Hammered at by a lot of websites that reviewed the pilot and the second episode; mainly that the show revolves around two different middle age, Southern men trying to ruin the life of a successful African-American out of jealousy over her getting a promotion instead of the two men. The show attempts to counter this by having Lee Russell be married to an Asian woman and Neal Gamby clearly conflicted as he gets to know Belinda better (along with the fact that the show goes out of it's way to avoid having them bring up Belinda being black).

* AmbiguouslyGay: Lee is catty, obsessed with his appearance, is prone to sashaying when he walks, and in an LSD-fueled hallucination seems to relish kissing a hated rival. [[spoiler: before blowing his head off with an imaginary gun]] It's commented on (and even assumed) by many characters in the show that Lee is living in the closet.